Stop that! You'll go blind!

No, I wasn't doing anything that would have embarrassed my mother, but I did experience eye strain yesterday.

I have had mixed results (and mixed feelings) with the glass ornaments, paints and alcohol inks so I moved on to something else. Here are the paint and ink bulbs:




The two dark ornaments (1st and 3rd photos) have a combination of paints poured inside and a combination of inks on the exterior. The rust colored ornament in the first photo has glitter powder inside and ultrafine glitter on the exterior. The snowflake ornament has dark red glitter inside and dimensional paint on the outside for the snowflakes with ultrafine glitter added. The purple bulb is alcohol ink inside and a bit of silver alcohol ink on the outside. The gold looking bulb in the third photo is alcohol ink applied to a champagne colored bulb. In the fourth photo, one bulb had white paint poured inside and a combo of inks on the outside. A little Easter eggish? The other bulb has red and white paint inside which dried streaky so I added glitter to the outside. The fifth and sixth photos are the same ornaments, but they look very different when light comes through them as opposed to sitting on a solid background. I used butterscotch colored alcohol ink inside those three, adding white paint to one. I added butterscotch and copper inks to the exterior because the inside paint dried streaky.

I have no idea why I am having such bad luck with streaky paint inside the bulbs. You can see the streakiness in the red and white bulb in photo #4. The paint is not old, has been shaken and I've tried both the bulbs as they come out of the package and cleaning them out with denatured alcohol and letting them dry for two days before pouring paint. I like the sheerness of the alcohol inks, but don't think those ornaments, especially the dark colors, will show up against a green tree.

The next ornament was started a few days ago and finished last night. It is beaded with size 11 beads.


The directions for finishing the bottom were crappy, so I fudged it. Sometimes fudging things is what I do best. Here is what the bead netting looked like before completion:


Here's the happy little group shot before they go in a box for a month or so


But wait, I still wasn't done. Before cleaning up my mess (there is ultrafine glitter throughout the house...I bet it is even on my toothbrush upstairs!), I decided to put two quick bracelets together. The first one is on memory wire and is Christmasy because of the colors.



This one is just because I like blue, in all shades.



Thankfully, there is no sign of eyestrain this morning, but I will wait a few days before beading another Christmas ornament.

If anyone has hints for my paint dilemma or has done bead netting over an ornament, I'd love to hear your advice.