Let Shellie Enlighten You Today

Hello Everyone! It's Shellie from Craft Smashup. I've got some "enlightening" projects for you today.

It seems like vellum isn't used very much today. I love the delicateness of vellum. it has the ability to soften images but also to stand alone and brighten up a space.

Summertime makes me think of light. I live near the California coast amongst the redwoods. I love living here but my property only gets a small amount of direct sunlight. making luminarias has been on my mind for awhile. I came up with the design you see here when I saw a chandelier in the Pottery Barn catalog. The one in the catalog and way too costly for my budget was made of capiz shells. Well, it gave me the idea to use vellum which when colored can have a very capiz shell look.

To make this luminaria I punched approximately 63 -1 3/8" circles with the circle punch. I think when i make more, and i will make more, that I'll use the 1 1/4" punch instead. The bigger circles got a bit crowded near the end and I'm positive the smaller circles will work better.

Once they were all punched out I grabbed my Coastal Cabana Blendabilites and colored sets of 21 circles with each of the C.C Blendabilities shades. Gotta love the alcohol markers. The ink dried on the vellum in no time flat so i didn't have to waste time waiting for them to dry before I attached them to the luminaria base.

I used the new Fast Fuse adhesive to secure the short ends of the vellum sheet ( 5 1/2" x 11")

I then proceeded to add a glue dot to each and every circle and attached them in the spiral pattern you see here. To conceal the glue dots I decided  add some bling and applied A LOT of the large Basic Rhinestones. I love the way it looks. And they sparkle so much more in real life than they do in the photo. The way I see it this can be used two different ways: Either  set in a sunny spot as a suncatcher or to use it as an actual luminaria and put a candle inside of it. Please practice good sense if you make this at home and only use a battery operated candle. You wouldn't want you hard work (or your house) to go up in flames. 

Here it is unlit

Here it is with a candle inserted.

I couldn't stop at a luminaria though and I also used some vellum and silver foil paper to make a 

suncatcher.I plan on putting this is in my living room window to help keep birds from flying into the window. I'm always afraid they are going to injure themselves and die.

I used the largest and second largest Floral Frame framelits to make the frame for the suncatcher. I then used the largest one to cut the vellum sandwiched between the foil paper.

I also used the Blendabilities again. I used the darkest and lightest shades from each of the Blendies sets I used.

Pretty, don't ya think?

I'm thinking about possibly adding some glitter to maybe the butterflies. What do you think? Leave it as is or sparkle it up some? Let me know in the comments

Shellie Grindy ~ Craft Smashup

Thank you for stopping by. Be sure to come back tomorrow and check out the Christmas in July projects.

Here are the supplies I used:

Blendabilities~

Coastal Cabana

Pumpkin pie

Daffodil Delight

Rich Razzleberry

Cherry Cobbler

Adhesives~

Tombow Multi

Glue Dots

Fast Fuse

Card stock ~

Vellum

Silver Metallic

Happy Stamping!

Shellie