Making Charms and Embellishments with Bread Dough

Many of you probably remember the craft show Aleene's Creative Living
that was on tv about 15 years ago. They made flowers, especially
roses out of bread and glue. 1 slice white bread, crust removed to 1 Tbsp.
Aleene's Tacky Glue. Well I've revamped their recipe just a bit and add
aproximately 2 Tbsp tacky glue to one slice of bread. I have incorporated
the Cuttlebug and found a fun way to make charms and embellishments for your
cards and layouts. I know this would probably be better portrayed in a video,
but I'm not prepared to do that so I'm going to do the best I can with pictures.

Are you ready to go from this


To this?

This is an example of the roses they made on the show.

They too will work great on cards and layouts. Sorry I

forgot to add the little green leaves.

Pull up a chair and let's have some fun. To

begin remove and discard the crust from your bread.

Tear bread into pieces and place in a plastic cup or old

pan. Add tacky glue and stir with a craft stick or

your fingers.

Once you start mixing the dough it will begin to

take shape.

Once it starts holding together knead the dough

in your hands.

Continue kneading until it becomes smooth and

pliable. If you need to you can add a little more

glue.

Once you have accomplished this you will need to

decide how you want to color the dough. The original

recipe colors it with acrylic paint. Just make a well in

the dough and add paint. Knead the dough until the

paint is all mixed in. The roses above were colored

this way. I find this method a bit messy and prefer another

method that can be done after they are cut. You can also add

alcohol ink rather than paint, but the color will not be as intense.

Now the fun begins. Get your Cuttlebug and your favorite

Spellbinders or any other metal die. I am using the Garden Delights

Shapeabilites set.

Flatten the dough in the palm or your hand or you

can use something to roll it out. Just don't get it too

thin. Place your A plate on the Cuttlebug, then your B plate,

your die face up, the dough, and your 2nd B plate. When placing

the die and dough on the plate be sure to put it at the top of

the plate as the dough is going to move downward. Then run it through

the CB. If your dough is not flattened enough to fit in the CB just keep

flattening until your sandwich fits.

TIP: Make sure your CB plates are clean. Any fibers or bits of paper that

are on the plates will be impressed into your dough. Sometimes I run a bit of

dough through just to clean up the plates. The die does not have to be covered

in dough. Just place it at the top of the die and it will move down.

To get a better impression after I run it through the first time

I add a chipboard shim under the bottom B plate and run

it back through. Since it's already flat it will fit in the machine

much better this time. The key is not to get the cuts too thin or once

they dry they will break easily. You just have to find a happy medium.

This is what it will look like after a 2nd time

through the CB.

Then you just start pulling the dough away from

the cut or cuts.

This is what you should end up with. At this point

you can try and clean up the edges a bit. Once it's dry

you can knock off any dough that's sticking out and probably

could give the edges a very light sanding.

Now you need to let the dough get good and dry.

To start with you will want to lay something on top

of the dough....I use my B plate. This keeps the dough

from curling. Just leave it for several hours. Then you

can remove the plate and let it get some air. It's ok to turn

your cut over to dry the back too. If it starts to curl just put the plate

back on top for awhile. Once it's dry it will no longer try to curl.

Cuts drying under my B plate.

If you did not color your dough, you can now color your

image. For the watering can I used my Bic fine tip markers and

inked the edges with Cat Eye Chalk. Copic markers would probably

work great, but I don't have any yet. You can also use your ink to

color the image. The possibilites are endless and I'm sure you all will

come up with lots of methods to color them.

Another fun thing to do is the embossing folers. Below is an example of a

folder that looks like crocodile skin. I cut a croc out from the Animal Kingdom

cartridge and covered it with the dough. Actually this was just a scrap of dough

I had and did not quite have enough to cover the croc, but you get the idea.

Again, just be careful not to get the dough pressed out too thin or it will

crack and break once it's dry.

Hopefully this gets you started in the right direction to making

your own embellisments with bread and glue. I've not tried using

this method with any of the compounds you can purchase, but they

might work too. With all the folders and dies that are available

the possibilites truly are endless. Have Fun!