Glittering Teachers Gifts DIY Tutorial - Gifts that teachers will actually want!

This Friday we welcome Melissa Biebel to the Craft Chameleon Blog. She has produced a really unique, clever and glittery tutorial today. Let us know if you try this technique!

Follow along while I show you the method to glitter your clear acrylic pencil blanks to add sparkle to your favorite teacher's life! Shown here is cute classroom sign and coordinating keychain but other acrylic shapes from CraftChameleon.com can be used with this technique.

Supplies
Items listed with an * are clickable links to the products on the website.
* Acrylic Blank Pencil 3"
* Keychain 
* Triangle Bail

* Tassels
* Oval Jump Rings
  Painters Tape
  Small Paint Brush and/or Popsicle Stick
  Glitter  
  Mod Podge
  2 Part Epoxy * Acrylic Blank Pencil Sign
  Ribbon or Twine to Hang the Sign

First to get the glitter in the proper areas of the acrylic, use the tape to create the areas for glitter.

While you use a paintbrush or popsicle stick to apply your mod podge, I use a squirt bottle to get it onto the acrylic. I think it improves accuracy, keeps stray glitter out of the jar and is less wasteful. If you decide to make a several you might consider employing this technique.

Use your small paintbrush to smooth the mod podge onto the area you want to glitter. Be sure your layers are thin.

Sprinkle your glitter onto the mod podge. Shake off the excess and let it dry. If you need or want a second layer of glitter, repeat with another layer of mod podge then glitter. Continue layers until you are happy with the result.

Peel off the tape while the mod podge is still wet. 

Move the tape down the acrylic pencil blank and continue the mod podge glitter process.

To make the zig-zag area just tear the tape and place it on the blank Another option is to cut a piece of vinyl from the cut file provided by CraftChameleon.com. 

Almost completed, tape off the lead portion of the acrylic. Then proceed with the mod podge and glitter process.

Now all the glitter layer are complete, just allow drying.

To completely seal the glittered acrylics, I prefer to use a two-part epoxy resin. It provides a harder protection over the glitter. I use Alumilite Clear Cast. It can be found at most craft stores.  Make sure to get the clear drying formula, there is another one that dries white.

Mix the 2 parts together in equal portions with a popsicle stick that you can use to apply the resin (shown in the photo above). Do not apply resin in the hole or it will be filled.

If you do not want to use a 2 part epoxy try the dimensional mod podge or other thick clear coat. 

Once completed with the epoxy application, let the pencils sit for a few hours until cured.

Once dry, apply the decal with your teacher's name. Another coat of epoxy can be added to protect any small pieces of vinyl. Assemble your keychain and you're done!

To make the large pencil sign follow the same steps. It is just on a larger scale.

To hang the sign, thread a ribbon or twine through the holes on the top and tie to secure. The triangle bails can be used in the holes with chain for another hanging alternative.

Thank you, Melissa, for a cute and unique tutorial!

Won't you consider pinning our image below? We'd appreciate it!

Save the Place in Your Reader's Heart -Personalized Acrylic Bookmark

By Terisa Bostic

Forward by Jamie Omahen: Craft Chamemleon is excited to start off 2018 blogging with some of our best and brightest creative facebook group members. We are blessed to have a talented, sharing community there. When I requested help on our blog, these skilled and brilliant people stepped up to the task!

I hope you enjoy this blog post tutorial and those to come as much as we have enjoyed/will enjoy bringing them to you. Now, let's start with our intrepid Terisa's tutorial. the first of many!

Supplies from Craft Chameleon- Click the listing below for more information.

Supplies    Small Triangle Bail

                  Swivel Lobster Clasp

                  Beaded Heart Charms

                  Oval Jump Ring

                  5/8” Acrylic Round Disks—Silver Mirror

                  1”Acrylic Heart-Hot Pink Glitter with Middle Top Hole

                  Blank Acrylic Rectangular Book Mark-Clear

                  Pink and Black Vinyl (or your preferred colors)

                  Needlenose Pliers  (these are different than those used in the tutorial)

                
           1.   Open the bookmark template ( 1.5' x 4" rectangle) provided by Craft 

                 Chameleon. Create a Text Box in Silhouette Cameo Studio.

Template links are available for download from your shipping confirmation email.

Type the name to run vertically down the bookmark. The font I used here is called LW Lucky Hearts.  Adjust your name so it fits in the bookmark template. 

2.   Open the templates provided by Craft Chameleon for the 1” heart and the 5/8” circle. Add them to your working area. 

      I used heart designs from another file I had in my silhouette library, but you can use any heart you like.  Adjust to fit in the templates until you like the way they look.

For the initials, you can use any font desired and adjust the letter to fit the circle template.  For this design I used ED Chunky Paperwork and LW Sweetheart.For the name in the hearts, I used the LW Doodle Font .  I used the same hearts from the 5/8” circles in the previous step to design the other heart.

3.  Cut and weed your vinyl designs. Place transfer tape on vinyl and burnish so that the vinyl will stick to the acrylic. 

4.   All the acrylic shapes come with a thin brown or clear plastic covering that must be removed before placing any vinyl onto the surface.

5.  Remove paper backing from vinyl.  Place the vinyl on each shape in the desired way, and burnish again to adhere the vinyl to the shape. 

Assembly

       

       6.  For this step you will need pliers, triangle bails, and jump rings.  

Using pliers open the triangle bail as shown, insert it through shape, and close with pliers. Do this for the acrylic heart shapes, the heart charm, and the lobster claw.

7.  Using pliers, open the jump rings, and attach through the hole of each of the 5/8” disks.  The triangle bails are too large to fit through the hole on the disks.

8.   Insert the triangle bails attached to the lobster claw into the hole at the top of the bookmark, and close the bails with pliers.

9.   Insert the triangle bails attached to the hearts into the hole at the top of the bookmark, and close the bails with pliers.

10.   Slide the jump rings attached to the 5/8” disks onto the lobster clasp.

  Finished!!

Afterword from Jamie: Thank you Terisa! Our first post for 2018. I love the way the 5/8" disks fan out when put at the end of the lobster clasp. I would never have thought to do that and it's perfect!

Ideas like Terisa's and so many others are the reason to subscribe to our new blog!  We are endeavoring to bring at least 1 post a week and some weeks possibly 2 or more.

Have you made a Craft Chameleon bookmark and want to share? Comment below we'd love to hear from you!

Take Note, Teacher Gifts Are Here!

This time of the year we are all scrambling to find and give that perfect gift to those who teach our little ones in school. So take note, teacher gifts are here!

Punch Place Plus offers a wide variety of products to use for any type of gift but they also offer gifts that are perfect for those who are in an office type setting or may need to take a lot of notes (shoot, I want one for my desk area!).

The items you'll need to make these are:
Acrylic Name Plates
Acrylic Post It Note Pad Holders
Vinyl
Scotch Tape
Exacto Knife
Post it Notes!

These are easy-peasy to do, you don't even need to use vinyl if you don't want to. You could use scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. Simply place your paper under the Post It Note Holder, and use your exacto knife to cut around it. Apply some Mod Podge onto the acrylic, apply your paper, then apply another coat of Mod Podge over the top wait for it to dry, add your top onto the Post It Note Holder and you're done!

For mine, I simply cut out a pattern that I thought fit each of my sons teachers personalities.

I took some scotch tape and applied it to where the top and the part that holds the post it pad meet (so I could align my design, there is no need to put it where the top will go because it won't be seen and you wouldn't have a very good seal/bond between the top and the pad holder if there were vinyl in between).

I flipped the post it over to line up where my scotch tape would go.
You can see the outline from behind.

 Applied the tape & cleaned my acrylic.

I then aligned my design up along the bottom of the tape and placed my vinyl design onto the post it note pad holder. I didn't cut my design to fit exact to the Post it Note Holder because I knew it would be harder to line everything up then to just line up the top.

Once it was aligned and on the post it note holder, I took an exacto knife and went around it cutting off the excess vinyl.

Now that the vinyl is adhered, we are going to attach the top part of the post it note holder. 

 I love that the post it note holders from Punch Place Plus come with an adhesive backing already on them! 

You're simply going to take the backing off of the adhesive.

 Better picture of the adhesive on the back.

 And align it with your post it note holder. 

(Please note that you don't have any room for error, so you need to do this part slowly!)
 I lined up one side at a time and then did the other side.)

Once it was on, I pushed on it in all four corners and in the middle; then turned it over and rubbed it to make sure it was on there good.

 Ta-da!
A very cute post it note pad holder!

For the Name Plates I didn't do anything special, in fact I only did names without a design. For one because they're males and two what if they move to another school?

 There you have it an easy, yet amazing looking gifts for teachers!!

I hope you'll share what you made with your Post It Note Pad Holders and Name Plates?!

As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask;)