Good Day everyone!
Today I am so excited to share with you my experience working with some of the wonderful products by Faber-Castell and Helmar together. This decoration you just lay on the branch of your tree. If you make it out of cardstock it can be hung by adding a ribbon or cord onto the back.
But first here is a fun fact about Faber-Castell ... 2011 is a milestone year for Faber-Castell USA as they celebrate the 250th Anniversary of Faber-Castell and 35 years of Creativity for Kids! TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS!!!! WHO DOES THAT? Faber-Castell does, that's who! Can you imagine being part of such a great business/company that you have the opportunity to celebrate 250 year anniversary? Kudos to you Faber-Castell and by the way your products rock! I love working with them!
The supplies are as fallows:
- Faber-Castell - Gelatos - in red, pink shimmer, gold shimmer, dark green and orange (or any desired color you wish)
- Faber-Castell - Big Pens in red and green
- Helmar Gemstone Glue, Crackle Medium step 1 and 2, Scrap Dots and Helmar 450
- Glitter - two to coordinate (red and green)
- beads or colored sand
- A sponge and a scrap piece of cardstock
Let’s get started...
Step 1: Cut leaf shapes out of book pages. (Remember the size you cut them is 1/2 the size of the overall poinsettia.)
Step 2: Let your inner toddler out! Color 8-9 leafs with your red Faber-Castell Gelatos of choice and two more with the green colors. I added a bit of shimmery gold on each too. Let them dry or use your embossing heat gun to dry them faster.
Step 3: Take a wet paint brush and start water coloring the colors together. (I worked from the lighter color to the darker.)
Step 4: Crackle each leaf shape with step one and two per directions on the back of the jars.
Step 5: To get a richer highlight of color add some Faber-Castell PITT Stamper's Big Brush Pen to each one in a little area. These are India ink and will be permanent but they don't dry supper fast so they can be moved around a bit as you can see here where I am softening the edges with a sponge.
Step 6: Using a small paint brush, brush on the gemstone glue where you want glitter accents. Glitter with coordinating color. (If done shortly after the final step for the Crackle is done the glitter will also stick in the cracks of the crackle... see close-up below)
Step 7: Using Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots fill a 1" circle (or cardstock scrap) with a nice big glob (see it below in the bottom of the next photo)! Yes a glob! Add the leaves by inserting the bottom of the leaf into the bottom of the stack of globby gluie goodness. Repeat this with the petals but instead of inserting those into this glob of glorious glue insert them in rows of threes by row further towards the top.
Step 8: Once the last layer is near the top place another generous glob in the center and sprinkle it with gold colored sand or beads. Let this set for 24-48 hrs to dry. I know that seams long but really that's the beauty of this product. You can move and adjust things as you are creating. A long "open" dry time window is a wonderful thing to have.
Close-up Image: (see the glitter stuck in the cracks on the bottom right leaf?) I love it!
Have a Happy Helmar Holiday!
Helmar Design Team Member
