So, yesterday, Tammy Tutterow did this INCREDIBLE tutorial on making pendants/jewelry using metal, Sizzix embossing folders, alcohol inks, solvent ink, Matte Accents (no longer in production), and Rock Candy crackle paint. She did a second post, with updates and additional information today, which you can see here. She did some REALLY cool Halloween pendants, along with some other cool non-holiday ones as well. I had a whole list of things I needed to work on yesterday...but Tammy just kept posting pictures of her progress on Twitter, and I was SO intrigued that I had to play along!! Truly, you will want to go read her tutorial - embossing metal is SO cool!
I started off with a soda can, cutting it apart so I could use the aluminum - since I have no craft metal. I altered the overall process a bit on my pendant, because I was trying to do snowflakes - and using black ink just didn't seem like a good fit for snowflakes and Christmas pendants. So I experimented a LOT, and actually thought I had come up with a good idea. I covered my embossed pendant in white dabber paint, and let it dry. I then burnished the raised parts (around the snowflake and the speckles inside it) with a white burnishing block, which removed the white paint from those parts....leaving it only inside the snowflake itself. I applied the alcohol ink, and it had a very cool effect - being much darker over the paint, and much lighter on the raised, burnished parts - showing off the snowflake just like I was aiming for! So I applied a thin layer of Glossy Accents (because I have no Matte Accents), and after it dried, when I went to bed last night...er, early this morning...my gorgeous pendant was covered in crackle paint, drying.
This morning, I was eager to get downstairs to take a peek at how my pendant turned out...
...and at first glance, it was VERY pretty. I mean, seriously, the pictures just cannot do it justice!! The colors are simply amazing, and the crackle on top is fantastic!
And then I picked it up. And the pieces of crackle started to fall off, taking some of the color with them.
And after a bit more handling and playing around with it...this is what I ended up with. An alcohol-ink colored, embossed metal square, and a pile of very cool-looking blue-green shards...shards which I, of course, put in a little baggie, because I am CERTAIN there is a project in my future that will need them!!!
So, after talking it over with Tammy (who is just as sweet as can be, by the way - and her art is FANTASTIC - you should totally go check out her blog!), we think mine failed probably because I did not put on a thick enough layer of the Glossy Accents, and/or I did not allow it to dry long enough before adding the crackle paint.
So, it's not what I was hoping for...and I don't have the time to try it again right now (remember all those OTHER projects I was supposed to be doing yesterday, before my crafting ADD kicked in?)...but it was a fun technique to try, and I will definitely come back to this and give it another go!!
5 comments:
I think this is totally cool! Wish I had some matte accents (and a bit more time in the day) to play with this.
I read through that tutorial yesterday...very cool! It's great to see that you've tried it, and your snowflake still looks cool, even minus all the flakes! Of course, I wonder if Matte Accents can be found anywhere? There's a little local store near here and I'm tempted to stop in tomorrow, just to see if they have any hanging around. (Of course I already have Glossy Accents!)
I do think it looks pretty afterwards too! I keep wondering if a coat of Glossy or Matte over the top of the Crackle coat would have saved it. You wouldn't have been able to brush it on, but you could have poured. . .
I should try it on my original flaky one.
It turned out pretty despite it not being the way you hoped. I like it.
Giggling - I can't wait to try this and I'll use your advise to try to make mine work (chewing on my finger nails) Tammy's was awesome and I still think your is awesome too and you have the extra added bonus of homemade glass shards!
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