Frosted Winter Blooms and Mini Vase with Perfect Paints
Hi, friends, it's Walter here with on the blog with you today! The Christmas and New Year holidays are over and I find myself looking for ideas for new winter decor. The inspiration for this project came to me while making breakfast the day after Christmas. I was in the mood for pancakes and I'm someone who loves maple syrup. My sister had recently given me some small bottles of syrup from Cracker Barrel. I looked at the bottle as I poured it over my stack of pancakes and thought that it had a pretty design to it. That little inspiration lightbulb above my head lit up as I thought it would make a pretty mini vase! I knew that Perfect Paints products would be the perfect mediums to transform it into a beautiful small vase and that would make a fun piece of winter decor. The traditional winter color palette includes some of my favorite colors - shades of blue, silver, and white - and would be perfect for my design. Here's a peek at the finished piece:
I used the following Perfect Paints products to create it:
Epoxy Resin and Hardener
Snowflake Silicone Mould
49 and Market Royal Spray Ivory Handmade Paper Flowers
Mod Podge
Silver Metallic Marker
Metal plant stakes
Directions
I started by soaking the glass bottle in some hot water and dish soap (I used Dawn) in order to loosen the label from the bottle. I was then able to easily remove any label residue with some rubbing alcohol and a paper towel.
I mixed the epoxy and hardener according to the directions on the product. The resin set that I purchased came from Amazon and is an easy to use 1:1 mix of the two mediums. Here's a tip if you're not familiar with resin: when purchasing, look for resin and hardener that are mixed together based on volume and not on weight so that you can ensure a nicely mixed resin that will be certain to cure correctly. Once it was mixed, I poured the resin into the mould to make a few clear snowflakes. Allow them to cure and harden according to the product directions.
I next worked on creating my mini vase. I mixed some Halo Perfect Paints Matte Shimmering Acrylic with some Perfect Glaze Medium to thin the paint and allow it to be more translucent. I wanted to frosted effect and not a solidly colored glass for the mini vase. I painted a few coats of the mixture onto the bottle, allowing it to dry in between coats.
Once the bottle was dry, I used a small detail paint brush and some Tarnished Silver Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylic to paint the raised teardrop shaped elements along the top of the bottle. I then painted each of them with one coat of the Halo mixture to make it a little lighter and add further shimmer. The raised dots on the top of the bottle were then colored with a silver metallic marker. It was easier to color them with the fine tip of a marker than to paint them.
The final step for the mini vase was to add some Clear X-Small Glass Bead Gel around the top of the bottle to create an icy glazed look. I applied the glass bead gel around the top with a palette knife, making sure to allow for it to extend down onto the bottle in some areas to make it look like the freezing occurred while dripping. I was now able to set the vase aside to let the bead gel dry, which I allow to happen overnight.
I painted the back of the clear resin snowflakes with a couple of coats of the Halo mixture to give them a little dimension and set thgem aside to dry,
I also used the Halo mixture to paint the leaves, flower bud and reeds, and metal plant stakes that I use as stems. I next added a small drop of Bohemian Blue Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylic to create lovely light shade of blue to use to paint the paper flower. I applied a coat of paint to flower and, once dry, used just a slight amount of Bohemian Blue to darken the center of the flower, and then used a small detail brush to paint the stamen with Tarnished Silver.
I cut the metal plant stakes to size and then used super glue to attach them to the back of the snowflakes, flower, and leaves.
The next day, I arranged the items in the vase and my frosted winter blooms and mini vase was complete! I love the look of glass bead gel acting as ice dripping down the bottle, and all of the shimmer & sparkle on the floral elements. This is going on my desk so that I have something pretty to look at as I work my day job!
Thanks for spending some time on the blog with me today. Until next time . . . be well!
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