Design Blog

Over the summer I purchased a fabulous piece of vintage Murano glass that was made in Italy. The design featured glittery, gold swirls in a sea of deep blue. It made me curious if I could somehow mimic this look with glitter and glass paint using one of our paperweights. After a little experimentation, I'm in love with the results!

As someone who absolutely loves going to antique shops and flea markets, I'm always on the hunt for small trinkets I can work into my paperweight designs.  When I came across a few Monopoly game pieces in a box of old costume jewelry, I immediately pictured them in an Heirloom Dome with the infamous Monopoly board in the background.  I hope you like the end result as much as I do.

During the month of June the Design Blog will focus on backgrounds paired with small trinkets and findings to show you all the incredible things you can achieve with items you may already have around your home or studio, or items you've never thought of using in the past.  We'll start with something very basic, a button...

If your design involves displaying one or more objects in a paperweight, you'll need a background to place these items on.  Backgrounds can be made from a variety of materials such as paper, fabric, leather, metal, and thin sheets of wood veneer.  They can involve complex layers or they can be as simple as printing a photo, as I did for this owl and branch...

Over the years I've created so many paperweights with vintage and antique costume jewelry.  I look for broken pieces, especially brooches with missing or badly bent pins.  These can often be purchased at flea markets and antique sales for just a few dollars.  You can also find beautiful reproductions at most major craft stores.

The collage for this paperweight was made with reproduction milk caps.  You can use vintage pieces if you wish.  Just check to make sure they're not rare and valuable before you start cutting and applying glue.  (You'd be surprised how much an old milk cap can be worth for its artwork or the particular town it's from.)

A swatch of glitter-lined paper and a gemstone sticker are all it took to transform this plain, glass paperweight into something fabulous and sparkly.  It's quickly become one of my favorites because it catches light from every angle. You have to admit it's pretty cute, too!

I've wanted to create a succulent paperweight for the longest time.  The problem I constantly ran into was finding an artificial succulent small enough to fit into one of our domes. Fortunately, I found a nice alternative to the real thing... or at least an alternative to the artificial version of the real thing.

As a Southern California girl who grew up just outside Los Angeles, I was always within a mile or two of a fabulous craft store where I could get at least 2,000 steps in by walking up and down the aisles in search of materials to use in my paperweight designs.  Now that I live in a very rural part of South Dakota, enjoying the pleasures of small town life, the nearest craft store is about 45-minutes away.  (Insert sound of record needle scratch here.)  There are days I honestly miss the craft stores more than I miss the sun, beaches, and warm weather.

A few months ago I purchased a few small, round mirrors to use in future projects.  I thought I'd frame one of the mirrors with some thick twine and see where things led.  I hope you like the results.

An easy step to achieving more professional looking paperweight designs is to apply paint to the bottom surface of the glass that comes into contact with your paperweight kit's adhesive pad.  This will conceal the adhesive side of the pad that's often visible through the glass.  In its place you'll see a color or metallic.

If you're looking for a creative way to frame a photo within a paperweight, this design is a excellent starting point.  You can alter the materials and embellishments in so many different ways.  For instance, instead of scrapbook paper you can use fabric or a thin, wood veneer.  You can also frame the photo opening with shells, beads, dried flowers, and an array of different baubles.

If you have any broken pieces of costume jewelry laying around, this project is for you.  Even if you don't, it's easy to find beautiful, affordable pieces of jewelry on clearance at boutiques and department stores. Many craft stores also sell a large selection of jewelry that includes earrings, pins, and pendants.

The next time you find yourself in an antique shop, keep an eye out for these items.  They're usually very affordable.  For instance, the needle packs I used in this project were in a plastic bag of other sewing items I purchased for just $5.00.

When summer is just a memory, and the snow starts to fly, this sand dollar paperweight will add a touch of warmth to you desk.  This is such an easy design to create.  All you'll need is a sand dollar, a scrap of sandpaper, a glue gun, and a pair of scissors.  Everything else is included in the paperweight kit (mounting board and bottom pad).

I wanted to create another paperweight design that would allow someone to display a miniature message, similar to the one posted at Vintage Typewriter Paperweight with a Tiny, Typed Message. For this project I chose something we all remember from our school days, a sheet of ruled paper.  In miniature, it's rather adorable.  Don't you think?