Future Floor Finish Tutorial

I had a great question via email about how to use Future Floor Finish as I've mentioned using it on both the chipboard pendants and the butterfly earrings (which I am now addicted to - I have about 10 more pairs to share once they are all coated and attached to their ear-wires!).

First of all, Future Floor Finish will be found in good sized box stores (except Walmart, for some reason - I got mine at KMart) with all the floor cleaners and such. I got a 27 Fl Oz bottle for around $7 and have used it on TONS of projects and have gone through maybe 1/10th of the bottle. Seriously - for craft purposes this stuff lasts forever. If you share with your floor, it may go quicker! Looks like baby oil. It does have a faint odor (which is fairly pleasant), but no fumes - you don't need to worry about ventilation or anything.

If you check my bead tutorial (here) under "Sealing the beads", I have some information on it, however I do it a little differently for these since they can't fit directly into the bottle.

For these, I glue the bail (I use a 3/4 inch premade eye pin from Cousins on these) in as I'm constructing them with a jewelry type liquid glue (or superglue). Once everything is all set, I have a little plastic dessert cup I have dedicated for this and I fill it with the Future Floor Finish. The dessert cup I use (3 for $1 at Walgreens in their little housewares section) is fluted so when I'm done I can easily pour it back into the bottle. Anyways. I use a piece of wire with a little hook bent into the end, hook the bail and dip it into the Future. Use a napkin, paper towel, or rag to gently touch the bottom where the Future is puddling and a toothpick to catch any spots that look like they're too thick. This is really thin and will soak through the paper, hardening all the way through. The first layer or two will take the longest to dry - I try to do about 6-10 dips - the more times it's dipped, the stronger these will be. I leave mine to dry standing up on wax paper. Check occasionally for drips and dab with your napkin to soak up excess.

You'll need to put the Future back in the bottle in between dippings OR, instead of the dessert cup, you could probably find some kind of jar (a mason jar maybe?) in which liquid can be kept and just keep it permanently there and replace the lid in between dryings.

You could also use a brush (paintbrush or even a foam brush) to paint layers of this onto larger projects (such as decorated tiles) but for these earrings and handmade beads the point is to get this to thoroughly soak the paper so that it hardens and strengthens it.

Hope that helps!! :) I'm hoping to do a video tutorial on these beads (still not getting the hang of editing video so it will just have to be raw, sorry!) so check back!