Frugal Friday: Glittered Embellishments

I am so very in the mood for Halloween. It is one holiday that just screams for sparkles and bling! And what can I say…I love green and orange!

I have been scouting out all the new glittered Halloween embellishments online and in the stores, like these from Making Memories and Doodlebug Designs…



And wanted to try to make some for myself…so I gathered up the following:

Glitter, flocking powder and glittering tray (although generally, I just use a piece of scratch paper)



My handy 5” Xyron and my Xyron X



An assortment of die-cuts I cut using my Silhouette machine.



Run the die cuts through the Xyron, making sure the side you want to be glittered is face down (in a lot of cases this won’t be an issue, but it is a must to remember if you are glittering letters or stack-able shapes)



Remove the die cut from the release paper



If there are lots of glue ‘webs’ simply remove them. I use my awl to pull them away from the shape.



Then shake the glitter on top of the sticky side…after applying the glitter, I usually tap off the excess and them smoosh the shape back into the glitter to make sure everything is covered.



And finally spray a sealer over the top of the shape, I use Aileen’s Matte Sealer, to ensure the glitter stays where it is needed and doesn’t flake off onto your hands…and counter…and floor…and clothes…and cats…sigh!



I also tried this with some stack-able shapes.



I ran the bottom piece through the Xyron...



And adhered the top piece.



You can see the cut out areas that are left are perfect for glittering.



Apply the glitter…



Keep away from cats…



And remember to spray with the sealer after you glitter…aren’t these fun!



Here is a stack-able howling wolf die cut. First I sprayed my moon with some Glimmer Mist and homemade Shimmer pray…but the sparkle wasn't enough...



So I placed the moon face down in the Xyron…



And added glitter.



As you can see, the Xyron doesn’t always cover the die cuts perfectly. You have two options here…leave as is, which for my moon looked pretty good or go back into the shape with a liquid glue pen and fill in the missing spots. Whatever you do, do not run the glittered shape back through the Xyron…it just doesn’t work, trust me!

I also tried this technique with flocking powder on the body of my sheep die cut, and it worked pretty well…flock is odd though, and I never seem to get really good coverage…but it basically worked. (I flocked the ears using a glue pen, not the Xyron)



And one final trick to try, combine two colors of glitter or glitter and flock on the same shape…just remember to keep the areas not being glittered covered with the release paper.







So was the experiment worth it? Here is the tally:

Cost: $0...I had everything on hand..and finally I feel better about using all the glitter I bought over a year ago!
Mess Factor: Pretty high! And a word of warning…glue, glitter and kittens do not mix!
Time: I spent a fair amount of time doing this…including the clean-up..about 2 hours to cut and glitter the spiders, the witches feet, the flocked sheep, the howling wolf and the angel phrase.
Skill Level: basic

There you have it, Glittered Embellishments…easy peasy and cheap cheap!