Hello all,
Alison (butterfly) here with you at Destination Inspiration today. And, as befits a staging post on the journey, it's a chance to pause and put your feet up with a cup of coffee. But before we get started, let me just remind you about our very special
Secret Santa Bonus post from yesterday. There are some fantastic prizes to be won in our
Christmas Giveaway - so don't miss it!
Back to today, and I hope you'll find my offering inspiring somewhere along the line... either from the basic simple idea at the root or from the festive experimenting that went on from there. It's not really so much a lightbulb moment as the gentle glow of candlelight, spreading its beams on a wintry night!
I've ended up with three new additions to the candlelight fiesta we celebrate with round our way (we always have many, many candles lit at Christmas), each one with a slightly different finish and texture if you look closely.
So that's where I ended up, but I started with the simple idea of covering jam jars with Idea-ology Tissue Wrap. I love the tissue wrap but often, when I use it at least, it ends up under layers of other things, not really getting to strut its stuff. So I started from wanting to put it front and centre and, what's more, give it an inner glow.
I took various jars from the hoard I've collected, cut pieces of tissue wrap approximately to size, and used slightly watered down multi-medium to glue them to the jars. (The added moisture just helped with moulding the wrap.)
At the bottom I left enough tissue wrap to spare...
... so that I could fold it inwards. It pretty much took care of that nice neat pleated effect by itself as I pressed it down.
And at the top I left another spare centimetre (ish) so that I could fold it down into the jar rim for a nice neat finish.
I tied twine tightly around the top while the glue was drying, just to hold it all in place.
For all that my crafty creations are layered and textured, my tastes in home decor are fairly simple and minimal so - for my money - that's pretty much a done deal.
I love how the tea light candles glow, lighting up the tissue wrap, and the twine gives a rustic finish. A really easy, decorative candle holder.
But it's nearly Christmas, and I felt I should pop a bit more inspiration into your stockings! So I decided to experiment with zhuzhing them up a bit.
Jar 1 got a coat of Rock Candy Crackle Paint to start with, quite a thin layer in places so that the crackle would be quite subtle. I left that to dry and set off into the next experiment. (No picture for now, as that would quite literally be watching paint dry!)
Jar 2 got another coat of multi-medium over the top of the tissue wrap, and then I poured Rock Candy Dry Glitter all over it.
And again, as far as I'm concerned, you could stop right there if you wanted to!
Jar 3 got the Ranger Texture Paste option, applied through the wonderful Holly Bough Layering Stencil. I used some tissue tape just to secure the stencil while I did it, though I also held on quite firmly at the same time (oh, for a third hand...).
Since it didn't quite meet all the way round the circumference of my jar, I had to wait for that first application to dry before filling in the gap.
So far so good... now for some colour. I grabbed some of my new Distress Spray Stains (how happy I am they exist!). Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and the fabulous Brushed Pewter all play a part here (as well as a not-pizza box from a crafty delivery!).
Since tissue wrap has a pretty non-porous coating, you sometimes have to help it along when applying colour.
I was expecting a sort of Cracked Stains (Tim's technique) effect with the crackle paint. After all, these are Distress Stains, just being applied differently. And it was great fun letting the inks run and blend into and over the cracks.
Gotta love the sheen of that Brushed Pewter...
The Dry Glitter was also fine. It takes colour well itself and, with the coat of multi-medium holding it in place, the sprays took really well. In fact, they sank in really quickly - you don't get much drippage/blending play.
But for Jar 3, I knew I might need to give the tissue wrap a bit of extra tooth before spritzing, so I coated the whole thing - texture paste and all - with Clear Gesso before applying the colour. I didn't try without the Clear Gesso, so I can't tell you what that would have done - but having it there certainly seemed to do the trick.
Again there was lots of drippage and blending play as I applied the layers of colour and of course the Ranger Texture Paste is specifically designed to play nicely with Distress Inks, so that was fine.
Of course with all that spritzing and dripping there was quite a lot of leftover ink going spare so I quickly grabbed a few Manila Tags and did some mopping up, as you saw in the not-pizza box photo. So now I have some ready-to-play backgrounds awaiting more attention, though I knew I had a use for the really inky three. With all that co-ordinating colour and beautiful silvery sheen, these had to play a part here.
I ran them through the BigShot with the fabulous Holiday Greens Thinlits - so in love with the delicate fir fronds.
I used some of the wax paper kindly sent me by Marci from the States - before they started stocking it around the place over here. It definitely helps make it easier to get delicate die-cuts out of the dies. But of course you also end up with really gorgeous additional die-cuts - very delicate, deliciously frosted - and so they also got pressed into service!
I tied the bunches of greenery onto my jars with Crinkle Ribbon, and did a bit of gentle additional spritzing (adding Bundled Sage into the mix this time).
I didn't want too much colour on the ribbons - a touch of white never hurts at Christmas - and the sprays also gave the greenery a bit of extra texture too.
The final touch was to add a few frosted berries, clustered around the ribbon knot, and I decided I was done.
I'm very happy with the results (even though I will definitely be making myself a few more of the very simple first versions for use throughout the year!)...
The crackle is subtle, but pretty cool I think...
The shimmer of the Dry Glitter delights me far more than I expected, not being a glittery type in the general way of things!
And I just love that Holly Bough texture - such a great stencil, and the texture really benefits from a little extra dusting of Silver Treasure Gold wax.
It's not easy to capture the effect of candlelight on camera.
You always get a really intense light from the candle flame, rather than the diffuse glow filling the whole of the jars that you get in real life, but this gets pretty close.
I've tried to share a little of the effect you get with these, whether through the crackle...
Or candlelight on glitter...
Or through the texture...
And always with the lovely text and images of the tissue wrap coming through from underneath.
They also look great lit by candlelight from the outside, so I gave a little spritz of Brushed Pewter to an already teal-green coloured nightlight holder, and added that to the collection for a really festive look.
I hope that's given you lots of ideas to play with, and that you'll have candlelight glowing in your homes this festive season. However you celebrate, we hope you'll come and play along with Nikki's lovely
Let's Celebrate challenge this fortnight.
Check out all the details, rules and lots more inspiration from my fabulous DT colleagues, and come and celebrate with us. You could become one of our Pinworthies, or win a gift voucher from our generous sponsors Country View Crafts - and that's definitely worth celebrating!
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon on this Vintage Journey.
Alison xx
From my stash: jars, frosted berries
