My Other Creations: Alphabet Cuff Bracelet

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme is the letter A.  I thought of, "A is for Alphabet," which made me think of children, which made me think of wanting to protect my jewelry.  Is that a bad mental connection??  What can I say?  I've had too many bracelets and necklaces broken by well-meaning children who needed something to play with.  So I decided to make an indestructible (more or less) alphabet bracelet which I could whip off and use to entertain any bored children that may wander my way.  It's basically a long bracelet that wraps around my wrist that has elements/pictures that go in alphabetical order.

Behold!  I wrapped it around a rolling pin for display purposes (see, Mom?  Who says I never use that rolling pin you gave me?):

Here it is laid out flat and photographed in sections:

A-E: (apple, Bingo, cupcake, deer, egg)

F-I: (flowers, glasses, hanger, ice cream cone)

J-M: (Jack, key, lace, mustache)

N-R: (number nine, orange, pin, queen, rain)

S-U: (scissors, telephone, underwear)

V-Z: (van, witch, xylophone, yarn, Z).

To make this bracelet, I cut random fabric scraps into 1-inch (or wider) strips, then I sewed the strips together into one long strip.  
 
Next, I went letter by letter.  For dimensional objects (such as the Bingo chip and the key), I either sewed them onto my strip or adhered them with a strong fabric-friendly glue.

I stamped images onto fabric and colored over the ink with permanent fabric-safe markers to ensure the ink would stay put (this is what I did with the mustache and the witch, for example).

I also used patterned fabric and cut out already-existing images to add to my bracelet (like the glasses and the telephone).

For the deer, the Jack, the queen and the xylophone, I transferred paper images onto fabric.  Any image transfer technique would work, but I used a gel medium technique.  Simply brush a coat of heavy gel medium onto the colored side of your paper picture.  Stick the picture, face-down, onto a piece of fabric.  Let it dry overnight.  When it's dry, soak the fabric in a bowl of water.  Once it's soaked for awhile (half an hour or so), run the image under a gentle stream of tap water and rub the paper off of the fabric.  The ink remains on the fabric, but the paper washes off.  Some paper images work better with this technique than others, so you just have to experiment.  Also be aware that the image will be backwards on your fabric since you flipped it when you glued it to the fabric.  So if you're transferring a piece of paper with text on it, your text will be backwards on the fabric.

Here's another view of the bracelet on a display stand, which is closer to what it looks like on an actual wrist when it's all wrapped up:

This project was a lot of fun and we'll see if it ever comes in handy with little ones.  If not, it's still a great conversation piece.

Here are some of the fab supplies I used from Simon Says Stamp to make my bracelet:

October Afternoon Farm Girl Tin Pins	Paper Smooches Wake Up Stamp Set	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Hanger Clips - Idea-ology	October Afternoon Sasparilla Ephemera	Inkadinkado Mini Clear Stamps PERSONAL STACHE	Trinket Pins - Idea-ology
7 Gypsies Mini Gypsy Cards Ephemera	Crafter′s Workshop Mini Rain Stencil	Artistic Outpost Secretary Pool Stamp Set	Jet Black Stazon	Teal StazOn	Ranger Archival Ink Black	Black soot - Distress ink
Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink	Wild Honey - Distress Ink

So how will YOU use the letter A this week?  I love to see what your creative minds come up with, so be sure to share your project with us at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog for your chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store.  That buys a lot of crafty goodness!