Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

Previously on Sarah Jane's Craft Blog : I made some faux stained glass panels by alcohol inking the inside of laminator pouches and then applying stained glass patterns that I cut out of vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo . It's been a busy couple of weeks here, but I finally managed to get my plastic "stained glass" panels hung up. I went into my sewing kit and grabbed the largest metal needle I could find and then used a lighter to heat the tip. I held it in the flames for a ten count to warm the needle. Then I stuck the warmed tip of the needle into the laminating film to create a small hole. Be careful with the needles. I grabbed it in the center once and almost burned my finger. Make sure to only heat the very tip and to only hold it on the eye end. Then I used fishing line to string up the panels. I tied a square knot in the fishing line and then poked it through the hole in the plastic panel to hang. I even connected my small squares into a hanging trio.  This m...

A couple weeks ago I made some rainbow-colored sheets of plastic with alcohol ink and some laminating pouches. I turned those sheets into some Easter Sun Catchers with the help of my Silhouette. I dripped ink onto the inside of the laminating pouches and then ran them through the laminating machine . I only ended up using one of the plastic sheets to make my Easter Sun Catchers, so I had two leftover pages of rainbow-colored plastic. I found some stained glass designs with a quick google search. I think this one might be a coloring page, but it was the right size, and I liked the pattern, so I traced it in Silhouette studio and sent it to the cutting machine using the preset settings for vinyl. I designed two pages of decals (since I had two sheets of rainbow plastic). I cut them out of my machine and trimmed off the excess vinyl (since the laminator sheets are 9 x 12 ish and the vinyl is 12 inches--if I had been smart, I would have cut 12 x 18 with the designs turned on their sides...

Last spring, I had an idea to try using alcohol ink on the inside of a laminating pouch and then laminating it. It worked, and ever since, I've been making sun catchers for every holiday using the technique. Later I discovered I could cut the film on my Silhouette, which opened up even more possibilities. So now it was Easter's turn to get some fun sun catchers. I laid out a few pouches of laminating film and got out a craft mat , some canned air , some rubbing alcohol, and of course, my inks . I opened the laminating pouch and dripped one color at a time (a few drops scattered over the film) and then blew the ink with canned air to spread it out and dry it. I repeated the process with a ton of colors until I had a rainbow-y filled sheet of laminating plastic. To break up the pattern a bit, I used a pipette with a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol that I squeezed over the inked circles to create tiny bubbles/circles all over the sheet. Then I set the sheet aside to dry (open). I...

One of the inking methods I've been exploring in this past year has been using ink on laminating pouches . Back in December, I made some snowflake sun catchers . Well, at the same time, I made a sheet of red that I had planned on cutting out with some Christmas themed shapes. After hours looking for just the right patterns to cut out of the plastic, I gave up and decided to save it for Valentine's Day. I started by laying down a craft mat and grabbing a can of air and a hand bulb . I grabbed three true shades of red alcohol ink: Watermelon , Crimson , and Poppyfield . I dripped the ink onto the inside of the laminating pouch  and added a bit of rubbing alcohol to thin it out and then used the hand blower and air can to blow it around. Once I had one side of the pouch covered, I decided to add some metallic ink to break up the red a bit. I chose Pinata Rich Gold . I like Pinata's Gold and Brass better than Ranger's Gold, but they'd all do the trick for this partic...

Last week I made some pumpkin suncatchers made out of laminating film. I had an sheet of orange leftover, so I decided to make a couple more colors and try cutting them with my Silhouette. I wasn't completely sure that it would work, but I saw a couple of successful posts from other bloggers about cutting out laminating film with the Silhouette, so I thought, hey, why not give it a shot. I started by making a couple more colored sheets. I wanted to make one that was inspired by the color of fall leaves, so I got out all of my shades of green that weren't aqua or blueish and a couple shades of yellow and orange. I laid a laminating pouch out onto a craft mat and started dripping ink. I filled my laminating film up with green and yellow ink and then filled in the last empty spots with some orange. I spread the ink around a bit with some canned air . Next, I decided to make a sheet that was purple, black, and silver. I decided to try squishing the ink between the two sides of t...