This week at The Octopode Factory Friday our challenge is “Flourishes/Swirls”.  When I think of flourishes and swirls I immediately think of butterflies in flight.  I used these fun butterflies from the Octopode factory to create paper flower pots for co-worker Christmas gifts.  The jars were pulled from my recycling bin and made pretty with a myriad of techniques and if I’m being honest a LOT of fail…but it all worked out in the end.

I’ll show you the finished flowers and jars first and then I’ll take you through the steps to create one of your own…including what NOT to do.

I was lucky enough to find 4 different style jars in the recycling bin…variety is the spice of life you know.  Ok so maybe I only found 3 but fear not I snagged one from the fridge that was taking up space.  It was kind of like grocery shopping only in reverse.

Here you can see the detail on the flower and the Octopode Factory butterfly.  I didn’t have a proper poinsettia Sizzix die cut so I grabbed my sketch book and cozied up next to my real live poinsettia which I have kept alive since last Christmas…just keep watering it.

After sketching, scanning and printing I colored the image with Copic Markers and topped it off with a clear sparkle button so the detail in the middle would show through.  Stickles were added to the edges of the underpetals and crystals dyed with alcohol inks to match the flower.  The butterflies were also colored with Copic Markers.  I mounted them on Grunge Paper and sealed with Mod Podge.  For extra sparkle I gave the butterflies a coat of Mod Podge Sparkle and added coordinating crystals to the lower wings and antennae.

I alternated between glass gems and buttons on the rims of the jars….all about variety.  I think the blue poinsettia is my favorite.  It looks like an ice flower.  That and I am quite partial to blue.

I really love the color of the Alcohol ink dyed crystals on this one.  The baby blue stickles are the perfect accent.

I tried to mix up the colors on the Octopode Factory butterflies.  I think this guy looks fab in green and lavender.  These butterflies were just what the doctor ordered for the paper Poinsettias.  They just didn’t look right until I added the butterflies on their swirling, beaded wire stems.  They flutter like the real thing with just the slightest breeze too

The under petals were die cut with a Sizzix flower die from scraps I had left over from the DCWV Lemon Flower Stack.  You can see the paper flower arrangement I made with this paper here.  If you don’t have a die cutting machine check out my tutorial on creating Paper Flowers with Punches.

This is my FAVORITE flourish stamp ever!  It’s from Indigo Blu Alice II set.   I love how a lighter shade of the alcohol inks used to color the glass shows through.

 

Ok so now that you’ve seen the finished piece I’ll go back to the beginning and show you how I made plain old pickle jars pretty after failing and fixing.  Here’s how it all began…

How to Alter Glass Jars

STEP 1- Raid Your Recycling bin (or your fridge).

STEP 2- Spray paint! I gave the jars a coat of Valspar Krystal flat (I like my glass frosty!)  and then a coat of my all time favorite spray paint…Valspar Pearl!  Can you see why I love it so much?

STEP 3- Color Glass with Alcohol ink .  *Alcohol inks from the Brights collection were used to color the glass.  Once it was dry I gave the jars a second coat of Valspar pearl to mute the tones a bit.

STEP 4-  Adhere embellishments with Mosaic Adhesive.

*One of my fails was using the wrong adhesive.  Because of the ridges on the jars even E600 would not hold the stones in place.  After nearly tearing my hair out I managed to find a bottle of Mosaic adhesive buried in my studio.  I slathered it on the rim like I was frosting a cake and at long last achieved the bond I was after.

STEP 5- Stamp and Emboss Glass.  *I stamped in white colorbox ink and embossed with Stampendous star-dust embossing powder. The embossing was sealed with Krylon Glitterblast sealer.

STEP 6-  Add Embellished Vellum Quote with Xyron adhesive .  *The butterfly stamp is a dollar bin find from Michael’s that you might recognize from this project.  The stamp was embossed on vellum with Black soot distress ink and Ranger clear embossing powder.  I colored the front and back with perfect pearls heirloom gold, and gold using an aqua brush.

Once the image was adhered to the glass Distress stickles in spiced marmalade and scattered straw were added to the wings.  The coloring of the glass jars and the technique used for the flourishes and butterfly stamp were inspired by Grungy Monday and this Tim Holtz technique which I modified slightly to fit into my project.

What NOT to do:

First attempt…packing tape transfer…Fail.  Second attempt using vellum.  This worked out…until I tried to adhere the image with Mod Podge.  Not only did the vellum wrinkle like a dress shirt at the bottom of the laundry pile, it removed the alcohol ink and paint when I peeled it off.  After re-inking the glass and contemplating throwing in the towel I broke out my Xyron machine and ran the image through…SUCCESS!  What have I learned from this experience?    1. Embossing on glass takes a LOOOONG time.  2. Mod Podge works on everything EXCEPT vellum (I’m not mad at the Mod Podge….I blame the vellum) and most importantly  3. If at first you don’t succeed, try, TRY AGAIN!

The Butterflies I used in this project are available at the Octopode Factory and if you are getting a jump-start on Christmas projects Lily just released some new Christmas Digis that are beyond adorable (Santa and Baby Rudy = <3) so be sure to stop by her Etsy Shop

Have a creative day!

Amy*

Linking to:

LESSology “Jars of Cuteness”    Simon says Stamp and Show “Recycling”

Tagged as: Alcohol Ink, Copic Marker, DCWV, embossing, glass jars, Indigo Blu stamps, Mod Podge, perfect pearls, sizzix, Sparkle Mod Podge, The Octopode Factory, Tim Holtz technique, Tutorial