Glitteration!

I've seen a few posts recently advertising glitter wine glasses and wine bottles and wondered:

1) how do they do it do the glitter is so dense

2) how do you glitter something without the glitter shedding especially if you can still drink from the glittered glasses (glittery lips anyone?)

3) what can I find in the kitchen to try and glitter

So......I found a mug (the plain cheap wine glasses were on the top shelf so out of my reach without my husbands help as he was at work) and got to work.

To do this you need:

An item to glitter (I used an old plain mug to practise my first attempt)

Glitter (I used stix2 fine aqua glitter I had laying around)

Mod Podge, Decopach glue/sealer or some other similar glue/sealer

A sponge applicator

Hard Brissel Paint Brush, kitchen roll or sponge (to get loose glitter off)

Glitter tray or a piece of paper to catch the loose glitter and pour back into the glitter storage tube/bag/pot

Optional: masking tape

I decided to try and put a stripe round my mug to masked off the top and bottom all the way round (if using wine glasses you can glitter the whole thing but I wanted to try this)

Apply Mod Podge or similar to the area you want covered in glitter. Do not put it on thickly as it will drip and travel once glitter is added. Less is more as this is just the first layer

Now pour on the glitter (I put my mug in the glitter tray for this and held it over the tray on its side rotating and pouring)

Leave to dry while standing it on your glitter tray/glitter catcher. I then removed my tape so it didn't get glued to the mug (you should be left with a crisp line)

Once dry dust off loose glitter with a dry hard brush. Then add a second coat of Mod Podge or whatever adhesive/sealer you are using and add more glitter. Try to stay away from the crisp lines you made with the masking tape if your doing it that way so you don't get glue over the line. I would suggest decanting the Mod Podge into a bowl rather than straight from the tub as you will end up with stray glitter in the pot.

Leave to dry then dust off the stray glitter

If you want more glitter add another coat.

If you find any stray glitter stuck to your item it does scrape off with your nail if you get your thumb nail and go at it from the side.

When you're happy with coverage and it's dry and loose glitters dusted off you just need to add two coats of sealer to the glitter and edges. You can use Mod Podge but I used my Decopatch glue/sealer which had a gloss finish. And ta-dah you have glitterated your item! It should be hand washable (not dishwasher!) now due to the sealant but just check your sealants food safe if it's going to be in contact with your food/drink or mouth.

Here's my finished trial run. The damn handle got glue on and I couldn't remove it unless I messed up the glitter near the handle but I was only doing it to test it. You can also see I went over my lines a little but I was rushing it to see if the glitter would stay on.

I'm going to try and get some acrylic shapes and glitterate them for jewellery pieces and also try a clear phone case. It hardly used any glitter or glue so I still have lots to play with 

Christmas Decorations Using Felt Flowers

I've got quite a lot of felt and had this idea while laying in bed recovering from a migraine (the part where I think my head feels fine but am scared to move incase my migraine is just pretending it's gone)

I absolutely love cutting fabric and felt on my Sizzix Big Shot using the bigz dies and had a polystyrene ball from the Crafty Creatives birthday box still left over. 

The things I used to make the flower ball were:

Three colours of felt 

Polystyrene ball (mine had been drawn on when I was contemplating another project)

Red satin ribbon (5mm wide)

Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and my BigShot

Silver glitter glue

Silicone glue 

To begin with I used the Sizzix Bigz Flower Layer #10 die and cut two large flower shapes from red felt (if you dont have a die like this you can cut one by hand, its only to cover the top and bottom of the ball and wont really be seen). I then cut lots of the small flowers from the die. I cut around 100 flowers from the felt in three colours(cutting 5 at a time...got to love Bigz dies) and put these to the side. You dont need 100 but I wanted enough for other projects. 

Take one large flower and cut a slit in the middle as wide as your ribbon then thread the two ends of your ribbon through the slit so you have a loop one side. Glue the two loose ends to the felt.

Next glue the flower with the ribnon to the top of your polystyrene ball (I used silicone glue for a firm hold) and place the other large flower on the bottom. The flower shape easily moulds round the ball due to the petals. 

Next cover the ball with your small flowers again I used silicone glue, and I started on the middle which didnt have any felt on, built this up and then covered the rest of the ball. I found it was best to randomly dot glueon the ball, add the flowers then work on the gaps inbetween. If you also glue just the centre you get a more 3D look to the flowers.

You can stop here but I then added some glitter glue to the centre of each flower (that was showing). To do this I put my flower ball in a small cup so I could glitter one side without touching it, left it to dry, turned the ball round and glittered the other side.

I got so enthusiasic about covering the ball with flowers that I did it to the woodern hearts I got free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. This would be great on the front of a card and the recipient can then hang it on their tree.

Youcould also use just one colour felt to fit in with your theme or leave off the ribbon, add a wooden stick/rod and put it in a little bucket or pot for a table decoration (which could be used all year round)

Different Uses for Sugar Buttons Stamps - Wedding Card / Thank You Card

I've been having a play around with the stamps from the Sugar Buttons kit and using the topiary tree stamp I have made a card that can be used for weddings, thank you and so many other occasions.

I stamped the topiary tree onto some acetate using Stazon ink and the turned the acetate over and coloured in the image using Amos glitter glue.

Image on acetate

Glittered image before it dried

Back of the acetate tree next to one that had been stamped and coloured on paper

 I left it to try overnight and then put it into an aperture card (which I cut myself) and to keep it neat I sandwiched it in-between the card blank and a patterned paper (I used the swirly white glittered one from the Sugar Buttons kit).

Image on acetate glued onto the card (glue at top and bottom)

Side view

Finished card with glittered paper

 

You will see from the top right corner above the acetate that there is a small cut from where I cut the aperture but I'm thinking of putting a ribbon in the corner to cover this.
 
I'm not sure what I'm going to use this for yet but it would make a lovely thank you card, wedding acceptance card or birthday card. All I need to do is add a sentiment or I can just leave it the way it is. I may put an insert in so that when the card is closed you don't see any writing in the card. 

I LOVE the stamps from the Sugar Buttons kit, they are so useful and multipurpose.

Updated - Sugar Buttons - The Most Glittery and Girly Set Ever!

My order finally came from Create and Craft of the Sugar Buttons Kit from Kanban. I cannot wait to have a play with it at the weekend. 

I brought it mostly for my little cousins Georgia and Paige, so I can make them some lovely girly cards.

Picture from Create and Craft

The kit came with the papercrafting kit and four sets of stamps. I've taken a quick picture of them below but will be trying them out and will post some pictures of them stamped and coloured at the weekend or early next week. The stamps are not just for childrens cards, they look great for weddings and thank you cards too.

The papercrafting kit as so many sheets including lots of background card, decoupage and toppers. My favourite bit, which you can slightly see in the photo above, is the glittered acetate with starts, butterfly's and lots of glitter.

Such a lovely kit to kick start my non-Christmas card crafting.

*Update*

One of my favourite papers is shown below from this kit. I love it so much I could see myself not using it but after seeing some examples I decided to cut it up and use it for a few cards. I had originally thought about using the paper as it was and frame it with some decoupage on but then I wouldn't have displayed it anywhere.

 

Firstly I cut out the castle and layered some paper round it to make a frame. The card is so thick that my Fiskars circle cutter didn't like it and I ended up using scissors (I really need some circular and curved dies for my Big Shot for this type of thing).

I then put the fairy wand backing paper on top (cutting out a larger oval) and topped it off with a princess topper and sentiment. 

 I then used the rest of the scene background and matted and layered it onto an A5 card. I used two layers behind the main background cards and cut the middles out of the two backing cards so I can use these again at some point and I'm not wasting card.

I then used the prince and princess decoupage toppers. These came with oval toppers which matched but by using the decoupage parts separately I'm able to us the background toppers on some other cards.

 

I think this is one of my favourite kits ever! (can you tell with all my blog posts?)

Full on glitteriness

I am covered in glitter glue after making this card. The glitter glue bottle split (I've stuck it back together with silicone glue :os ) Not sure why it split but the plastic of the bottle seemed a bit hard!

Anyway...after moving all my craft stuff into our study I've made a card for my husbands aunt who is 50 this month and just went a bit glitter mad taking inspiration from the glittery flowery chipboard '50' and just took it from there. It was a bit of a quick card as I was told we needed it by the end of today even though her birthday isn't until the end of the month (hope the silicone glue dries by then!)