[Paperplay Challenges] Week 45 - Cracked Glass

Note: If you are looking for DYSU challenge - please keep scrolling :)

When I saw this week's theme of Cracked Glass I started panicking. I stayed away from this technique for such a long time with no reason in mind. I actually love using my heat gun and I enjoy melting particles, so why was this so foreign to me? This challenge gave me the perfect excuse to try a new technique. The girls on the team were kind enough to send me links to see this technique in action. I really like this tutorial by Heather because of the detail in the description. Thank you, Heather, for the great pictures and explanations!


Stamps: (Complements of the Season, Seasons of Love Tags) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Aqua Mist, Fine Linen, Enchanted Evening) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin - No. 9 Spice Tin, No. 8 Soap Powder; Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo) Ranger; (Versamark) Tsukineko
Embellishments: (Melt Art UTEE) Ranger; (Nestabilities - Small Classic Circles, Classic Scalloped Circle Small) Spellbinders

I actually tried to pick up UTEE at my local scrapbooking store, but they only had available in 1-lb giant size. Where is the 4 oz or 8 oz jar when you need it? And at that prize I was not sure if I wanted to commit to loving this medium or not. Thankfully Scrapper's Cove has always been super accomodating and they send me home with a sample by scouring their workshop area for an already open UTEE product. Wohooo!

If you ask me now if I am a fan of UTEE, I'm not sure I have an opinion quite yet. This project took me longer than usual, and I had problems mastering the technique, resulting in either burnt fingers *outch*, a sample snapped in two (after the freezer technique) *yikes oh no!*, ripping the paper *oops...darn really another fail? le sigh...*, or almost all of the "epoxy" splintering right off my paper circle *oh are you kidding me?*. Over two evening sessions and 4 cracked glass attempts and almost no UTEE left, I had something that works. The finished product is cracked glass *yippee* but I was pretty frustrated. My jeans had lots of UTEE love snowed on to them, and my Macbook's keyboard got a fair share...any tips to keep the mess to a minimum? I don't have this issue with embossing powder...hrm.



My snowflakes come from two different Waltzingmouse sets, and I love how my Jenni Bowlin inks are stamping! I did stamp the snow flakes as a background as well as on my little circle. To give it that aged look, I distressed the circle with Antique Linen before applying the UTEE. I also ran some Vintage Photo after the cracks were created to give the cracks an older look as well...



Go check out the rest of the eye-popping projects at Paperplay Challenge Design Team and leave them some love. Please feel free to leave me some UTEE tips or a UTEE story. I want to learn from your experiences and give this medium another try...Oh and don't forget to play along ;) 

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• Whiff of Joy