Crafters UNITE!

[Truly Scrumptious]

Originally Posted by Miss_Tia

I thought I could ask for help in here. My daughter is doing a nautical theme wedding...seashells, seaweed, etc. Her bridal bouquet is a striking orange coral with seaweed and trinkets placed in it. The groomsmen are wearing sand dollars and starfishes. Her colors are beige and light blue and white. We are doing a blue fondant three layer cake with seashells all over it.

In saying all this...any craft ideas we can throw in there? She is not wearing a wedding dress....she is wearing a sun dress and flip flops.We are having it at a local park, outdoors and its going to be a BBQ reception right after.

Favors, decor, bridesmaid gifts, etc?

One of my favourite things to work with is sea glass . . . it's so pretty, and so versatile. What about adding a few cups of sea glass to some wide (shallow) bowls, adding water, and floating flowers? Or you could add it to vases, and do the same thing but with stemmed flowers. You could tint the water a little too, if you wanted.

Depending on where you live and how much time you have, real sea glass can be tricky to come by, but you can buy tumbled (or faux) sea glass pretty cheaply. If you live anywhere near a Christmas Tree Shop, they usually have bags of it for a few bucks. Or if you're in New England, Ocean State Job Lot often has it also. Michael's usually carries it too, but it's much more expensive. Or . . . if you have the time and feel like breaking glass, you can actually tumble glass yourself. It won't look like sea glass, but can be really pretty if you use green and amber wine bottles, and Skyy vodka bottles. You don't need a tumbler, and it's a pretty simple process . . I will explain more if you are interested.

And how about sea glass jewelry for bridesmaids gifts? You can find beautiful original pieces at etsy.

[Soft*Silver]

thank you everyone for your tips! I will bring them forth to my daughter and she can chose which ones she wants to use!

I personally love the idea of sea glass gifts for her bridesmaids! So very cool! I dabble in making jewelry so Imma gonna look for sea glass and try to do some for her and let her pick.

I already asked Scrumptious to teach me how to make the glass!

Originally Posted by Truly Scrumptious

One of my favourite things to work with is sea glass . . . it's so pretty, and so versatile. What about adding a few cups of sea glass to some wide (shallow) bowls, adding water, and floating flowers? Or you could add it to vases, and do the same thing but with stemmed flowers. You could tint the water a little too, if you wanted.

Depending on where you live and how much time you have, real sea glass can be tricky to come by, but you can buy tumbled (or faux) sea glass pretty cheaply. If you live anywhere near a Christmas Tree Shop, they usually have bags of it for a few bucks. Or if you're in New England, Ocean State Job Lot often has it also. Michael's usually carries it too, but it's much more expensive. Or . . . if you have the time and feel like breaking glass, you can actually tumble glass yourself. It won't look like sea glass, but can be really pretty if you use green and amber wine bottles, and Skyy vodka bottles. You don't need a tumbler, and it's a pretty simple process . . I will explain more if you are interested.

And how about sea glass jewelry for bridesmaids gifts? You can find beautiful original pieces at etsy.

[Truly Scrumptious]

Originally Posted by Miss_Tia

I already asked Scrumptious to teach me how to make the glass!

I had a couple of messages about the glass, so will explain here:

It's a simple process, but has the potential to be dangerous so the two most important things are safety glasses and gloves . . I usually use gardening gloves.

Collect some glass . . . green or amber wine bottles are great as are Skyy vodka bottles, because they are a beautiful cobalt blue. There are other kinds of glass you can use, but you have to look out for tempered glass because it doesn't break well, it just splinters. Most glass dishes turn out to be tempered glass, so I usually stick to wine bottles.

If you drink a lot of wine or vodka, you're all set. If not, you can ask your friends to save their empty bottles, I've run ads on craigslist asking for empty wine bottles and have done well that way. And I'm not above a little trash picking . . . there's a restaurant near me that puts all their empty wine bottles out for the trash twice a week, you might be able to find some that way too.

Soak the labels off, wash and dry the bottles, and you're ready to begin. You need some plastic bags, like grocery bags (or a pillow case, but keep in mind that you will destroy whatever you use, so don't use a pillow case that you intend to keep). This step is best done outside, or in a garage: put one bottle in a bag, and double the bag if it's thin. Put on your glasses and gloves, and smash the bottle with a hammer. This might take a few tries, it's amazing how things refuse to break when you want them to. Once you've broken the bottle into a few big pieces, break those pieces into smaller pieces with the hammer, this time it won't take much force.

When you've got all the pieces in the sizes you want, you're ready to tumble.
You need an empty glass jar with a tight fitting lid, and a few rocks. The jar doesn't have to be big, you want to make sure you can lift it comfortably.

Put a few rocks in the jar (any kind of rocks will do) and add the glass until the jar is about 3/4 full. Add a drop of dish soap, and enough water to cover the glass, but not enough to fill the jar. It should look like this:



Then you shake the jar. Shake it up and down, side to side, whatever works for you . . just shake it for awhile. Shake it as often as you remember to, for about a week. I usually leave the jar in the kitchen by the sink, and shake it whenever I'm in there. In about a week, open the jar, take out a piece of glass, and see if it's ready. The edges should be dull enough that you couldn't possibly cut yourself with it. If it's not ready, just shake it for a few more days and it will be. When it's ready, drain it, (be careful because there will always be some little slivers just waiting to cut you), lay it out on a soft cloth until it's dry, and then it's ready to be used however you like.

[amiyesiam]

Originally Posted by Truly Scrumptious

I had a couple of messages about the glass, so will explain here:

It's a simple process, but has the potential to be dangerous so the two most important things are safety glasses and gloves . . I usually use gardening gloves.

Collect some glass . . . green or amber wine bottles are great as are Skyy vodka bottles, because they are a beautiful cobalt blue. There are other kinds of glass you can use, but you have to look out for tempered glass because it doesn't break well, it just splinters. Most glass dishes turn out to be tempered glass, so I usually stick to wine bottles.

If you drink a lot of wine or vodka, you're all set. If not, you can ask your friends to save their empty bottles, I've run ads on craigslist asking for empty wine bottles and have done well that way. And I'm not above a little trash picking . . . there's a restaurant near me that puts all their empty wine bottles out for the trash twice a week, you might be able to find some that way too.

Soak the labels off, wash and dry the bottles, and you're ready to begin. You need some plastic bags, like grocery bags (or a pillow case, but keep in mind that you will destroy whatever you use, so don't use a pillow case that you intend to keep). This step is best done outside, or in a garage: put one bottle in a bag, and double the bag if it's thin. Put on your glasses and gloves, and smash the bottle with a hammer. This might take a few tries, it's amazing how things refuse to break when you want them to. Once you've broken the bottle into a few big pieces, break those pieces into smaller pieces with the hammer, this time it won't take much force.

When you've got all the pieces in the sizes you want, you're ready to tumble.
You need an empty glass jar with a tight fitting lid, and a few rocks. The jar doesn't have to be big, you want to make sure you can lift it comfortably.

Put a few rocks in the jar (any kind of rocks will do) and add the glass until the jar is about 3/4 full. Add a drop of dish soap, and enough water to cover the glass, but not enough to fill the jar. It should look like this:



Then you shake the jar. Shake it up and down, side to side, whatever works for you . . just shake it for awhile. Shake it as often as you remember to, for about a week. I usually leave the jar in the kitchen by the sink, and shake it whenever I'm in there. In about a week, open the jar, take out a piece of glass, and see if it's ready. The edges should be dull enough that you couldn't possibly cut yourself with it. If it's not ready, just shake it for a few more days and it will be. When it's ready, drain it, (be careful because there will always be some little slivers just waiting to cut you), lay it out on a soft cloth until it's dry, and then it's ready to be used however you like.

We had a dark red wine bottle, it has officially been smashed and the process has begun. I am so excited about this!!!!!

[Truly Scrumptious]

Originally Posted by amiyesiam

We had a dark red wine bottle, it has officially been smashed and the process has begun. I am so excited about this!!!!!

Excellent! Let us know how it goes!

[cara]

Here's a really cool article on dying easter eggs naturally!

Eggyeggyeggs.



cara

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by amiyesiam

We had a dark red wine bottle, it has officially been smashed and the process has begun. I am so excited about this!!!!!

Well, how is it turning out?

[girl_dee]

Whipped this up over the weekend, another one for the Women's shelter here, i hope some baby likes it!

[amiyesiam]

Originally Posted by Cajun_dee

Whipped this up over the weekend, another one for the Women's shelter here, i hope some baby likes it!

Awesome!!!!!!

[amiyesiam]

Originally Posted by Gemme

Well, how is it turning out?

I keep shaking it up, there are tons of bits of broken tiny pieces of glass in there now with the big pieces. So it seems to be working.

[Truly Scrumptious]

Originally Posted by amiyesiam

I keep shaking it up, there are tons of bits of broken tiny pieces of glass in there now with the big pieces. So it seems to be working.

Open the jar and take out a couple of pieces . . see how they feel. If they are dull around the edges (so that you couldn't cut yourself) they are ready. Just be careful!

[Medusa]

I just did a Mona Lisa paint by numbers with weird neon colors.

Oh, the irony.

[LaDivina]

Originally Posted by Miss_Tia

thank you everyone for your tips! I will bring them forth to my daughter and she can chose which ones she wants to use!

Scorp & I got married in P-town last spring, and this is the tray her cousin made up for our rings. It also doubled as a tray for our champagne glasses afterward!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...0/DSC_0943.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/DSC_0960.JPG

[chai~]

on the "to do" list

[justkim]

Love it! Is it like decoupage? (sp)

Originally Posted by chai~

on the "to do" list

[chai~]

Originally Posted by justkim

Love it! Is it like decoupage? (sp)

simpler than decoupage!
Wasi tape!
It is pretty Japanese tape, about as sticky as masking tape!
Easy to see through too!
So lovely isn't it!?

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by chai~

on the "to do" list

wow, does it leave a residue?

[chai~]

Originally Posted by Cajun_dee

wow, does it leave a residue?

Very little, it can be easily removed with a finger tip!
As much residue as masking tape.
Are you going to try it?
Share a pic if you do please!

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by chai~

Very little, it can be easily removed with a finger tip!
As much residue as masking tape.
Are you going to try it?
Share a pic if you do please!

looks like fun! maybe someone can cut them out and sell them!