Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity: mod podge

Showing posts with label mod podge. Show all posts

Faux Enamel Flowers

by Kim

I love retro enamel flower jewelry. The bright color and bold design appeal to me, not to mention the shine. My own crafting style tends toward all three of those things, and I am a jewelry designer, so....perfect fit! Nice metal, retro flowers are not easy to find, nor are they inexpensive. So, what does a smart crafter do? She makes her own faux version of them, of course!

A little sidebar: I enjoy combining materials and techniques because I have such a varied past as a crafter/teacher. So, my projects almost always involve combinations of painting, jewelry making, papercrafting, stitching, and whatever else is on my mind at the time. Here is a charm bracelet made with a simple 1" round punch. It is never boring!

Making your own faux enamel flowers is quite easy. And fun! Here is what you need:

heavy paper: I used both 90 lb. watercolor paper and posterboard. They worked equally well.
cardstock: solid brights
Fiskars punches: I used a 1" circle lever punch, a heart squeeze punch, 2 sizes of oopsie daisy squeeze punches, and a large scalloped circle squeeze punch
Plaid's Dimensional Magic in clear
Mod Podge for paper, or your favorite paper adhesive that will hold with moisture
white acrylic paint (optional)
small flat paintbrush (for Mod Podge)
buttons or gems for flower centers
hot glue gun and glue sticks
wire cutters (if you have shank buttons)

Try this:

1. Punch shapes. For every watercolor paper shape you punch, punch two color shapes the same.

2. Using Mod Podge as glue, sandwich a white piece between two color pieces. Brush on a light coat that completely covers the shape.

3. Make dots or stripes on layered pieces with acrylic paint if you wish. I used the end of the brush handle on the heart and a pencil point on the daisy. Let the paint dry before the next step.

4. Lay all shapes on a flat, level surface. Cover each with a coat of Dimensional Magic. Apply straight from the bottle, no brushing is necessary. Let the coat dry 6 hours or so.

5. Assemble flowers by glueing pieces together. You can roll petals up or down before you apply Dimensional Magic.... or now, after one coat. Gently manipulate the paper for dimension.

Apply a second coat of Dimensional Magic on the front. Let dry. Also apply a coat to the backside of the flower. This makes the flower very sturdy.

6. Glue gems or buttons in the centers of the flowers. I used some gorgeous Blumenthal Lansing buttons. Snip the shanks off with a pair of wire cutters before glueing them down.

Build your flowers in layers. Here are some suggestions. One large daisy, two small daisies and a round gem.

One large scalloped round, five 1" circles, a rhinestone button.

Eight hearts, one large daisy, a gold button.

At this point, your flowers are complete and fabulous. Glue on pinbacks, magnets, or add them to a necklace.

To complete a necklace like mine, you will also need:

silver wire
embroidery floss
scissors
a chain necklace

Cut a 2" piece of wire. Fold in half. Glue to back of flower.

Using a piece of floss, knot the flower wire to the chain. Repeat with all flowers you want on your necklace.

No doubt, it makes a statement! How fabulous for spring and summer?

P.S. Clicking on the photos will enlarge them and give you a close up view.

Use your Vitamin C to make yourself a garden of flowers!

Fabric Bible Cover

by Kim

To help me remember my word for 2012, redeem, I did a little project tonight. It took me about 30 minutes.

This is a pocket size Bible. I have carried it in my purse for years. Looks like it, right? It is well used.

This piece of fabric has been calling me from the stash.

Using Mod Podge, I covered the bible with the fabric. I applied one coat to glue the fabric down, and two coats to seal the fabric. Once the Mod Podge is dry, it is very easy to trim the fabric with a pair of scissors, at the edge of the cover.

Then I covered a small piece of heavy watercolor paper with another piece of fabric, and added a border of rick rack.

Using a glue gun, I glued it to the front. With a white paint pen, I wrote my word. It will be a great reminder every time I take it out of my purse. And, it looks a little better, I think.

Use your Vitamin C to help you with your 2012 resolutions, whatever they are!

Imaginina Steals a Mod Podge Lamp Idea

by Kim

Very funny. It was not exactly stealing, more like a collaboration. A couple weeks ago, I was assigned the endless task of collecting good ideas and pitching dumb ideas. So far, I have looked through ONE journal.

Here is my new advice: when you get a good idea, work on it immediately. Out of a whole journal full of notes, ideas, and drawings, only one thing seemed valid to me. Everything else was outdated, been there done that. Things trend. Strike while the iron is hot.

These cliches and more to come are brought to you by my entrapment in this office.

Yesterday, I found this green tissue paper blowing around in the yard. I have no idea where it came from. The first second I looked at it, I said to myself. "lamp." A hanging tube lamp was the one drawing in the journal I thought was worth working on. Here ya go:

I started with a mylar stencil blank. It was 9" x 18". The black markings were easily removed with nail polish remover.

Here is the paper I found. Thanks to the litterbug that lives in the neighborhood.

I used the paper formula of Mod Podge to attach the paper to the stencil. Brush it on gently, tissue paper is fragile. To make it a big tube, I overlapped the stencil mylar and a flap of paper. See? Let it dry.

While it was drying, I picked through the bead stash to find enough E beads to make dangles.

Then I used a hole punch around the bottom, made dangles on craft wire, and quick as a wink, Bob's your uncle.

It is on a super long electric cord that has a lightbulb at the end of it. I got that at IKEA, but probably all hardware stores have such things. I punched 4 holes at the top edge and wired the cord into the top of the tube. It hangs by the cord over a work table in the studio. The cord is so long, it can be moved over any work station as needed.

It would have been nice to use two layers of stencil mylar for a little more stability, but I had a heck of a time hole punching through just one. So, don't even try it.

And don't burn your house down by putting a high wattage bulb in there.

Do I have to remind you that this project has unlimited applications? Fabrics? Papers? Photos? Doilies? You're creative, think about it.

Imaginina