Friday, February 6, 2015

OFFRAY CHALLENGE - RIBBON LAMP SHADE TUTORIAL



Offray Ribbon recently sent members of the Designers Crafts Connection some ribbon - I received some peach, robin's egg blue and ivory double faced satin ribbons in various widths - YUMMY.  I checked out my giant stash of Offray Ribbon and added the polka dot, flowered and checkered ribbons to this cute lamp that I decorated for my Niece Marlee's bedroom - very girly!


The lamp was quick and easy to create in just a few hours by securing the cut ends of the ribbons to the inside top and bottom edge of the lampshade and lamp base with Tombow's MONO Aqua Liquid Glue.  More girly was in order, so I created the button center flowers and clipped them to the bottom edge of the lampshade!

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Please use the Designer Crafts Connection navigation box on my right hand sidebar to HOP through and check out what the other Designers have created with their Offray Ribbon - LOTS of inspiration here!

Thanks for stopping by! -Beth

Monday, February 2, 2015

DESIGNER CRAFTS CONNECTION BLOG HOP featuring ETI Resin Tutorial


Welcome to the Designer Crafts Connection Blog Hop for the first Monday in February!  This month's theme is a new product or technique.

Recently ETI - Environmental Technologies, Inc. sent each of the members of the Ann Butler Design Team a giant box of goodies including resin, molds, dyes and all of the other supplies needed to complete some pretty cool projects!

I have it admit that I was completely intimidated by the ETI resin when I first received the package and my first attempt was a complete CRAFT FAIL because I did not follow the directions exactly!  But I read through the instructions COMPLETELY and tried again.  The second time was a success and my project is presented below - Enjoy!

Snowflake Bottle Cap Ornament
1.) Stamp diamond patterning Aquamarine on aqua cardstock.  Punch out circle and coat twice with Ultra-Seal, making sure to seal front, back and sides.  Repeat with snowflake sticker.
2.) Attach stamped circle to bottle cap and sticker to stamped circle using Ultra-Seal.
3.) Following directions explicitly, measure equal parts of Resin and Hardener from EasyCast Clear 
Casting Epoxy kit (making sure not to mix more than 6 oz. total).  Mix according to directions, then immediately fill bottle cap.  Remove any air bubbles with the quick pass of a hair dryer.


4.) Let resin set for at least 24 hours.  Tie a bow in aqua ribbon, leaving a 4" long loop at the top.  Attach to top of bottle cap.

I also had a complete craft fail when working with the ETI Resin.  EVERYTHING must be fully and completely coated in the Ultra-Seal in order to retain the integrity of the item you are imbedding in the resin.  I placed plastic rhinestones in other bottle cap ornaments and did not seal them, so they MELTED!  Still pretty, but not at all was I was going for!


I mixed the full 6 oz. of resin, so I ended up with ALOT, so I experimented with some of the colored dyes, chunky glitter, buttons and created over 25 pieces!



Now it is time for you to HOP around to the other Designers' blog and see what they have created with the NEW PRODUCT or TECHNIQUE theme!  Just click on the Hop Forward and Hop Back links in the Designer Crafts Connection navigation box in my right hand tool bar.

Thanks for stopping by! - Beth