Ever see old bottles at the flea market and wonder what you'd do with them? One way to use them is to add clear decals along with some ribbons, lace and what-have-you. Use them to decorate your bathroom, kitchen, be a quick gift for someone or sell them. They are easy to do using water-slide decals. You're not familiar with water-slide decals? Gather around children.....
You've all seen decals, on plates, furniture etc and some of you have used iron-on transfers that are a type of decal. Now you can make your own decals, using your own images with your ink jet printer. Using a special decal paper, it takes a little time and a lot of patience but you end up with a beautiful item that looks like you spent a lot of money on it. Put the decal paper in your printer, choose images to print, and you're on your way. Once you've run them through the printer, they need to be sealed with either a Decal Fixative or Krylon spray and let it dry overnight. This makes them waterproof. Cut them out as close to the image as possible, put them in a dish of warm water for a few seconds and slide the decal off the paper onto your bottle - like magic you have your own design!
Here are a few I've just finished applying the decal, now they need to dry thoroughly before I begin decorating them. You can see the clear glass through the decals. The more colorful decals will show up more and putting them on frosted glass will allow the color of the decal to show more. You can see the colors better against the white background.
Call it embellishments, bling or fro-fro there is never too much :)
Inexpensive votive holders can be decorated to coordinate with your seasonal decorations.
Water-slide decal paper can be purchased in some craft stores, office supply stores and on-line. You can find several difference brands, the one I've used today is Papilio and can be purchased here.
Have fun making one of a kind decorations with water-slide decals!
