H"OWL" lovely Greencrafting is with Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers

Happy Wednesday! Susan here bringing you another project using Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers!!!

I hope you have been enjoying all of the fantastic projects and tips from the Sakura Hobby Craft Design Team. Since Earth Day is just a few days away, today I am sharing a greencrafting project. I am giving new life to this vintage metal stained glass owl frame. I really love the aged patina and oxidation on this metal frame.

Remember these when you were growing up??? I sure do! Kits that you fill up with colored crystals and then bake them in the oven...I loved making them. Now they are cheap plastic with goopy glitter glue that don't last. I bought this owl at one of my local Indie Craft Shows from a crafty friend of mine who searches out and unearths vintage treasures. I knew exactly how I would bring this hootie back to life...with Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers from Sakura Hobby Crafts...of course!

So I gathered up my Sakura Crystal Lacquer, Terri Sproul Mixers, a craft knife and my pile of Mixers painted papers and set off to collage this frame.

A brief recap of how I painted the papers: I put down a paper brushed with a little water and picked up the mixer color and painted it on. For most colors, I painted on both sides. This resulted in an aged paper look which has some translucency to it. I repeated for each color I made - this is how I ended up with all the lovely papers pictured above. For an indepth how-to CLICK HERE.

After painting - I set aside to dry on waxed paper - this absorbed the excess moisture and kept my little colored pages from sticking. Each time I paint with my Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers, I use up the leftovers by painting book pages, vintage papers or digital collage images I purchase from Altered Pages.

I really love how the Crystal Lacquer alone with a small touch of water soaks through the paper and becomes translucent with the feel of vellum when dry. It really gives the same effect of resin paper.

So I set off to begin collaging the paper to the frame using the Crystal Lacquer as an adhesive.

I selected a yellow painted paper and used Crystal Lacquer to glue paper to back of frame on desired "moon" sections.

When dry, I trimmed outer edges with a craft knife and on the inner borders, gently tore edges back from metal edge. I was careful not to expose sealed edge.

After fully collaging all sections with desired colored papers. No it's not pretty on the back, but it's doing the job. This will be mounted in a shadow box later and nobody will ever be the wiser.

Completed front view of collaged papers to frame. I could have stopped here...but I'm really going to make this "POP".

To add additional detail I started by adding the Terri Sproul Mixers Enhancer in place of black to the feet with a toothpick.

With a paintbrush, I mixed up some Pearl Citrine Mixers with Crystal Lacquer and added more color in the moon. Then I added a several other colors to add more depth and interest. The added wetness caused some warping, so as it dried, I gently pushed a dome in the center from the back - voila...instant 3-D!

I continued adding various Mixers colors to enhance other colored areas until all areas were complete. I left the head, wings and tail as they were because I liked the contrast.

Then I flood-filled each section with Crystal Lacquer and set aside to dry until all cloudiness disappeared. I left this to dry overnight.

Completed "OWL" Suncatcher

I hope you enjoyed today's post and are inspired to experiment and try new things with your Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers. Please take a look around through the projects from the other Sakura Hobby Craft Design Team members for more great projects, tips and ideas! See you next time on May 2, 2012.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment, select receive e-mail follow ups on comments and I will respond. If you would like to see more of my creations, please visit my blog sbartist : painting in the dark by clicking here.

Have a wonderful Wednesday : )