Crystal Lacquer makes me Happy Happy!

Crystal Lacquer has certainly sparked my creativity.  I've been experimenting and trying all sorts of techniques using this versatile product. 

 One of the fun techniques that I tried was pouring the Crystal Color Lacquer out onto my craft mat (you might remember seeing the little dots of color from my Easter Egg post a few weeks ago).  I decided to try a shape using this stuff and came up with a flower shape that you can see in the photo below.

This first photo shows how the Crystal Color Lacquer looks wet (I used Red) - and then the next day after it's dried, peeled off the mat, with an antique button poked through the center. The color dried more of a bright pink color.  This is where the idea of my card started.  I'm a flower-nut, so I just kept adding layers of scalloped circles (I used my AccuCut machine and a 4"scallop circle die) cut from an old recycled book, and old sheet of music and some paper towels I had saved from my egg-dying adventure.

 After crinkling the layers and spritzing with a little Glimmer Mist, I was satisfied with the flower and moved on to the card layout.  I used a bazzill cardstock for the card itself and a torn piece of old sheet music for the background.  I adhered the flower and added the scrap piece of "happy HAPPY" ribbon I had in my stash.  I printed the words for the sentiment flag using "my underwood" font, cut it out and distressed it a bit with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (as I did on the flower also, along with Spun Sugar Distress Ink).  I cut out the flag shape from a plain old paper bag and used Crystal Lacquer to adhere the words onto it.  Crystal Lacquer is a great adhesive and I used it to glue on all the elements onto the card.

Close up of the flower.

 

Finished card.

Thanks for checking out my project for this week.

Karen

for more info on projects, check out the Crystal Lacquer blog at www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com

and for ordering products, check out www.sakuracraft.com. 

They have great tutorials and ideas as well!

Creative Souls Scrapbooking Retreat Announcement!

Creative Souls Retreat

~feed your creative soul~

I have some exciting news to share!

KatScrap Studio (myself) and Creative Souls (Heather Morrow) have joined together to organize a CREATIVE SOUL RETREAT - especially for you. We are in the beginning stages of developing a great creative summer camp experience for all scrappers, cardmakers, stampers and anyone who loves to be with those that are creative and want to spend some fun time together.

We need your help! First, we need to know how many of you would be interested in participating! We have a very short survey that we would love to have you complete. The survey is anonymous, and there is no obligation to sign up -

we are just trying to get an idea of interested people!

Please click on the link below to participate.*

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JPYFKVL

Also, please pass this newsletter on to any friends of family that might also want to take part. We will have more exciting news to share with you about the Creative Soul Retreat as soon as we can!

Thanks,

Karen

*We are still in the planning phases - if you have an idea or class you would like to suggest,

you can always e-mail me at  katscrapfever@sbcglobal.net

We are looking for instructors also!

Hippity Hoppity - Easter's On it's Way!

It's been a few weeks since my last Sakura Design Team post, so I've been experimenting quite a bit with my Crystal Lacquer products. My studio work table has been in complete creative chaos and I love it!

I chose an Easter themed project this week, with the holiday fast approaching.

I've loved coloring eggs since I was a kid, so it only seemed natural to try incorporating the Crystal Lacquer products with coloring eggs - and I must say, they turned out better than I had expected!

I had never blown out eggs before, so I thought I'd give it a try - it was simple and easy to do . I colored the eggs first (raw), using the old fashioned food coloring way. I prefer using this to the tablet type coloring because the colors come out brighter and more vibrant. After they dried, I poked a hole in each end of the raw egg with my paper piercer and blew the yolk and whites into a bowl. - easy peasy.

I used the NEON set of food coloring for vibrant colors.



My first attempt at blowing an egg out was a success!

Colored eggs ready for Crystal Lacquer.

After my eggs were colored, dried and blown out, I slid them onto a bamboo skewer, so I could coat them with Crystal Lacquer and sprinkle with fine glitter. The skewer also came in handy as I could just stick the end into a piece of foam so the egg could dry. I just used a very thin layer of Crystal Lacquer, as I didn't want any puddling on the bottom of the egg as it dried.

For this polka-dotted egg, I used little circles of dried Crystal Color Lacquer. I had squeezed out a bunch of tiny circles of Crystal Color Lacquer on my mat a few days earlier and wanted to do something with them.....so I placed them on a plain white egg. The dried Crystal Color Lacquer stuck on the egg without any adhesive. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Here are the dots of Crystal Color Lacquer (some I mixed with the clear Crystal Lacquer) ready to dry overnight.

*The egg in the center is actually just a shell of a cracked egg that I dropped dots of the Crystal Color Lacquer, then covered the Crystal Lacquer while still wet. It came out awesome with muted colors and shine. I put the shell on the end of a pencil and stuck it in foam to let it dry.

Ta-Da! Another view of my Crystal Lacquer Egg creations. These eggs are very elegant and since they are blown out, I'll be able to wrap them up carefully and have them for decorating for years to come!

Crystal Lacquer is SO versatile. I've had a great time experimenting and playing with this great line of product. I can't wait to show you more of the things I have created.

Until next time - Happy Creating!

Karen

check out more ideas and products at

http://www.sakuracraft.com/

and

http://www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com/ for more fun!