Sunday, April 27, 2008

Swivel Mirrored, Monogramed, Purse Pull

Here is a fun little project that we made yesterday at Stamp Club. It is a purse/zipper pull that you can clip on just about anything including your purse, bible cover, sweatshirt, etc. It has a monogram on one side and a mirror on the other, for those time when you want to check your lipstick or if you have food stuck to the side of your face. :)


The base of the purse pulls are bottle caps. These are unused bottle caps, and we do sell them in the store. They first need to be smashed and I use to sandwich them between to small plastic cutting boards and hit them with a hammer, but now that I have a Cuttlebug machine it is much easier! I am sure you can use other emboss/die cut machines as well.

What I do is to place the bottle cap with the flutted side down on the white matt board and place the thicker clear board over and run it through the machine.


Easy Cheesy! Here it is nice and flat.



If you flip it over you will see that it still has a rubber seal in it... that will need to be removed so that we can glue things inside the cap easily. You can do that a couple different ways and you can find instructions on how to do that in my bottle cap bracelet class at the website; http://www.thestampingstudio.com/new/classes/bottlecapjewelryclass082206.htm

Then find some scrap pattern paper or cardstock and stamp your initial on it. I used some leftover packaging from a paper collection. The patterns were reduced which works great for this project! I am using our Calligraphy alphabet stamps and Jet Black StazOn ink.



Now take a 1" circle punch and flip it over so you can center the stamped image and punch it out.
Oh!.. I almost forget to make a hole to hang it from. It is better to do that now, rather than later. I just put mine on a plastic cutting board and used my paper piercer and a hammer to start the hole, and then wiggle the paper piercer through the hole to make it bigger. You can also use an awl instead of your paper piercer... but I usually know where my paper piercer is and can never find that darn awl.

To complete the rest of the purse pull you will need;
Glossy Medium/Crystal Lacquer or like product
1" round mirror (we sell those)
Large and medium jump rings
Swivel Clasp (we sell)
Place a blob of Glossy Medium inside the bottle cap...like about this much.
I then just use my finger to push the glue around and then place the mirror on top of that. It will take a few minutes for that to start to set a few hours for it to dry completely.Flip the cap over and place another blob of Glossy Medium/glue on it and spread it around with your finger.

Place your punched monogram on top of the glue then put more glue on top of that spread around with your finer. This will give it a nice glossy finish as well as make it water-resistant.

Take your large jump ring and twist it open and connect it to your swivel clasp.

Then you will connect the medium jump ring to the large jump ring.


Sometimes it is helpful to use a small jewelers pliers to connect the jump rings. The medium jump ring also gets connected to the bottlecap.

Add some ribbon for a fun touch, or how about a rhinestone? Make one using your school or company logo for fundraising projects.

There ya go!

7 comments:

Kriss said...

Thanks for the great project! You always have a wonderful ideas.

I linked you to my blog today, and posted about you. Your blog is fabulous...of course...and everyone should know about it.

Melissa Baldwin said...

Thanks Kriss... I added your blog to mine as well.

Melissa Baldwin said...

Absolutly Nancy! I feel privledged that you want to share the project.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so very much for your generosity in sharing this technique. You are so very talented. I love your blog.
Sincerely,
Nancy K in WI

Cindy said...

Would LOVE to make this for all my stamping friends. But how did you make the hole in the bottle cap for the split ring?? Great idea, I just love!!

Melissa Baldwin said...

Cindy it shows me doing that in the 6th photograph... you can use an awl and hammer, or I opt. to use my paper piercer and a hammer. Make sure you work on a protected surface.

Cindy said...

Boy, if was a snake it would have bit me. Just missed how the hole was made. Many thanks again for a darling charm!