Decoart Glass Stain Key Chain Tutorial.

Hi all, thanks for stopping by, Today I am trying something different, this is my first tutorial, I have been thinking of having a go for a while and a couple of weeks ago I made some key rings using Decoart Glass Stains and thought they might be a good place to start.

I hope you don't mind the waffle and a whole load of pics.

Here is what you will need.

 Decoart Glass Stains
Decoart Triple Thick Glaze
Tim Holtz Fragments
Glossy Card
Distress Ink
Key Chain's (you can use pre made, I have some with the Tim Holtz clips and some made from scratch using parts from the Bead Shop in Brighton )
Any type of charms.
Fine Sand Paper/Sanding Block
Pliers
And of course a selection of stamps.

You can find a list of Decoart Suppliers HERE

 1) The first step is to take your glossy card, I cut my sheet into half but you can go as small as quarters depending on how many you want to make and your colour choices.
I have found it best to use three colours to get a nice blended look.
Squeeze the Glass stains out randomly and quite generously across the piece of card, I have used red yellow and orange here.

 2) Take the other half of your paper and place it face down on top of the first piece, slide the paper around making sure you push the stains into all the corners as much as possible, I rotate the paper a little between my hands as well to get nice swirls of colour mixed. Do not worry too much about any small areas of white card showing through, they can be dealt with latter on.Once you have mixed them together enough you can either peal the top layer off, this leaves a more textured finish to the Stains or you can slide the top sheet off leaving a much smoother look to the blended colours.
Set the sheets aside to dry, they will probably be workable in about an hour and if you are careful you can help them along with your heat gun.

   This one has been made using Green Yellow and Blue Glass Stains

And this has Blue, Brown and Black Glass Stains.

 3) Now you get to break out your stamps,I have used black Archival ink for all my stamping and found this to give the best results. You will find some stamps  work a lot better than others, I found the stamps with finer lines gave the best results rather than larger areas of rubber. If you look at the Gent, his body is quite patchy, When you stamp on top of the Stains it is almost like stamping on to glass or acetate, be careful the stamp does not slide and the larger areas of rubber sort of suck when you peal the stamp away lifting off some of the ink. (I hope that makes sense)

 If you are not keen on the white patches of card showing through the gaps now is the time to grab some Distress Ink, The piece of card in the top left of the picture has had some Mustard Seed applied. The Glass Stains act as a resist to water based inks so can be wiped back with a wet wipe or damp piece of kitchen towel.

It is also amazing that you will pick out stamps you may not have used in a while or maybe have never used as you will only see part of the stamp.

 4)  Roughly cut the pieces of card to size, I have laid the Fragments on top of the card to give an idea of what they will look like when finished, It also helps you decide what part of the stamped image you want to use. I'll list the stamps I have used at the end, recognise many?

 5) When you have the card cut down to a manageable size grab your Triple thick. you will not need a lot for each key ring.

Apply a small dollop to your image, grab the fragment that you want to use and push the fragment down firmly making sure all the triple thick is squeezed to the edge and all the air bubbles have gone, do not worry too much about the excess that has squeezed out, you can use a cocktail stick just to pull it away from the fragment but this is also easily tidied up a little later. It is a good idea to use a cocktail stick just to clear some of the Triple thick from the fragments eye hole, this will make it easier a little later when you attach the key chain.

 Leave all your fragments to dry, it is best to leave them over night although  3-4 hours will probably be enough if like me you are impatient ;)

 6) When dry use a craft knife to cut around the Fragment as close as you can, do not worry  if there are little bits sticking out as they will go in the next step.

Grab some fine sand paper or your sanding block and get rid of those rough edges, this also helps get rid of any Triple thick that is sticking to the sides.(It is worth remembering to sand towards the fragment, if you sand away from it you run the risk of tearing the card stock.)

 7) You should now have all your Fragments ready to be added to your key chains, for some I used the Tim Holtz Key chains, I just opened the bottom loop and attached the Fragments closing the loop after, I then added some charms to the top loop, I used some of Tims Word Sticks and other tokens but you can use what ever you like.

The other Key Chains were made from scratch, the chain was cut to length, rings added to the top and bottom with the Fragment and the Key Ring clasp added as well, the charms were added in the same way.

Here are all the key chains I made from my card stock. I still have several sheets left from this make, I used one sheet of each colour.

The other sheets are ready for either more key chains, Journal Pages like THIS or for ATC's like the second one in THIS post.

I have had great fun playing with the glass stains on card, not just glass. Here are the key chains finished.with details of the stamp used.

If you have any questions leave a comment xx

Thanks for stopping by x I hope you managed to stick with it. ;)

These are both from Paper Artsy

Lynne Perrella 003

Lynne Perrella 022

 De Stempelwinkel Dali
 De Stempelwinkel Diamonds and Decorations

De Stempelwinkel Dali
















Tim Holtz Papillon

This one Is a design from Rick St Dennis and is part of his first rubber set for Smeared Inks Rubber Club
















Again Thank you for stopping by, I hope this was not to painful, I think I shall be trying more of these in the future so I am sure I will be able to fine tune the waffle ;) You can find this tutorial and many more by some amazing crafters on the Pinterest page Mixed Media and Altered Art Tutorials, Hosted by Andy Skinner.

I would like to enter these into the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp And Show, their challenge is Ode to Sunshine. I think the colours of the glass stains are so vibrant and summery x these would also make great end of term gifts for your kids teachers ;)