Super Simple Candle Upcycle

I had tried to make a snow globe for my sister for Christmas but it was HORRIBLE and ended up in the trash.  Normally I wouldn't have worried, but I had bought my brother a little something and I didn't want to hurt my sister's feelings.  I was stumped and then I remembered a customer telling me about a You Tube video she saw using these flameless candles sold at the Dollar Tree.  I actually had purchased one already and I thought this was the perfect time to try this out.

All you need is the candle, tissue paper, and a heat gun.  The candle and tissue paper were bought at the Dollar Tree and I already had the heat gun.  

This is the actual type of candle I used; they come in cream or white, & I used a white one.  The candles have a wax coating on them, which, when you melt it, the tissue paper "melts" into the wax.  Another technique similar to this is stamping on white tissue paper, coloring it with pencils, and then melting that into the wax.  I will be trying other techniques since these candles are easy to get and inexpensive. 




Here is a picture of the candle I made, unlit: 

The tissue paper I used was out for the holiday season {I LOVE blue and white,

add some snowflakes and I am SO good!} but there are always pretty patterns and options all year round.  In fact, I bet you have some seasonal tissue paper stashed away right now. 

And here is the candle in action.  The light isn't yellow at all, but my camera

refuses to take pictures of light without making it yellow.  The candle battery will last about 120 hours and you can buy replacement batteries.

I hope you enjoyed my simple candle upcycle.  I love to browse at the Dollar Tree; and it is so much easier now that I'm working there.  I would love to hear about some of your Dollar Tree crafts so please feel free to detail them in the comments. Thank you so much. ~ Christi

PS: My sister loves this SO much she wants me to make her more of them!

I am entering my Candle in the following challenges:
a2z Scrapbooking -M, Jan, New To Me
Altered Eclectics - M, (runs until Feb)
Country View Crafts - M, Jan, Anything Goes
Let's Create Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes
Not Just Cards - Anything Goes
Rhedds Creative Spirit - running 'til end of Feb
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts - #44, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New
Emerald Creek Dare - M, Jan, Anything Goes

Purple Petals are blooming at Altered Eclectics

Let me tell you how the first of the month sneaks up on me - it's pretty stealthy! I'm humming along day after day and then I happen to glance at the calendar and I'm stunned at how much of the month has already flown by.  If only I could grab some of that time I wished away as a child; when I couldn't WAIT to grow up! Alas, there is no capturing time, but I can capture a it of childhood back; and I did so for my Altered Eclectics project for this month. I'd love to hear what you think about my Purple Petals Ring! (PS: You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them)

Say hello to my Purple Petals Ring!

What I Used to Make my Ring:
Inside "pop ring" from a juice or milk container
Gems - one large and 7 12mm "bubble" gems
Krylon Leafing Pen in Silver
Glue - instant glue

Where you will find the ring

First, let me try to explain what I mean by the inside "pop ring" - the best way I can describe it is to show you a picture.

The "ring" on it's top

You'll find this inside ring is there once you open the containers outer twist off cap - I have found them in quart cartons of both milk and juice.  When I opened my vanilla almond milk and popped it off, I immediately put it on my pinkie (the only finger of mine that it fits) and admired it - it needed to be made!

While the white of the ring may be fine for your project, I knew I needed to color it and the Krylon Leafing Pens are perfect. I have been using these pens for years, from everything to outlining a card or making the old fashioned polished stone with alcohol inks and they last a long time and are well worth the money, in my opinion.  Also, if you look closely at the picture of the ring, you can see that there were some edges that we sort of ragged with a bit of thin plastic - I colored my ring and then sanded the ragged bits off, and then touched the ring up. Not that you can see them but for my own piece of mind.  You will also notice the outer edge of the bubble (that is face down) isn't even all the away around - never fear, we have ways to work around this.

Once the ring was colored, I had to figure out a way to hold it so I could put on the petals.  Since there is a bump on the top side of the ring, the petals are needed to ensure the large gem doesn't wobble.  Low and behold I had a pill saver type thingie that I had gotten as a freebie from some company, but you can find them cheap at drugstores or your local Dollar Store. I ripped the top off of one of the individual pill compartments and put waxed paper on the sides in case my glue dripped - turns out I didn't need the waxed paper at all - but I didn't know that at the time. 

I carefully used a small amount of instant glue and placed the petals around the lip of the bubble. 

This part took the longest because it turns out my instant glue wasn't so instant, so off to the side for the night it went. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the numbers on the dome, another reason I felt the petals would help "hold" the bigger, middle gem. When I picked the ring up, I noticed that a few of the petals were still wobbly (I suspect due to the part of the ring where the lip was smaller than the other parts) but I went ahead and glued the middle gem on and set it aside again.    
 Once it was dry, I flipped the ring over and put a generous amount of glue all around the petals to help stabilize them and it worked like a charm!  The glue isn't really that visible, in the picture the light is reflecting (I wanted you to be able to see it), but when you look at the ring in regular light it doesn't look anywhere near that bad.  

So there you have it!  You could save these inside ring pop closures and make a bunch of rings, for you to either wear on your pinky, or to give some lucky child.  These would be perfect for that friend who loves funky, chunky jewelry also.  And as I was making this I thought of so many other options to use for toppings; sequins, buttons, little beads, basically anything you want!  I hope this little post has inspired you to use something out of the box for your next creation! Please consider popping over to the Altered Eclectics blog and seeing what my wonderfully talented teamies have made to also inspire you ~ Fondly, Christi

Here's Manny holding up the ring - he's been feeling left out!

I am entering my Purple Petals ring in the following challenges:
Crafty Creations - #286, Anything Goes
Creative Moments - #65, Anything But a Card
Everybody Art Challenge - #318,  Anything Goes
TTCRD - Always Anything Goes (end wk of 4/26)
Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re Invent - (m) April Challenge

Love Potion #9 at Altered Eclectics

Wow does time fly! My last project for Altered Eclectics was 2 months ago (a break supplied by the gracious Ellapu, our esteemed leader) but it seems like yesterday! I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day as I think every day should be celebrated with chocolate, especially dark chocolate (let me know if you'd like to send me some).  So, instead of going the way of the romantic, I decorated this little bottle:

After

Before

What I Used to Make my Project:
Bottle (in my stash - I seem to collect them!)
Alcohol Inks (I used TRIA inks, colors: Rhodamine Red, Warm Red 2X and 1925)
Black Vinyl
Silhouette Cameo
Cork (for the bottle top)
Black Ribbon Bow

Colored with the cork in.  See the cool pink shadow?

Easy peasy I thought - I use alcohol inks a fair amount and I figured coloring this bottle would go without a hitch. I thought I'd try to color the bottle inside as opposed to coloring the outside - nope.  I colored the inside of the bottle 2 times, swirling the ink to cover the inside completely and then letting it dry overnight and each time the ink refused to stick to the inside of the bottle - it ran down the sides, leaving little teeny dots of color and pooling on the bottom.  I even tried to dry the inside of the bottle with my heat gun (which made these awesome howling sounds that the cats did NOT like but it was funny because they all puffed up and ran around like secret agents) but it still would not stick.  So, after wasting 2 days, I went back to the tried and true method of grabbing a small piece of felt and daubing the ink on the outside.  After each layer of ink I let the bottle dry for a good amount of

time, a few hours, and then I daubed the second layer and so on.  You can't really tell the different colors and that was what I wanted.  While waiting for the bottle to try I realized there was no top so I found a cork that fit and colored it with Sharpie markers to sort of match the bottle.

Then came time to cut the vinyl for the saying.  It took me 3 days to choose the font that I felt worked with the saying.  I am a font fanatic and have far too many - but it was fun and I found a few more that I want to try on paper. Using my Silhouette Cameo. I cut the saying out of black vinyl and stuck it to the bottle, after tearing the first "L" and cutting it again. I am still very new at cutting vinyl, and while it is much more forgiving than paper, I am still learning, as you can tell by my wonky placed LOVE.  I glued the black ribbon bow onto the neck and I was done.  I like it even with a little wonk!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I just wanted to mention that I am having trouble with replying to comments, for some reason there are some that have to reply option on Blogger so please know that if I don't comment it isn't because I didn't see or appreciate your taking the time to say hi.  Fondly, Christi

Another view

Thank you SO much for coming to visit and I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! Please consider following me as I am on a mission to gain 100 followers ~ Til next time ~ Christi

I am entering my Love Potion #9 bottle in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
DL. Art Thankful Thursday Challenge - #149, Valentine's Day 
Crafty Ribbons Challenge - Anything but a Card
Silhouette Challenges - January Challenge, Anything Goes
Not Just Cards Challenge - #11, Anything Goes

Spooky Skull Wall Hanging

I recently bought the Tim Holtz Alterations Skull Blueprint which, in case you don't know, gives you the dies to cut out certain stamped pieces of course this isn't the only one I bought; but those will be introduced on another day.  I am Halloween crazy, and skulls and skeletons are my one of my favorite Halloween embellishments.  In fact, throughout my home, you’ll spot skulls tucked in various places because they aren’t just for Halloween in my world!  A while back I commandeered some scrap wood and had my resident handyman cut it into panels I could use for my art.  This project is born from my love of all things Halloween, Tim Holtz and one of those panels.

What I Used to make My Project:

Wood panel (approx. 7” x 7”)

Gesso

Golden Acrylic Paint in Micaceous Iron Oxide & Carbon Black

Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Paper Stash in Laboratorie

Tim Holtz Alterations, Skull Blueprint, #659375

Grey Paper

Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Paper Frame cut with Silhouette Cameo

Black Paper for frame cut out

Thin Pop-Dots

Dresden scrap

4 Silver Skull Charms

First thing I did was gesso the wood panel.  Since wood soaks up paint like crazy, the gesso adds a barrier between the wood and the paint.  After the gesso was dry, I followed up with one coat of Carbon Black paint so I wouldn’t have to use too much of the Micaceous Iron Oxide paint (it is my favorite color and it has such a cool sparkle to it when it dries) and waited for that to dry.  Once I painted a coat of the Micaceous Iron Oxide I moved on to making the skull while I waited for the last coat of paint to dry.

I stamped the skull with Jet Black ink on the grey paper, and then lined up the dies with the stamped image.  My dies have a tendency to move when I am

3D - and no special glasses required!

rolling them through the machine (I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I need to use all my strength half of the time) , so I used a bit of removable tape to hold everything in place.  I cut the entire skull, then just the head part and finally the jaw.  I pop dotted them together for a bit of 3D action.

I had already cut the frame for another project so I had it lying around with the Dresden scrap.  This time of year I have lots of things lying about as I am usually creating like crazy and being neat is not an issue for me in my room – thank goodness!  I picked the paper out of the Laboratorie Paper Stash and cut it out.  It is from a

sheet that had four squares on it, each square was a different pattern, so I didn’t need to crop it or anything. 

I laid everything out, tweaked this and that, and finally glued everything to the paper before I glued the paper to the wooden panel.  Once I glued the paper, I finished up with the little silver skull charms (with the holes cut off) and put one in each corner.  I literally built the piece around the skull because I think it is so awesome!  

I hope you enjoyed your visit here & I'd love to go to your blog and see your Halloween creations, so please be sure to leave me your blog address in the comments box.  Happy Halloween! ~ Christi

I am entering my Spooky Skull in the following challenges:
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - #19, H is for Hopeful Halloween 
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Craft Hoarders Anonymous - #18, Layer it (use at least 3 layers)
Haunted Design House - Week 1 of Hellacious Halloween
A Vintage Journey - #17, A Halloween to Die For

I'm in the Spotlight at Anything But a Card!

(yes, this was originally posted yesterday - my boo boo - so let's just pretend you didn't see it until today, ok?)
 
As some of you know I am on the design team at Anything but a Card and I am pleased to have my turn at the Spotlight Challenge! The Spotlight Challenge gives each Design Team member a chance to let everyone know a bit more about them and since we all find it hard to talk about ourselves (OK, not everyone, but...) we get rewarded by running a mini challenge of our choice.  Take some time to learn about me and enter my mini challenge!!

I'll give you a hint -

I hope to see you there! 
Blessings ~ Christi

I won at Rhedd & Rosie Challenge Blog!!

This means the world to me as the challenge winner at Rhedd & Rosie is chosen rather than randomly selected (not that I have anything against randomly selected winners as I have been one on a few occasions), but it is nice to be picked specifically for your design!! Doing a HUGE happy dance :)

I won with my "Fly Pendant" - you can get all the details on how I made this HERE - it was really easier than it looks :)

Thank you Moira for choosing my work! And thank YOU Zoe for the heads up :)

Spring Forward and Fly!

My post today is for the NEW challenge at Anything But a Card Challenge #34 - "SPRING Forward"!! We know Spring is dragging it's feet in arriving as ol' man winter keeps his heels dug in the snow and ice... so we are celebrating the new season with an OPEN THEME!!! Feel free to break out the bright colors and create along with Spring and Easter, or create whatever your muse desires... as long as it's anything but a card!

I love "anything goes" challenges, especially when they are for Anything But a Card - this challenge inspired me and my muse to make use of some extra parts that were just laying around. With gears being all the rage I was lucky enough to find a watch repair place that gave me tons of watch parts that he could no longer use.  After stripping all the parts down I ended up with a bunch of watch cases (I think that is what you call them), some of which were brand new.  As I was thinking about what to do with all these cases I got a fabulous idea – and that is how this pendant was born. How appropriate to use a watch case for "springing forward"!

 

Surprisingly this pendant isn't heavy. . .

Items I used in my creation:

• Empty Watch Case
• Globecraft & Piccolo (G&P) Vintage Silver and MermaidTears Embossing Enamel
• G&P Glastique Gloss Finishing Glaze
• G&P Butterfly Accents
• 2 Jump Rings
• Charms of your choice
• Crafters Pick Glue
• Necklace for the Pendant (I used Silk Cord that I got from G&P) 

Not the real one, but close

I cleaned one of the watchcases and unscrewed the back and the top. First thing I did was emboss the top case (where the watch face would be seen) with Vintage Silver and Mermaid Tears Embossing Enamel.  I coated and embossed the frame many times (if you chose to emboss any metal part PLEASE be careful, as the metal gets VERY hot, as

Embossed and coated - ready to go!

does the embossing product! Don’t touch anything until it has cooled!) When I was finally happy with the frame I added a coat of Glasstique Gloss to protect the enamel and, hopefully, make the pendant less prone to chipping.

Taking the bottom of the case (where the watch guts are), I found some decorative

paper that showcased the colors in the Mermaid Tears Embossing Enamel and punched out a 1” circle.  I centered the circle and glued it into the bottom.  I decided on a using a small butterfly for the pendant focal point from A148 Butterfly Accents.  I embossed the butterfly with a mix of Mermaid Tears, a pinch of Micro White and a pinch of Vintage Silver.  Once it had cooled I glued it to the center of the bottom case.  I searched through a bunch of old book pages to find the word “fly”, cut it out and attached that above the butterfly. 

Now my watchcase had 2 “handles” on it to hold the watchstrap.  On the top handle I glued a jump ring for the necklace to go though.  I honestly don’t think that is going to hold for very long and I will eventually solder it – once I learn how (hehehe). On the bottom handle I dangled a few charms.  Oh, and since I got Embossing Enamel in the groves of where the two pieces meet, I used glue again to hold the back & front together.

 

You can see the charms better with in the first pic, but I LOVE the colors in this one

Now, go fly and play (and don't forget to enter ANYTHING GOES at Anything But a Card!) Keep an eye out on my blog for my BLOGAVERSARY giveaways - coming soon! In fact, why not start following now so you won't miss it??

Thanks for stopping by ~ Blessings! Christi

I want to enter my pendant in the following challenges:
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Things with Wings
Rhedd and Rosie Challenge Blog - #30, Anything Goes 
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Fairy Tale Challenge Blog - Butterflies

Hanging Snowflake Altered Art. . . .

I love to make use of items that I’d normally throw out and the main components of this project contain exactly that.

Hopefully you saw my two previous projects using the Globecraft & Piccolo Bejeweled Snowflakes accents set, if you need a refresher you can find them here (Snowflake Votive) & here (Happy Winter Card).  For this project, I used the little snowflakes that are in the set and my "stencil" that I made and used for the Happy Winter Card.  There are 6 adorable snowflakes, measuring about 3/4", that I had left in the set, so I used them up!  

Before I get into the tutorial, let me tell you about the products I used:

Small Snowflakes from Bejeweled Snowflakes   

Stencil I used in making the Happy Winter Card (from Bejeweled Snowflakes)   

Vintage Silver Embossing Enamel 

Embossing Powder Adhesive Fluid 

E600 Adhesive 

Glasstique Gloss Finishing Glaze 

Frame, 7” x 7” square

White Gesso

Distress Paint in Stormy Sky

Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue

Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Fishing Line (or other clear string material)

Oval Word Charms

Piece of White cardstock

Sentiment “Warm Winter Wishes” by Quietfire Design 

I know it seems like a daunting amount of stuff but most of it you use only once.  First thing I did was work on the snowflakes.  I had originally wanted to have one side glitter and one side embossing enamel but that didn’t work out very well. 

I know I could of made this work, but I didn't really like the glitter

The detail in the flakes was a wee bit too defined for the glitter I had so I switched to embossing both sides.  

These are only embossed once - like my fingerprint?

I embossed both sides about 3 times (don’t forget to roll your jar of embossing enamel – it blends all the granules and colors perfectly!), which was tricky because each time I embossed a side the other side grew hot as well and would end up either slipping off or making a finish that I didn’t like.  My solution was to go slower and use a lighter touch with my heat gun; I also wonder if the fact that I have a Weller Heat Gun which is actually made for industrial applications may have caused the powder on the other side to keep reheating so much. When I find my regular crafty heat gun, I will do an experiment and see if the heat was too hot.

Once the flakes were embossed to my liking I set them aside to completely cool.  At this point, I wasn’t sure how I was going to hang them but I had a very vivid picture in my mind of how I wanted the assemblage to look – I thought about threading fishing line through each flake, of tying each flake to cord, using fibers, and a few other ideas.  The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of having the flakes hang invisibly – so I used fishing line! 

In the picture, you can barely see the fishing line stretched across one of my homemade art boards (cardboard covered with wax paper) and held in place with painters tape.  I then glued each snowflake to the line with E6000.  I made sure I used plenty of line and I matched up the snowflakes so they would all be in about the same place.  I let them dry overnight.

Way too dark!

I went to work on what I think is the focal point of the assemblage, the “stencil” I made from the Bejeweled Snowflakes set – the stencil is actually made out of the waste leftover after all the items are punched out.  This is the third project I am getting out of just one set.  When I made the Happy Winter Card, I had spritzed the stencil with Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue to make the image on the card.  The stencil was really saturated with the spray ink and much darker than what I wanted for this project so I painted some gesso over the London Blue and got the perfect, icy baby blue color I wanted.  Then to give the stencil a bit more stability I painted over it with Glasstique Gloss FinishingGlaze.

Perfect!!!

The frame that I used came from a picture bought at the Dollar Store and had gotten ruined – and the frame was originally black. So I gessoed over the black, twice to be sure it was covered completely and then colored it with Distress Paint in Stormy Sky using a paint brush dipped right into the bottle.  I finished it off with a few light spritz of Dylusions Spray Ink in London Blue, let it dry a few seconds and swiped it very lightly with a baby wipe. 

I had already stamped the sentiment on a piece of white cardstock using Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black; all I need to do was trim it up a bit and it was ready to go!

All the pieces ready to be assembled!

Now that all the pieces were done the fun part – putting it together!  This is when I discovered my fishing line refused to stay straight and kept curling up on me.  No fear! I dug into my charms stash and decided that these oval word charms would fit the bill nicely.  I attached one to the bottom of each snowflake line and they worked like a charm (pun intended), in addition to tying the fishing line, I also added a dab of E6000 to each knot.  Now that my curling issue was fixed, I moved on to getting the stencil ready to be attached to the frame.  First thing I did was poke 3 holes into the stencil and thread the fishing line with the snowflakes through the holes, being careful to make sure all the lines were even with each other, then I flipped the stencil over and used E6000 to glue to fishing line to the back so the rows of flakes would stay put.  I let that dry overnight.

The finishing touches are easy – I glued the stencil to the inside of the frame & then attached the sentiment.  It took a bit of thinking and problem solving but I think this is an awesome winter decoration.  I hope you had as much fun reading about it as I had making it!

Another view

Next week I officially start spring, regardless if the weather cooperates or not.

Thanks for reading and I hope you & yours have a fabulous week!

Christi

I am entering my creation in the following challenges:

Love to Create Challenge  #104 Anything Goes!

My Craft Creations  Anything Goes

All Crafts Challenge Feb/March  Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown  Anything Goes
Simply Create Too Anything Goes 
Altered Eclectics Anything Goes 
Artful Times #50 Anything Goes

Fall Leaves Wreath

Before I get into my post, I want to apologize for not being around these last few weeks.  One of my cats, Boo, had a serious health scare and I was very preoccupied with him.  Thankfully, it appears that he is going to be fine!  So, now, on with the show!

 I love the dollar store (in my area it’s called Dollar Tree) and on one of my visits I found these cute wreaths and fabric-like leaves.  The leaves come in a pack of 50, so of course I had to have 2 packs.  I decided that these would make a fabulous project for my introduction to the Design Team for Anything But a Card Challenge blog. Yes, my dear readers, I landed a design gig and I am SO excited as this will be my first time on a design team! I hope I make them proud!

The leaves & wreath before. . .

 OK, enough gushing, back to the project.  I took my wreath (it is small, measures approximately 8 ½” round) and pulled out my leaves & glue and went to work.  Those of you who can use a hot glue gun may want to try that instead of using regular glue like I did, I am glue gun challenged and can’t use one without causing a disaster (but that story is for another time). 

The beginning of the leafing. . .

What I did was spread the glue on the edges of the leaf and then I pushed the part of the leaf I wanted to attach through the wreath with a craft stick – I only glued the bottom of the leaves until I was almost done and added some more to fill in some spots.  On the fill in leaves, I glued the bottom edges and put a few dabs on the body of the leaf (of course all the glue was on the back of the leaves). 

All Leafed Up (wreath holding courtesy of Manny)

The Gluing of the letters

 Then I decided that I wanted to add the word fall to the wreath.  So I turned to my trusty Silhouette Cameo and made the word fall using a thick font.  Once I got a size I liked I also made a mirror image of it so I had 2 full sets of the word “FALL”.  I cut both of them out of different papers I had from Basic Grey.  Then I took the letters, put glue on one of them, placed a piece of string (that I also got at the Dollar Store) and sandwiched the string between the 2 letters so they could move and you’d see both sides. 

  After I finished with the letters, I placed them under a heavy book to really squish them together.  I then edged the letters with a Distress marker in Brushed Corduroy.

  

Now, I realized after I cut the letters, put them together and was getting ready to hang them that I cut them out wrong.  But I was going to hang them anyway – so I did.  I hung them and. . . I hated it. I didn't like that I had messed up the letters so if they twirled they wouldn't be right and I didn't like the way they looked hanging at all. Since I didn’t want to waste the letters so I cut the strings off and edged the tops with the Distress Marker so you can’t see the white string.  Then I experimented with placing the letters directly on the wreath and I really liked the way that looked, so I guess between me not cutting the letters correctly and then hating them hanging are my happy accidents.  I think the letters look better where I ended up placing them.  I used double stick tape to hold them and it worked perfectly! 

All Done!! (again Manny the Wreath holder is holding the wreath)

And a close up of my beautiful letters!

I would also like to enter my project in the following challenges:
Hiding in My Craft Room - Die Cuts (my letters - FALL - are die cuts)
CRAFTITUDE - Anything Goes or Falling Leaves
Addicted to Stamps and More! - Anything Goes
Fab 'N Funky - Anything Goes
Crafty Girls Challenges - Anything Goes
City Crafter Challenge Blog - Wreath