Funky Colored Lacquer Cakes!

Each year I participate in the Jerry Lewis Telethon and we raise funds at our store The Stamp Addict by having an 'Opportunity Drawing' for a basket of great goodies and by holding several classes where all of the class fees go to the MDA. This year I am holding a class on Aug. 12th (call the store if you want to sign up to take the class) and when I was designing the class I wanted to use the Sakura Hobby Craft colored crystal lacquers for at least one of the cards in the class. I came across some Funky outline stickers of wonderful crazy cakes and thought they would be perfect to showcase the lacquers.

I took each of the cake stickers and put them on different colors of shimmer papers, then the fun began!

I filled in many of the spaces with different colors of the pearl, metallic, glitter and colored crystal lacquers and let them dry....

The hardest part is to not touch them until they have time to dry! After they dried I layered each piece onto white cardstock and used some decorative corner punches to add something extra to the cards.

If you come to the class on Aug. 12 (you can call the store to reserve your spot) you will get to choose one of these six cards to make along with 4 other cards using other techniques!

The Coffee Cup Card:


The Wedding Cake Card:


The Flower Cake Card:

The Butterfly/Flower Cake Card:

The Funky Floral Cake Card:

And the Manly Tie Cake Card:


I hope you liked the cards and enjoy the technique! Come see me on Aug. 12th to try the technique yourself and raise some money for a great cause the Muscular Dystrophy Association!

Jennifer Van Pelt
-The Stamp Addict

Summertime Tin Album - Part II

As promised, I'm sharing the inside of my Summertime Tin Album this week. My first challenge coming up with something that wasn't bulky, as the tin is quite thin. I love adding layers and dimension to my projects - so I had to do this without adding too much bulk. I decided on a simple accordion fold design with only 5 pages. After measuring the inside of the tin and figuring out how big my pages needed to be, I simply cut and scored 2 sheets of patterned paper and glued them together to get the 5 needed pages.

Materials Used:

3D Crystal Lacquer

Color Crystal Lacquer - light blue glitter

patterned paper

Tim Holtz Adage ticket

Tim Holtz bottle cap stickers

vintage buttons

brown bakers twine

Distress Ink - vintage photo

vintage dictionary pages

pearl embellishment

plastic date disc

Tattered Angels Glimmer Chip - seagull

I cut the same size patterned paper to act as a picture mat on each page. This way when I'm ready to add pictures, I have a place holder for them. I made them smaller (I'll print my pictures wallet size) so I could add journaling and any small memorabilia (ticket stubs, receipts, pressed flowers, etc) to the page. On this first page, I added a plastic date disc that I cut to fit on the edge, a Tim Holtz ticket and my infamous paper flower (made from old dictionary pages). Only this time I slathered the flower with Crystal Color Lacquer in light blue glitter.

I love the way it turned out - it's rather stiff, so would also make a great pin or addition to a hair band. These are so easy to make, that I made some in several different colors that I'll be able to add to other projects!

On the next 4 pages, I just added a variety of patterned paper and small embellishments including buttons, twine and an alligator clip.

I traced the design on the paper here with same Crystal Color Lacquer that I used on the flower. I love the dimension it gave and I also liked that when I inked the edges, it resisted the ink, which made it "pop" even more.

For these cute little bottle cap stickers, I simply covered them in 3D Crystal Lacquer and let dry overnight, which gave them a bright shiny coating.

Here's the cover of the completed album - all ready to receive my summer memories! Now, I just need to get busy and make some worthy of my album!

I couldn't just leave the back of the album blank, so for a bit of whimsy I decided to do the same technique to mimic sand (3D Crystal Lacquer sprinkled with Distress Embossing Powder), and add a fancy little seagull.

I hope you enjoyed my project.

Until next time....stay creative and have some summer fun!

you can follow my BLOG at www.katscrapstudio.blogspot.com

visit

www.sakuracraft.com for more ideas on how to create with 3D Crystal Lacquer

Permanent Masks

I started my paper arts adventure as a stamper. I still reach back to my roots and dig out the rubber stamps. One of the stamping techniques that I most enjoy is masking. This technique creates the illusion of depth and perspective. The original stamped image is covered with a mask so subsequent stamped images can be stamped on top of one another without damaging the original.

In the past I’ve cut my stamp masks from post-it notes, copy paper, scrap paper—you name it. But I always ran into the same problem—these masks were at best temporary. It seemed that I was continually cutting masks for the same images.

Well, old soon, smart late. When I was making my last project using stamps, mica powders, and 3D Crystal Lacquer, the light bulb went on. Why couldn’t I do something similar to make permanent masks? It works!!! And it’s so easy!!

Stamp your image on cardstock. In these samples I used a paint chip!

Stamps are inked and ready

Images stamped on paint chip

Apply a thin layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer to the image. You don’t need to be neat around the edges, but be sure the entire image is covered.

Images coated with lacquer

Let the lacquer dry. I usually allow an overnight drying time. Cut the images out using scissors or a craft knife. Ta-da!! Drum roll!! There you have it—a permanent mask. Bonus: you can easily wipe off inks with a baby wipe.

Here are cards that I made using the masking technique and one of my 3D Crystal Lacquer permanent masks.

The leaves were stamped first, then masked while the strawberry was stamped.

The pear in the left was stamped first and masked, then the pear on the right was stamped.

Visit Create & Craft for more amazing projects.

Thanks for the Bottle Caps

I love when inspiration arrives via USPS. My sister, Noel, follows my posts on the Crystal Lacquer Blog and thought I might be able to use 7 Fitz's Premium Root Beer bottle caps.

Yummy, this project was bit like eating good candy. I couldn't stop at just one bottle cap.

What is nice about the Fitz's bottle caps is that they are a twist off, so the shape is not distorted.

Several pieces of inspiration were found at Zinnia in South Pasadena, including this old broach. I used an Exact-O knife to remove the remaining faux diamonds. Be VERY careful doing this as I nicked my finger and don't recommend the experience.

You begin to see where I am going, when the bottle cap fits perfectly within the broach setting.

The picture below is not in focus; however, I wanted to show what the Pearl Color 3D Crystal Lacquer looked like dropped into each individual slot.

In the bottle cap itself, I used an image left over from my last "Film Noir" project. I covered the image with Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer - Glitter Primary to give it a little sparkle. Once everything was dry (give it time to dry!), I glued the pieces together and applied a pin back.

As I mentioned above, I could not stop at 1 bottle cap. I had all sorts of "found" objects and 3D Color Crystal Lacquer to play with.

A cool looking bead set into Glitter Violet 3D Crystal Color Lacquer.

Blue 3D Crystal Lacquer with Metallic Blue swirled in. Dolphin pieces were applied after the blue swirl layer dried.

The small fancy glass piece was left over from a prior project and had been stamped with the butterfly image. Not that you can tell from the image, but a layer of Pearl 3D Crystal Lacquerwas applied underneath. Then the glass piece, followed by the small square frame on top.

Glitter Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer and small plastic flower placed after first layer dried.

Ready for Halloween? Orange Glitter Primary & black spider. Creepy!

Below is my absolute favorite piece . . . of all the bottle caps.

The image inside the cap is from Bottle Cap Images - Vintage Edition. Covered with a layer of3D Crystal Lacquer. I attached the crown using glue and used a bail at the bottom to add the pearl drop. All of the bails used for this project were from Sakura Craft.

Keep on feeding your Creative Soul!

~Heather Morrow

Steampunk Brooches

I have always felt the allure of steampunk, since before I knew it had a name, or even was a thing.  The Victorian nostalgia combined with a future of steampower and gears, the mystery and genius of Nicola Tesla, yes please!  So when I saw these Deep Dish Jewelry findings, I knew I had to do something special.  Their design also held a wonderful surprise for me, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

MATERIALS

Zinc Jewelry Findings Oval and Rectangle

3D Crystal Lacquer

Steampunk Debutante Tags

Distress Stickles

Various Gears, charms and pins

Grungeboard Wings and Key

Teal Adirondack Paint Dauber

Distress Ink: Pummice Stone

Pinbacks

 As limited as my sewing ability is, I have built a corset, and I would really like to make steampunk costumes.  So I decided to start with some cool brooches that would have an industrial, artsy, slightly miliatry feel to them.  Obviously victorian, nouveau and gears are a must! One Girly one and one more Masculine.

I selected my images and used the shapes that came with the charms as templates for trimming though they were a little larger than the bottom.  Once I had my images trimmed to fit I put a dot of 3D Lacquer inside and stuck them down. MAKING SURE THE CHARM EYE WAS IN THE DIRECTION I WANT FOR MY CHAINS TO HANG!!

 I chose my tiny gears and a couple small charms for inside.  My initial plan was to layer crystal lacquer and gears, letting each layer dry, giving it a 3D feel, but here's the surprise... those shapes that came with the Jewelry Findings are actually nicely protected acrylic that fits perfectly on the top of the finding like a shadowbox!!  So I scrapped my Lacquer filling idea for a loose gear shadowbox.  It's kind of a "Duh Chelsea" moment I know, but I was super excited!  And I wanted to make sure you know you have the option of either one.  So I added a little Distress Stickles to my images inside, as well as some Crystal Lacquer on the Light Bulb, and let them dry overnight.  I also Embossed a clock image on the grungeboard wings and painted them with teal Adirondack Paint Dauber, and inked the Grungeboard Key with Pumice Stone Distress ink.(not pictured)  I left these to dry as well.

 The next day...

I peeled off the protective film from the acrylic shapes and arranged my charms and clock gears (from a real clock) inside.  I put a thin line of Crystal Lacquer along the top rim lip and placed the front window panes in place.

While that dried I sanded the raised surface of the wings, and inked them, then glued the wings and key to the backs of the Findings with Crystal Lacquer. Behind that I glued the pinback also with Crystal Lacquer. Finally I attached all the hardware using jump rings, a few charms and the chain on the Finding loop and then a couple charms and a pin in the other end of the chain. VOILA!!!

The top pin is my girly one and the bottom is the more industrial one.

Here's a closer view of the Brooches themselves.  Feel free to comment, or ask questions, I love sharing ideas, that's what it's all about!  Also check out my blog Whimsykins

Merci!

-Chelsea

MONET'S WATER LILY BRAG TIN

 This is Sakura's Tin Box, approximately 4 3/4"Lx5 3/4"Wx1/2"D, just the right size to carry your latest 'Brag Photos' in.  And now it is my 'Monet's Water Lily Brag Tin'. Again, so easy to make. Before we get started, below is a close-up view of a section showing dimension.

A close-up view

Supply List:

     Sakura 3-D Crystal Lacquer, Pastel Crystal Color Laquer and Tin Box ~ Design Paper ~ Crystal Bling (I used a Pink one)

Tools:   

     Scissors ~ Large Corner Rounder, or use scissors ~ Ruler ~ Pencil

  Step 1.  Cut and round corners of Paper to fit top of Tin.

Step 2.  Create Round Disks using Crystal Color Lacquer (I used Transparent Pastel).  I placed

coins next to disks to show approximate size.  Let dry and when dry remove from Teflon Craft Sheet.

 Step 3.  Adhere Paper to top of Tin using 3-D Crystal Lacquer. I then had some fun (as if I hadn't    been having fun to this point) and added Color Lacquer to the Design matching the

 brush strokes. While this is drying, 

Cut Colored Disks, as shown, into spiral strand leaving a small base in the center.

 Step 4.  Take outside end and Roll the spiral strand to form a very small Flower. Take

a small amount of 3-D Crystal Lacquer, apply to Center Base and secure Flower.  

(I made Three Flowers for this project).

Step 5.  Adhere Flowers and Bling (if you decide to use) onto Paper,

then Cover entire Top of Tin with a coat of 3-D Crystal Lacquer. Let dry and repeat 

until desired appearance is achieved.  After it dries completely fill with a few of your

latest-greatest photos and BRAG, don't forget to brag about making the Brag Tin as well.

An example of various Design Papers I perused before selecting the one I used for this project.  

Hope you enjoy exploring all the beautiful papers out there and don't forget to check your archives, that's where I found all my wonderful papers.  Below, even more ideas on using 3-D Crystal Lacquer flowers.

Happy creating and keep smiling, Carol

http://www.carolberns.blogspot.com

http://www.terrisproul.com