This is just one of the many gifts that I made for Christmas 2011. I really like to give handmade gifts because I think they are a lot more personal. However, they take time which is why I was so behind on posting everything else, especially the week before Christmas. This year my goal is to start on Christmas presents right away so maybe I can actually relax and enjoy the holiday season more instead of working my butt off to get the gifts finished.
I got the inspiration for this project from Pinterest (the best website ever!). You can follow me on pinterest by clicking the button in my right sidebar. The inspiration piece was created by Gayle Wheeler and you can find her project HERE. I wanted to make mine much larger to fit the pretty frame I found at a garage sale. So here it is...with a tutorial too!
I got the inspiration for this project from Pinterest (the best website ever!). You can follow me on pinterest by clicking the button in my right sidebar. The inspiration piece was created by Gayle Wheeler and you can find her project HERE. I wanted to make mine much larger to fit the pretty frame I found at a garage sale. So here it is...with a tutorial too!
Card Stock: Whisper White, Pool Party, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo
Not SU: electronic cutter, Home Decor Solutions Cartridge, 12" x 24" vinyl, 12" x 24" transfer paper, turquoise glitter glue, acrylic paint Apple Barrel Cloudless and Carribbean, floating medium, paint brush, plastic cup, painter's tape, packing paper, Krylon Glitter Blast in Diamond Dust, Sparlke Modge Podge, matte finish Modge Podge, carbon paper, printer paper, scissors, tape.
SU: stylus, Beautiful Butterflies die, Beautiful Wings sizzlit, Big Shot, Basic Rhinestones (two packages), Mini Glue Dots, Crystal Effects
Embossing folders: Perfect Polka Dots, Petals-a-Plenty, Elegant Lines, Manhattan Flower, Vintage Wallpaper, Snow Burst, Square Lattice, Flower Garden, Final Press, Elegant Bouquet
My Sister loves sparkles and bling so I wanted to make sure this project had lots of bling!
1. My husband cut a piece of 1/4" thick plywood to the size needed to fit in the frame. I started off by painting the plywood with some leftover white house paint. It took three coats to get a good solid coverage.
2. I used Apple Barrel brand acrylic paint in the colors Cloudless and Carribbean. These were just the ones that looked "right" when I was browsing the paint section at the craft store. I also used Folk Art Floating Medium, it doesn't matter what brand, but it's a clear gel that kind of thins down the paint to make it easier to blend without making it runny; clear plastic cups and a cheap paint brush.
3. The ombre look really wasn't that hard to get. I started off painting the bottom third of the panel with just Carribbean paint, the middle section was just Cloudless paint. For the top I added a good squirt of Floating Medium into the Cloudless paint and used that to blend the middle color into the white. Then just to blend it all together really well I took the brush, still wet with Floating Medium/Cloudless paint, and starting from the top working my way all the way down I just brushed back and fourth. You can see the brush strokes in the paint, but it blended the colors together really well. Allow this to dry for 24 hours.
4. I wanted some type of text to be in the background so I used my Microsoft Word and chose a font and size that I liked and printed out all the words. I cut the words into strips and taped them together as necessary to make them fit within the width of the plywood. I taped one end down with painter's tape just to hold the paper in place. Then I lifted up the printed text and placed carbon paper underneath. I used my stylus from the Simply Scored to trace the letters and transfer them onto the plywood.
Here is what the text says:
Create: To produce through artistic or imaginative effort. Create and inspire. To make your own.
Inspire To cause or create new ideas. Fresh thought; to influence. To motivate one to action.
Share: To participate in, use, enjoy, or experience jointly or in turns. To enjoy with others.
Creativity: The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns and relationships to create meaningful new ideas; originality or imagination.
Note: I had written over the carbon lines with a turquoise sharpie because I was afraid that the glitter glue would not cover completely. You don't have to worry about this. As long as your using a colored glitter glue your text lines will be completely covered and you won't be able to see them.
5. I used my electronic cutter with the Home Decor Solutions Cartridge. I already had a package of vinyl that was 12" x 24". I used the 12" x 24" mat with the vinyl to cut out the swirl image as large as I could. Enter in the page size (12" x 24") and select Fit to Page. This gave me the largest possible image. Once the image was finished cutting instead of removing the outside of the image I removed the image itself. I wanted the negative to use as a mask. Then I used Transfer paper to remove the vinyl from the cutting mat and placed it onto the plywood at and angle. I repeat the steps to cut another image. This only took two 12" x 24" sheets of vinyl and two 12" x 14" pieces of transfer paper.
After both images were on the plywood I covered the remainder of the plywood with brown packing paper and painter's tape. I wanted only my swirl image exposed. Then I took the plywood outside and sprayed it with Krylon Glitter Blast spray paint in Diamond Dust. This was a clear irridescent sparkle, but they have lots of colors too. I wanted this to be just a subtle glittery swirl so I used the clear irridescent. Once the paint was allowed to dry for about 5 minutes or so I removed the vinyl, painter's tape, and packing paper. Then I allowed this to dry overnight.
Here is what it looked like at this point. I really LOVE the glittery swirls! I have so many ideas of other ways to use this fabulous spray paint!
6. Next I used turquoise glitter glue (not SU) to write over the text to make the text sparkly. After the glitter glue was allowed to dry overnight I coated the entire thing in clear matte finish Modge Podge just to seal everything in. This was allowed to dry overnight.
7. I put the plywood into the frame and used a household silicone seal around the edge of the plywood so it stays put in the frame. Again, allow the silicone to dry overnight.
8. Then I used pieces of Tempting Turquoise, Pool Party, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, and Melon Mambo cardstock with the Beautiful Butterflies die and the Beautiful Wings sizzlit with my Big Shot to cut out all of the butterflies. Then a variety of SU embossing folders were used to add texture: Perfect Polka Dots, Petals-a-Plenty, Elegant Lines, Manhattan Flower, Vintage Wallpaper, Snow Burst, Square Lattice, Flower Garden, Final Press, Elegant Bouquet. The butterflies were folded up a little and the wings were curved with a bone folder to give them some shape. The smaller ones were just folded up at the center.
9. To attach the butterflies onto the plywood I put a Mini Glue Dot onto the butterfly, but I also put a little Crystal Effects. The glue dot to hold it in place right away, but the Crystal Effects to hold it there forever. I don't know if they would have fallen off eventually, but we have pretty high humidity here in Kansas in the summer and I at least wanted to try to make it last a long time. The small butteflies were adhered just with Crystal Effects.
10. After all of the butteflies were added I added Basic Rhinestones to make the body of every...single...buttefly. This took about an hour to do, which I was doing Christmas morning while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. Yeah, I barely got this one done in time.
I've noticed on some of my other projects that after a while some of the rhinestones my fall off of the project. I didn't want this happening on this wall art and Crystal Effects is some really tough stuff when it dries. So, to make sure non of the rhinestones fall off I put a line of Crystal Effects ever the rhinestones just to make sure they stay in place forever. This was allowed to dry and the project was done....Finally!
You can really see how the frame glitters in this photo:
Here is another look at the finished project!
This certainly took a lot of drying time between the various layers, but I really love how it turned out! I might make a smaller version for myself.
Thanks for stopping by!
