A Fond Farewell - My Last Sakura Design Team Project

Wow! How fast 6 months can pass. I have been very honored to be a part of the Sakura Design Team. Sakura Craft is creating quality products that can really help every type of crafter.

I really loved working with the 3D Crystal Lacquer and know it will remain a staple in my crafting kit along with all of the jewelry findings and glass tiles.

My favorite projects were:

Clowning Around, Part Duex

Film Noir Magnet Box

For this week I have created two pendants.

The first, is a piece I'd started almost at the beginning. I had stamped a round silver finding with a butterfly. This week I covered it with Glitter Pink Crystal Lacquer - adding an extra dimension and shine.

Below, I used an "deep dish" Zinc Oval Pendant. I cut out the background from a sheet of Steampunk images and covered it with a thick layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer. Once it had dried, I placed a metal cog centered around the clock face in the image. Another thin layer of crystal lacquer was applied. You can still feel the texture of the cog.

Thank you for all the fabulous feedback you all have provided in this creative journey.

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.

Paper Necklace (Design Team Submission)

For this project, I used a tag from the Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante Collection. To protect the back of the paper, I used Sakura Craft 3D Crystal Lacquer to glue the image to a piece of plastic from a clam shell packaging. I cut around the plastic once the glue was dry and repunched the hole.

I then covered the front of the image in a thick layer of 3D Crystal Lacquer. The cool thing about this product is how well it stays in place. Again, it had to dry - I recommend overnight.

I looped black cord through the tag and created slip knots, so that it can be easily adjusted.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend taking this piece in the shower - actually, I don't recommend it for any jewelry; however, it will hold up to normal wear and tear of being used as a unique accessory.

For more fun, creative projects using the 3D Crystal Lacquer, check out the Crystal Lacquer Blog.

Keep on creating!

Heather Morrow

Creative Souls

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.

Mary Queen of Scots (Pendant)

This month from Sakura Craft, we got to play with these cool deep dish pendants. It's about 1/4" deep. I couldn't wait to layer "found objects" in . . .

This image, that reminded me of Mary Queen of Scots in her younger years - standing on the cliffs of Scotland, is from the ART-C Vintage Ladies collection. My mom had sent me these random charms. So, I played around with crowning my queen.

Cutting to fit the image in the pendant was a bit of a challenge, I ended up taking a bit too much off the top; however, you really cannot tell in the final result After using Crystal Lacquer to glue the image down, I covered it with a layer of additional lacquer.

After drying 24 hours, I put in the fleur de lis and the crown and poured in more crystal lacquer to cover the fleur de lis and leave the crown exposed.

When I was removing the crown charm from the original chain, the piece on top broke off, so it felt a bit incomplete. The star on the top is actually a bail, upside down. Again, I used more crystal lacquer to keep it in place.

The funky legs in the original plan didn't get included; I felt they really weren't necessary to complete the piece. It was then put onto a ball-and-chain necklace.

Have fun creating!

Heather Morrow

P.S. "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the live you've imagined." -Thoreau