Adventures of a DIY Diva: Coloring Faux Capiz Shells

So I just was not satisfied with my finished chandelier.... it lacked something I love very much - COLOR! So I pondered all day how I could incorporate color into these wax paper shells, and came up with a few ideas...

First thought was melting crayons. Decided to myself that sounded ... dangerous. So my mind wandered to paints.... I have done many DIY crafts using something I have a large abundance of.... acrylic paints!

So I went to it! First I laid out a piece of parchment paper (since I didn't use it for doing the first shell project...) Taped it down and cut three pieces of wax paper. Lay the first one down on the parchment and prepare to paint.

I used an assorted size of sponge brushes to paint the wax paper.

Now, acrylic paints come in all different consistencies, and based on past experience, to get the paint to dry and look opaque but still have the color, you simply add a small amount of water. When I say SMALL, I'm not kidding. 5-10 drops will do the trick. Just enough to make the paint slightly more "runny" and easier to spread on without it drying thick and not giving you the opaque look you're going for. PLUS if you use too much water, the wax paper doesn't iron right together and they peel apart... like this -

Soo... after you've painted the first piece of wax paper, lay your second one on top and iron. Then repeat. (Paint top of wax paper, lay down third piece and iron.)

Once your wax paper sandwich is all ironed out, cut your circles. I prefer the 2 1/2" for the chandeliers. You'll notice that one side doesn't have as much "pop" as the other. Figure out which side looks better and make sure that's the side you put facing out.

Pretty simple, right? And the best part?! You can be as creative with the colors as you want. For the black ones, I simply used black paint. The pinkish ones are a mix of bright pink and red paints to create almost a peachy-pink colored shell.