You want to see what I've been up to?

It's not cards! LOL Not even stamping (gasp!). :)

Actually, while I was reading some of the myriad of blogs I subscribe to I ran across this. Don't get me wrong, I will never do the wedding thing again, but I *loved* this. I loved the random eclectic look - add a candle and WOW. However, I'm not interested in fake candles. I have some, but they always look too yellow for me. I like *real* fire! :) Of course I also like to have a home, and really prefer not to get surprise visits from the fire department!

The only answer was to change it up a little. Make it my own - as Simon would say. :D

This was the first one I managed to finish. It went through a couple of different concepts (and one broken glass) before settling on this. I wanted to evoke the feeling of being at the beach, surf and sand being a bit overdone, but still pretty. I bought a fairly cheap ($5?) candle holder from Michael's and three different colors of thread. The beads and shell dangles I used for this one were already on hand (bonus) but I did buy a big jug of fabric stiffener. Ummm, how come I didn't know that fabric stiffener and Elmer's are practically the same thing?!

Because I didn't think I could make an effective form I taped parchment paper around the glass & did my wrapping over that. In retrospect I don't think it was strictly necessary. I strung a bunch of random beads on the beige color of thread (still on the spool) and started wrapping around the glass. I dipped my fingers in the fabric stiffener and ran them over the thread every so often - it is messy, so protect your surfaces! I repeated those steps with the blue thread (stringing the shell dangles on the thread before wrapping - good thing cause this thing is *tight*). Finally I wrapped with the white thread over the top and down onto the blue. Once I was done wrapping I allowed several hours of drying time. Dh had to help me pull the parchment paper off - the worst part was getting it back on the glass! It isn't glued on there, it's only held up by tension.

So, this next one was more of a nod to the wedding theme of the original. I wrapped the same white thread over glass, this time using clear glass beads. I couldn't use any parchment paper to cover the glass because of the shape, but the thread kept rolling over the surface and leaving glue tracks. I think it would've been less messy if the glass was a more regular shape, but I really wanted this to work! I've thought about etching the inside of the glass, but after my last experience I'm feeling a little... hmmmm, hesitant? LOL I don't think it's good enough as it is to give as a gift, but I can certainly burn tea lights at home.

Then, of course, I went in yet another direction (talk about crafty ADD). I wanted to wrap glass using wire instead of thread, but I just couldn't get the wire to stick well. E6000 wasn't cuttin' it. Finally I remembered that I still had some plain white candles from my foray into stamping on candles last Christmas. Once everything was wrapped I ran my heat gun over it to set the wire. If I ever do another of this type I think it would work better to heat as I wrap. You can see how the wire bunched in the middle - it didn't always look like that! It just wanted to scooch toward the middle as I was wrapping - I think I needed six hands to do it all at once!

I do think this is my favorite and it will probably be the one that burns the best (or at least with minimal worry).

So. Interesting? :) Hope you liked this crafty detour... promise I'll get back to cards soon!

Thanks for visiting!