Clear Scraps Technique - The look of hand painted flowers in minutes!

Last month, the Clear Scraps Design Team hosted to blog hop to introduce some of the new 2013 products.  I shared this frame and promised to reveal in Feb, the technique I used for the flowers.  I received so many nice comments I'm almost embarrassed to show you how I cheated on these flowers.  No - I did not paint them.  Although, they do look like they'd be fun to paint, and now I may have to play around with trying to create the same look with paint.  These are actually done with water-slide decals.

Back in the 90's I was involved in the Ceramic/Porcelain industry and had collected quite of few ceramic decals.  Though these are designed to be fired onto ceramics and porcelain, they can also be used on other nonporous surfaces, so I decided to try them on acrylic.  They work great!  The floral pattern I used on the frame above was the last one I had of that style and I haven't been able to find it online.  Sadly, it may be a discontinued design, but if you do a search for "ceramic decals" there are a lot of vendors out there that carry them and there are tons of beautiful designs available.

The decals come in large sheets, with multiple copies of the same design on the sheet.  Notice you can see the clear edge around the flower design.  This is where the decal ends.

I am going to put this decal on a page from a Deco Mini Album.  I've traced the shape onto the decal page with a fine line Sharpee.  I stopped tracing when I got near the edge of the next decal.  

Cut inside the Sharpee line.  The hard cut line here won't show since the edge of the actual decal is to the left of that.

Fill a shallow dish (large enough for the decal section) with warm water.  Float the decal in the water until the decal separates from the paper backing - about 30 seconds.

Place the decal on the acrylic and gently position to line up the edges.  Using a paper towel or soft rag, gently squeegee the water and air bubbles from under the decal.  The adhesive will begin to take hold.  For additional protection, spray with clear acrylic sealer.

Stamp the back of the acrylic with silver metallic alcohol inks.

This is a quick and simple way to add pretty details to cards, layouts and decor items!

Thanks for coming back to check this out!

KC

Comments

[Hazel Drake]

This is beautiful. I'm going to try it. Thanks for the share.

[Adora]

amazing technique!

[Adora]

oOPS I forgot to say gorgeous projects KC!

[J Leiding]

Thanks for divulging your technique. I will definitely be cheating with these decals. The effect is lovely.

[Robin Mowat]

Lovely!