Idea-ology Christmas Candy Shop - Part 1

 

Remember my Halloween Candy Shop? It was a lot of fun to make. So much so, that I decided to make a Christmas Candy Shop using Tim Holtz Christmas Idea-ology. To keep this from being a little overwhelming, I'm going to write a couple of blog posts. Today's is going to focus on the sugared CANDY sign, and some of the faux chocolates in the shop.

To begin with, I needed some colored glitter. This is very easy to do. Get a few disposable condiment cups, Distress Rock Candy Glitter, Alcohol Inks and a stir stick for each color. Put some Distress glitter into a cup, then a few drops of the Alcohol Ink color you want. Stir it until the glitter is an even color, adding more drops until you get the shade you want. Then let it dry. I used Crimson, Wild Plum, Sunshine Yellow, Lettuce and Pool, but you choose the colors you want.

While the glitter is drying, you want to get started working on the letters. The glitter will need something transparent to stick to so the Tiny Lights show through it and make it shine like sugared letters.  This has to be done in a couple of steps. Begin by putting the Stencil Chip Letters onto the nonstick mat on the Glass Media Mat. Then Carefully fill each letter with Glossy Accents and set them aside to dry. TIP: if you have both the regulation and travel glass mats, I did this on the travel mat so that I could set it aside on a flat surface to dry overnight. If not, just do this step as the last thing before you quit creating for the day.

This is what they look like as they are drying. They need to dry competely and not be lifted at all until then.

Once they are dry, carefully peel each Stencil Chip off the nonstick mat. You should be able to see though the Glossy Accents, but there will be a little bit of texture from the mat, but it's not an issue.

Transfer the letters to the glass portion of the mat, and fill each letter again with Glossy Accents.

Then generously cover each letter with a different color glitter and again, let it dry for several hours before shaking the glitter off.

You should end up with what looks like colored sugar in each letter. If the color isn't what you want, you can paint some of the Alcohol Ink colors onto the back of each letter to give them more colors. I will come back later to address how to put the letters in the shop.

Right now we are moving on to the Tiny Bells. I pulled out all of these bells (not the jingle bells) from the package of Tiny Bells. The next two "candies" were inspired by some Easter candies Tim Holtz made last year. He covered some eggs with foil and colored them. So I used his idea for some chocolate Christmas candies. It was so fun! Thanks Tim for the inspiration!

I used some foil candy wrap that I purchased from the candy aisle at Hobby Lobby. It is the same thickness as the foil on Candy Kisses. If you don't have a candy section in a hobby store near you use Candy Kiss foil. I crumpled part of a square and put it in the bottom of the bell.

Then I cut the foil into quarters and used one quarter to cover the bell like it was a chocolate bell.

The more you squeeze it and work it flat, the more it looks like the chocolate bells that come in candy assortments all over the US at Christmas. To make it really look like a chocolate bell, I painted each one with a different color of Alcohol Ink. These were really fast and easy to do. Also there is a little hole/hanger in to the top of each bell. Poke a hole through the hanger at the top and tie some thread through it so that it looks like a chocolate bell ornament.

The last one for today is to make a faux chocolate Santa. I took the thin foil and crinkle it. Then I attached it to the Idea-ology Santa using a small brush and collage medium. This helps flatten out the foil and make it look more like a chocolate Santa. Then do the same thing you did with the bells, paint the foil with Alcohol Ink. I use a pallet with the alcohol ink colors  and blending solution in one,

You can see the back here and how I left what would have been white parts, like the trim on the coat and hat, to be silver. It looks like a chocolate Santa! 

At this point I was getting really excited, but I needed to make a few more candies. I'll talk about those tomorrow. For today, these three items take quite awhile and are definitely the things to concentrate on first. 

Have fun glittering and foiling!

Tami

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