New Things

Just a quickie from me today, I'm suffering my first migraine for almost a year and whilst it's certainly not the worst I've ever had, it's slowing me down lol.

I've won a couple of challenges this week, a nice voucher from winning at Tilda's Town and a lovely top 3 Badge from the Alphabet Challenge, so I'm a very happy crafter atm :)

I may have a card to share later or tomorrow but for now I thought I'd just show something I've been experimenting with today.

Firstly I have to say this is very very basic lol, I just wanted to try my hand at something different from a card and I'd seen a few altered candles and felt I'd like to give it a try.

This is what I ended up with on my first try, it's not decorated (and won't be lol, this is just my first 'draft' if you will) and like a complete spanner I didn't check the size of my candle and thought I had something a bit taller lol.

So she only just ....and I mean JUST, fitted on the candle.  This was all about the new to me, I freaked at the thought of trying to colour on tissue paper lol, so I printed out a digi on some very thin marker paper.

Well...first the stupid thing got stuck in the printer and I had to end up taping it to a thicker bit of paper to go through....1st hurdle tackled and conquered.

When I sat down to colour....oh my...colouring on the special marker paper if completely different to colouring on Copic or Neenah card....the ink stays wet for ages and blending...well it seems to me that it either mixes completely or you end up with much less of a gradual variation then normal, I did not get it at all, more practice is definitely needed...or maybe I was using the wrong side of the paper...I will have to experiment and find out.  Anyway I managed to get her done even if she isn't up to my usual standards, it's an experiment right?

Ok so image coloured and cut out, candle, greaseproof paper and heat gun at the ready..this is where I discovered my candle wasn't as tall as I'd thought, and several 'not for public hearing' words were muttered (it's ok I have no young children and I'm on my own today so no damage done lol).

Holding the greaseproof paper tight around the image and candle proved a little problematic at times, but only because I was a numpty and the image was large so was touching top and bottom.  Other than that the technique of actually getting the image on the candle didn't seem that hard and was quite fun.

I didn't decorate any further with ribbon, lace or flowers, as I was just trying the technique and anyway there was no room on my too small candle :P

To sum up?  I tried something new, I had fun, I know where I need to ractice and what mistakes to avoid next time, so watch this space, I may have have a fancy decorative candle to show you some time in the future, but I thought you might be interested in seeing that projects don't normally end up perfect from the first try.  

Don't be afraid to try your hand at something new or different, you're bound to make mistakes the first time, but that's how we learn, you'll most likely have fun and hey....who knows where it may lead you.

Have fun!  :) xx