Heart Shaped Picture Pick

I showed you my pile of Heart Shaped Picture Picks yesterday.  I made 300 and they were surprisingly easy and quick to pop out of the Sew*CakeMaker Craft Factory.  

Here is how I make them:

I like to use that awesome aluminum wire.  It is thick, yet still easy to bend.  I used pieces between 8-9" for my picture picks.  

Bend it in half.

Then use a pair of needle nose pliers to squish the middle point into a tight nub.

Use the pliers again to bend that middle-point nub downward so you have a candy cane type shape.  It might look something like half a heart to you.

Now, using just your hands, pull the two halves of that candy cane apart, so that each crook becomes a side of the heart.

Next, push the heart stems coming out of the bottom....um, we will call them legs, push the heart legs together so you have a smaller, tighter curved heart, until you have the desired look.

This is where you can either get a fabulous looking heart or a really lop-sided heart.  If you are going for a perfectly shaped heart, find where the bottom point should be so that it is in the middle of the heart.  I twist the wire leg that is on top around just past the middle point and pull the back leg straight down.  This is where you listen to what you see, not what I say.  I feel like I am failing at describing this clearly.

Here is a closer look.

OK, with that bottom leg pointing straight down, the upper leg wrapped all the way around, behind, and then on top again, your heart portion is complete and you are ready to make the back, clip-kind-of thingy to hold your picture or note card in place.

Just take that top leg, make a loop, and tuck the end of the wire back into the knotted bottom of the heart.

That is it!

If I hold my note card up to the light you can see the loop on the back and the heart on the front.  To hold a card or picture snug, just push the back loop and the heart together.  If you do it right you can get a firm hold on that card.

Front view...

Back view.

We are using our 300 in little blocks of birch wood as table seating assignments at my brother's wedding.  Once the guests find their seats and start enjoying the festivities, they can mozy on over to the photo booth, take a fun pic to remind them of the night, and use our handy dandy heart shaped picture pick to display their photo.  

Progress

 

I have finally been making progress on the table numbers I started last week.

I posted this pic on my Facebook page boasting that I cut all the numbers out in no time flat.  Sadly, when I sat down to glue the numbers to their bases on Saturday, I realized I didn't cut the 1's, 2's, or 3's for the tens places!!!  That means, since I was making numbers 1-35, I needed to cut out 10 more #1's, 10 more #2's, and 5 more #3's.  Argh.  I felt the whole time I was tracing...the whole time I was cutting...the whole time I was wiping down and stacking numbers that it was shocking how little wood I used...

Yep.  Only half done.  I hit the garage again for round two of number cutting Monday morning.  I wiped the new numbers off, glued them to the existing bases, and carted the whole lot to the garage to spray paint.  

I have sprayed them all with the light gray primer, and have sprayed a coat of the darker "metal" looking top paint.  I am just waiting for that to dry over night in order to apply the final coat.  You can look forward to seeing those all finished in just a bit.

Today I also finished making 300 wire picture holding picks, destined to be part of my birch wood wedding favors.

When they are in place they will look something like this...

I can show you how to make them tomorrow.  Emmalee was sick today and clung to me like her life depended on it :0} Poor girl.  Luckily, she slept so I was able to finish the wire while she lay in my lap.  It was one of those terrible moments where you are so glad they are asleep, yet, so guilty for feeling that way.  Whatever the case, I hope she feels better tomorrow.  And if she doesn't?  Well, I guess I will start on the 300 wire "love" pieces I have to make next.  One of these days I should finally clean up my messy house!  I guess I can be brave and wait to clean ;0}

Crowns With A Twist

I was playing around with wire today and had to try a princess crown!  These crowns were made using 16 gauge aluminum wire.

I made the crowns using this template I made with a scrap of wood and some head-less nails.  Not all of the nails were headless, I just used my wire cutters to pop off the heads on the rouge nails.  Obviously, the nails were just whatever I dug up from the bottom of my nail drawer...

Yes, I have a nail drawer and it is not full of polish :0}

Here is a close up of how I wrapped the wire.  I started my end piece of wire on the bottom nail at the far right.  The free end is on the top of the nail.  I held that loose end on the nail, wrapped the wire under the bottom nail on the far left, then across the bottom and up the far right nail.  From here, I wrapped the wire a little differently on the top row of nails vs. the row of nails that runs through the middle. 

BTW, I am sure this all sounds like a jumble of words, but if you look in the picture you can make out how the crown was formed.  I wrapped the wire up the left side of the top nails, around the nail, and crossing over the wire that was just taken up.  When running the wire around the middle nails, I went down the right side of the nail, up the left and did NOT cross the wire.  Again, see the loops above.  The crown was finished off by taking the wire straight down and cutting it just below the bottom of the crown.

I took the wire off the nail former, then used my pliers to make the loops tight.  As you can see above, I pinched closed, then turned slightly each tip of the crown.   

Sorry for the WAY BLURRY pic.  It is kinda tricky doing this and taking a picture at the same time ;0}

Once the tips were formed, I went back through the valley points of the crown and tightened the "U" looking valleys into "V" looking valleys.

Much better, right?  Now I need to go buy myself a soldering iron and attach those ends...but that will be another day.

When I set about embellishing the crown, I thought it looked like it needed a middle band below the valleys.  I added two more nails to the side so I could wrap around those as well.

I wanted to give you an idea of how I take the wire off the form.  It IS going to get a little screwy.  I just start at one side, loosening each loop until the whole thing is off.

This is what it looked like when I took it off the form.

Here it is again after pinching the tips and valleys.  Still not looking much like a crown.

Better, but it kinda makes me thing either of a Jester, or the Statue of Liberty.  Hmmmm...I ended up twisting the valleys 2 or 3 times to make them shorter.  By doing that it made more space between the valley and that top band.  

Looks much better!  And how about a little bling?  A crown HAS TO have BLING!

I added a little lace here and there.  With a little hot glue and some fun little embellishments the crowns really turned out fabulous.

I also made a flower form.  There ended up a lot of wire in the middle, but it still turned out cute.  I plan to try another flower a little more like the crown with more nails in the center, but it will have to wait for another day.

Same flower, different center.

Still working out the kinks with the "LOVE" for the wedding favors, but they turned out pretty well to!

If the kids are bored, send them outside with a hammer, nails, and a roll of wire.  I am sure they will amaze you with all that they can create!