It is an odd punch. Most punches can't make a shape with a hole in it, but this one does, twice - it make two sizes of gears. Unfortunately, in order to do that, the punched piece doesn't fall out of the bottom like most punches; you have to shake it to get the cog out. For that reason, and because you can't see the entire outline of the shape from the bottom, it is a little harder to use this punch, but not so hard that you should avoid buying it if you want it. Just expect to waste a little cardstock making sure you have a whole shape.
Anyway, I only needed the little cog for this project, and I managed to get over 120 cogs from a single sheet of cardstock, so I can't complain too fiercely about waste. It took four cogs punched out of SU gray cardstock to make each cog. After I glued them together with matte medium and let them dry, I heat embossed both sides with a mixture of gold and silver embossing powder of two different thicknesses. This gave me the tarnished/corroded look I hoped for.
I tried different wires and colors of beads, but I found that colored beads tended to draw attention away from the cog, so I stuck with clear glass beads. The glass bead helps, too, in that paper beads don't generally hang well because they are too light.
Like the Maya Road bird, this might be a little too unfussy for most people's tastes, but I usually error on the side of "too little". If my cogs can't stand on their own, adding more stuff to them won't make them better, it will just hide them. I hope that they aren't so bad that they need to be hidden!
3 comments:
Brilliant, crafty and oh so neat! :)
Those are sweet!!! I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's the charm necklace? I signed up for that one as well. I love your charms and hope I get one on my necklace.
Very creative!
these are great Juliet . look like they are made out of a fancy enamel over metal.I would never have thought paper..they would make cute earrings too :)I need to try this now :)
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