Foam and eyes

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Well, the snow melted a week or so ago and I was able to go buy foam glue.

The brand is Aleene's Foamtastic. It's great for craft foam. In fact, it's proving pretty strong, overall. It smells like Elmer's, which isn't overwhelming. It seems slightly fibrous as it dries (dries clear, though) and irritates/burns my fingers just a little, but peroxide and oranges burn my fingers. ;)


The first night, I cut out a foam form and glued it to a metal spring barrette. I gave it 24 hours to dry and sure enough, this stuff holds very well. I didn't expect it to hold, but I didn't feel like looking for my glue gun (we're in the middle of a move).

I then glued lots of googley eyes to the foam form. These have held great. One or two popped off (I was experimenting with different amounts of glue--super thin layers don't hold so well), but I'll re-glue them more solidly.

Last night, I was bored, so I found my glue gun and, in the process, found some 30ga craft wire, wired sheer blue ribbon, and some more eyes.

So...


A. I hot glued a rectangular piece of foam to a barrette. I cut out a few lengths of ribbon. I folded over the bottom, then made points, which I hot-glued shut. I glued the ribbon to the foam, then laid another, slightly larger layer of foam on top. When this was dry, I folded the ribbons over the foam (they're wired, so they stay put). I also glued two googley eyes to each point. I got some glue on the eyes and in places I didn't want it, but that's fine. I can peel it off later. I have nerve problems and shaky hands, so it's to be expected, as are the numerous hot glue burns. ;)

B. I wrapped the wire tightly around a barrette. Then, I hot glued two squares of foam to the tips, to cover the holes in the barrette. I coiled wire tightly around a pen to make spring coils, which I then hot glued to the foam. I hot glued the eyes to the springs. I really like this one.

C. The original eye barrette, made last year or the year before. I used hot glue to glue the foam to the barrette and tacky glue for the eyes. As you can see, a lot of the eyes popped off. I've only worn this a few times, as the eyes shed lots. I made two of them, actually, but they are grievously wounded and in need of eye patches.

D. The new one. I used craft foam for all the glueing on this one. It's holding really well, except for the ones I glued too lightly. I've worn it a few times now and it's holding up nicely.

When I get a chance, I'll try to take a picture of my favorite barrette. I took a sparkly blue pipecleaner bow and stuck doll arms on the ends of the strips, then glued it to a barrette. It's lovely and garners many comments.