Stamped & Embossed Necklace

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  You Can Turn Your Day Around!

It began as a good day - at least it felt that way.  I got up and did some journaling and then took Buddy for a walk.  I've been pretty determined to not start my day in front of my computer and journal instead.  I got home and ate breakfast and then began doing some creating until I ran into a bit of an issue with something I was making.  So I took a lunch break and it was while I was eating that a migraine decided to start to visit.  My migraines historically are pretty classic.  They begin with a visual aura - where I see spots/holes in whatever I am looking at.  Next comes the numbness in one of my hands that then travels up to my face and mouth.  Just writing about it makes me nauseous!  And yes, the nausea and head pain then shows up.  This time I didn't have much head pain (so grateful for that!).  What I did have were thoughts about what a wash the day was going to be.  I started feeling angry at my body - angry that I wasn't going to have the day I envisioned.  My internal chatter began to call the day a waste - a total wash.  And then I started to consider that.  Why was I giving up on the entire day when it wasn't even mid-afternoon?  Why was I resigned to throw away the rest of my day?  So I took a few aspirin and rested a bit and then, when I felt a little bit better, I made my way back into the craft room.  It was slow-going, but at least I wasn't sitting on the couch resigned to let the day slip by.  I went on our evening walk with Buddy - figuring that the fresh air might help - and it did.  By the time I got back from the walk, my head felt better and so did my disposition.  I realized that I had plenty of time to enjoy of my day so I headed back into the craft room before dinner and made some progress.  This day serves as an example to me - proof that you can turn your day around.  Don't give up on your day early - don't call an entire day a "wash."  Recognize that each day is lived moment by moment and while one moment may feel a bit of a waste, the next moment could be the moment you've been waiting for! :)
I wanted to share with you the project that I was working on during the day I described above.  I wanted to make a necklace for my niece Avery using my stamps.  I worked on a piece of clay-covered masonite as my base - I almost worked on a piece of card stock and a Scrabble piece instead, but went with the masonite.  I painted the surface with a shimmery watercolor paint and then stamped the letter from a retired SU! set (the letter was the perfect size) using Jet Black Staz-On.  Next I stamped the floral image from the Tiny Tags stamp set and added some color by dabbing on ink (Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry).  I sanded the edges and ran the tile over the Rich Razzleberry stamp pad.  Once everything was dry, I covered the masonite tile with VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder and heat embossed.  I repeated this step 2 more times to get a nice coating of embossing powder.  Before the embossing fully cooled, I pressed in a few tiny crystal rhinestones.  To make the tile into a necklace I added a bail with crystal effects and then strung it on ribbon.  I hope you like it! :)