Thanks for the Bottle Caps

I love when inspiration arrives via USPS. My sister, Noel, follows my posts on the Crystal Lacquer Blog and thought I might be able to use 7 Fitz's Premium Root Beer bottle caps.

Yummy, this project was bit like eating good candy. I couldn't stop at just one bottle cap.

What is nice about the Fitz's bottle caps is that they are a twist off, so the shape is not distorted.

Several pieces of inspiration were found at Zinnia in South Pasadena, including this old broach. I used an Exact-O knife to remove the remaining faux diamonds. Be VERY careful doing this as I nicked my finger and don't recommend the experience.

You begin to see where I am going, when the bottle cap fits perfectly within the broach setting.

The picture below is not in focus; however, I wanted to show what the Pearl Color 3D Crystal Lacquer looked like dropped into each individual slot.

In the bottle cap itself, I used an image left over from my last "Film Noir" project. I covered the image with Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer - Glitter Primary to give it a little sparkle. Once everything was dry (give it time to dry!), I glued the pieces together and applied a pin back.

As I mentioned above, I could not stop at 1 bottle cap. I had all sorts of "found" objects and 3D Color Crystal Lacquer to play with.

A cool looking bead set into Glitter Violet 3D Crystal Color Lacquer.

Blue 3D Crystal Lacquer with Metallic Blue swirled in. Dolphin pieces were applied after the blue swirl layer dried.

The small fancy glass piece was left over from a prior project and had been stamped with the butterfly image. Not that you can tell from the image, but a layer of Pearl 3D Crystal Lacquer was applied underneath. Then the glass piece, followed by the small square frame on top.

Glitter Yellow 3D Crystal Color Lacquer and small plastic flower placed after first layer dried.

Ready for Halloween? Orange Glitter Primary & black spider. Creepy!

Below is my absolute favorite piece . . . of all the bottle caps.

The image inside the cap is from Bottle Cap Images - Vintage Edition. Covered with a layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer. I attached the crown using glue and used a bail at the bottom to add the pearl drop. All of the bails used for this project were from Sakura Craft.

Keep on feeding your Creative Soul!

~Heather Morrow

P.S. Check out our fun-filled Creative Souls Retreat happening this September in the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains.

Film Noir Magnet Box

I was very excited when these thin metal boxes arrived from Sakura Craft. Approximately 5" x 6" by 1/2" deep. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do. In the back of my mind, I'd had thoughts of a puzzle - where you move the pieces around to create a picture.

I started playing with the Graphic 45 Curtain Call Borders and some found objects . . .

An idea was slowly starting to take hold . . . the paper reminded me of Film Noir, the name given to Black & White films created from the early 40s with big stars and melodramatic stories.

And, yet, I still had the idea of a puzzle to form a picture . . . inside the box. 24 Scrabble Tiles

I had picked the tiles randomly out of a bin at Zinnia's in South Pasadena. Maybe I had a word . . . .

I obviously needed to do a little research on Film Noir, as I was spelling it incorrectly. No Spell Check on Scrabble tiles. The box cover was starting to come together . . .

Now for the tiles, rather than one big image, I decided to combine a bunch of small images from the Curtain Call border paper. I adhered the images to the Scrabble tiles using the 3D Crystal Lacquer.

Although not pictured here, I trimmed off the edges on each tile and then applied 3D Crystal Lacquer on top of each.

I painted the inside of the box black, to really make the images on the tiles pop!

I then was trying to figure how to secure the tiles into the box in a neat and orderly fashion. I also wanted to be able to move the images around, finally something clicked and I pulled out these small button magnets.

Now I could rearrange the images to my heart's content, kind of like the puzzle I was after.

On the inside of the lid, I applied another image and covered it with 3D Crystal Lacquer. Once again, I was too impatient with giving the lacquer time to dry and I closed the lid too soon and there was a glue mishap. Give your 3D Crystal Lacquer plenty of time to dry, especially if it is a thick layer.

Once the inside was complete, I moved back to the outside to add the elements decided on, earlier in the process.

I realized that I would also have to paint the lid black, to get the same effect as on the inside of the metal box.

And, now Noir is spelled correctly. These Scrabble tiles were also glued to magnets.

This project took a lot of time (waiting for paint and glue to dry); however, I was very pleased with my results. I loved the Curtain Call paper from Graphic 45 and it was a fun way to put it to use.

Keep on feeding your Creative Soul!

~Heather Morrow

P.S. Check out our fun-filled Creative Souls Retreat happening this September in the beautiful San Bernardino Mountains.