Hanging Snowflake Altered Art

I love to make use of items that I’d normally throw out and the main components of this project contain exactly that.

Hopefully you saw my two previous projects using the Globecraft & Piccolo Bejeweled Snowflakes accents set, if you need a refresher you can find them here (Snowflake Votive) & here (Happy Winter Card).  For this project, I used the little snowflakes that are in the set and my "stencil" that I made and used for the Happy Winter Card.  There are 6 adorable snowflakes, measuring about 3/4", that I had left in the set, so I used them up!  

Before I get into the tutorial, let me tell you about the products I used:

Small Snowflakes from Bejeweled Snowflakes   

Stencil I used in making the Happy Winter Card (from Bejeweled Snowflakes)   

Vintage Silver Embossing Enamel 

Embossing Powder Adhesive Fluid 

E600 Adhesive 

Glasstique Gloss Finishing Glaze 

Frame, 7” x 7” square

White Gesso

Distress Paint in Stormy Sky

Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue

Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Fishing Line (or other clear string material)

Oval Word Charms

Piece of White cardstock

Sentiment “Warm Winter Wishes” by Quietfire Design 

I know it seems like a daunting amount of stuff but most of it you use only once.  First thing I did was work on the snowflakes.  I had originally wanted to have one side glitter and one side embossing enamel but that didn’t work out very well. 

I know I could of made this work, but I didn't really like the glitter

The detail in the flakes was a wee bit too defined for the glitter I had so I switched to embossing both sides.  

These are only embossed once - like my fingerprint?

I embossed both sides about 3 times (don’t forget to roll your jar of embossing enamel – it blends all the granules and colors perfectly!), which was tricky because each time I embossed a side the other side grew hot as well and would end up either slipping off or making a finish that I didn’t like.  My solution was to go slower and use a lighter touch with my heat gun; I also wonder if the fact that I have a Weller Heat Gun which is actually made for industrial applications may have caused the powder on the other side to keep reheating so much. When I find my regular crafty heat gun, I will do an experiment and see if the heat was too hot.

Once the flakes were embossed to my liking I set them aside to completely cool.  At this point, I wasn’t sure how I was going to hang them but I had a very vivid picture in my mind of how I wanted the assemblage to look – I thought about threading fishing line through each flake, of tying each flake to cord, using fibers, and a few other ideas.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of having the flakes hang invisibly – so I used fishing line! 

In the picture, you can barely see the fishing line stretched across one of my homemade art boards (cardboard covered with wax paper) and held in place with painters tape.  I then glued each snowflake to the line with E6000.  I made sure I used plenty of line and I matched up the snowflakes so they would all be in about the same place.  I let them dry overnight.

Way too dark!

I went to work on what I think is the focal point of the assemblage, the “stencil” I made from the Bejeweled Snowflakes set – the stencil is actually made out of the waste leftover after all the items are punched out.  This is the third project I am getting out of just one set.  When I made the Happy Winter Card, I had spritzed the stencil with Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue to make the image on the card.  The stencil was really saturated with the spray ink and much darker than what I wanted for this project so I painted some gesso over the London Blue and got the perfect, icy baby blue color I wanted.  Then to give the stencil a bit more stability I painted over it with Glasstique Gloss FinishingGlaze.

Perfect!!!

The frame that I used came from a picture bought at the Dollar Store and had gotten ruined – and the frame was originally black. So I gessoed over the black, twice to be sure it was covered completely and then colored it with Distress Paint in Stormy Sky using a paint brush dipped right into the bottle.  I finished it off with a few light spritz of Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue, let it dry a few seconds and swiped it very lightly with a baby wipe. 

I had already stamped the sentiment on a piece of white cardstock using Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black; all I need to do was trim it up a bit and it was ready to go!

All the pieces ready to be assembled!

Now that all the pieces were done the fun part – putting it together!  This is when I discovered my fishing line refused to stay straight and kept curling up on me.  No fear! I dug into my charms stash and decided that these oval word charms would fit the bill nicely.  I attached one to the bottom of each snowflake line and they worked like a charm (pun intended), in addition to tying the fishing line, I also added a dab of E6000 to each knot.  Now that my curling issue was fixed, I moved on to getting the stencil ready to be attached to the frame.  First thing I did was poke 3 holes into the stencil and thread the fishing line with the snowflakes through the holes, being careful to make sure all the lines were even with each other, then I flipped the stencil over and used E6000 to glue to fishing line to the back so the rows of flakes would stay put.  I let that dry overnight.

The finishing touches are easy – I glued the stencil to the inside of the frame & then attached the sentiment.  It took a bit of thinking and problem solving but I think this is an awesome winter decoration.  I hope you had as much fun reading about it as I had making it!

Another view

Next week I officially start spring, regardless if the weather cooperates or not.

Thanks for reading and I hope you & yours have a fabulous week!

Christi

Happy Winter Card & Last Chance to Enter!!

Hi all you Happy Crafters!  It’s Christi again with another fun card using products from Globecraft & Piccolo. Before I get into my newest creation, I want to let you all know that this is the LAST day to enter for a $10 gift certificate to Globecraft & Piccolo.  How do you enter? 

• Leave a comment on daily posts Sunday, February 2nd through Saturday, February 8th, 2014
• You must be a Follower of the Globecraft Piccolo blog
• You must like us on Facebook (click on the Facebook tab at the top of the blog)
• Only 1 comment per day per person
• If you refer a friend and your name is mentioned in their comment, you will get a second entry to the drawing for that day
• Winners will be chosen by Random.org and announced on Sunday February 9th, 2014

You can win on multiple days so be sure to visit each day - I hope you all have been commenting & I wish you luck!

On with the show! Here is my finished card.  Read on and you will learn how to make this cute card.

My finished card

 This is the second project I have made using just one set of Bejeweled Snowflakes Accents!! After I had removed all the beautiful snowflakes from the board I noticed that there was a stencil possibility hiding within the “scrap” (really, is anything ever scrap to a crafter?) or the negative left after removing the snowflakes.  I carefully cut off the parts I didn’t want and was thrilled to see a snowflake stencil ready for me to use.

The chipboard is very sturdy & flexible

I decided I wanted to make a card. I love shades of blue with silver.  Especially brilliant blues.  And what goes better for a shivery winter card than blue and silver?  I had already made the background paper using Distress Paints for another project (I used Distress Paints in Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky & Brushed Pewter and a piece of watercolor paper – the paints were pounced on the craft mat, sprayed with water and the paper was smooshed into the paint), so I just built off of that.

 

Items I used:

3D EnamelGel in Satin Silver  

Stencil Imade from Bejewled Snowflakes  
Crafters Pick Adhesive (I use this glue ALL the time!)  

Stampin’ Up! Everyday Flexible Phrases Rubber Stamp set

Base card in Cream

Piece of Background Paper, already prepared (see description above)

Piece of Gray cardstock

Piece of gray/blue cardstock

Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue

Krylon Leafing Pen in Silver

Robin’s Nest Drops

Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Removable Tape (to hold the stencil in place. I used blue painters tape)

First step in making this card was I took my background paper, laid the stencil over it and spritzed it with Dylusions in London Blue.  Lifted off the stencil and chose where I was going to trim the paper down. 

You can see the tape marks!

 Once it was dry, I trimmed it and in the middle of the full snowflakes I added a wee dot of 3D Enamel Gel in Satin Silver. The gel looks blue in some pictures and I am not sure if it picked up some of the spray ink or it is the reflection of the blue in the metallic – makes no difference to me either way – I set the panel aside so I would not smoosh the dots as they dried (and yes, I have smooshed many a drying dot!). 

I took a spare piece of cream cardstock and stamped my little sentiment, Happy Winter, with the Jet Black ink – this was a test since the stamps I used are the old fashioned, can’t see through the wooden block type of stamps, which I had hand mounted.  After a bazillion tries, I think I got it straight enough.  Or, let’s just say it IS straight enough. I mounted that on a piece of grayish blue cardstock & then again on a piece of cream because at this point I was vacillating between a cream or blue card base. 

Back to the panel where I used the snowflake stencil.  I swiped my Krylon Leafing Pen in Silver around the sides of the background paper and mounted it on a gray piece of cardstock.  Then I mounted the whole shebang on the card base, which as you can see was decided to be cream and added the three little dots.

The 3DEnamel Gel also works when you want a cute little dot on your card or project, but I haven’t gotten the hang of making them even remotely the same size, so I cheated and used pre-made dots.  I am practicing though & hope my dots will debut soon.

Stay tuned for my third project still using only one set of the Bejeweled Snowflakes set – if that isn’t a good deal, I don’t know what is!  I hope your weather is settling down a bit and that you & yours have a wonderful week!

Thanks!
Christi

Warm Winter Wishes!

When I got my Design Team goodies from Globecraft & Piccolo the very first thing I noticed that one of the embossing enamels, called Mardi Gras, looked like it matched one of the designer cardstocks I had recently used on some holiday cards.  Funny how that happens!  The colors of the Enamels are breathtaking!! After I thoroughly pawed through my goodies (and set aside some items that were a bit too cold to use – the 3D Enamel Gels were almost frozen solid!) I pulled out a scrap piece of the Basic Grey cardstock called Figaro.  Sure enough, even under my Ott light, the enamel looked to be a complimentary color.  And although the holidays are over, winter certainly isn’t, and that is what prompted this card.

Here is the finished card.  I love the colors!!

 What I used to make the card:

• Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel from Globecraft & Piccolo 
• Enamel Powder Adhesive Fluid from Globecraft & Piccolo
• Small Snow Pine stamp from Just For Fun 
• Warm Winter Wishes stamp from Quietfire
• Piece of Basic Grey Figaro cardstock
• Distress Markers in Frayed Burlap & Forest Moss
• Embossing ink refill (used to paint tree)
• Small Paint Brush
• Kraft cardstock base
• White cardstock
• Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
• Heat Gun

First thing I did was stamp the “Warm Winter Wishes” stamp on some white cardstock using the Enamel Powder Adhesive Fluid. I was a bit skeptical about this delivery system but I found it much easier to use than an embossing ink pad & it delivers the perfect amount of embossing ink – just don’t squeeze the bottle!  I sprinkled the Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel onto the sentiment and heated until it was embossed.  The Embossing Enamel is a fairly thick powder and I wanted to ensure that it was able to catch the beautiful calligraphy that Quietfire stamps are known for.  I think it came out perfect.  Then I stamped the Small Snow Pine stamp, using the Jet Black ink, on another piece of white cardstock and added some color to the tree with Distress Markers in Frayed Burlap & Forest Moss.  I wanted to emboss on the tree only where the snow would be, so I used a small paint brush and painted the embossing ink onto the areas of the tree where I wanted the enamel to stick. Once that was done, I poured the Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel onto the tree, tapped off the excess and embossed.  I cut the tree out kind of loosely – I don’t think I would have been able to fussy cut this image – and attached it to the Basic Grey paper.  Then I adhered my sentiment and finally, all that went onto the card base.  It’s difficult to get a good picture of how the colors match due to the shininess of the Enamel, but I hope you can see how well this card coordinates.

Here is a close up of that luscious Mardi Gras Embossing Enamel

Look for more wintry posts in the coming weeks!

Thank you & I'll see you soon - I have a bunch of different creations cooking right now :)  Christi

More Snowflakes and Instant UV Resin

This weekend I was up at the open house hosted by the Globecraft & Piccolo parent company, Sweet Stamps.  This is one of the make and takes we created.  A beautiful winter card showcasing Piccolo Siam Silver embossing powder and Snowflakes.  We used Blue Sky 3D Enamel Gel for the accents on the snowflakes.  For the sparkly edge around the white panel, we applied a thin bead of Glastique and then some Pure Sparkle Silver Glitter.  There are 3 sizes of glitter in this mix which gives it fabulous shine.

Sweet Stamps products used:

Flourishes Clear Stamp Set

Warm Winter Wishes

Tidal Wave Shades Dye Ink

I also got a chance to play with Piccolo Instant UV Resin.  I started with a thin rectangle acrylic piece (coming to the store soon).  I stamped snowflakes with white Staz-On then coated the piece with UV Resin.  Three minutes under the UV light and I was ready for layer two.  I added two Holly Clusters that I colored with Smooch ink, coating with another layer of UV Resin.  Three minutes later, I stamped more white snowflakes and added the final layer of UV Resin.  I added a layer of Light Blue 3D stamp paint to the back of the acrylic (love the glittery shine), then sealed it with a layer of Glastique.  Each layer can be seen as you look into the piece, it has so much depth.  I am going to use it as a zipper pull! 

Sweet Stamps products used:

Tiny Snowflake Background Stamp 

Starlight Bitty Background Stamp

Light Blue 3D Stamp Paint

Luscious Lime Smooch Ink

Siren Smooch Ink

A Wintry Wreath

Christmas may be over, but winter is just beginning, so I made a little winter wreath. I had a ton of fun with a variety of Globecraft and Piccolo Products. Here is how it was made:

Laura Drahozal
Remembering Life's Moments

MATERIALS:

• Piccolo Snowman from the I'm Snow in Love With You Accents
• 3 Piccolo Acrylic Pieces
• Piccolo 3D Gels in Titanium White, Napthol Red, Orange, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Turquoise and Metallic Silver
• Piccolo Pure Sparkle Silver Glitter
• Globecraft Glastique
• 9" Grapevine Wreath
• Distress ink reinkers in Walnut Stain
• Paintbrush
• White Acrylic Paint
• Dreamweaver Snowflake Stencil
• Dreamweaver White Glossy Embossing Paste
• Removeable Tape
• Dreamweaver Paste Spreader
• Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch
• White Cardstock
• Art Glitter Faux Snow
• Silver Ribbon
• White Ribbon
• Straight Pin
• Nonstick Craft Sheet

DIRECTIONS:

1)  Paint the Distress Reinker with a little water onto the grapevine wreath to darken it. Let dry.

2)  Paint the snowman with a layer of white acrylic to use as a base under the enamel gels.

3)  Use 3D Enamel Gels directly from the bottle: red on the scarf and cap, orange on the nose and brown on the stick arms.

4)  Use silver gel directly from the bottle to create shadows on the snowman.

5)  Add dots of the ultramarine blue gel on top of the silver and blend with a paint brush.

6)  Add white gel on the remaining parts of the snowman. Blend into the edge of the shadow with a paintbrush. Let dry.

7)  Use white gel directly from the bottle on the bottom of the wreath. You don't have to be too particular about the placement.

8)  Cover the gel with faux snow. Let dry.

9)  Start with the acrylic pieces. They have a blue film on both sides. You will start by removing this film on one side only.

10)  Place the side without the film up, and tape it to your craft sheet.

11)  Place stencil over the acrylic piece. You will not be able to get the whole stencil in, so be sure to center it the way you want it over the top. Tape down.

12)  Use paste spreader and white glossy paste over the stencil. You need to actually touch the stencil with the spreader and pull it across like a squeegeee.

13)  Remove the stencil and cover the snowflake with Piccolo Glitter. Let dry.

14)  Squeeze on dots of white 3D Enamel Gel. Create some snowflakes, using dots of gels and a straight pin to create detail. Let dry completely.



15)  When gel is completely dry, remove the other piece of film and flip acrylic over.

16)  Squeeze blue and light blue gel over the back of the acrylic in big curves.

17)  Use paintbrush and a little water to swirl colors together. Let dry.

18)  Punch snowflake strips from the white cardstock. Punch several of them.

19)  Glue the snowflake lengths together with Glastique, matching up the snowflake shapes on top of each other and creating one long strip.

20)  Attach snowman to wreath using Glastique.

21)  Attach snowflake "ribbon" to the wreath.

22)  Make "needle" from tape on the edge of white ribbon and feed through the wreath on the top.  Be sure to go through at least two branches on each one. Thread three ribbons.

23)  Attach the acrylic pieces from the ribbons. Tie securely.

24)  Attach the silver ribbon.

That is how this snowy wreath was made. I was really fascinated by the transparency of the acrylic, so I photographed it through the window, so you could see it, too.

The other interesting thing? If the acrylic piece turns around, you can still see the snowflake through the back of the piece. It just isn't sparkly. See?

I really enjoyed creating this wintry wreath for you. It is something that you can enjoy all season long!

Slide on over to my blog to see what's up over there.



Ring in some pure sparkle!

Arin Flynn
A Piece of Life's Pie

Oh my . . . it is already the day after Christmas! Thankfully, we have a magical evening of bubbles and reflections of both the past year and the holiday sparkle to still enjoy. 

Speaking of sparkle, I must introduce you to some of the most amazing sparkle I have seen and worked with, Piccolo Sparkle Glitter! I am a glitter nut and I have worked with the gamut of different glitters and this product is by far straight from Tinker Bell's stash. Unlike the traditional square glitter, this product is made with multidimensional round individual glitter which makes for the most natural and brilliant sparkle I have ever seen.  

The coverage is amazing and coupled with Glastique, projects will have less waste, secure hold, and an astounding amount of sparkle!

To see more on how this glittery winter snowflakes is made using both Piccolo Pure Sparkle Silver Glitter and Glastique Matte, feel free to head on over to my blog!

Giving a snowman his stripes

I wanted to pass along a little tip I discovered recently when I came across a few boxes of metal garland that I had not used in years. I make coco cones every year instead of cookies and I like to attach a tag to each of them. When I ran across these, I wanted to recycle them into that project and decided to test out some techniques.

What I found is that Piccolo 3D Enamel Gels and Piccolo Enamel Powder works amazingly well on metal! Not only does it add some amazing texture and uniqueness to the material and project, but is very easy and straight forward to do.

Arin Flynn
A Piece of Life's Pie

Embossing Powder Technique:
Apply Piccolo Embossing Powder Adhesive to a stamp image. Then stamp directly to the metal. The image may appear very faint, but once you dust with Siam Silver Enamel Powder and shake off the excess powder, you will see a clear image. Apply heat using a heat gun, set aside to cool and set. Using a pair of Piccolo Easy Grip Tweezers would be a good idea for handling the metal after the use of the heat gun. The metal gets very hot to to the touch.

3D Enamel Gel Technique:
Using a good quality stamper's ink pad, stamp image directly onto the metal.  Let set for a quick minute.

Then using the 3D Gel Enamel, apply to the stamped image by tracing and filling in the desired stamped area. If you are doing a multiple color project, let the first color set before applying the next color. This will prevent the colors from running.

To see more on this project or how to make the coco cones, head on over to my blog.

Photo gift tags make the holiday bright!

This holiday season, make a pretty photo gift tag to place on gifts for that special someone! My daughter is all about crafting and pretty things, I know she will absolutely love receiving this present in her Christmas stocking.

Rebecca Price
byondbzr

Supplies

• G&P Landscape DIY Ornament Kit
• G&P Snowflake Accents
• G&P Glastique  Gloss Fishing Glaze
• G&P Cranberry Wine Enamel Powder
• G&P Pure Sparkle Silver Glitter
• Marvy Embossing Heat Tool
• My Mind's Eye "All Is Bright" Twine
• Paper Sack

I begin by removing the pieces for one DIY Landscape Ornament from the package. I sponge  a light coating of Glastique Gloss Finishing Glaze onto the pieces and coat them with Cranberry Wine Enamel Powder. Using a heat tool, I set the powder.

I apply Glastique Gloss Finishing Glaze to the Snowflakes, and then give them a healthy coating of Pure Sparkle Silver Glitter.

I use the clear dome from the DIY Landscape Ornament Kit to trace an oval onto a picture of my daughter, and cut it out.

With all the pieces ready, I build the ornament using Glastique Gloss Fishing Glaze as adhesive. I secure the ornament with clip clothespins while it dries.

When the ornament is set, I apply the Snowflakes following the same technique. I also add a bit of twine around the bubble dome.

 
I select some cute girly gifts and place them in a paper sack, tying the top with twine.

Attach the photo gift tag to the paper sack, and my gift is ready for giving!

To see another cute way to use the G&P Clear Globes on a layout, shadowbox or canvas, hop on over to my blog for a quick how-to!