Cat brooches for bling!

We all probably know someone who loves dogs and/or cats besides our selves. When buying gifts, pins are light to ship and many times inexpensive.

I saw a resent study on recession shopping. They call it the "Lipstick effect." People buy small cheap things that pretty up such as lipstick and jewelry. This year lipstick sales were up 40%.

I prefer costume era type pins with big rhinestones and bling. You can also find breed specific pins such as Maine Coon or Siamese.

One of my newer ones is all metal with a tail that swings as I walk. Or the tiger one here with the swinging tassels.

There is also homemade jewelry, which you can find on Etsy. Making cat pins is a great way to save money and do something more personal for someone's gift.

One thing to watch for is a signature imbedded in the back. Many of the signatures may only be initials, but some are worth hundreds. Some of the newer ones are not, but I appreciate the makers signing them, because perhaps they may be of value later on.

I have an old Costume jewelry guide that helps me understand the signed ones.

Trifari is one of the most common, and I believe they are still being made. Also Weiss, Carnegie and Hobe' are fun to find. One of my cat pins is by Avon. He lost the toy he had and so I replaced it with a pretty blue gem ball.

One thing I want to mention is the lost art of "friendly plastic." I don't think it is made any more, but you can find some on eBay and other sites. I use it mostly for my Breyer customs.

Another thing that is nice for brooches is Sculpey clay. There are tons of colors available. Shape it and then cook it 10-20 minutes at 275 degrees. One time I made a 2" dolphin and forgot about it. It ended up being about 6".

At the craft stores you can find gems of all sizes and colors to add to your brooches. What I do is collect jems from old jewelry that I find ant yard sales and flea markets.

1. Before you go cutting, draw out a plan and get your stuff together.

2. Cut the shapes you want. Also pre-heat the oven at 250.

3. On a cookie sheet with foil on it, place your peices where you want them.

4. Heat the item for 5 minutes.

5. when you get the item out of the oven the plastic will still be workable, leave it on the cookie sheet and put in the jems into place and with a pensil make a face or design. Once the plastic is cooled it will be solid and can be removed from the foil.

Well I wasn't happy with the face, I didn't make a good plan. So I heated up the cat with an extra peice of plastic added so I could get in some brass wire for whiskers.

6. Adding a pin is was easy. Just open it so the sharp part is out of the way.

7. Then take one of your left over pieces and soften an end of it over a candle. Squish that over the pin back which is sitting on the back of the cat. The friendly plastic sticks well to it's own kind.

There you go, your own cat brooch!

I made this one in about 30 minutes. I could do better and so can you, this was for example. Practice, practice, practice!

Keep any of the friendly plastic scraps for another project as the stuff is no longer made.

I'm seeing many jen stones avalible on Bonanzle at great prices.