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Like most artists who paint with acrylic, white is definately a standard.
Instead of buying expensive tubes of white paint, try using ordinary latex
acrylic white house paint...it's great a gesso or undercoat and helps to
thin out thicker colors instead of water (when white paint is needed).
| Amethyst
Heart Choker
Make this beautiful amethyst heart choker with a few simple instructions and materials! The full kit is available from Eclectic Etc., Inc. or use your own materials! Materials Needed: 
- beading thread (we used black) - 11/0 purple iris seed beads - 11/0 royal blue matte/AB seed beads - 4mm round amethyst glass beads - 8mm amethyst colored hearts - gold plated bead tips - gold plated opal clasp Step 1: Tie a knot and put a beed tip on the end of the knot. (See issue #4) Start stringing your beads next. We used Czech size 11/0 in Purple Iris and Royal Blue MT/AB for our seed beads and 4mm Amethyst glass. Follow the order in the image below: 
Step 2: To determine how long you want your necklace to be, measure your neck (if it's for you) and subtract 2". The 2" is exactly how long the section with the heart beads will be. Then divide the number in half and string that long. Here's an example:
Step 3: When
you get ready to do the drop hearts, follow the diagram on the left. Step 4: Come out the other side of the blue bead on the bottom and back up through the heart and three seed beads. Make sure this all gets pulled tight. Don't break your thread, but rather let up on the loose thread until you can pull the beads tight. Step 5: Next, string one amethyst, three more purple seeds, one blue seed, three purple seeds and then do your next heart. Repeat this three times so you have three drop hearts. Step 6: Now, continue to string your seeds and amethyst glass as you did in Step 2. Make sure that the number of beads you used before the hearts is the same after the hearts so you choker is symmetrical, or the same on both sides.
Step 8: The final step is adding the clasp. In this kit, we used a oval filigree clasp, but a simple spring ring with a jump ring would work nicely also. |
 Marbelized
Pencils! by Debbie Flack
Step 1... Gather materials: - aluminum foil - waxed paper - ordinary (cheap!) yellow pencils - sand paper (med. grit) - craft paints, your choice of colors (no more than 3 different colors recommended) - apron (to protect your clothes from paint) - masking tape Step 2... Sand pencils lightly, to cause the paint to stick when you get to the painting part. Cover eraser part of pencils with masking tape. Step 3... Squeeze paints onto foil, swirling them together. Fold foil in half and smooth paint out inside it, so paint marbles and there are no barespots. Step 4... Roll pencils in paint, covering all the old yellow paint. Place on waxed paper until dry. Tip: If you put the waxed paper with "curled" side down, it will not roll up on you while you are trying to put pencils on it. Try using a lot of one color, and a little of one or two other colors. Choosing white paint for the main color will make other colors lighter. |
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First run your thread down through three blue seed beads, through the heart
and through one more seed bead beneath the heart.
Step
7: Time to add the last bead tip...make sure
you have a big enough knot so it won't slip through the hole in the bead
tip.