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

3D Crystal Lacquer

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!

and please visit the Sakura Hobby Craft Blog and website

 for more creative inspiration and product information.

www.sakuracraft.com

www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com

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

3D Crystal Lacquer

Black Coated Jewelry Finding

Peacock Green Gem Particles

Black Crepe Paper Streamer

Asst. Ribbons in Halloween colors

Scrapbook papers - Halloween themed

Orange chunky glitter

Glitter Chipboard

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!

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

and visit the Sakura Craft Blog and join the fun!

www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com

Halloween Treat Cone

Fall has arrived here on the mountain....leaves are changing color and nights are getting cooler.  Boxes of Fall decorations are being brought out from storage - which means one thing - Halloween!

I adore Halloween decorating (and I must admit the candy!) so I'd thought I would share a Halloween themed post to get a jump on all of Halloween's goodness. 

I used vintage sheets of music for the cone, and old dictionary paper for the flower.  This project is really fun because you can use whatever papers you have on hand to coordinate with any theme you would like!

I used a paint brush to apply Crystal Lacquer to the scalloped edge of the cone and sprinkled it with orange glitter.

After the glitter was dry, I rolled the cone into it's shape and used Crystal Lacquer to adhere it.

To make the flower,  I used 2 scalloped circles of old dictionary paper, crumpled them up several times and sprayed them with several layer of Glimmer Mist. 

I used this little guy for the center of my flower.  Here he is coated in a nice thick layer of Crystal Lacquer.  I sprinkled a little fine clear glitter onto the wet Crystal Lacquer and set him aside to dry.

I used a Tim Holtz stamp for the ticket, stamped it with black Distress Ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  To color it, I used Crystal Color Lacquer.  I squeezed a little out in a puddle on the side of the stamped image, and used an old giftcard to scrap it across it.  I used both purple and orange Crystal Color Lacquer.

Here you can see how awesome the ticket turned out.  After it dried, I distressed the edges using a distressing tool and black Distress ink.  I used a Dymo Label Maker to make the "BEWARE" label and stapled it to the flower,  shredded some black paper in my paper shredder and used it to fill the cone.  For the finishing touches, added some black ribbon for hanging and filled it with some candy corn!

Till next time....stay creative!

Please visit Sakura Hobby Craft for more info on their products

www.sakuracraft.com

Find more creative inspiration at Sakura's Blog

www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com



"Let's DO this" ATC Card

I had the privilege this past weekend to spend some time with some amazingly creative ladies at the Creative Souls Retreat in beautiful Lake Arrowhead, CA.  One of the fun activities we did was an ATC Swap.  The theme was transformation - and here is my spin on that theme.

 Since I had to make multiples - I wanted something fairly simple, but I didn't want it to necessarily LOOK simple. After deciding on my design and image, I immediately reached for my 3D Crystal Lacquer and my 3D Crystal Lacquer Color

Here's the image I started with - printed on cardstock.

I love this photo.  It really shows the sparkle you can create with a simple layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer and a sprinkle of glitter.  Here I used an Ultra Fine Clear Glitter by Hero Arts.  Any glitter will work perfectly.

I also used 3D Crystal Lacquer Color in blue to add dimension to the butterfly. After letting it dry overnight, I added the words "Let's DO this" using my underwood font and printed out on copy paper and a little green bling on the girl's wing!

Finished ATC's all ready to trade!

To find the products used in this post - please visit

www.sakuracrafts.com

and please visit and follow www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com for more info and fun projects shared by the Design Team!

Thanks!

Exciting News!

I'm very excited and honored to announce

that I will be joining the next

Sakura Hobby Craft Design Team!

I have had such a blast creating projects and sharing them with everyone, and I get to do it for another 6 months - YAY!

Here are the other wildly talented Design Team members - just click on their names to get to their blogs - don't forget to follow us all!

Our fearless leader:

Terri Sproul

Design Team Members:

Jessica Griffin

Leslie Rayhe

Becky Conley

Gini Cagle

Aileen Roberts

Gloria Irizarry

Quick Crystal Lacquer Charms

I'm sharing with you today 2 quick and easy charms ideas.  Gift giving season is quickly approaching and with a bottle of 3D Crystal Lacquer, a package or 2 of Glass Tiles, Bales and Ball Chain Necklaces and a little imagination you can pretty much take care of several gifts in just a short amount of time.

For this first charm, I applied a thing layer of Crystal Color Lacquer on the back of the glass tile.  The glass tiles DO have a right and wrong side.  The back has a slight texture to it and isn't as shiny.  I let this dry overnight.  For the initial - I used a permanent black marker on white cardstock, let it dry and used Crystal Lacquer to glue the tile (colored side down) over the initial.  Again I let this dry overnight, then trimmed around the glass tile.  On the back, I glued some typed words and gave it a coat of Crystal Lacquer....let that dry and added the bale.

For this second charm, I stamped an image onto the back of the Glass Tile and used Crystal Lacquer to glue the tile onto printed scrapbooking paper.  After it was dry, I trimmed around the edges and wrapped metal foil tape around it to give it a soldered look.  I added some printed words on the back and gave it a good coat of Crystal Lacquer.  When it had dried overnight, I added the bale.

String the completed charms on a ball chain necklace and ta da! 

Find more ideas and tips for Crystal Lacquer and the jewelry findings used here at

www.sakuracraft.com

And you can follow Sakura's Blog and see more fun projects and ideas at

www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com

Until next time......stay creative!

Boardwalk Pendant

I can't seem to get away from my beach-themed projects this summer!  I've even been decorating my deck in a beach theme - even though I'm at 6100' elevation in the mountains!  I can see the ocean from my deck, so I thought....why not!  I really love the way this necklace turned out.  I've been wearing it quite a bit too! 

 To start off, here are the products that I used.

Zinc Jewelry Finding

Silver Ball Chain Necklace

3D Crystal Lacquer

Graphic 45 Bathing Beauties paper scrap

Distress Embossing Powder - Old Paper

Distress Ink - Vintage Photo

Starfish charms (from my stash)

Assorted Beads (from my stash)

My Underwood font printed on white paper

I couldn't wait to make a collage style scene in this deep pendant finding - it just took me awhile to figure out just how I would do it.  I knew I wanted depth and had a fair amount of room to work with, although this was a very tiny space to work in.  I first decided on my background, which is this vintage beach scene that I found on a Graphic 45 scrapbook paper scrap and glued it down using 3D Crystal Lacquer.  After it dried, I started layering the Crystal Lacquer and the embossing powder (it's what I had on hand that mimics sand).  I let each layer dry overnight, so this process took me a few days to achieve.  After the second layer, I added the starfish charm, which was part of a necklace that I took apart.  I glued the charm down, and added more Crystal Lacquer and embossing powder over the charm to make it look like it was partially buried in the sand.  There was another loop on the bottom of the charm that I snipped off.

These jewelry findings came with what I thought was a piece of cardboard that fit nicely on the top.  I didn't realize that it was a piece of acrylic, until Chelsea (a talented Design Team team mate) had explained it in her post a few weeks ago!  Thank you Chelsea!  This shows the acrylic 'lid' after I peeled off the protective paper.

I printed several versions of the words I wanted to go in the pendant and finally decided on the My Underwood font.  I cut out each word, distressed it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and glued them into place.  I curled the word 'seashore' a little bit and attached it to the top of the starfish for dimension.

Here you can see that I glued a small clear rhinestone over the loop on the charm, a small pearl in the sand and a green pearl bead in the background.  The rest of the beads were just placed on the sand area and not glued down.  When I was happy with the amount of beads, I glued down the acrylic cover using Crystal Lacquer just around the tiny edges of the pendant.  The smaller beads can move around inside the pendant.

Here's another close-up of the charm itself.....

And here is the finished piece. 

 I added another starfish charm on the top with a jump ring and put the pendant on a ball chain.  All ready for summer outfits!

Until next time....stay creative!

Be sure to check out Sakura Hobby Crafts amazing blog at www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com

You can find more info on product and additional tutorials on their website

www.sakuracraft.com