Thursday 18 May 2017

Blast from the past: "Don't give up your daydream" glittery unicorn pegasus sign


Another blast from the past: this glittery unicorn pegasus sign. I have this on top of one of the bookshelves in my bedroom - it's so pretty and sparkly!


You'll need a piece of wood or canvas for this project; I used a 7cm x 38cm piece of plywood because that's what I had in my stash ^___^ The first step is to paint it pink!
 

I have a stencil pack from Typo which includes this unicorn pegasus; if you don't have a stencil you could make one by cutting out the shape with a scalpel from a thin piece of plastic like a transparency sheet. I used an old paintbrush to spread mod podge over the stencil; I did it a bit thick though so I'd recommend trying for a thinner layer.
 

Then you can cover it with glitter! Yay!  Pro tip: shake the excess glitter off onto a piece of paper with a fold through the middle. This makes it a lot easier to return the leftover glitter back to the jar.
 

While you wait for your mod podge to dry, use a ruler and washi tape to make guidelines for your words.
 

Use the washi tape to guide where you place the base of your letters; the ones I used are called "thickers" and are by American Crafts. When I'm using letter stickers, I find writing out the phrase and then counting to determine which letter is in the middle of the line makes placement a little easier.


Carefully remove your stencil when the mod podge is mostly dry but still a little tacky (this will also make it easier to clean off your stencil!). Leave it to dry completely and tap off the excess glitter again. After this, you will probably still have loose glitter around your unicorn. Glitter is almost impossible to get rid of completely, so instead of trying to remove every speck of it, make it a feature! I used my dry paintbrush to brush little flecks of glitter all over my sign. Then you can use spray varnish to seal your sign and leave it to dry.


Most of the signs and canvases in my house just lean against the wall (mostly because I hate drilling holes to hang things!) but you can add a hanger with a couple of nails and a piece of wire.
 
 

 
 

I don't normally go for inspirational or motivational artworks, but I really like this one! Do you have a favourite inspirational quote? And would it be improved with the addition of a glittery unicorn? I think we both know the answer to that one ~___^

- Lisa xx

Thursday 4 May 2017

Lightsaber candle holders


Hello! May the Force be with you! I try to make a Star Wars craft for every International Star Wars Day and this year I made lightsaber candle holders! ^___^


I actually started making these for *last year's* ISWD, but I didn't finish them on time! This year, although I finished them, they are kind of a fail craft so I haven't done a full tutorial.
 

Basically I started off with the coloured candles; they were surprisingly hard to find! I ended up with these mini candles, but they came in lots of different colours! It was hard to limit myself to only buying four packets ~___^
 

I used Sculpey to make the actual holders; I basically made a thick but short sausage and then inserted a skewer and rolling it around on the inside of the clay until it was hollow. Then I added all the little lightsaber details and baked them according to package instructions.
 

After painting and glazing, I inserted the candles but I must have made the holders slightly too snug because three out of four of my holders cracked!  *insert sad trombone noise here*


The only good thing I can say about that is at least they cracked on the backs?


So, that's my fail craft confession! Looks like Master Yoda was wrong - sometimes all you can do is try! ~___^
 

I think all I would need to do to make this project work is to make the holders slightly bigger before baking them, but since it's taken over a year to get them to this stage, that might take some time!

I hope you all have a marvelous International Star Wars Day, and you can check out some successful Star Wars projects through the links below! ^___^


 
 
 
 




 




- Lisa xx