Paris Romance/Hot Pot Technique

Today's card was made based on page I submitted for Hayley's Paris Romance chunky book. It is such a gorgeous little book.

I have used the Hot Pot technique here today as well. Hayley was the one that encouraged me to buy the hot pot several years ago at stamp camp and I am so glad I did - it has many uses - one of which is to make charms/embellishments.

Several people have asked about the metal word charms I use. I found a place that makes them which lucky for me is situated right behind my office. They will make up charms for me based on my own words of choice provided I order 200 at a time - thus I had these Paris Romance words made up. I like the fact that the word charms add some dimension to the cards. Having your own words made up is also great as that way you don't have to use the standard Happy Birthday type words - of course I had to have lots of really girly words made up ie Handbags and Shoes, Shop till u drop, Passion for fashion, Born to shop, The Perfect dress, Floral Fantasy, Butterfly Kisses, Dragonfly Dreams, Eastern Promise, Harrods Creations etc.

Materials: Cream cardstock, Pink Bazzil cardstock, Paris Paper from Stampington magazine insert, Copper UTEE, Flex UTEE, Hot Pot, Flowers, Rhinestone, Eiffel Tower image from Crafty Individuals book, Brown ink pad, Swirl stamps Inkadinkadoo, Paris Romance word charm, Caramel color box ink pad, Glimmer mist gold spray.

Method for card: Fold cream cardstock in half to create base 15 x 15 square card. Go around edges of Paris paper with color box ink pad and attach to cardfront. Cut out Crafty Indivuals Eiffel tower image from sheet and go around edges with caramel ink pad and then attach to pink cardstock and again go around edges with caramel ink pad. Using brown brilliance ink pad, stamp swirls onto cardfront as shown and then attach Eiffel tower image at an angle as shown and attach word charm and flowers with rhinestone.

Charm Hot Pot Technique: Pour Copper UTEE into hot pot and melt it and then add in some flex UTEE. I find it important to add the flex when making charms as it makes your charm a bit flexible so that it won't crack into two. I then used a Eiffel tower mould and when the UTEE was melted, I just poured it into the mould and then waited few minutes for it to set and then popped it out of the mould and it was ready to stick onto my card. I use the Krafty Lady art moulds, they are an Australian company and offer a huge range of moulds - see www.kraftylady.com.au . The moulds are very easy to use for clay or UTEE as you don't need to prep the moulds at all - you just pour in the UTEE or press in the clay and pop it out again. No fuss method and quick. The other good thing about making charms from UTEE is that they are very light and so good for cards and they don't weigh down your card the same way a metal charm would. The charms also make great jewellery - just attach a pin at the back and viola you have a new brooch.