DIY Snow Globe Charms from eCrafty.com

DIY Snow Globe Charms from eCrafty.com!

We are busy preparing some great little gift ideas for you to make now for the gift giving season.

Mini Snowglobe Charms
By Anne Strasser


A customer product question prompted Anne to come up with these other day. They are just too adorable!

These are easy, FUN, and sure to put a smile on your face! These would be SO cute for a holiday gift making party, teacher gift or scout troop craft.

How to make our Mini Snow Globe Charms
Using our smallest mini bottles 1200L-10PACK KIT, she e6000'd (our waterproof adhesive) a black seed bead onto one of our 4mm pearls onto one 6mm pearls, to form a mini snowman. The little guy got a smile on his face with a black fine point sharpie.

When dry, she glued the little guy in place, inside one of our 1200L-10PACK mini bottles, and filled it almost to the rim with a mixture of glycerin, water and a little bit of glitter.

Spoiler alert. I am making these for EVERYBODY on my gift list! They are guaranteed to make you smile!

1200L-10PACK KIT $8.99 Buy Now 

e6000 Adhesive $3.99
Buy Now

DIY Mini Bottle Aquarium Charms Make Sweet Little Gifts!

Mini Bottle Imaginarium Aquarium Charms by Anne Strasser for eCrafty.com

Wow! Look what Anne just dreamed up with our newest jug-size mini glass bottles! What FUN gifts these would make! She combined several ideas into one cool themed creative set - combining snowglobe shaker style action with filled colored water and ocean themed charms. See our themed charms & pendants section for more inspiration and ideas!

She made these little treasures with our 1200V and 1200G series mini bottles, our eye pins, headpins, our 1507A and 1507L fish charms, some extra glitter, a few smaller beads or glass pearls, with a mixture of mainly glycerin (find it at your drug store), mixed with some water and a dash of food coloring to finish. Seal your liquid filled bottles with our e6000 adhesive around the base of the cork and let dry fully.

Other really fun ideas for these jug-shaped mini bottles include mini snowglobes, terrariums, planetariums, time out charms, picture or photo pendants, etc.

Send us pictures of your creations or ideas - we'll post yours or perhaps make them here and post for you to try!

There are SO many ideas for these jug style bottles - we've only just begun! The basic concept is the same -Convert these into instant pendants with our screw eye pins into cork top. Clear blown glass mini treasure bottles with cork stoppers for bead storage, interchangeable pendant art, message in a bottle charms, keepsake charms, momentos, altered art, travel treasures, more!

Make your own message in a bottle charms and altered art pendants, projects, party and wedding favors! Or store your seed and matsuno beads with ease! You can also convert these into instant pendants by wire wrapping too! Get creative with these little treasure keepers ~ watch out ~ once you start, it's hard to put them down! Happy creating!

More Holiday Make Ahead Crafts: DIY Beaded Crystal Snowflakes!

Look what Hannah dreamed up with our newest clear crystal beads, our eye pins, jump rings and a little 3D Crystal Lacquer! I especially love that this project is very portable – you can bead up the individual pins just about anywhere – in front of your favorite TV show or Netflix movie, or at one of the kids’ practices, and finish them later. You might even get some help from envious bystanders! (This has happened to me at both kids’ swim lessons and at the orthodontist’s waiting room). There is no end to what friendly folks will volulnteer to help you with when there’s crafting going on!  Hannah’s clear AB version below used all the same size beads(our SKU 1692B). The basic technique is quite simple. Bead 1 eye pin, form loop at end. Repeat your pattern (Hannah’s design used 9-10 2″ pins). Complete each end with a simple loop (round-nosed plier are perfect for this). Lay out flat, test your pattern. If you are using several bead sizes, it helps to start with the largest beads toward the center. Open your jump ring like an “S”. Attach each on end of each pin loop to the jump ring, close the ring. Lay your finished piece flat on a non-stick (wax paper) or silicone cookie sheet. Secure your pattern with 3D Crystal Lacquer over the first “ring” of beads in the middle and over the central jump ring. Let air dry. You can speed the dry time along by baking in a low temp 250 oven for approx. 15 minutes. Hannah learned a few lessons along the way – if the pins are beaded consistently, your snowflake should assemble quite easily. You’ll notice in the gold version below, she used her largest beads toward the center of her design, and interspersed different sized clear spacers and crystals. Click here to see ALL of our new arrivals!  Save 20% with your subscriber promo code SEP2012 on your payment page.  If you don’t see the promo code box at checkout, just E-us with the code or e-us with your ORDER number and code We’ll apply your 20% savings as a refund to you when your order ships. Beaded snowflakes materials list: 1692A, 1602B crystal beads, our eye pins,  jump rings and a little 3D Crystal Lacquer! Another really great idea would be to use our Ivory Glass Pearls Mega Mix pack below!

3 strands – 2 1/2 feet per strand, or over 90 inches of gorgeous ivory pearls in 3 handy sizes – 4mm, 6mm and 8mm. $6.99 Buy Now

Free Downloadable DIY Instruction Sheet from eCrafty.com ~ How to Finish Your Photo and Glass Tile Jewelry & Crafts

Free Downloadable DIY Instruction Sheet from eCrafty.com ~ How to Finish Your Photo and Glass Tile Jewelry & Crafts

5 Fun DIYs with our Fillable Ornaments, Bottles & Charms!

Here’s some  fresh  ideas for creating  easy person-alized fillable gifts you can be working on NOW for heart felt gifts this holiday season!

1. Fillable Acrylic Ornaments and Gift Holders   

Look at this sweet creation! Anne used our Black White Squares downloadable art sheet as the background, with one of our 1606w Eiffel Tower and our dream charms.The 1" smaller size dome is pictured. She added a picture from the web & secured it with Crystal Lacquer. Find more info on our product page here. We have just begun to play with these - photos, baby's first Christmas, interior gilding, glitter, wire wrapping, glue the outside with pearls, fill the inside with a jewelry making kit and loose beads for a gift in an ornament....metallic sharpies or ournew glass markers on the outside - just a ton of ideas spring to mind ...try some!

2. Wish and Dream Keeper Jars  Anne made these from some of our mini bottles, our wish and dream charms (we have many message charms) a jump ring and some dandelion seeds (free ~ if you don't have any, you can borrow some of mine!) 

We were inspired from several Etsy and Pinterest pins! These little bottles and word charm combos can be made into necklaces, glued closed and used on charm bracelets, filled with fairy dust, baby teeth, sand, wedding rice, etc. All with matching message charms.

Bottled Sunshine, one of our all-time favorites made by our talented friend and co-worker Hannah Greenberg. 

Hannah used office highlighters on our black and white downloadable art sheet printouts, then rolled them up and tucked them very carefully inside our 1200 series 1" mini bottles. The effect is incredible - from a little rolled up paper scrap you can customize any mini bottle into an art pendant in any color you can imagine! 

4. Bali Beaded Fairy Dust or Tooth Fairy Bottles Here's a fun little set bali-style bead cap embellished mini bottles that Anne just cooked up one day. Once you start putting these together, it's hard to stop!. Made with our1200 series mini bottles and 1153 deluxe bead cap mix. Click for a closeup and watch out - these are great for little tooth fairy bottles, fairy dust, birthday mementos, princess favors & tiny sparkly treasures!

5. Mini terrarium jewelry 

Look what Becky and Anne made with our 1200L and 1204M mini bottles!  Becky used our smallest size to showcase her incredibly sculpted miniature mushrooms, while Anne used moss/lichen from her yard to make these wonderful charms/pendants. 

6. Mini Bottle Piglet Charm ~ Customize with color! Our friend and coworker (and college-bound this fall!) Hannah fell in love with our mini bottle pigletsand quickly filled one with our $1 pink seed bead mix 417. The result? A near-instant, custom-colored pig charm! Seriously, there's no such thing as a bad day with one of these nearby.

Click here to see ALL of our new arrivals!  Save 20% with your subscriber promo code SEP2012 on your payment page.  If you don't see the promo code box at checkout, just E-us with the code or e-us with your ORDER number and code We'll apply your 20% savings as a refund to you when your order ships.

Rubber Nation Crafts is now ... eCrafty.com!

Grand Opening!
20% Off Coupon JULY2012

eCrafty.com is now OPEN!  Big big news as we REopen our Craft and jewelry making supplies website! Here's a 20% off GRAND OPENING COUPON for you! Come see our new web home, save BIG, and find what you need faster and easier with our brand new incredibly expanded product search. 

Instant coupon to use NOW: Use JULY2012 coupon at checkout to save 20% off your entire order this month. After 14 years as Rubber Nation Crafts and RubberNation.com, we hope to "see" you soon at our new home!

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Creative Summer Fun with our Bamboo Domino Tiles & Bali Beads!

Click here to see this issue online eCrafty.com July 12

We've cooked up a FUN and EASY little group of pendants using a few of our customer favorites. Click on any picture for closeup.

1. By the Sea, embellished bamboo domino tile pendant by Anne. She used a bamboo domino tile, painted silver with a metallic silver sharpie, trimmed one of our starfish charms and applied seed bead mix and a crystal bead accent to the base with 3D Crystal Lacquer. She added a simple hanging element to the bottom with our bali bead cap mix and a few crystals. She finished this piece with a piece of chain strung through the length-drilled domino tile to wear as a pendant.

2. Recycled Gauguin bamboo domino tile pendant. Kim made this from a left over calendar page and a black bamboo domino tile, glued and sealed with 3D Crystal Lacquer sealer. She applied one of our rectangular glue-on bails to the back to make the tile function more as a traditional pendant than a bolero/beaded style adornment. Easy, fast, fun!

3. Bali Style Beaded Pendants by Hannah. These little beauties are made from our new Bali Bead Cap mix ~ Hannah strung an array of ideas to show how versatile this new mix is! One of my favorite ways to use the our new Bead Cap Mix is to string the caps bottom to bottom, creating larger focal Bali Style bead combos. Beautiful!

Here's another sample from Hannah ~ great ideas and not enough room in our newsletter to feature them all - our advice, get a pack and start playing!

The basics: Use headpins and eyepins for smaller pendants and hanging doo dads, use beading wire or craft wire for longer pieces. Either twist the bottom into a loop or string onto your headpin starting with a spacer bead.

We've been having so much FUN with our latest shipment of mini bottles in sizes ranging from 3/4" to 3.5". Here's some really FUN DIY ideas that our crafty friends (& coworkers) have made recently.

Click on any image for a closeup view.

More FUN with Mini Bottles ~ below!. Well, by now, you understand we cannot stay away from the mini bottles!

4. Bali Beaded Fairy Dust or Tooth Fairy Bottles by Anne. Here's a fun little set bali-style bead cap embellished mini bottles that Anne just cooked up one day. Once you start putting these together, it's hard to stop!. Click for a closeup and watch out - these are great for little tooth fairy bottles, fairy dust, birthday mementos, & tiny sparkly treasures!

5. Mini terrarium jewelry is a strong trend on Etsy & Pinterest, combining Going Green with Handmade items ~ try some ~ make some ~ they're irresistable! Trust us!

Look what Becky and Anne made with our 1200L and 1204M mini bottles!  Becky used our smallest size to showcase her incredibly sculpted miniature mushrooms, while Anne used moss/lichen from her yard to make these wonderful charms/pendants.

6. Sea Glass Bottle Toppers Anne just made these the other day and they are irresistable.

She made these very quickly using an assortment of our newmini bottle sizes 1200G, 1200S, 1200T and our Sea Glass Pebble Mixtures in Ocean and Aqua and some Weldbond or e6000 for securing the pebbles to the corks. Anne found that our new pebbles are perfect for gluing (magnets, bottle toppers, pendants) as they have many flattened sides. Consider these for wire wrapping, fridge magnets, jewelry making, and e6000 insta-crafting this summer!

Made to mimic rare beach glass treasures - our man made sea glass beads and pebbles are made from earth-friendly recycled glass, tumbled into super smooth pebbles ~ sure to win you over with their glowing hues. You can see MORE of our Ocean-Inspired products here.7. Mother Earth Bud Vase Made with our mini bottles - crafty Anne drilled a log from her yard with 7/8" or 1" bit and inserted our mini bottles 1200S and 1200G, corkless, for an instant bud vase centerpiece. This is a great idea for summer time entertaining ~ if you've got a handy drill nearby - this is a very quick project!

8. Mini Bottle Piglet Charm ~ Customize with color! Our friend and coworker (and recent high school graduate!) Hannah fell in love with our mini bottle pigletsand quickly filled one with our $1 pink seed bead mix 417. The result? A near-instant, custom-colored pig charm! Irresistable!

Remember to use your newsletter member codeJULY2012 at checkout for an instant savings of 20% on everything in your cart before shipping.

Click here to see ALL of our new arrivals! Save 20% with your subscriber promo code JULY2012 on your payment page.  If you don't see the promo code box at checkout, just E-us with the code or e-us with your ORDER number and code We'll apply your 20% savings as a refund to you when your order ships.