Faberge Box

The Metallic Color Lacquer made me think of Faberge Eggs for Easter.  Since a few of the DT ladies did such amazing Easter Eggs witht he Color Lacquer I decided to make a Feaux Faberge Box, and Easter Pendant.  Here's what I used.

Metallic Color Lacquer
3D Crystal Lacquer
Jewelry Finding
Altoid Smalls Tin
Easter Images from Tim Holtz Seasonal Paper Stash

For the Pendant, I trimmed a Vertical Easter image to the size of the finding, glued it in place with a small dot of Clear Crystal Lacquer, and filled the top of the image, inside the Jewelry Finding with Clear Crystal Lacquer and set it aside to dry.





For the Box, I painted an Altoid Tin with blue paint. I centered my Horizontal Easter Image and adhered it with Clear Crystal Lacquer.  I framed the image with the Gold Metallic Color Lacquer, and created my Fabrage design.  I let that dry and then filled in the blue spaces with some Blue Color Lacquer to give it a more enamel look, like fabrage has.  I added metallic details on the image itself, then filled the whole image in with Clear Crystal Lacquer.


I set it to dry over night and Voila!!

I think this could make a lovely Easter Hostess Gift.  I love the way it turned out and just working on it I got a lot of fun ideas of ways to make faberge designs with Metallic Color Lacquer.  For more great ideas check out my blog and the Sakura Craft Design Team Blog!

Have a Happy Easter!!

~Chelsea

Spring Tag

For this tag I decided to use the Metallic Crystal Color Lacquer as a glaze.

To make the charm, I simply used some springy rose stickers I had and arranged them inside the Jewelry Finding, filled it with Crystal Lacquer and set aside to dry.  

I used the metallic blue Lacquer on the Acrylic S (Heidi Swapp Ghost Letter), by spreading it with my finger.  I added some dots in silver for detail, and set that aside to dry.  I distressed the edges of a plain white tag with Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage, and Broken China.  Next I stamped the Fairy Swing stamp (Crafty Secrets) in black ink, and wrote "pring" for the word Spring at the top.  It's important to make sure you do all your ink stuff first, before you move to the next step.  

I applied gold, silver and pink Metallic Color Lacquer again with my finger as a glaze coating to add shimmer and texture.  It dries fairly quickly because it's so thin, so you can layer them over each other as you go, and it adds a neat effect.

Next I filled in spots on the fairy image with green, pink and blue Metallic Color Lacquer.  I adhered the S using Crystal Lacquer and filled the images of just the fairies with Crystal Lacquer to make them stand out.

Finally I attached some lace and ribbon at the bottom with Crystal Lacquer and Tiny Attacher Staples, and tied the charm on (once it dried) with some fairylike ribbon.  Tada!

~Chelsea

*Check out my blog and the Sakura Craft Design team Blog for more fun ideas*

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

Go Team!

I am very happy to announce that I have been selected as a Design Team Member for Sakura Craft!  Sakura has such versatile products, I am really looking forward to seeing how it will stretch my creativity, and I'm excited to see what the other talented ladies on the design team do with them as well!  2 of them, Karen and Heather, I have designed with before so I am excited to see what they come up with and getting to know all of the other ladies' styles too.
I just love sharing ideas like this, and having an obligation to be creative.  When it's just stuff for my own scrapbook I am less motivated, but gifts and Design Team challenges really gets my creative juices flowing!


So check out Sakura Craft and keep your eyes peeled for fun samples from me.  I look forward to your comments and input, and sharing more creativity!


-Chelsea

Vintage Valentine Ornaments

...Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or Bends with the remover to remove.
O, no! It is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wandering bark,
whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

-- William Shakespeare

These are some fun Vintage Valentine Rosettes I made for a design team trial for Sakura Hobby and Craft. Hang them on a present, bouquet or a door. Lots of fun and a neat way to mix and match scrap you have laying around.

The first thing I did was cut out some vintage images I had lying around, you can also print some free ones off the internet from a website like Graphics Fairy.

Next I covered them with Crystal Lacquer to give them an enamel look. The first image I covered completely, the second I just did her bows ribbons and shoes, and the bows on the kitties. (this top photo really shows the glossyness and dimention of the Crystal Lacquer. Then I set them aside to dry while I prepared everything else.

To make the rosettes, I used regular old party streamer style crepe paper. Scrapbook stores sell some fancier kinds, you can also accordion fold paper if you like. I had found this light pink roll lying around from some birthday or other, so it had a fun weathered, antique look to it, which I furthered with some Glimmer Mist, or whatever similar product makes you happy. This first one I used a light, iridescent shell color, the second was a darker pink pigment. Do all the distressing after you make the rosette, to give it more texture and dimension.

Making the Rosettes is simple, take about 2 yards of crepe paper ( I just roll it out the length of both my arms stretched out in a T and tear) Fold in half, take a needle and thread and do a running stitch up one side of the folded crepe about 1/4" in from the edge. Pull the strings to gather it as tight as you can, so it forms itself into a pleated sort of circle, tie the thread ends together and trim, voila!
While those all dried, I cut the heard and word ADORE out of scraps I had using the Cricut and I added dots of Crystal Color Lacquer in blue to the word ADORE. Once everything was dry, I used the Crystal Lacquer as an adhesive and glued down the heart, the word ADORE and pop dots for the Valentine Image.

For the second one, I added dots to a scallop circle cut from phone book paper with the Crystal Color Lacquer in blue, and traced the oval of the word SWEET from a set of words, in the blue as well. I also cut a flower shape from on the Cricut using scrap. Once everything was dry I adhered it using Crystal Lacquer, the Scallop Circle, then the flower then the little girl with the kittens, the word SWEET, and the buttons. The pink button/brad I stuck on with a pop dot to give dimension.

For both, I attached the ribbon loop on the back and over that I adhered a 2' square of cardstock, just to give it a good base in the back, and cover the ribbon ends. I used the Crystal Lacquer as adhesive because it's strong, and flexible and gives this dimensional project a little more stability.

For more project ideas using Crystal Lacquer or for Sakura Craft products Check out these links!