Anything but a card eh?

...the alternative title to this post could have been Nat vs. Mica flakes...

Or Nat defeated by Mica flakes...

Or Glue: you can never leave it enough time to dry!

But no, this week's dare over on the Daring Cardmakers blog came from Dawn and is a great opportunity to get crafting on anything that is NOT a card.

I immediately had something in mind. A few somethings actually.

They were hiding in a box and had waited 2 and a bit years to be used.

Namely this glass dome ornament by Melissa Frances ready for altering:

And these mini bottle brush trees from the same range:

Oh and of course, a lot of Mica flakes by Melissa Frances.

So, here is my end result. Apologies for the less than clear photo, but I will explain how shabby chic altered crafting really is not my jam in a moment!

I suppose the end result is quite atmospheric, there's definitely a blizzard going on under the dome there.

But the making of this little ornament started last Saturday when I painted one side of the base in Martha Stewart off cream acrylic paint and left it to dry before applying the paint to the other side of the cardboard base. Then it was time to paint both sides with Tattered Angels Chandelier glimmer paint for a little sparkle to the plain cream finish.

Sunday I applied Glossy Accents to the entire top of the base and dumped a small mountain of Martha Stewart crystal coarse glitter on it and pushed the little crystals down and into the Glossy Accents.

I also stamped and cut the little Fa-la-la banner and applied silver Stickles to most of it and left it to dry.

Come Monday evening it was time to remove the excess glitter from the base and see how things were looking.

Not bad!

Next I fixed the cream and pink bottle brush trees to the base with liquid glue and applied a puddle shape of Scrappy Glue (I swear the formula for this must have changed since I bought it in 2012 as it was seriously runny even after shaking well) around the trees but so it was still well within the circle of the dome.

I spooned mica flakes over the puddle, pushed down on them a bit to make sure they surrounded the tree bases and left to dry over night again.

Tuesday I was trying to get my banner to look a bit more altered, so out came the Glossy Accents to dip the edges in rock candy Distress glitter and left it to dry.

Well, after that dried it looked a heck of a lot worse, so out came some Platinum Stickles to be added into the vintage glitter mix!

Tuesday evening I removed the excess mica flakes and added glue in places where it needed topping up. The Scrappy Glue had dried to a white puddle - not clear - but it gave the illusion of a snowy scene under all the mica and contrasted against the cream base.

Wednesday morning after getting rid of the excess Mica, I glued the banner to the trees and added some dashes of Glossy Accents and spooned over more mica flakes so some would catch on the banner.

Wednesday evening it was finally time to attach the base and glass dome. The glue I used for that was deemed suitable for glass and has extremely strong hold, so good idea I thought!

I held the dome upside down and spooned some more mica flakes as I wanted to have a lot of loose mica in there that would be a bit like a snow globe, minus the water. I held the base in place with my hand between spoonfuls to get more or less the right amount of snow in there and when I was happy I applied glue to the glass rim and just a little inside the rim so that once I placed the base on the upside down dome the mica flakes inside the dome would stick around the seal.

As you can see in the photo I took yesterday afternoon (ugh the only day with direct sunlight and preventing easy photo taking!) the glue is still drying and that also meant some condensation inside the dome and the mica flakes have stuck to it.

But hey, it is looking a little blizzard like in there.

I'm hoping come Christmas the glue around the glass dome will have finally dried clear - or less white...

We'll see!

But yes, I have two little Melissa Frances chipboard houses that can be decorated with the remaining bottle brush tress, mica, glue, glitter - the whole shebang! But I think I will leave those for another year!

My hat is well and truly off to anyone who has the patience for altering on this level - I am sure they manage it a lot faster and more neatly, but I am barely capable of leaving a Stickled project alone without prodding it to check if it has dried yet, let alone something that might require 24 hours drying time between layers. ;)

Anyway, enough about this project! Head on over to the Daring Cardmakers blog and check out the lovely non-card creations by the rest of the team! :)

Happy crafting!

 

 

Comments

[Dolly]

Sounds like you were really working it girl! it turned out lovely though! :D TFS