Oldies but Goodies

I just wanted to post a few random projects I've done in the past, that I hadn't posted yet, for fun.

Faith and Begorrah

 I am very excited to squeeze in a little Irish something for today.  I've always had a warm place in my heart for the Irish.  A fun, festive, and fairy decoration!

Supplies I used:  Sakura Craft 3D Crystal Color Lacquer: Country, 3D Clear Crystal Lacquer, die cut pennant, die cut swirl (embossed with Tim Holtz texture fade), Colored Pencils, Distress Ink, Glitter, Fairy Rubber Stamp, and ribbon.

I stamped my image on white cardstock, with archival ink.  Colored it with fun St. Patty's Greens and Orange, first, to get a color variance with the color lacquer, I left the wings uncolored to get a more translucent look.  Then I went over the smaller spots, like the moon, flowers and butterflies, with Ivory and Country Red Color Lacquer.  Then I went over all the green areas with the Jade Green Color Lacquer.   I let that dry.

Then I went over the smaller spots, like the moon, flowers and butterflies, with Ivory and Country Red Color Lacquer.  Then I went over all the green areas with the Jade Green Color Lacquer.   I let that dry.

Once that had dried some I sprinkled glitter over the whole image, and covered all of it with Clear 3D Crystal Lacquer, and let that dry.
While I waited, I constructed the pennant, I distressed everything (except the image) and then inked them, and glued everything in place using Crystal Lacquer, I really like it for sturdy projects like this.  Once the image dried, I trimmed around the edges and mounted it in it's spot, with pop up adhesive squares.
I really liked the way the pencils and Color Lacquer, which are both so subtle by themselves, created a lovely saturated, and ink or water color like look.  As well as the enamel like, finished effect of the Lacquer.

For more great ideas (and believe me, these are some talented lassies)
Check out The Sakura Hobby Craft Blog and visit me any time on my blog Whimsykins.  Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

~Chelsea

Spring Charms

I am super excited for my first project as a Design Team Member for Sakura Craft!!  I am loving using these products, and I couldn't wait to get started working with these Jewelry Findings.  There are so many great things you can do with them!  It was hard to decide where to start!

I love fairies, and spring always makes me think of fairies, so I decided to do some fairy inspired pendants with paper collage.  Here's what I did.

 Using scraps, stickers and odds and ends I had in my stash, I created a collage.  I have seen other designers use glitter in the jewelry findings and loved the effect, so I thought I would try some rhinestones, pearls and sequins.  Just arrange the collage how you want it inside the jewelry finding, you can glue then down if you like, but you don't need to.  I sprinkled just a tiny bit of iridescent glitter once I had it the way I liked it.

Next, cover everything with Crystal Lacquer to the rim of the jewelry finding, then put them aside and be patient.  They will look very murky, that's fine, it will dry clear.

Next I made some fun baubles for the charms to add some fairylike charm to the charms.  I simply strung beads I had on wire to create baubles.  Once the jewelry findings collages were dry I strung the baubles and the findings on to a jump ring and, and strung them on silver chains...

VOILA!!!

Hope you have fun playing with these fabulous findings like I did!! I'm off to make some more, I can't stop!  For more great products and inspiration check out these sites~   

http://www.sakuracraft.com/ 

 http://crystallacquer.blogspot.com/ and my blog http://whimsykins.blogspot.com/

~Chelsea