A soggy Saturday

Very humid,  and windy,  a taste of what is to come if we believe the Met office, as we are supposed to get the tail end of some hurricane. 

So what to do on a wet afternoon? Play of course :-)  I mistakenly ordered the white decals - rats, but all was not lost.  I felt that with some careful cutting they'd still work.  So today was play day,  just seeing how much varnish to use,  how big the designs need to be and practising how to put the decals on.    This was the first attempt, found some copyright free images,  once downloaded I arranged them in a Word document, I got four images on the page, probably could get more,  depends on size.   Had some decal paper left over... but more of that in a minute!   Once the image has been printed on the decal paper it needs to be 'fixed',  hence the acrylic varnish,  I'm using plastikote clear acrylic varnish,  the 'fixative' needs to be flexible.  The instructions say to give it 3 light coats,  'light' being the important word,  and then leave it to dry between coats.  It takes about an hour to dry completely,   so you can see this is an activity that needs planning.    Once dry I used a shape cutter to cut out the image.  Then you soak it in some cold water for about 30 secs,  then gently slide it off the backing paper and onto the candle, or whatever it is you want the decal to go on.  Next comes the fiddly bit,  you need to smooth it down, but gently, it takes a few minutes and then you can leave it to dry.  

But what about those left over bits?   Well...  if you have a die cutting machine, or punches, some alcohol inks, then you can use them up!   The decal paper will take the alcohol inks,  there is not need to 'fix' it either as it is not water soluble.   So once you have your piece of coloured decal then start punching or cutting.  I used my Slice machine,  I was using a small candle so the designs had to be no more than One and a Half inches.   This really was an experiment but I was very happy with the results.  With the wedding coming up I wondered if the Slice Wedding SD card would be useful,  didn't fancy paying full price for it, but found it on Amazon for half price!   Result. 

This is the 'other' side of the candle.  You could put anything on it, including letters or words,  so you can make bespoke candles for any occasion.  Considering how much decorated candles cost in the shops these work out at a fraction of the price. 

Now need to source some wholesale candles - and do some designs.  Well that festive thingymebob is happening in a couple of months! 

Getting so clammy here,  and it was really warm last night.

Not sure what to do tomorrow,  I should make my swap card,  or make a start on my scrap challenge?  May make one more candle using the white decals,  should get delivery of the clear decal on Monday.

Enjoy the weekend folks.