Calee CT - Autumn Candle Holder

Hi ,this week I have little up cycling project for you . I had this small glass that had developed a small crack but I kept looking at it and thinking it would be a great tea light holder . Here are the steps it took to transform it .

First I gave the glass really good clean and found my stamping tissue .

Next I needed to decide on a theme and which stamps to use . I settled on the Mixed Leaves Art stamps with an autumnal theme .

Using a selection of the stamps I created a random pattern on the tissue paper .

I then coloured the images with sharpie pens in oranges ,reds and yellows .Some of the colours bled a little and it was tricky colouring on the tissue paper ,but I was happy with the results .

Wanting more colour to the paper I used fossilised amber and worn lipstick Distress Spritz and added a few sprays of each colour . I wasn’t sure how these would react when I glued my paper on to the glass but as this was a try it and see project I just went with it .

As the spritz colours had dried quite pale I added more colour with some Barn Door distress ink applying the ink to a sheet of acetate and spraying with  water . This was then smooshed over the tissue paper . It did occur to me then that I had worked on my design in reverse as I added the ‘background’after the main images but as I haven’t worked on this type of project before , I was happy to just let it develop as I went long .

After leaving the tissue paper to thoroughly dry it was time to apply the tissue paper to my glass ,This was done by coating the glass with gel medium and carefully applying the paper a little at a time , smoothing as I went . There were some wrinkles and creases in the paper but I was happy with this and felt that it gave the glass some texture. When semi dry I gave the whole glass a second coat of gel medium.

To finish my candle holder some gold glitter was adde to the rim of the glass, gluing around the edge and dipping into the glitter ,I also glued on a few tiny sequin stars .

I am really happy with how this project turned out , although I have had a go at decoupage before  have always used napkins or decoupage papers and never stamped my own tissue . I was surprised how easy it was to use stamps to create my own paper . I will definitely be using this technique again as you can create unique designs and the possibilities are endless .

I hope my step may have inspired you to have a go at a project like this, please share into the Bee crafty facebook group if you do 

Happy crafting 

Calee 

Products used this week were :                                                           

Bee crafty stamping tissue 

Stamps - Arts stamps Mixed Leaves 

Distress Spritz - fossilised Amber 

                     Worn lipstick 

Distress ink -barn door 

A cracked glass ,various sharpie pens ,gel medium and some gold glitter.