Tropical Charms

 I had a little time Friday and Saturday to play with my new craft materials and I've come up with this happy bunch of charms.  It was really fun playing with the variety of materials and bright colors.    The mix of materials runs from real shell to glass to acrylic to polymer clay.  The flip-flops came out better than I thought they would, and I really like the bright pink hibiscus flowers.  How do you like the green pair of dice (get it? pair-a-dice, paradise? Too corny?)   I've been dying to try making a little margarita using translucent polymer clay ever since I saw the ones at the Inedible Jewelry shop on Etsy.  Mine came out ok, but hers are amazing!  I'll have to try again (I wonder how she does it...).

I also stamped a few charms onto shrink plastic and came up with these, below.  These stamps were from a children's stamp kit I got years ago.  When I was cleaning out last month, I went through them and threw many of them away, but I'm so glad I kept these!  I stamped with Staz-On inks on the shiny side of the Ruff-n-ready Shrinky Dinks, then colored on the back side with colored pencils.  They're colorful and fun and almost have a 3-D effect to them.

I still have some more charms I want to make, but I think I'll be able to put these together into a bracelet real soon!