Welcome to my creative online journal

Thursday 31 July 2014

Seaside Themed Ceramic Plaques

When you have visitors coming to your home and in some cases, stopping over (like children's sleepovers), it is a good idea to let these guests know whereabouts they can find your facilities. We have two such rooms next to each other so it would be very useful for these guests to know, at a glance, which door is which.

The online craft supplier, Baker Ross, who sent me the glitter used in yesterday's post also very generously sent me a set of seaside themed ceramic plaques and some porcelain pens to decorate them with.  I decided to use mine to make some signs for my bathroom doors.

The plaques arrive completely blank of decoration but are cut in various shapes to guide your creativity.  What I did to mine was to draw around the shape on paper so I could work out using pencil what design I was going to add to them. 
 
Then, using a black porcelain pen that I already had I drew directly on to my plaque using my proposed drawings as a guide.  This particular pen incidently caused me a few problems, I got spots everywhere when I was shaking it (my fault) and it created some very messy splodges onto my plaque when I was drawing onto the plaques (pen's fault!) Fortunately, just by trying, I found out that you can get rid of these errors by scraping them away gently with a craft knife.  A useful tip to know if you make any mistakes too.

Having completed my outlines, I then used the set of coloured pens that I'd been given.
(This was Set A)

I thought they were going to be subtle and maybe a bit pale but they weren't, they were bright and glossy.
These were the other shapes in the set that I have yet to decorate:
After decoration the instructions on the pens say to allow 4 hours to dry before heat setting in an oven.  See pens for complete directions.

To put them on my doors, I took out the ribbons that came with the plaques and used nails.

There! No confusion now (except that there does happen to be another toilet in the bathroom too...) .  I just need to work out what I am going to write and draw on to the other shapes now...

Thanks for stopping by today,
see you soon for some more creative ideas,
Nicky
Creative Flourishes

 Disclosure: I have not been paid to do this review, I was sent the products to try out free of charge but I did not and will not receive any commission on any links listed.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

Make Your Own Super Sparkly Glitter Gems

I have to admit that I am a girl that loves sparkle and as a result I love glitter!  Well, very luckily for me I have recently been sent a few pots of the wonderful sparkly stuff to try out from the lovely people at Baker Ross, a UK web craft supplier (I'm sure my international readers will be pleased to learn that they also deliver their products worldwide, just check out their website for details).


I spend a great deal of my time procrastinating searching through the boards on Pinterest (my boards are here) and came across this idea to make some glitter gem magnets.  This seemed like the perfect project to try out my new glitter pots...except that the ones that I made didn't end up as magnets.  They could be of course, just by sticking a magnet to the back, but you can also use them for other things like rings or necklaces.  As I've been once again watching my weight, mine have been added into two jam jars to indicate how much weight I've lost (like this pin here).  To see my weight related posts, take a look at this separate Creative Flourishes page here.

Anyway, enough waffling, on with how to make them, or how I made them. Starting with gathering your materials together:
I also used some different nail polish colours, other glitters I owned, teeny nail decorations and a jar of clear nail polish to seal them.  I couldn't take photographs whilst making them so there aren't any other 'in progress' shots but basically what you do is turn over your glass nugget and spread an even layer of glue on the bottom.  Different to the pinterest post I used, I added glitter using my fingers and patted it down into the glue.  After letting that coat dry I added more glue & glitter to fill the gaps.  I used the traditional way of putting the excess glitter back in the pot using bits of folded scrap paper.  I should also add that I did mine outside - on a non windy day!

These were the ones created with the Baker Ross glitters:
..which I noticed are now on offer down from £3.50 to £2.99.

I love the way the gems magnify the glitter particles.  I'd never noticed that they were teeny little hexagons before!
 
So pretty:

As you could see the backs of my gems when they were in the jar, I added some dark sparkly nail polish to the back of some of my gems but that isn't necessary for jewellery or magnet use.  I should also point out that the nail polish made them and the jar smell very strong!

Don't forget to seal the gems with clear nail polish or varnish of some kind and when dry they are ready to use.
*Sparkle, sparkle*

Hope you enjoy making some of these and
Thanks for joining me today,
Nicky,
Creative Flourishes


Disclosure: I have not been paid to do this review, I was sent the products to try out free of charge but I did not and will not receive any commission on any links listed.


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