Playing it safe

 One of our February swaps is to make something, anything, from polymer clay.

Now I tried really hard to cover a pen. I was perhaps overly pleased with my attempt at making a sheet of blended stripes and made a neat job of covering a Bic pen following examples on the internet.

However pride, as they say, comes before a fall. Having made what I thought was more than acceptable offering I baked the result in the oven. What a disaster! The pen melted - well shortened - and split the cover I had made.

So to plan B, playing it safe. You can't go wrong with polymer clay, stamps and mica powder. I used an Invoke Arts stamp to imprint the texture and trimmed round the outline. Then applied turquoise mica powder before baking the piece. Once cooled I highlighted the raised parts with Treasure Gold, glued a bead into the centre with Glossy Accents and added a brooch back. The result is too shiny to get a good photo!

Feeling guilty for taking the easy option I used a gelli print to cover a small box in which to present my swap. That should help it survive the post too.