Product Focus

Product Focus: Pearls

Posted by: Kristen Swain · Edit

Hello, Circlets! Kristen here today to show you what I created with Pearls. We are going to be showcasing products to help you learn to use your supplies. Gotta stop the hoarding!! I am a true hoarder of product! I love gems and pearls and such, use them occasionally, but I have noticed how frustrated I get having a few here or there left on a sheet. Just sitting there in my gems box, making it messy looking with all those almost empty clear liners sticking up everywhere. Makes my slight OCD issue come out! LOL!
So what to do about that? Well, use them up in a beautiful, but totally random way!! I have a LOVELY gift that you can easily recreate- and a matching gift bag that makes you look so awesome- I mean, how many people get gifts that match the gift bag? And for sure, they’ll be hanging on to the bag to re-gift it again! And forget going to the dollar store for your gift bags- this bag cost me $.59 cents and I used scraps and leftovers to create it, so I don’t even count that stuff.
And the gift- well, it’s awesome because it’s pretty. I’m giving this  book of lined paper to someone (cough cough) er, me- who is a listmaker! I mean, the THRILL of crossing items off my list, makes me feel so accomplished! And since I am totally a clean-iac, once I’ve scratched off a few things, I need to make a new list, so it’s not so messy. Oh my! – so sorry I am bringing you into my messed up head with this post! I thought this would make a wonderful list to keep ideas for creations and my schedule on- all in one! ( and don’t worry, if I do keep this pretty pad, I’ll keep this gift bag for a Valentine’s gift for my girls!)
Anywhoo- on to my creations.

Oh, rosettes and spray ink and pearls, OH MY!!
First, I used a red and yellow spray ink to spray the cover of my notebook. I also spritzed a piece of cardstock that I will use to decorate the front of the gift bag. When I use spray mist, I try to spray it in one spot, then let it drift off over the rest of the paper. I also remove the pump and drip ink from the nozzle hose to create the large splatters. I let both pieces dry completely and then stitched around the edge of the cardstock that will be used to decorate the gift bag.

Next, I cut out rosettes and folded them. I like to use hot glue to glue the edges of the rosettes together, then again to glue the centers down to a scrap piece of paper. This creates a single rosette that allows me to still be able to move the rosettes around as I designed my project.  I even layered two rosettes on top of each other for my focal point. I decorated the center of each rosette with cut circles and hearts.

After I decided where I wanted my rosettes , I used my hot glue gun to adhere them to my project. Then it was time to start adding pearls! I began with a single color pearl, and started adding them around the cover in a random order. I feel they turn out best when I placed the larger ones in closer together near my paper pieces, and then spread them out more at the edges. This gives a center ‘splatter’ point look, and the pearls and spray ink work together towards that look. One favorite idea is to add the smaller pearls close to the other larger pearls so that they almost look like a splatter dot pattern.
You can see, I’ve used four different colors of pearls on this notepad cover. I used up four sheets of scattered pearl colors that I didn’t feel like I had enough pearls to complete a whole project, but mixing them up together on one project really made them shine. You could add even more colors! Gems, brads or buttons would work with this look, as well.

The gift bag is done the same, I used a few less rosettes and a few less pearls.

I hope you will try making some beautiful Valentine gifts this year. Only uh- maybe don’t create them for yourself like I did!
Happy Valentine’s Day!


Designed by: Kristen Swain
Cricut Machines Used: Cricut Expression 2 Electronic Cutting Machine, Cricut Craft Room
Cricut Cartridges Used: Ribbons & Rosettes
Other Supplies: Cardstock (American Crafts), Patterned Paper (Pebbles Inc. Twitterpated collection), Pearls (KaiserCraft, Pebbles, Joann’s Craft Essentials), Spray Ink (Red – Maya Road Mist, Sunflower - Tattered Angels), Sewing machine & thread, Hot Glue Gun (Glue Arts), Kraft Gift Bag, List Pad (SEI), Silver ribbon (Wal-Mart)