Mixed Media Wrist Cuff
This is the first project I'm posting as DT Member for
Anna's Beachside Scrapbooking. Anna specifically asked me to introduce more mixed media projects for her followers, as well as layouts and cards, altered art, etc., so we can reach all of the many different customers who have all kinds of needs. I hope you enjoy making one of these wrist cuffs as much as I enjoyed making it and that you find the inspiration to make something that is all you. I have to give a little shout out to Christy Tomlinson because she inspired the making of this bracelet. I ended up doing it a bit differently than she did, but the substrate used to make the cuff is the same as she used in her class, Artsy Bangles. A regular old empty water bottle. Make sure it has dried out on the inside as well.
This is the cuff I created. Start off by finding skinny water or vitamin water type bottles that have smooth sides and no ridges or bumps down the side of the bottle. Then, cut off the top and the bottom of the water bottle and cut down the side of what is left of the bottle, so it can then be trimmed to the desired width of the cuff.
This is what the bottle looks like after it has been cut to the size cuff that is desired. It can be made as wide or as skinny as you like. The wider the plastic cuff, the more muslin you will need to cover it. I found that I preferred used my paper trimmer to cut the plastic so that I could cut it straight after trying to do it with scissors and getting really uneven edges every time.
Continuing, cut a piece of muslin to about 6-8" x 9-12" approximately. This depends on the size of your cuff. I found these bandanas at Michaels a long time ago on sale, stocked up, and I've been using them to make flowers for years. I usually don't cut my strips of muslin to size, rather I cut a little snip where I want it to cut and then just rip it apart.
After the piece of muslin that is going to be used to cover the plastic cuff with is sized and ready to go, decide on a color palette. On this cuff I used Heidi Swapp's Colorshine Spray Mists and I really love how vivid the colors are. On the cuff above I used Primrose and Mustard as the base colors of the cuff. In the end you really can't see the Mustard much as the colors blend together really well on fabric and I used quite a bit of Colorshine because I wanted to saturate the fabric so that the underside became colored as well, thus the major blending of the colors. If you wanted to avoid this you might want to spray the fabric lighter and spray it on both sides instead of saturating it. These colors blend together well because they are water soluble. I use a Ranger Heat-It Tool to dry my muslin pieces.
Next, take a stencil and placed it over the fabric. I sprayed Gold Lame over it to add more texture to the cuff. I also took a script stamp that I have had forever and stamped across where the fabric would go across the top of my cuff. I used Ranger's Archival Ink in Black so it would be waterproof and would not bleed if I put more sprays on top of it. You could also use Staz-on, but I prefer Archival Ink.
This is the stencil I used to make the bubble pattern with the Gold Lame Colorshine. It is a Studio Calico Stencil.
I then stamped on top of and below the script stamp using a Tim Holtz number stamp and Black Archival Ink. This part of the fabric is what will show on the inside of the cuff. I later stamped this stamp on the top of the cuff too to give it a bit more texture.
Next, take the muslin and the plastic cuff, and place the fabric side you want to show on the top of the cuff face down on your work surface. Then, place the top part of the cuff down onto the back side of the fabric and fold the long edges over onto the plastic snugly so that the muslin lays smooth over the cuff. This leaves two pieces of muslin at each end of the plastic cuff that will be used to create a fastener. I creased the fabric tightly over the edges of the cuff so that it would fit snuggly around the plastic when I started applying adhesive but do not try and iron it with the fabric on the cuff or it will melt it. Just run your hand along the fabric while holding it snug against the plastic edges.
I then had to decide how I wanted to adhere the muslin to the plastic cuff. I could have used a matte medium or mod podge, but I didn't want to have to spray a fixative onto the fabric, so that when I put the medium on it the colors wouldn't smudge into a big mess. Most ink sprays are water soluble and will blend when they mix with each other. So, I decided to experiment with spray adhesive. I sprayed the back side of the fabric very lightly, and about 10" away from the fabric so that it wouldn't build up a big tacky mess. I put the cuff in place so that my design lined up with the top of the cuff and wrapped the folds over onto the backside of the cuff, smoothing them down, and made sure it was adhered from seam to seam, and that the seams were straight down the length of the cuff on the inside. I also wanted to make sure the fabric was smooth across the top of the cuff before I let it dry. There was a bit of tackiness left on the inside of the cuff and I didn't want it to irritate the wrist while wearing it so I took an adhesive eraser and got it off easily after everything had dried.
Now I had to figure out how it was going to fasten together. I decided that I was going to set eyelets in both ends and lace seam binding through them and tie a bow. I made the cuff where you could just slide it off of your arm, so the bow wouldn't have to be untied and tied every time you want to take the cuff off. It was also made adjustable with 2 different sizes.
I cut the ends with my pinking shears to give it a cute finish. Then, the 2 ends were pinned together to hold them where I wanted them to meet together, so the holes could be made for the eyelets. I marked where I wanted to punch the holes out for the eyelets with a pencil, so that I could line it up when I used the cropodile to punch the holes exactly where I wanted them.
Here you can see eyelets have been set into this end which will be the end that sits on top of the back of the cuff and is visible on the bottom of the wrist when the cuff is worn. The other side has 4 eyelets set into it so that the cuff is adjustable. The eyelets used are from We Are Memory Keepers and are the large sized eyelets in black. The picture below shows how the fastener was created. The bottom part of the ends is shown in this picture on the right side and is not seen while wearing the cuff unless it is worn on the larger size and then a small portion would be seen.
I then cut a generous piece (approximately 2 ft) of seam binding and sprayed it with Colorshine in Mustard, Mint Green, Primrose and just a tad of Ranger's Dylusion Sprays in Fresh Lime. This photo does not represent the amount I cut, only a portion of it so that you can see the colors.
Then I made the large flower that covers the top side of the cuff. Although I like this cuff a lot, I think next time I will make the flowers a bit smaller even for a large one. This one is just a bit too big for me because I have really tiny wrists, but I still like it. I think it would look great on someone who was taller than me (I'm a shorty at 5'2"). To make it smaller I would want to make the length of the strip of muslin shorter. Another idea would be to make three smaller flowers and place one in the middle of the cuff and the other two on each side.
To make the flower, first tear a strip of muslim approximately 2-4" wide and approximately 18" long. The width and length of the fabric determines the size of the flower in the end, as well as how tightly you twist the fabric during the construction of the flower. Next, punch a 2-3" circle out of any card stock as long as it's the more heavy weight kind and not like pattern paper weight.
I misted this piece of muslin with Heidi Swapp Colorshine in Mustard, Mint Green, Tropicana Teal and hints of Gold Lame and the colors blended quite nicely.
Using hot glue, take one end of the fabric strip and glue it to the cardstock circle. Then start twisting the fabric in one direction around your pointing finger holding the fabric with your thumb and other fingers (or however is more comfortable to get it done for you) and then keep gluing it down while wrapping it into a circle around the middle piece glued down, as in the picture below.
Continue to roll the muslin and glue it to the sides of the fabric you have already rolled and glued down until you come to the end of your fabric or you get to the size flower you want, in which you would then cut off the remaining fabric, leaving a tail to glue on the underside of the cardstock circle with hot glue. If there is any cardstock left showing around the flower just trim it off with your scissors.
This is the finished flower. Later, I added a button from Tim Holtz as you can see in the finished picture at the top and the bottom.
I then took a scrap of the fabric that was left over, and using Fabri-Tac, glued it down to the bottom of the green rolled flower to give it a more finished look from all angles. Then, the flower was formed so that it would fit against the cuff tightly when I glued it down. I also sprayed the green flower with Ranger's Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl.
This picture shows the cuff from the back side, where the finished fastener can be seen. In this picture, it is shown in the small size, but it can be extended out approximately another 1"-1 1/2", by untying the bow and putting the laces into the eyelets that are set further out and retying the bow. Simple as that. Then you can slide it back on your wrist and love wearing it!
This is a 2nd example of a cuff you can make with a water bottle. The only difference is that I made the cuff skinnier and put three smaller flowers on it, instead of one big one. It is also adjustable. For the center flower I used Heidi Swapp Sweet Cherry and the outside flowers were sprayed with Mustard. I also spray Rangers Perfect Pears Spray in Perfect Pearl on all three flowers. The buttons are vintage.
Here is a side view of the cuff. I used leftover fabric from the large green flower in the other cuff to cover the actual plastic on this cuff. Using a Tim Holtz chicken wire background stamp and Rangers Black Archival Ink, I stamped both the outside and the inside of the cuff in random places.
In this picture you can see the stamping on the inside and the outside of the cuff.
This picture shows the view of the bottom of the cuff where it fastens. There is no need to untie the bow to take it off and on, unless you need to adjust the size.
I hope you enjoy the first project that I am sharing on Anna's site and that it gets you inspired to create your own mixed media jewelry! :)
Have a great day!
Kellye
xoxoxo
