Ten Two Studios

Sage Mini Dominos

Lisa — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:03:10 +0000

$2.99 for 10

Ten sage mini bamboo dominos, drilled with two holes running legthwise to allow for stringing.
Doms are roughly 1-1/2″ x 3/4″.

The Monthly Muse

Lisa — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:20:59 +0000

Looking for inspiration? Try The Monthly Muse, a digital newsletter designed to educate and inspire you with how-to instructions, techniques, free printables and more. Whether you choose to become a subscriber, purchase back issues on CD, or go for the immediate gratification of digital downloads, you won’t be sorry. Get the details (and a free trial issue) by clicking here.

April - Little Wooden Things

Lisa — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:11:43 +0000

Included in this issue:

Five Ways to Alter Wood Beads
Clothespin Magnet Notepads
Faux Vintage Spools
Two pages of printable images and patterns.

$3.99 on CD

OR
$3.99 via download

Mini Domino Bracelets

Lisa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:10:35 +0000

When I first saw the mini bamboo dominos, I knew I’d be making bracelets from them. They’re the ideal size to make nice, chunky cuffs, which I adore.

To make your own mini domino bracelet, you’ll need:

Pre-drilled mini bamboo dominos, which I’ll list for sale in the dominos section as long as I can keep them in stock.
A sheet of mini domino-sized images, also listed for sale in the dominos section.
Gel medium, or your favorite collage adhesive. I used Dick Blick’s Acrylic Matte Medium.
Sealer or varnish to make the collage portion waterproof. I used DecoArt DuraClear Varnish.
A scouring pad or sanding block to rough up the surface of the domino a bit.
A foam sponge applicator.
Jewelry elastic. I used .5mm Stretch Magic in both clear and black for the samples shown in this lesson.
Glass E beads. These are the larger seed type beads.
Glitter glue, rhinestones or sequins for decorating, if you desire.

Cut the collage sheet into strips to make the images a little easier to handle. Cut out the images you wish to use on your bracelets. Each sheet contains several sets of ten images—enough to cover dominos for a large bracelet. Those of you with tiny wrists might get by with 9 doms, or even 8.

Use a scouring pad or a sanding block to rough the front side of the dominos just a little bit. A green kitchen scrubbing pad will take off just a bit of the finish. A sanding block will take off a lot of it, and lift some of the color from the domino. Clean the dominos off with a soft cloth to remove any dust from the sanding.

Using a foam sponge or your finger, apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the front faces of the dominos, smoothing it over the surface. I worked on the doms two at a time, because the medium dries quickly on such a tiny surface.

Apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the back side of an image, and press it onto a domino, centering it. Apply just a tiny bit of medium over the top of the image. Making both sides of the image damp with medium is what will keep it from rippling as it dries.

Repeat until all your dominos have images on them. Set them aside to dry completely.

If you wish, decorate the dominos when they’re dry. I added a little glitter glue, some flat-backed rhinestones, and tiny star-shaped seqins to mine. Let all this dry completely.

Apply a coat of sealer or varnish over the finished dominos, and let them dry.

Arrange the dominos in order, as you wish them to be strung on the bracelet. I found lining them up in a row like this made them easier to string quickly.

Cut a piece of jewelry elastic that’s 10 times as long as the row of dominos—I know that sounds like a crazy amount of elastic, but seriously, it took that much to do all the stringing. Start by threading the elastic through the hole that’s closest to you in the dom that’s farthest away, and leaving tails of equal length hanging out of the sides.

Add two E beads to each tail of elastic. Thread the tails through the first hole in the next dom in line, forming a little beaded bridge between the two. The tails will cross inside the second dom, and come out at opposite ends. Pull the tails tight enough to snug the doms against each other.

Add three E beads to each tail, and thread them across the top of the second dom, and through the second hole. The tails will come out on opposite ends again.

Add two beads to each tail, and thread across to the next dom, through the holes. You’re going to continue adding beads and threading the tails through each set of holes all the way down the bracelet—two beads, add a dom, three beads across the top and bottom of that dom, bring the tails through the next hole.

When all the doms are strung together, snug up the elastic to make sure they butt up against each other, without either overlapping or leaving gaps.

Attach the last dom to the first one using the same beading pattern—two beads on each tail to create the bridge, then thread the tails through the holes in opposite directions. Add three beads to each tail and thread them through the last two holes. Send one tail across to the first hole in the next domino and thread it through, to bring both tails to the same side of the domino.

The nice folks who make Stretch Magic provided this diagram showing how to die the elastic off. Do this very close to the holes, then trim to leave a tail that’s a little bit longer than the height of the dominos. Thread the knotted tail down into a domino to hide the knots—I used a long needle to do this, then trimmed any elastic tails hanging out the other side.

I did these three bracelets in an afternoon!

Mini Dominos

Lisa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:48:09 +0000

$3.99

Images are sized for 1-1/2″ x 3/4″ mini bamboo dominos.

Each 8-1/2 x 11 inch collage sheet is printed on 28lb. paper with a very high brightness to let the true colors shine through. Sheets come packaged in a clear protective sleeve, and can be organized in any standard binder.

Brown Mini Dominos

Lisa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:45:00 +0000

$2.99 for 10

Ten brown mini bamboo dominos, drilled with two holes running legthwise to allow for stringing.
Doms are roughly 1-1/2″ x 3/4″.

Natural Mini Dominos

Lisa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:41:10 +0000

$2.99 for 10

Ten natural mini bamboo dominos, drilled with two holes running legthwise to allow for stringing.
Doms are roughly 1-1/2″ x 3/4″.

Red Mini Dominos

Lisa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:37:42 +0000

$2.99 for 10

Ten red mini bamboo dominos, drilled with two holes running legthwise to allow for stringing.
Doms are roughly 1-1/2″ x 3/4″.

More Bamboo Domino Pendants

Lisa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:05:09 +0000

My first lesson on making these pendants was such a hit that I went back to the work table to make more. I usually post plain projects without too much embellishment, so you can see the contstruction details clearly. These are a little more embellished than the first set, and have tassels at the bottom—because sometimes a girl just needs a few shiny things in her life.

To make your own bamboo domino pendants, you’ll need:

Pre-drilled bamboo dominos, which I’ll list for sale in the dominos section as long as I can keep them in stock.
A sheet of domino-sized images, also listed for sale in the dominos section. I used the Deco and Colorful sheets for my samples.
Gel medium, or your favorite collage adhesive. I used Dick Blick’s Acrylic Matte Medium.
Sealer or varnish to make the collage portion waterproof. I used DecoArt DuraClear Varnish.
A scouring pad or sanding block to rough up the surface of the domino a bit.
A foam sponge applicator.
1mm cord for stringing. I found cotton cord in fun colors in the craft section of Wal-Mart, and colored hemp at several craft stores.
Beads, charms, glitter glue or rhinestones to embellish your finished necklace.
Tacky glue and a bamboo skewer.

Cut the collage sheet into strips to make the images a little easier to handle. Cut out the images you wish to use on your pendants.

Use a scouring pad or a sanding block to rough the front side of the domino just a little bit. A green kitchen scrubbing pad will take off just a bit of the finish. A sanding block will take off a lot of it, and lift some of the color from the domino.

Clean off the dominos with a soft cloth to remove the dust from sanding.

Using a foam sponge or your finger, apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the front face of the domino, smoothing it over the surface.

Apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the back side of an image.

Line up the image on the front side of the domino, and press it into place. Apply a tiny bit of matte medium over the top of the image, and set it aside to dry.

If you wish, add some glitter glue dots or swirls to the front of the domino. I love Elmer’s glitter glue for doing this type of thing, because the tip is so small, and the ultra-fine glitter is suspended in a binder that’s not too thick and gooey.

When the domino is completely dry, apply a light coat of sealer with a foam sponge.

While the sealer is still wet, you can drop flat-backed rhinestones onto it. They’ll stick to the domino when the sealer dries.

You can also apply tiny holeless beads onto the wet sealer. I poured some into the cap of my container, and dipped the wet domino into them. I used my fingertip to remove any that spilled over the side of the image, or drifted into areas I wanted to keep clear. These beads will need a second coat of sealer over them when the first one dries, just to hold them securely in place.

When the dominos are dry, plan your beading pattern. Since each dom has two holes, you’ll need two rows of beads at the top and bottom that eventually merge into one.

Cut a piece of cord, and start threading beads. I worked with the two lines of beads coming directly out of the top and bottom first.

Next, I added the beads at the top of the pendant that merge the two lines together. I tied a small knot at the top, hiding it in the very top bead whenever I could.

I added the beads to the bottom of the pendant, merging the two lines, and again tying a small knot. I added an extra piece of cord into the knot to create the tassel, and slid the final bead over the knot to hide it.

To hold the tassel in place, I applied just a tiny bit of glue inside the bead, using a skewer.

I tied small beads to the bottom of each strand of the tassel.

Colorful Dominos

Lisa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:35:13 +0000

$3.99

Images are sized for 1-3/4″ x 1″ bamboo dominos.