Must Have CrystaLac Tumbler Supplies for Beginners
It can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need, what supplies you need to make Tumblers as well as figure out what each little thing is for in the process. Today, I am going to break down exactly what CrystaLac products you need to start making epoxy free Tumblers safely in your home. And I'm going to tell you how to use one of the products.
If you want to be able to view this in a super organized way, make sure you grab that free guide. So while there are a lot of products that people use to make their Tumblers, there are only a few that you absolutely need.
Recommended Supplies
Glitzy Kreations Glitter (Discount Code: alison10)
Glitter Dipped Sips Glitter (Discount Code: alisoncrafts10)
TUMBLERS
First, you need to grab your Tumblers. I highly recommend the stainless steel Tumblers from Craft Haven. They just have really good quality, a lot of variety, and I highly recommend using their Tumblers.
Stainless Steel Tumblers (discount code: alisoncrafts)
GLITTER
You also need some high quality glitter. I get my glitter from Glitzy Kreations and Glitter Dipped Sips.
Glitzy Kreations (code: alison10)
Glitter Dipped Sips (code: alisoncrafts10)
Other Supplies from Amazon. Click Here to see what I recommend!
CRYSTALAC PRODUCTS
The CrystaLac Company manufactures all the paint and the top coat and the adhesives that you need to make Tumblers and a ton of other different crafts. I love that I can use my Tumblers supplies on other things. So I feel like I can make whatever I want whenever I want. The CrystaLac Company actually has hundreds of products on their website, and I know it can be a lot to sift through. So I'm going to help you do that right now.
GLITTER GLUE
This is what we use to apply and seal our glitter. It's relatively easy to use. You're going to need a brush because it is extremely sticky and you just brush it on, put on your glitter, and then you're going to do a coat of glitter glue over the top of that glitter as well.
CLEAR TOP COATS
Now, there are a lot of clear top coats on their website. They have several different kinds at several different price points, but what we use for Tumblers is Brite Tone.
Brite Tone has the red label on it. And it is the highest solid count of all of the top coats. That means once it's dry. So the way that these products works is that the water evaporates out and what's left is those solids and that kind of determines the strength, and the shininess, and the durability of that top coat. Brite Tone has the highest amount of solids. And because our Tumblers take a lot of wear and tear, it's important that you use Brite Tone for your Tumblers.
There are other top coats that can be used for other projects. So if you do wood signs or decor, I highly recommend getting the extreme protection. It doesn't have quite as many solids as Brite Tone. So is a little bit less expensive, but it works great for wood projects of all kinds or furniture as well. And if you do furniture or decor that will be outside I recommend getting the Crab Coat. This is a specific top coat that is formulated to kind of flex and expand with the changes in weather. So this is your best bet for doing anything that will live outside.
So Brite Tone for Tumblers, extreme protection for wood and furniture and other decor and Crab Coat for any decor that's going to be outside.
BASE COATS
When you make Tumblers, you need to have a base coat on your cup. So after you prep, you need a base coat down. And the CrystaLac Company has a lot of different paints that I use. The first thing I use is the Universal White, the Universal White is just a white primer paint that bonds to metal. If you're using it on furniture, it has tannin blockings properties. And it's just a really good base coat. So if you need a white base, because you're using white glitter, you can use the Universal White.
Most cases I don't use a white glitter. So I actually love using their concentrated pigments to mix up my own colors. There are eight different pigments and you can mix and match them to make essentially whatever color that you need for your Tumbler. And you can use these pigments in the Universal White, or you can even use them in your Brite Tone or to tint your glitter glue. One of the cool things is that all of the CrystaLac products are compatible and kind of can be mixed together.
So it is nice to have such a variety and be able to really create unique and custom colors for your customers.
The other paint that they have are the Flip'N Awesome paints. These are a paint primer and top coat all in one. So essentially think about having the universal light with the pigments plus some Brite Tone, and it just really gives an amazing finish and a streak free application. I absolutely love these Flip'N Awesome paints. They are convenient because they're already premixed. So you can head to their website and see if any of those colors kind of jump out at you, but these make perfect base coats. Or if I'm doing a non glitter Tumbler, and I don't want to spray paint, I will use the Flip'N Awesome paints because I always know I'm going to get a nice streak free finish. The paints themselves need a couple of coats to get full coverage.
So some of the lighter colors, you may want to start with a white base and then do three or four coats to get full coverage. But the darker colors look really good right over stainless. And you can get away with one to two coats. The purple delight, the midnight blue, the new Crimson and clover colors as well as the lavender are my favorites, actually moss green. I don't know. I actually love them all. So it's really hard to say, but check on my Instagram if you want to see pictures of all of the different colors.
SAND PAPER
The next thing you need is sandpaper. Now you can absolutely get sandpaper from your local hardware store. It works. It'll be fine. Like you can totally grab it from your hardware store, but The CrystaLac Company sells a sanding pad and these 400 grit sanding pads that I absolutely love. The quality is so, so, so much better than anything you can get at the store as well as they just last longer.
So I find if I buy sandpaper from the store, which I do on occasion, I will get like one Tumbler out of one piece of sandpaper, but I can get several Tumblers done with my CrystaLac sanding pad. So you just kind of have to see if you want to buy more often, because obviously something at the store is cheaper than what you can get at The CrystaLac Company, but it will last, you so much longer. The quality is just a lot better. And when you have a good quality sandpaper, that means you're going to get your cups smoother, faster. So it will take you less time to get them done. When you're doing your Tumblers, you need both 400 grit and 220 grit. The 220 is for prep and the 400 is sanding throughout the entire process.
REDUCER
The next thing I recommend is the reducer. This is not required for your Tumblers, but I highly recommend grabbing it. So when you use Brite Tone, you want your humidity to be around 60 or 70%. And my house is closer to about 40. So sometimes I have a little bit of a streaky finish. So what you can do is you can mix one teaspoon of the reducer with five tablespoons of Brite Tone. So that's one teaspoon of reducer to five tablespoons of Brite Tone, and you can mix it together and coat this on your Tumbler like any other coat. It does slow down the dry time. So each of the coats with the reducer need about five to six hours to dry before you recoat. And again, I save this just for my last three layers, because I just get a super shiny, really great finish when I do that.
LIQUID MICAS
Next product I want to highlight are the Liquid Mica's. And these are absolutely gorgeous. And I think they're the most underrated CrystaLac products that exists because I use them in just about every swirl or Milky way Tumbler. And they just bring something extra to the Tumbler that a powdered Mica wouldn't, although you can use powdered Mica's, that's totally fine. I do love having the CrystaLac Liquid Mica's in my stash. Now it does seem a little expensive, right? This little bottle is going to cost you like $17, but I have had mine for two years and I use it all of the time. So it will last you for a really, really long time. And I highly recommend that you get it, definitely get the silver and the champagne. Those two are my absolute favorites, but they're all absolutely gorgeous.
GEL STAINS
The gel stains can be used on Tumblers. If you want to move away from using alcohol inks for a wood grain Tumbler, the gel stains are really, really great for that purpose. But if you have any desire to get into wood signs or decor, I 10 out of 10 recommend the gel stains either get them pre-mixed, the Java is my absolute favorite, or you can get the clear gel stain and tint them yourself with the CrystaLac pigments.
Like I said, all of the products kind of mix and match together. And you have so many possibilities when it comes to mixing up your own colors.
I know this can be a lot of information and it can be overwhelming to get started with Tumblers. You feel like you need more support through the process of learning and building your business, make sure you check out my Tumbler maker Academy .
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