Let the Light Shine!

Today is a beautiful fall day, but my heart is ready for Christmas. I am not ready for the cold outside, but I am all set for a little faux snow, like I put on this lantern.

The lantern began as a plain, black lantern I found at a big box store for less than $20. I love that it has a battery-operated candle that screws to the base and can be turned on and off from the base. It was the perfect blank slate to transform!

I started by removing the glass panels so they could be etched. Then I added a bit of Distress Paint to the filigree on the top of the lantern and to the latch that holds the front door closed.

Then, I coated the ledges with Art Glitter Vintage Glass Glitter.

I cleaned each of the glass pieces with water and a paper towel (do not use Windex) and then added stickers from Elizabeth Craft Designs. (I should have taped the backside of the glass pieces as well — since the etchall got a bit messy and some of the pieces were etched on the wrong side. You cannot easily see the mistakes in the finished lantern, but I thought I should pass along my lesson learned!)

Next, I coated each piece with etchall. (it gets brown as you use it, but it still works well) and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then, I scraped off the excess and put it back in the jar and rinsed off each panel.

I love the soft, frosty feeling the etched glass provides.

And it still allows the light to shine through!

Are you ready to make one of your own?

etchall is ready to help … use the code CANDYS and you will get 10% off your entire order! Click here and get etching today!

NOTE: I received compensation for this post.

One-of-a-Kind knobs from Home Depot

So you can’t really BUY one-of-a-kind knobs at Home Depot, but you can buy plain wooden knobs and make them one of a kind.

That’s what I did for some of the knobs on my tree.

Wooden knobs sell for less than $1 each and I used paper-crafting products I already had on hand, so these knobs were practically free, as well as being unique.

I coated the first two knobs with Globecraft & Piccolo Embossing Powder. I popped the top on the dabber adhesive and used a paintbrush to coat the wooden knobs with Globecraft & Piccolo Embossing Adhesive. Then I dumped the powder on them and then heated them.

This one I did in Mermaid Tears …

I found that my Ranger Heat Gun was taking forever to melt the powder, so I pulled out my traditional heat gun on these. I had a lot of bubbling as I heated them — caused by the amount of adhesive that was painted on and the intense heat of the gun. I just let them cool for a minute and then hit with heat again until I got a somewhat smooth finish. There are still some bubbles, but since this is such a rustic piece, I thought they fit right in.

This one is done in Vintage Silver.

Next I turned to paint … I painted two additional knobs with Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio white paint. I screwed the knobs through a box to hold the knobs in place while I worked on them.

Once dry, I added some of the new rub-ons designed by Tim Holtz to one of them (I was surprised at home easy these went on and how well they adhered!) Then I coated it with Glastique.

For the other one, I used Wendy Vecchi’s new Red Geranium Archival Ink and one of her stamps to create a background. I thought the red would match some of the red in the barn wood. Then I added a few more rub ons. Next, I coated the entire thing with Glastique and while it was still wet, I sprinkled clear Vintage Glass Glitter from Art Glitter over the top.

It came out a little more orange than I had hoped, but I still love it. I sparkles as the light hits it!

Finally, I had one black knob that I also got for practically nothing at Home Depot. I painted a bit of white paint across the top and then wiped off the very top with a towel and came up with this …

So, the next time you need a few new knobs, consider making them one of a kind with your paper-crafting supplies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a Medallion

I love the medallion stamps by Holly Berry House and I own quite a few of them.

So, when I stumbled across the Color Me Creative Copic Challenge, which required using aqua, red and white/cream, I knew a Holly Berry House stamp would be perfect.

I started by stamping four images with Momenta Ink. Then, I colored the images using BG000, BG02, BG05, R02, R05, R08 and R46.

While I only colored the parts that would be visible in each layer, I colored the underneath portion with a matching color so that I wouldn’t see the white paper underneath.

Then, I cut out each layer and inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I then attached the layers together with dimensional foam adhesive.

Next, I applied white Liquid Pearls by Ranger, Art Glitter’s Vintage Glass Glitter and Art Glitter Microfine Glitter to dress it up a bit.

Finally, I attached the medallion with additional foam adhesive on a red 5.25 x 5.25 card.

What do you think?