Caught In Crystal

Supplies needed: Acetate, tissue paper, fine glitter, paint brush, heat tool, Johnsons Klear Floor Wax (approx £3 from any large supermarket), liquid inks (re-inkers, alcohol inks), kitchen towel, rubber stamp, permanent ink (stazon)



Apply floor wax to the acetate, but do not paint too close to the edges



Sprinkle on a small amount of glitter, don't add too much or the tissue paper will not stick



Take a piece of tissue paper large enough to cover the acetate. Crumple it up into a ball, open it up and place it over the piece of acetate. Lightly pat it down



Apply more Johnsons Klear floor wax to your paint brush and gently stipple the surface of the tissue paper until completely covered



Next add your colour randomly over the tissue paper, one colour at a time - I added spiced marmalade first



I then added a second colour - china blue



And a third colour - mustard seed. If you are applying the inks with a brush, remember to clean your brush between colours.

Dip your brush into the Johnsons Klear floor wax and coat the piece of tissue paper with it. Your inks should blend together and possibly change colour as below



Take another piece of tissue paper, again bigger than the piece of acetate, and place it over the newly inked and waxed surface



Using a piece of kitchen towel, pat the new piece of tissue paper to absorb the excess ink - this bit is messy, but I love it!!!



Pull off the piece of tissue paper that you have just applied. Be careful only to take the one sheet



Set this aside, as it makes great backing paper for other projects



Take your heat gun and dry the piece of tissue paper still attached to the acetate. Be careful not to over heat at this stage, do not melt the acetate underneath!!! The hair dryer type heat tool is better for this than the heat gun



When dry, apply a final layer of Johnsons Klear floor wax to the tissue paper to seal. Again use a heat tool to dry. I left mine for a couple of hours to completely dry



Once dry turn the whole thing over so that the acetate is to the top. Ink your chosen stamp with permanent ink (black stazon) and stamp your image directly onto the acetate, cut to size



You can, if you wish, stamp your image onto the acetate before you apply the first application of the floor wax, but doing it this way, you have no control of where the colour is going to go. Stamping your image last gives you the choice of where you would like to place the image in relation to the colours and patterns you've created