More bookmarks, can you guess the theme...?

I decided to make some more bookmarks, and these came together pretty easily once I decided on the embellishment! 







I knew I wanted to put an apple on them, but couldn't decide if I wanted a charm, and brad, or something else. First I tried stamping a bunch of apples and colored them in with inks, then covered them with Crystal Lacquer for shine. But when they dried (and I waited overnight!), they were a bit lumpy and the red just wasn't the right color. Then I decided to see if I could find the EK Success apple punch after seeing it used on some cards, but after THREE trips to three different stores I still couldn't find it. I was wandering around Michael's trying to find something else that would work, but I didn't want to spend too much since I needed 24 of them.


I came across this pack of 24 brads (perfect!), but half of them were green.  But they were 40% off so I bought them anyways, thinking I could come up with something to do with them!  I started by painting them all red, even the red ones, so they would all match.  I just used some plain acrylic craft paint.  Then when that was dry, I used a bit if some Making Memories clear glitter glaze over the top.  I still needed them to be shiny, but was too impatient to wait for more Crystal Lacquer to dry...  So I decided to use some good old UTEE, Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel!

 




The apples needed 4 coats of UTEE, and after doing 4 or 5 apples, my fingers were getting a bit tired of holding them with tweezers, so hubs came to the rescue with a pair of vice-grips, and after that it was a piece of cake!  They clamped on the brad prongs with no tension, much easier ;)  It was a bit time consuming to do 24 of these puppies, but they turned out so pretty!








Then I just cut off the prongs, and adhered them to the bookmarks with a foam dimensional, easy peasy :)






Now let me tell you a bit about the bookmarks themselves.  I love this technique, is is such a dramatic effect for so little work!  I started with printed paper, approximately 2" x 5", and matted it with black cardstock.  I went around the edges with my sewing machine, and then matted them again on red cardstock.  I did this so the stitching wouldn't show on the back ;)  I punched holes, and then added eyelets.  Once they were all assembled, I stamped various background stamps on them with Versamark Watermark Ink.  I used a few different flourishes, and a music score background.

After that, I heat embossed them with clear embossing powder, then went over that with some Tim Holtz Distress inks in Antique Linen and Tea Dye.  LOVE the inking tools and foam applicators, I use them so much!




The final step was to add some more sparkle ;)  I sprayed the whole thing with a mixture of Perfect Pearls powder and water, and dried it with the heat tool.  The ribbon went on last, and all done!







Guessed the theme yet??