ATC - "Explore more - expect less"

My second ATC for the challenge I was to late for ;) 

The house parts are really simple: I used polymer clay, impressed them with texture cut out the rought shapes, baked and painted them!

I also had to use more of the iridescent acrylic paint from Pebeo ;) I have some house parts left but not sure if I want to use them. Even though I like the result, this is also not me. But I am so into the background, that is definitely me! ;)

Also made with my new tiny dot stamp made from craft foam!

ATC - "Home with you"

As promised yesterday, here is one of my ATC cards for the topic "houses" - not made in time ;)

I like this one but it is not really me. One of the reasons why I enjoy playing with different material and styles so much (also in jewellery). Just to think about it is something quite different from doing it. I know what I'll take from this one with me and also what not! ;)

Polymer clay pendants... some colour play...

Not really a lot but a little bit play time with polymer clay. I think they look like they just came out of a painting. I enjoy the effect! :)

These ones were meant for the art bead scene monthly challenge. Life happened but I like how they turned out! Maybe I'll use them someday soon (hopefully!)

The other two pendants you can find in my etsy shop (house and cup of coffee).

"Red riding hood" - Earings

Okay, you my say, why call the earrings red riding hood when they show... red tiny houses? Honestly? I don't know! Since I started naming my earrings I just went with my gut. If an idea, a word, an impression comes into my mind, I go with it. The creation process itself, from the bead to the jewelery, always goes together with an image in my head. This idea consists not only of shapes and colours but especially of moments and emotions. 

The idea of creating houses with polymer clay is not a new one. There are tons and tons of images if you start googling polymer clay house (you may add bead as a search tag). But every single one if different and special... and... I just wanted also to have some house beads! I went for a beautiful dark red and used paynes grey acrylic paint as contrast. It is not as hard as black even looking nearly black. Trust me, it makes a great difference! :) 

I combined them with clear facetted czech glass beads. They look like frozen water and are by far belonging to my favorite beads ever. I repeated the colours of the house with the black and dark red drop. Just darker... grey to black and cherry red to blood red. 

Even while house beads are playful and I named the earrings after a fairytale... the earrings itself have a more grown up and somehow sincere feeling to me. I am a little bit surprised by this but hey, I really like it too! :)

Even if the houses are not too big, the earrings itself are actually quite long. It seems that I am in love with long dangling earrings at the moment. Maybe because I was surprised how well really long earrings fit myself! 

One thing I really learned creating my own beads and earrings: There are shapes and colours fitting everyone. I even had the perfect fitting pair for a friend who was never ever wearing long earrings just studs. Her features (don't get the wrong idea, she looks great!) were really difficult for any hanging kind of earring. We tried and she even convinced me that only studs were working for her. Then she visited us over a weekend (really spontaneous, she texted me late in the night and arrived early the next morning... she lives at the other side of germany) and joined me at the fair I was selling at (company is so great to have!). She looked at all my earrings and finally had one in her hand she really liked and even knowing her "problem" she tried... and they fit perfectly! They just had an unusual shape (you can see them here). There are earrings for everyone :)

I never showed you this stamps!

As you see this are really basic stamps. I made them all from the rubber of normal school erasers )the really cheap ones ^^). I like the random background / muster stamps and I think there is always a need for a lot of arrow stamps! Don't you think so? And tags... no one should ever forget tag stamps! 

And a little castle... and a tiny house... and just a square. But sometimes you need a square! And don't forget I am just using a black ink pad to test and show the stamps. I think a lot of them would be quite cool in a lighter colour to create some kind of background texture.

I am really sorry I forgot to take pictures how I carved the stamps. I wanted to because especially a tag or an arrow is quite easy to do even for your first own handcarved stamp :)