Memories - Gibson Girls Handbag Charms.

Hello and Welcome to Magpieheaven. I might not yet have started my Christmas cards, but I have made a start on Christmas tree gifts for female family and friends - handbag charms .

 I have boxes and boxes of broken jewellery, stashed away for that time when it will provide the perfect 'finishing touch' on a project! The other day I decided to empty out my hoard and - while I was about it - to use up all the scraps of shrink plastic left behind after die-cutting! As anyone who knows me will tell you, I just love stamping on Shrink Plastic. It's always so exciting to watch that image grow smaller and smaller while retaining the clarity and crispness of the original stamp. This project really appealed to my Magpie nature, as it gave me the excuse to 'play' with lots of bright, shiny embellishments and to create a little story around the handbag charms. I should like to enter my project in the Artistic Stamper Challenge this month, which has the theme of memories and requires that you include some rubber stamping on your project.

Here you can see the collection of shrink plastic shapes I began with. I  took little left-over painted pieces and, using PaperArtsy thin dies and a Spell-binder oval, cut these shapes, which I then punched with the hole before heating so that they could be fixed onto a dog-tag with 'jump rings'. I didn't use all the shapes on this project; some I have set aside for another day.

Recently I was lucky enough to receive the gift of the Artistic Stamper Gibson Girls stamp plate. I decided to use this image as the focal point of my charm. She is, in a sense, my main character on both these charms. Here you can see how she looks before and after shrinking! I stamped her in jet black Archival on the side of the SP painted with watered down Fresco.

The fun part for a Magpie like me was gathering together all my bits and pieces and deciding on combinations! It was quite a while before I was satisfied with the arrangements. I edged this little flower with a Pearlen  Pen,

I used Glossy Accents on my oval image, selecting a tiny frame; an envelope and a pack of cards. Before fixing everything with jeweller's  pliers and jump rings, I painted the charms and dog-tag with PaperArtsy Frescos and rubbed them with some Treasure Gold when the paint was dry. You can see another Gibson Girl and charms all lined up above this one - quite a few friends are going to find these in their stockings this Christmas, I think, as they are such fun to create!

The Glossy Accents and Antarctic, along with the skeleton leaf, gave this charm a wintry feel. I was reminded of one of my favourite  songs:

The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall

The charm could be made up of tiny souvenirs of a summer love remembered on chilly winter days.

The same image takes on a completely different mood when it's stamped onto a wider surface and used with different colours and charms. The little green high-heeled slipper is from an old earring and suggested Cinderella to me! Could this charm represent Prince Charming's memories of the mysterious and beautiful young woman he danced with at the ball? All that remains are a slipper, her invitation and maybe a golden leaf and a flower from a pretty wreath in her hair. The little playing card suggests that the Prince's fate lies in her hands and he cannot erase the memory of her lovely face! 
Thank you so much to all of you who continue to drop by Magpieheaven and leave your kind comments on what I create. I hope that all the memories that come to you this week will be happy ones!