Postage Stamp Retro Square Bracelets!

I love using unexpected materials in the Craft Fantastic trays. It seems that no matter what I put under that crystal, clear jeweler's quality glass, the colors are heightened, brightened and amplified. As is the case with a small package of beautiful canceled postage stamps that was recently shared with me. They featured the most glorious colors and the imagery was predominately taken from nature. 

I wanted to use the shape and size of glass that would waste as little of the image as possible, so I opted for the small glass squares. The designs would pair perfectly with the Retro Square Bracelets so I decided to create one in each finish. Let's make them together, what do you say? 

Let's get started...

What You'll Need

Craft Fantastic Retro Square Bracelet Kit - Your choice of finish. Both are equally wonderful for this project. 

Fantastic Glaze & Glue - Keep our special glaze and glue on hand for a variety of projects!

Fantastic Jeweler's Dots - Our high tack adhesive dots are another workhorse item designed to adhere a variety of elements onto different mediums.

Postage Stamps - Be sure not to raid any rare postage stamp collections for this project. We wouldn't want to upset that special philatelist in your life ;) 

Cotton Swabs - To swipe away the excess glue.

Scissors - I like to use an inexpensive pair incase a bit of the glue finds its way to the blades. 

Scrap Paper - For keeping your work surface clean.

Start with the Glass

Working on a piece of scrap paper on a flat surface, I laid out my postage stamps and decided which ones I wanted to use. I needed 8 pieces of glass for each bracelet, so I selected a total of 16 images to complete the two projects.

Following the usual Craft Fantastic instructions, I applied generous dots of Fantastic Glaze & Glue to the flat back of the small glass square, then positioned it on top (glue side down) of one of the stamps. I pressed the glass square firmly, forcing any air bubbles trapped underneath to ooze out the sides. I held it in place for just a couple of seconds until I could feel the glass "grab" onto the stamp.  Using a cotton swab, I swiped the excess glue away by running the swab down each side of the glass. 

 

After the glass was fairly dry, I trimmed away the excess paper using my scissors. I trimmed right next to the edge of the glass for a clean finish. I scraped away any stray glue using my fingernail or the blade from the scissors. 

Look at that! A nice big, beautiful pile of small glass squares just begging to be showcased in a piece of jewelry!

Time to put it all together!

Now for the fun part! I laid out the glass in the order I wanted it in each of my bracelets. Then I placed a Fantastic Jeweler's Dot inside each tray. One at a time, I peeled away the red backing exposing my adhesive and firmly pressed a piece of glass into the tray. 

Viola! So quick and so much fun! Plus, nobody has bracelets exactly like these. Pretty special :)

Postage stamps come in such a variety of designs and colors these days that it's hard to toss that beautiful artwork into the trash on a discarded envelope. Instead, why not turn them into something you can wear and enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you'll come back next Wednesday for something new!

Painting Designs on Craft Fantastic Glass Using Nail Polish!

Last week I showed you how nail polish and Craft Fantastic glass cabochons were practically made for each other. Application of a few coats of your favorite nail finish on the back of one of our glass pieces magically transforms it into a faux stone! So easy and so much fun!

This week, we're going to take it up a notch and add some designs. The key here is to work backwards. You'll start with the tiny details that your eye sees first, then add layers of design, and finish with the background.

For example, on the above piece I began with the white dots. After those were thoroughly dry I layered black dots over the top of them to create a black border around each white dot. Once these were dry, I added silver streaks behind the black dots. Again, waiting until everything was dry, my final step was to paint the background. After all of the layers dried, I was left with a cool geometric design. I rather love this and it's relatively easy to do.

Let's get started...

What You'll Need

Nail Art Paint - The consistency is a little more opaque than regular polish and it usually comes with a really skinny brush. I picked these up at the dollar store.

Craft Fantastic Glass Cabochons - Use your favorite shapes and sizes.

Nail Polish Remover & Cotton Swabs -  This dynamic duo will easily clean up any wayward polish on the back of the glass.

Scrap Paper - A must have for keeping your work surface clean.

Painting Designs and Patterns on the Glass

Working on a piece of scrap paper, start with a Craft Fantastic Glass cabochon and your choice of Nail Art Paint. I'm using a white, black and silver palette for my design.

Visualize your design. Decide on which details will be in the foreground because you will need to work backwards. Think in layers. I'll start with these small white dots.

OOPS! I got a little sloppy, but that will clean up easy peasy with a cotton swab dipped in nail polish remover.

See...just a quick swipe and it's gone!

My dots are in place and now it's time to wait. Let these little blobs dry for a while.

Time to add the black paint over the white dots. My goal is to create a border around each white dot so my black polish will need to generously cover the white.

A quick flip lets me check to see if the black paint sufficiently covers the white dots. Careful though, I don't want to mess up all my hard work. I'll need to let this coat dry for a long time because my paint layers are fairly thick.

Now for some real fun. I use the silver paint to add silver stripes of varying lengths. Again, I'll let this dry a really long time. 

Finally, I add my background color. This time I opted for purple, but it goes on a bit sheer so I had to add about 5 coats, letting it dry between each application. Looks a bit sloppy at this point, but just wait until I flip it over...

TADA! All finished and popped into a Long Rectangle Tray, ready to be turned into a one-of-a-kind pendant! 

Now, wasn't that fun! I'm going to try and add a tutorial each Wednesday using Craft Fantastic glass, trays and findings in unexpected ways, so tune in next week for something new! 

Nail Polish Technique Using Craft Fantastic Glass!

I promised you a tutorial last week showing you how I use nail polish on Craft Fantastic glass cabochons to give them a completely different look! Here's a peek at what I've been making as of late.

Oh my goodness! I cannot even begin to put into words how much fun I am having with this technique! The best part is, I know that each and every one of us has an assortment of old, half empty bottles of nail polish just sitting around in the bathroom taking up precious counter space. With this technique it's time to move those bottles of polish to the craft room and start having some fun!

Colorful, Playful, Creative Fun!

Let's start with the basics...

What You'll Need

Nail Polish - Any type of nail polish will do. Opaque polish covers better than sheer polishes, but with several coats sheer polishes work well, too. I used glitter polish, matte polish, sheer polish, metallic polish, etc. All had different results which makes it even more exiting. 

Craft Fantastic Glass Cabochons - Any shape, any size. The world is your oyster ;)

Scrap Paper - A sheet of scrap paper to keep your work surface clean because this can get a bit messy and unfortunately nail polish is not all that easy to clean up.

Patience - There's a lot of waiting around for the polish to dry between coats, but luckily you can paint lots of these at one time. 

Creating a Solid Jewel Tone Effect

Working on a piece of scrap paper, start with a Craft Fantastic glass cabochon and your choice of nail polish.

Paint a coat of the polish onto the back of the glass cabochon. Don't apply it too thick as it will drip down the sides of the glass. If it does get on the front of the glass, scrape it off with a craft knife after it dries. No big whoop. Set it aside to dry. Completely. This will take a bit. This is where that patience thing pays off.

Repeat 2 or 3 more times to get the desired coverage on the glass. Each coat will make the color appear more vibrant. Be sure to let each coat dry completely before adding another. More of that patience stuff will come in handy right about now. After you're finished painting them, let them dry overnight before you affix them to a tray or finding.

Aren't they pretty! So vibrant! You could literally custom create jewelry to match any outfit in your closet!

Here's few more pics!

That's the basics of using nail polish with Craft Fantastic glass. An easy and fun technique that will give your custom jewelry creations a splash of vibrant color and a lot of panache! Give it a try and share your pics on the Craft Fantastic Facebook page. We would LOVE to see what inspiring projects you create with this fabulous finish! 

Next week I'll share a quick and easy tutorial on creating designs on the glass with nail polish so tune in on Wednesday for something new!

Marvelous Upcycled Pencil Holders by Jeanne Streiff!

Today I'm sharing a project from Craft Fantastic Designer, Jeanne Streiff! 

Jeanne has cleverly taken a seemingly simple item that for most of us would end up in the recycling bin or (fret) the trashcan and turned it into something we would proudly use and display on a daily basis. The item in question? A nondescript, ordinary aluminum can. You know the kind, usually filled with veggies, fruit cocktail, soup or the even the occasional fried onions. I know if I open my pantry door right now, I would have at least a dozen of these sitting on a shelf.

Leave it to Jeanne to see inspiration in that simple can and turn it into something beautiful and worthy of space in her art studio or home office!

She started with a few Earth Safe Finishes Chalk It Up Paints in varying jewel tones, added strips of designer paper and twine, and then finished them with decorative Craft Fantastic Pendants featuring the Medium Round Dotty, Small Rectangle, and Dew Drop Trays along with corresponding glass cabochons. You can see more details on her blog HERE and on the Earth Safe Finishes Blog HERE.    

Visit the Craft Fantastic online shop to find the Medium Round Dotty Trays, Dew Drop Pendant Trays, and Small Rectangle Trays Jeanne used in her projects.

Be sure to follow the Craft Fantastic Blog for more ideas, projects, and product previews! Thanks for stopping by!

And how about some more...!

I shared pics of a few new Craft Fantastic products yesterday, but that's not all! I've got a few more photos up my sleeves! Find them in the Craft Fantastic online shop today!

Flower Connectors in silver, coming to the shop soon!

Flower Connectors in antique brass, coming to the shop soon!

Tiny Round Ornate Kit in silver, so pretty!

Tiny Round Ornate Kit in antique brass, beautiful!

Small Oval Daisy Tray in silver, so sweet!