This week I’m taking part in Craft Lightning -  Angie from Country Chic Cottage has teamed up with Carolina from Moore Craft Time to present a whole week of crafts that can be completed in 15 minutes or less (not including drying time).  Angie and Carolina will share a quick craft each day this week and they’ll also be sharing a roundup each day to show some quick crafts from other participants – like me! PLUS you’ll be able to link up YOUR quick crafts there as well!

For mine, I’m sharing a favourite project of mine – one that I learned long ago when I was in about Grade 3!  I’m making suncatchers from tissue paper.  Tissue paper, of course, is already naturally translucent but add some kind of glaze to it and the light just shines through beautifully!

When I was in school, we made the structures for these out of old wire hangers but boy oh boy, is that ever a lot of work to bend those!  So here I’m using craft wire that I purchased at the dollar store.  I can’t give you an actual wire gauge because it wasn’t marked on the package but what you want is a wire that bends easily without the need for tools (unless you’re very proficient with wire bending and the use of those tools, in which case go for it!) but that will hold its shape.  I’ve found that floral wire (the kind you use for flower stems) works well here too.  I just freehanded a shape but you can use cookie cutters or even colouring book images as your pattern.

For the tissue paper you can use plain tissue papers or patterned ones.  You can even piece together different colours quite easily simply by applying one colour to a small section and then a different colour to another section.  I decided to make my own patterned paper by pressing on a three coloured rubber stamping ink pad all over white tissue paper.  My tissue paper was quite thin and tearing easily so I decided to use a double layer of it.  This also meant that I didn’t need to wait for the ink to dry because I simply folded my paper with the ink on the inside and I could keep moving along!  I added some extra details with a black Sharpie – just random doodles because once it’s cut up and applied to the dragonfly shape, you won’t see the full effect of it anyway.  Rubber stamping is another option for creating your own patterned paper.

When I was a kid and we made these, we watered down white glue but here I’m using Mod Podge and it works so much better!  I had matte Mod Podge on hand but the gloss formula makes for a really pretty finish too!  You could also apply some Mod Podge dimensional magic in one of the glittery formulas for some extra shimmer!  You want to lay your paper down on a surface that won’t cause sticking issues.  So, you don’t want to work on newspaper but a plastic plate, some waxed paper, or a silicone/teflon crafting mat are great.  Brush on some Mod Podge across the surface of your paper – I found a foam brush was best as bristle brushes could cause tears in the paper.  Lay your wire shape down on the paper and press gently to assure that the wire is making contact with the Mod Podged paper.  Don’t worry if it doesn’t make contact everywhere – you can go back in with another application of Mod Podge to catch any little spots you may have missed the first time once this layer dries.  I’m only working on a small section at a time here so that you can easily see what I’m doing but you can apply the paper to the entire frame all at once.    Once it dries enough to be handled (and it dries quite quickly), flip it over and apply more Mod Podge to the other side.

Attach some fishing line or something similar and hang in your window.  On a sunny day (which we haven’t seen in days around here!), the sun will shine through and pick up all the lovely colours in your paper!  Easy peasy and you can fill your window with beautiful suncatchers in no time!  Make seasonal or holiday shapes and you can adorn your window for each new special occasion!

Be sure to head on over to Moore Craft Time and The Country Chic Cottage to check out all the other Craft Lightning projects all week long!

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Cyn Gagen

Owner at Creative Cynchronicity

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