Sea Glass and UTEE fun! :)

My crafting bud, Sherre, and I had a day of Melting Pot play! We viewed a segment from the second Tim Holtz DVD and also a segment from the new Suze Weinberg DVD on Faux Dichroic Glass. We fueled up with coffee and muffins (Thank you, Sherre!! YUM!) and then went to play!

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We used Sea Glass in all of our creations. For these samples below we based our play on the Tim Holtz version of Faux Dichroic Glass:
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1) Heat Melting Pot on high -- empty!!
2) Place Sea Glass in pot and allow to heat through. This doesn't take very long!
3) Sprinkle some clear UTEE over glass. Allow to melt.
4) Scoop out of pot (this is the tricky part! The glass is a slippery little fellow!) and flip UTEE SIDE DOWN onto craft foil*. Press the glass (using the handle of your spatula NOT your fingers) into the foil and allow to cool.
5) Peel glass off of the foil and the foil pattern is now adhered to your glass.
6) Place the glass back into the empty melting pot (still on high) foil side UP.
7) Here is where you get to experiment...... sprinkle some metallic embossing powders on top, then add some other fun opaque colors, and then put on some Alcohol Ink Colored** embossing powders. (These are really great because they are transparent and you get awesome effects)
8) Once your are done applying your embossing powders, place a very generous heap of clear UTEE over the entire piece and let it melt. It will "bleed" out and spread the colors and give your glass a nice smooth finish.
9) Carefully remove your piece with a spatula (tricky part number 2.......the UTEE likes to slide off of the glass ...... try to be quick and careful!!)
10) Place on your craft sheet to cool..........TAAADAAAAAAAA! You are done!
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Here are some sample pieces that I made during our play day. As I always say........ experiment, experiment, experiment!!! Use different glass, foil, and embossing powder color combinations. You just never know what you'll end up with.......and I LIKE it that way! :)



Close up view of a few of the pieces.
On the blue piece on the left, you can see that I sprinkled just a tiny bit of silver metallic embossing powder over the top of the clear UTEE. It sort of looks like it's floating on top.
I tossed in some microbeads on the piece on the lower right.
You can see some breaks in the foil underlayment in the piece on the lower left.


*You can find craft foil in many places. Here are a few:
http://www.schmoozewithsuze.com/product/product.php?pID=060301002342
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3747394-AA.shtml
http://www.clayalley.com/jonestones.htm

**You can make the Alcohol Ink Embossing powders by mixing Alcohol inks into Clear UTEE. For rich earthy colors, use the Adirondack colors. For bright colors use the Pinata colors. Just keep mixing up the UTEE/ink mixture until all of the lumps are gone and you have nice smooth BEAUTIFULLY colored UTEE.
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The next toy I played with was my Angelina Fusible Film. I followed similar steps from above, but instead of placing the hot glass w/ UTEE onto craft foil, I placed it glass side down on my craft sheet.
Then I layed some Angelina Film over the hot UTEE. I layered a few different colors. I carefully pressed into the melted UTEE (yes, with my hands.........DON'T TELL! LOL!!!) I let it cool and then trimmed film around the sea glass. (to about 1/4 inch from the edge or so........)
Then I placed the glass back into the hot melting pot (still empty! :) and covered the film with a glazing layer of clear UTEE.
After the top coat of clear UTEE is completely melted, remove from the pot with that tricky spatula again. Lay onto your craft sheet and quickly press a design stamp gently into the hot UTEE.
I tried inking the stamps with metallic pigment ink and just clear embossing ink. I think I like the effect better with the clear ink. I do, however, like how my flying kitty turned out with the metallic gold ink! :) (Third Coast Rubber Stamps)

Here is a photo of the Angelina Film Glass flat on white paper. These are difficult to photograph, but here you can see the different colors and layers of film.

NOW you can see the fabby effect from this film. These next 2 pics are the same pieces tilted slightly so you can see the irredescence from the film under the UTEE. The stamping is a key element here......the patterns in the UTEE break the light against the film and create an incredible effect.

.....cooooooooooooooooooool!!!!

I always welcome comments!! I would love to respond back to you......so, please leave me your email address on your comment!! :)