Door Wreath, Incarnation #4

The roses are silver tissue paper, recycled from a November birthday gift. The leaves are a few of the November leaves, gilded with metallic paints. The gingerbread boy is a cookie cutter. The added cord is red and green satin twisted with tiny gold beads.

I burned a LOT of glue this month; a local boutique has some of my ornaments, hearts, bells, gingerbread boys, snowmen. We'll see how they do. *tries not to bounce in chair, lol*

I have a crafting partner now too; we took our crafts to the boutique together and are looking for more places. *waves hello to you!*

That Glue-torial I mentioned :-)

This is addictive, yanno. I find myself thinking about all the different things I can do with this technique. All it takes is an easily recognizable silhouette...

...like this fig, or these leaves. I forgot to take pics before I glued the fig together, so I will show you with a leaf. Oh, notice the wire fig-shaped framework? If you are using paper bags for this craft, you need a shaped wire like that for the bigger pieces. Since I am using chipboard (which doesn't flop about once you put glue on it), I had to use a wire right down the midddle, though; chipboard *doesn't* mold itself around wire and the framework showed very dramatically. I was surprised the center wire worked!

Make sure you have mirror images.

Bend the wire just a little to be more "leaf-like" if you wish. (The fig wire was not bent.)

Get out your fancy glue palette. *grin* Notice the lil ball of dried glue near the stem? It made wonderful texture when I was ready to glue the fig.


Spread some on and stick everything together. Line up the edges as best you can.


I think they look like little curtain rods with finials... okay, back to the fig. Now that it is glued together and dried, spread a generous coating of glue on both sides. This is messy; quite honestly, it works best for me if I spread the glue with my fingers. I made use of that lil ball of dried glue to put in some texture lines. Then, while the glue was still wet (it gives the best texture to do this with wet glue), I lit a taper candle and ran the fig through the tip of the flame. It sizzled, it crackled, it burned, it made smoke... and it made soot, oh yeah baby!

A good beginning....

You can stop here; the cardboard underneath will show through those light spots. I chose to keep burning, keep painting with flame and soot, until the fig was truly black from it.

It doesn't show very much, but the fig itself did catch fire and I had to repeatedly shake it back out. This is part and parcel of glue burning. Sometimes the glue catches fire, sometimes the paper bag or chipboard box beneath it catches fire. You can minimize it by being certain that you get a good coating of glue on all edges, but a burnt edge is actually good.

If you are using paper, your ornament may very well droop terribly as you burn the glue. Not to worry--just turn it over and burn the other side. As it starts to droop, flip it again, and repeat until you've burnt the ornament as much as you like.

Be sure you use a tall taper, so you don't automatically have to hunch over to see what you're doing. That way pain lies, lol...

Now it's time to wipe the soot off. I used that most high-tech of inventions: a wadded paper towel. Here, tis easy to see on the leaf.

See the contrast? The leaf is fully wiped off and the fig hasn't been started yet.

Ahhh, there we go, wiped off on both sides.

Next step: cut the wire to size and file the end smooth. I used an inexpensive jewelry file for this, because it was small and easy for me to control.

Bend a loop to be the hook. (The "drawing" is actually some of those wadded and well-used paper towels--YOU know, the high tech soot remover gadget.)

Follow the pics....






Now that the soot is wiped off the hook--and the "stem" is darker from being burnt twice--tis time to paint. The colors I chose were Metallic Amethyst, Metallic Pure Gold, and Metallic Copper. I dabbed them on and then smeared them around with my high tech painting tool, one color at a time at first and then multiple colors at a time, until I liked the way they looked.








Remember to paint the hook too. Notice fancy pants high tech painting tool at upper left. *grin*

Finished! This fig went to the person who inspired it, my friend who owns an antique store called... Fig. *grin*

Eeeep! and Thanksgiving

Eeeep! I thought I was ready to go on the glue-burning, but the pics still need to be edited, oops. I always rename them so I can tell them apart (our camera just numbers them), and I also cut out the background so they don't take as long to load for anyone on dial-up.

Well. And because y'all don't need to endure my clutter, lol...

But anyhow, I will post the tutorial after I fix the pics.

In the meantime, hope your holiday was wonderful! We shared ours with chosen family and enjoyed it very much. Now to share recipes! *grin*

Glueburning: Because everyone needs a special birthday present...

Tis Gryph's birthday, so what better than a gryphon?

This is the white inside of my flour bag. I just *knew* that paper was good for something! *grin*

Happy birthday, darlin! May it be the start of your best years yet!

Glueburning: I keep going back to basics

There are some crafts that just never get old for me. Have you burnt glue lately? I actually deliberately spent money on 18 gauge floral wire stems and some paint--despite our tight budget!--to be able to do these this year.

Remember what they are? Hint: Aleene's Tacky Glue.

Hint: recycled crafting.

I dangled some beads from the single hearts after I cut them from the main piece of floral wire, but the doubled hearts are on one stem which has been twisted at the top to make a hanging loop. The tassels are just crochet thread which matched the paint.

Hint: Simple craft, easy as can be.

Hint: You need ordinary scissors and a candle.

Got an angel in my pocket... Sometimes instead of dangles or ornaments, I make plant pokes. This angel was just a little too big and kept drooping in on itself over the candle flame, so I ended up picking up the candle and "painting" the flame over the whole surface.

Figured it out yet?

They're made from a USED brown paper grocery sack covered in wet glue! Remember? You glue cutouts together with wire down the middle, coat them with Tacky glue, and burn them over the candle flame. They turn absolutely black with soot (it does make some smoke; you might want to open a window), which you wipe off... and voila! antique metal! Then you drybrush, dab, or sponge them with metallic paint or gold-leafing, and there you are!

MY very expensive, fancy paintbrushes were wadded up damp paper towels. *eyebrow waggle* I used three paints, Folk Art Metallics Antique Gold, Metallic Copper and Metallic Amethyst. The ric-rac scarf on the angel, the crochet thread tassels, and the beaded dangles were all made from leftovers and/or scavenged from other projects. One evening's work total, including the time it took to remember how to efficiently use the candle and whether it matters if the glue dries before you burn it (nope).

I haven't had so much fun in an age. *grin*