Thursday, September 27, 2012

Christmas and gifts with Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers

 

 

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the holidays lately. I decided to try to get a little head start on the little gifts. I started out with the following:

2003-02-15 11.59.45  Can you see the wooden bracelet? Well I mixed up some Crystal Lacquer with the extra fine glitter and Terri Sproul Mixer/ Gold and painted it. I put two coats on it and it came out looking wonderful. I’m glad I have a couple more bracelets that I can paint to give as little gifts!

While I was at it I painted a paper mache’ ornament that I had with the same Gold Mixture that I painted the bracelet with. Here’s a picture of both finished pieces:

2003-02-15 17.17.52                2003-02-15 17.18.18

Doesn’t that Gold and Glitter just look gorgeous? I loved how they turned out, how about you?

Barbara

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Christmas Ornaments with Sakura & Terri Sproul Mixers!

 

Yes, it is September and Halloween is next month, but Christmas is in the stores and will be here before you know it!!!  

Have you ever wanted a color theme Christmas Tree?  Go to the store and find that it would cost $4 to $5 or more per ornament, return home and put up the same decorations from last year? You are not alone. At $4 that would be $200 plus tax for 50 ornaments... YIKES!

Last week I was at the craft store and found ornament blanks for sixty-nine cents that are usually used with acrylic paint. You heard right SIXTY-NINE CENTS and they weren't on sale!  I thought I would try painting them with Sakura Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers, with a  touch of Terri Sprouls Ultra Fine Glitter.  
Supplies:
Square Micro Beads(Stash)
Ornament Blanks - Craft store
 
Working on a craft sheet, I mixed Crystal Lacquer with Gold and Tanzanite mixers in separate pots. Then  painted the base of the ornaments one color and the topper the opposite.   
 
While the Crystal Lacquer was still wet I lightly sprinkled  them with Terri Sprouls Ultra Fine Glitter.  I added a few of the square micro beads on the toppers for a little added sparkle. 
I love how the lacquer pools in the design of the ornaments! What I really like when painting with the Crystal Lacquer mixed with Terri Sproul Mixers is it was a one coat project.  No need for a sealer, the Crystal Lacquer is a sealer! 
Yes, I painted the back side of the ornaments. 

I am so happy with the results! I can make a theme color tree with 50 ornaments for $34.50 plus tax and a few supplies:  Sakura Crystal LacquerTerri Sproul Mixers and Ultra Fine Glitter for less than half the price! If your store has one of the coupons that is 40% off the total sale that would be a really have a great deal.   
These are now ready for a bow and a tree!

The possibilities are endless. Your creativity is only limited by your imagination...

Just imagine what you could do with 






Thursday, September 20, 2012

Faux Stained Glass Medievalish Candle Holder


I love the 3d Crystal Lacquer! I have been experimenting with things I can do with it. Mix it with Terri Sproul Mixers and wowza! For this projects I wanted to try to use the mixers with the 3d Crystal Lacquer to make a translucent paint. Add that the a glass candle holder and you have a great faux stained glass piece.








Supplies:
Paper punch- Punch Bunch Fleur de lis & Recollections Star Burst
Sakura 3d Crystal Lacquer
Terri Sproul Mixers- Jewel Effects Shimmer Powder- Shimmer Violet & Gold Dust
Contact Paper
Glass votive ( from dollar store)
Q tip or Finger tip ( my personal favorite)




I start by paper punching some Fleur de Lis and star bursts from contact paper. I buy my contact paper at the dollar store, because I am all about making affordable crafts.









I first placed the Fleur de Lis stencils on the votive and went back afterwards and placed the starbursts, but you could put them all on at the same time. I was still planning out my design when I started.









Now mix some of the 3D Crystal Lacquer with the gold mixers. The thicker the better. My first one was too thin and it ran a little under the stencil. I ended up tapping my finger in the lacquer and then picking up a little gold. That seemed to be the perfect combination. Then you can tap back into the gold if you want it a little darker and/or thicker.






Pull the stencil off when wet. That is why it is best if it is a little thicker, so it will not run after you pull it off.  If it runs a little, it still looks fine, because the lacquer tends to run when it is thinner (without a lot of mixers), and thus is more clear...so you barely see it after it is dry anyway...









I then went back and put the violet starbursts.
I used the violate mixers for the star burst.
My votive has a nice medieval feel to it.

Again, if you plan your design better, you can put all your stencils on at once.














And when you are done, you have an elegant votive painted with translucent shimmery lacquer. I love it!

Tanya Ruffin
www.CreateBR.com







Sunday, September 16, 2012

Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Pendant

I made a simple project this week.

That means I need to definitely step it up for my next post, but I've wanted a multiple sclerosis awareness bracelet, necklace or some sort of jewelry and figured no time is better than now. :)



Supplies:
(3 pieces of white brass pendants, only used 1)
Light orange beads from my stash
Orange ribbon from my stash



1. First mix the Terri Sproul mixer (citrine) with 3D Crystal Lacquer until you get the consistency and amount you need.

2. Then add the Color Enhance Effect.

3. "Paint" the white brass pendant. It ends up being like a yellow like color.

4. Take a ribbon of your color choice and according to the awareness you are trying to represent. I chose orange to represent multiple sclerosis since I have MS. I know that orange also represents other things as well.

5. Glue the ribbon down to the pendant and cover it and whole pendant with 3D Crystal Lacquer.

6. Use beads and fill in the areas that have no ribbon on it.

7. Clip off extra ribbon from the edge of the pendant.

And now I have my MS Awareness Jewelry!

Hope this helps anyone interested in trying it themselves.

Thanks for looking!

Jamie

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A Cute Little ATC with Sakura and Terri Sproul Mixers!

 

I have been creating quite a few ATC’s for swapping and for leaving as RAA’s (Random Acts of Art). I enjoy creating these cute little 2.5” X 3.5” pieces. ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards and if you’ve never tried them you really need to. I started out with the following:

2003-02-01 15.21.52

To begin with I stamped the flower image onto an ATC card. Then using some pastel Crystal lacquer, I mixed some TS mixer Green Shimmer into it and painted my stem and leaves. Following that I painted some Red Shimmer mixed with Crystal lacquer that is rather on the pink side because I didn’t mix much red in and painted the flower petals. The center of the flower is a pastel pink Crystal lacquer and the surrounding ATC is painted in a pastel blue Crystal lacquer.

2003-02-01 15.51.26     2003-02-01 15.52.20 Don’t you think this is pretty? Plus your card is protected with the Crystal Lacquer. I think all it needs is some wording to the right of the flower don’t you? Your comments are all read and appreciated by me.

Barbara

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Sakura Yuzen Paper Pendents

I love the beautiful Yuzen Papers at Sakurua Hobby Craft. It was fun deciding what portion of the pattern from each sheet of Yuzen paper to use in my pendents. 



The bezel cup pendents pictured here are from Sakura, Black Coated Square and the White Brass Circle with the Sakura Ball Chain (which is currently on sale). Experiment with  the papers and Sakura Crystal LacquerThe fan pictured in the square bezel is from the top paper in the package  below. As you can see there isn't any black in the paper.   The combination of the paper and Sakura Crystal Lacquer created a new look on the black bezel. 


I used the Earthly Serenity in my pendents.  Each Yuzen Paper Set comes with six (6) beautiful Yuzen Papers. Each sheet is 8" x 11".


To make each pendent cut the Yuzen Paper to fit the bezel cup.  In the bottom of the bezel put a small amount of Sakura Crystal Lacquer to act as a glue to hold the Yuzen Paper in place.  Around the edge of the bezel apply a bead of Sakura Crystal Lacquer. Pour an abundant amount of seed beads in the bezel and work as many as you can into the Sakura Crystal Lacquer around the edge.  Remove any remaining beads.  Add Sakura Crystal Lacquer to cover the entire bezel.  Let dry overnight up to 24 hours, depending how thick the lacquer is and humidity. 


The Bottle Cap Inc Pendents

Using Bottle Caps from from Bottle Cap Ink. This pendent has a holiday feel with the red, green and gold colors. A one inch punch is the perfect size for the bottle caps. 

The sheet this came from has red, green and purple flowers. 

For the final pendent I intentionally cut the paper to get the pinks from dark to light in the background. 



Friday, September 7, 2012

The Fleur Debris! Hurricane Art

Hello, I am Tanya and a newbie blogger here. I love crystal lacquer and use it with almost everything. For my first project I had planned something very special, but I got an unexpected visit from someone that disrupted my plans.

I live at the second stop in the Hurricane Isaac Stateside Tour.
Hurricane Isaac came ashore last week and living in south Louisiana you get accustom to this kind of thing. What you dont get accustomed to is the heat and the boredom when you are out of power. This time I preassembled some craft items I could use when the boredom set in. The heat is another matter. I cranked the air down while I still had air conditioning and it managed to stay cool through the first night without power.

During the eye of the storm the raining stops and this storm was so slow we were several hours in the eye. At that time I decided to rummage around outside and see what damage had been done. My neighbor had shingles missing and all over the yard...so I picked up some. I saw leaves and branches and even rocks and nuts and bolts. I gathered all these things and brought them inside....hmmm, what to make... AH, a fleur debris! Yes, I know, I make a lot of things with fleur de lis' in them. It is our state symbol, after all! (And the Saint's emblem).









Supplies I used:
3d Crystal Lacquer
Terri Sproul Mixers- gold
Twine
House Shingle
Storm Findings
Watch Parts
Hoard of items from Hubby's work room


I mounted the shingle to a piece of mat board. The drew out the shape of a fat fleur de lis with 3d Crystal Lacquer and let it set a bit. It was too liquidy to hold the twine down, so I let set up some and then pressed the twine in it.






Now I start adding the twigs, leave and other debris inside the twine outlined shape. My original idea was to make the shape out of twigs but I couldn't replicate the curve very well so I went with some twine in my hubby's workroom.







I added a washer from the street and used some watch hands that I already had on hand (ha ha, pun intended).













I use the 3d Crystal Lacquer as glue and then fill in the spaces with a coat. Then I begin to drop in some watch parts as a filler. Wherever a see too much shingle, I drop a watch part or a spare screw.


 
 
 
I then mix up some Terri Sproul Mixers with some lacquer and use my finger to wipe some gold accents on the twigs and rocks.
 
 


 
You can see the gold highlights here.
 

This is what it looked like after the lacquer had dried overnight.



Made up from debris from Hurricane Isaac 2012
The Fleur Debris!