Creative Heart Monday - Gel Press Prints and Hot Glue Mirror

Happy Monday to all of you Creative Hearts!!

I'm still into the hot glue gun.....can't seem to put it down.  Today, I'm "beautifying" the frame of a mirror.  I just love the way the hot glue, Gel Press prints, and dark paint come together to create such a "rich" look.

Here we go.....




List of Supplies

Framed mirror from craft store (I purchased mine at Michaels)
Americana Acrylic Craft Paint
8" X 10" Gel Press Plate
Plain white copy paper
Foamies Foam Stamps
Dollar Store dart board for texture
Decou-Page Matte
Black Liquitex Gesso
Inka Gold Metallic Paste - Copper and Green
Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paint - Carbon Black and Brown

Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!!

PEACE!!

Cyndi

Faux Milk Glass

I've seen many tutorials on making faux milk glass over the years.  I, finally, gave it a try and it couldn't be any easier.

I used Starbucks bottles.  I cleaned them inside and out with Citrasolv cleaner.  You can use any cleanser, but I have found that Citrasolv works great for removing the label residue.

All you need to do is make little dots with a hot glue gun.  I've seen people make all kinds of decorations with the glue, but I stayed with the dots because I have always liked the hobnail milk glass.  After the glue was completely dry, I sprayed a couple coats of gloss, white paint.  That's it.  Easy-Peasy!

Hot Glue Flower Masks

I'm so excited.  (it doesn't take much).  I was browsing around Traci Bautista's site about a month ago and saw a short tutorial on making designs out of hot glue, then using them as stencils and masks in your backgrounds or wherever you think they might look good.

I kept meaning to try it, but I couldn't find my hot glue gun.  Then, of course, when I found the gun, I couldn't find the glue.  Then, I found the glue and couldn't find the gun again, and so on, and so on.

Today, I happened to run across the gun and the glue so I knew that today was the day.  In her tutorial, I believe that she says to do this on a teflon mat.  I don't have a teflon mat, so I used freezer paper.

I took my time and carefully formed each design.  No I didn't.  I just started making designs willy nilly.  I had glue strings everywhere, but I figured that I could cut them off at the end.  I was surprised at how easy it was.  I let them completely cool, then began pulling them off the paper.  If I had used the teflon, they would have popped right off.  Mine stuck to the paper here and there, but for the most part, I just used my fingernail and scraped them off.  The glue is strong, so they didn't break or pull apart.  On the ones that stuck to the paper, I just scraped or cut the paper off with a small exacto knife.

I tried them out right away on a piece of art that I was never happy with.  I sprayed Dylusions Ink, but you could use any kind of spray paint.  You could even put paint or ink on the flat, back of the designs and use them to stamp.

I am pleased and plan to make some more.  They will be great for using on backgrounds or art journal pages.  I don't know if Traci Bautista made up this technique.  She probably did because she is so creative and talented.  Anyway, thanks Traci!

Here's some pix.

You can see the paper stuck to this one.