MMM: I Have Been Wanting To

"To Market"

Cabinet card necklace

(may be enlarged to show detail)

I know, I know. I am so late! But I still wanted to participate in this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge which asks us to try something that we have always wanted to do. Well, I have been wanting to do one of those tiny collage necklaces for the longest time, and when I found the Inkssentials line of Memory Frames and Glass, I knew what I was going to do. . . 

The cool thing about the size of the frame (1.5 x 1.5") is that I was able to feature a small cabinet card I recently found that reminds me of my Grandmother Lydia. She must have been about the same age as the girl in the picture, and the little pig charm in combination with the photograph reminded me of one of my favorite childhood stories. It goes like this: When my Grandma was a little girl, her Dad brought home a pig that he won in a poker game. It was the runt of the litter and, not knowing what to do with it, he brought it home and gave to his Daughter. Well, little Lydia loved that pig and treated it like a doll: she made a bed for it to sleep in, had an old stroller that she would take it for walks in and even had it drinking out of a bottle. It was her life. Until one day she came home for dinner and . . . well . . .times were tough back then and her little "baby" had grown large enough to become dinner. No warning from the parents, just, well, a meal. Needless to say, she never ate pork again. And I never forgot that story.

This piece was created using a cabinet card cut to size and enhanced with charcoal (around the embossed decorative edge). I pierced a hole into the bottom of the (cheap, pliable) frame with a craft knife before stringing the pig charm and Swarovski crystal bead with thin wire back into the interior of the frame. I tied a knot and cut it close before placing the frame back into position. When that was complete, I used sandpaper to distress the front and then applied small clear flat-back Swarovski crystals around the edge. Final touches included a casual chain 24" chain that was connected to the charm with a jump ring.

Thank you for looking - I hope to be more on the ball next week when the challenge is "Buttons". . . 

Kristin xo