Thursday, October 27, 2011

A Little Bubbly!



Shaped cards are really fun to make, and can have a big impact. This wine glass and bottle is from Flower Soft, but I decided to jazz it up a little using Sakura Crystal Lacquer. When, I noticed the wine in the glass, it was a given for me that I would like to add a layer of Crystal Lacquer over it, to make it look like liquid. To further embellish things, I made a medallion/greeting for the bottle. I stamped my image onto cardstock. Then I used the Copper Lacquer to trace over the lines of the stamp. The metallic lacquers are thicker than the clear and colored ones, so it really added some height. I let this dry completely, then I covered over the area with congratulations using the Cerise Lacquer. Again, I let this dry, and then covered the entire thing with a coat of Crystal Lacquer. It almost looks like Cloisonne when it's dry.



Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Wicked Fun with Crystal Lacquer


This week Crystal Lacquer and I had fun creating one more Halloween decor piece for my collection - a wickedly cute mini witches hat!

Materials Used

Paper Mache Witches Hat
White embossed wallpaper - thank you Becky Conley :)
Assorted Glimmer Mist
Paper Flowers from my stash
Scrapbook paper - Halloween theme
Old dictionary pages
Colored glass ornaments in Halloween colors
Assorted glitters
Brads - for flower centers
Assorted Beads
Halloween Tulle Fabric

I started by covering the paper-mache hat with embossed wallpaper. In the photo, you can see that I had cut off the top part of the hat - my project started off in one direction and took a turn midway - and decided to glue the top back on. Funny how that works when you have an idea in your head of how you want something, and then "poof" right in the middle of creating, you change your mind. I love that part of the process and it didn't bother me at all to have to change directions. Anyway, I sprayed the entire hat with glimmer mist - in Raven. It has a very cool purple shimmer when dry.




Here's a close up of one of the flowers. I love this photo because you can see the purple shimmer on the hat from the glimmer mist. I bought a package of small glass ornaments in Halloween colors. I wanted to see what fun I could have adding glitter/beads to them using Crystal Lacquer. This green one was covered with fine green glitter. I did another one in chunky beads that turned out cool - and will be using it for another project. It was easy to brush on a thin layer of Crystal Lacquer and then just dipping them in the glitter or beads.


For the center of this flower, I coated a black glass ornament with chunky orange glitter.


For center of this paper flower, which I made using old dictionary paper and orange and black glimmer mist, I used Crystal Lacquer and orange seed beads. I coated a brad with the lacquer, dipped it in the beads and set aside to dry. I did this process twice as to get a bigger layer of beads.



I used my scallop circle Accucut Die and cut about 8 circles of Halloween themed tulle fabric to create this little number. The edges of the tulle were melted (I used a lighter) so they would curl up and make it more dimensional and added a brad that I coated with Crystal Lacquer and orange chunky glitter.


Here are my Crystal Lacquer creations for this Halloween - I can't wait to start on Thanksgiving and Christmas next :)

Till next time - stay creative!


Karen

and please visit the Sakura Hobby Craft website
for more creative inspiration and product information.






Monday, October 24, 2011

Blinged-out Timeless Wings Pendant

As the month comes to an end my brain gears up for the impending time change. It's just a few weeks away! This year in particular time just really seems to have flown by. That was my inspiration for this project.
Today I wanted to share some fun layering with Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer and the little gem particles.

For this project you will need:
watch gears [removed by me from a watch]
recollections butterfly diecut [transparent]
bling
Add Peacock Green Gem Particles to an empty Black-coated
Jewelry Finding.

Add a layer of Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer.
I let this layer dry before layering more.
I added the Blue Flash Gem Particles and more Sakura and
then layered on my watch parts in the bottom left.
After getting all the watch parts arranged like I wanted
I added the transparent Butterfly and added a coat
of the 3D Crystal lacquer to the top of it.
As the lacquer dried I found a few places on the butterfly
that I felt needed more lacquer so I added a bit more.

Some of the flatter watch parts just screamed for some bling
so i added some brown and clear bling to the centers.
 Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my pendant!




Friday, October 21, 2011

Quick & Easy Charms: Becky Conley

Hello all and welcome!

Today I'm working on a charm bracelet or necklace that represents things I love and appreciate, the simple things in life. Creating personalized art is SO EASY with Sakura!



Supplies:
3d Crystal Lacquer-Color
White Brass Jewelry Findings
Shaped Brads!

Just fill in the base of the White Brass Jewelry Findings with your color choice of 3d Crystal Lacquer-Color, cut off the prongs of your favorite Brads and set them in! Viola! GORGEOUS, personalized charms!

Thanks for visiting the blog, become a follower! We have lots of creative ideas and product info.

Cheers!
Becky

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Bootiful Halloween Magnets

hall-5
*Optional
Here's a fun and easy project to make and give as a party favor or for a hostess gift. A couple of projects ago I showed how to make a faux hand blown glass ornament (HERE) and in one of the steps I showed how I drained the excess 3D Crystal Lacquer I used into blank bottle caps.  Once the bottle caps were dry I put them away and saved them for a later project.  You know the old saying waste not want not....I mean after all 3D Crystal Lacquer doesn't grow on trees *wink*
hall-magnets1
Step 1: Gather your supplies--
For my 1" images I used some marked down Halloween stickers I had picked up after Halloween last year that I had stashed away.
hall-magnets2
Step 2:  apply a small amount of 3D Crystal Lacquer to the base of each bottle cap and add your 1" images or stickers to the center of each bottle cap, and allow them to dry.
hall-magnets3
Step 3: Once the images are adhered and dried inside fill each cap up with clear 3D Crystal Lacquer (use a toothpick or pin to pop any air bubbles you might have).  Set your bottle caps aside in a level, draft and dust free area.
hall-4
Step 4: When your bottle caps are completely dry turn them over and  adhere your magnet to the bottom side of the cap using more 3D Crystal Lacquer.
hall-5b
Tin: Click HERE to see my previous project showing how I decorated another Halloween tin.  I first applied yellow and brown 3D Crystal Lacquer to the backside of the clear window and allowed it to dry, level. On the front of the clear window I used rub-ons, and to give  the tree some dimension I used black 3D Crystal Lacquer over the rub-on tree.  Once the tree was dry I applied an even layer of clear 3D Crystal Lacquer over the entire clear window and rub-ons.  I also added  fun gem particles to the wet lacquer at the base of the tree and haunted house to give it some bling.
hall-5
Here are the finished Halloween magnets attached inside my tin by their magnets.
hall-6

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Peel off Stickers

I got this brilliant idea! Don't you just love when that happens!? Remember, you can click any photo to see it bigger... and you may want to! :)

I have these peel off stickers from Elizabeth Craft Designs. If you're not familiar with them, they are like sticker stencils. They're really awesome! You stick them to most any surface, and you can "color" in the lines with virtually any medium! So I got a little crazy!

On with the projects!


I love the stained glass idea. So much, I tried to create it with Copic markers, peel off stickers, and Crystal Lacquer. I stuck the Flower Circle Frames to the glass piece and then colored the image. When it was done, I covered it in Crystal Lacquer. The Copics and the Crystal Lacquer didn't do too well together on the glass. But, I still LOVE the way it turned out, and it's gorgeous in my window!


Stained_Glass


I LOVE the way this turned out. I used my Copics again, this time on Eco Art Board. After coloring the Eco Art Board, I sealed it with Crystal Lacquer. Since I only applied Crystal Lacquer in some areas, it's given the finished piece a really beautiful texture.
Flutterby


For this piece I wanted to play with different ways I could create a Christmas scene of sorts. So I used some of the jewelry findings Sakura offers. I used the trees from ECD's Christmas Cupcakes. I filled the tree with Crystal Lacquer (just in the areas I wanted green... I still wanted the lines to be visible) and sprinkled on some glitter. I added some Flower Soft to the bottom of one tree to make it look more like there was snow on the ground. To do that, I used Crystal Lacquer, added the Flower Soft, allowed it to dry, and then added more to create some depth. To finish it off, I used some Crystal Coarse glitter to give the illusion that it was snowing. 

Leaves_of_green...

You can also use Sakura's Colored Lacquer. A piece of advice... (learn from my mistakes in other words!) allow the colored lacquer to dry completely before attempting to cover it in Clear Crystal Lacquer! I didn't let the colored lacquer dry long enough before covering it with Crystal Lacquer and I'm not thrilled with the results. I know if I would have just been a little more patient, it would have turned out great!!

I would love to see what you create if you try this technique! Feel free to share a link here, or add a photo to Sakura's FaceBook page!

Thanks so much for visiting today!! 

Saturday, October 15, 2011

SAKURA ® Art Pendant














I love how vesatile these glass tiles are. I use the big tiles has pendants and the small tiles for earrings.

The possibilities for these glass pieces are endless. I love the great mosaic effect i can achieve by using your Sakura ® 3D coloring pens.

All you need is to add your favorite charm of finding while the Sakura still wet. Once is dry it will be strongly secure in place.


Thank you so much for watching.

Now have fun creating wonderful pieces with SAKURA ® products.


Gloriann Irizarry



















































Thursday, October 13, 2011

Highlighting Your Images with Sakura Crystal Lacquer

I love vintage images, and am always looking for new ways to play with them. Today, I'm going to show you how to spotlight an area of your print (or stamp) with Sakura Crystal Lacquer and a metal frame.
I am using an image from Crafty Secrets ( Mini- Vintage Scraps). You will want to use something that you have two of the same image. For the base picture, I cut it out, and used the Lacquer to add dimension to some of the flowers in the garden.



Next, I took my metal frame, and drew around it on the 2nd image to mark the area I wanted to spotlight, and I cut this out. (Trim inside the lines so it will fit in your frame). Glue this down using the Lacquer. I also cut my sentiment from the Mini-Vintage Scraps and glued this onto the image. I filled in the whole frame with Lacquer, and with tweezers, added a little bit of the Gem Particles in green around the edges. Let this dry completely.


I placed the frame over the same area that it was cut from on the full image, using dimensional foam to raise it up. I "framed" my layered images with Metallic Peel-off stickers from Crafty
Secrets.
I filled in the spaces using Sakura Lacquer in Fawn. It was really a nice color for a vintage project.



I hope you will be inspired to try this technique out! Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Halloween Wand with Crystal Lacquer


This week I decided to add to my Halloween decorations and make a Halloween Wand that coordinates with my last post - the Halloween Treat Cone.
Supplies Used
Black Crepe Paper Streamer
Asst. Ribbons in Halloween colors
Scrapbook papers - Halloween themed
Orange chunky glitter
Distress Ink - Black
Wooden Spoon
I started out with a simple black crepe paper rosette. I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist (black with purple glimmer), but it didn't show up that great and most of it did get covered, however it does have a little bit of a shimmer to which is pretty cool.
Adding a glitter edge to the rosette is simple, and it gives it a more vintage feel. First, I dipped it onto a paper plate which I had poured a generous amount of Crystal Lacquer. Second, I dipped it into a mound of orange glitter that I had poured onto a second paper plate in a rolling motion.

I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out!
I also did the same process using Gem Particles from Sakura on the smaller scrapbook paper rosette that I made using the Tim Holtz Rosette Die. It came out super sparkly and chunky. Both of these methods dried pretty quickly, so I was able to complete this whole project in just over an hour.
I added this cute little frog on one of the ribbon streamers. It was a cardstock cut out that I simply used crackle medium on, then gave it a coat of Crystal Lacquer for more shine. To complete the project, I wrapped ribbon around a wooden spoon, (the reason I used a spoon instead of a dowel was that I found it was MUCH easier to glue down the rosette onto something sturdy - the spoon part - rather than using just a dowel) glued the rosette onto a purple glitter chipboard vintage shape and added a little paper tab to the rosette. The skeleton face was cut out from a scrap I had left over from my last project and coated with Crystal Lacquer.
Here is the completed wand, set in a witches shoe for the pictures sake. To the bow, I added a charm that I made using a Black Jewelry Finding from Sakura. I simply glued a picture of candy corn in the charm and covered with Crystal Lacquer and a sprinkling of fine clear glitter. Also to the wand, I added a journaling tag that can be filled with all the fun Halloween memories and maybe a photo or two that can be brought out and displayed year after year! Right now, it's part of my Halloween display! This was a super fun project and I hope to hear that you made one yourself! Share with me if you do!
As always - stay creative!

Karen




Find more fun projects AND products at Sakura's website - www.sakuracraft.com