Showing posts with label Elizabeth Craft Designs Glitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Craft Designs Glitter. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 August 2016

Three Ways to Create Your Own Glitter Embellishments

Sparkly greetings everyone! Today I want to show you how you can create your own glitter embellishments in three different ways. Most of you will likely have some of these supplies already at hand, so let’s take a look!


Method 1 - Glitter

Obviously, using glitter is the easiest to create your own embellishment. My preferred glitter is from Elizabeth Craft Designs – it comes in many yummy colors and it _does not_ make a mess! I know, a lot of people think of glitter as messy, and of course it’s messier than not using glitter, but this glitter really is magical! You pour it onto an adhesive surface, shake off the excess, rub the glitter – and it stays in place! It doesn’t come off and does not make a mess in the envelope or your craft desk! You can see here how easily I made a regular die-cut work look great just by adding glitter.


Method 2 - Perfect Pearls Mist

Perfect Pearls are a powder that can be used in many different ways: you can [“paint” with it over sticky ink] like Versamark, or you can dissolve it in water and either [use it directly with your watercolors], or you can mix it with water in a Mini Mister and spray it on your project. The latter will give the sprayed surface a beautiful sparkle!


Method 3 - Use a Glitter Pen

If you look closely, you will see that even the black dots on my cards are sparkling. I used a regular black marker and then added my Stardust pen on top of it to make it sparkle. Of course, you can also use a Wink of Stella brush marker in clear, or buy it in colors you’ll use often.


Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you got inspired!

Saturday, 25 June 2016

Add Glitter to Outline Stamps

Hello crafty friends! I’m on mission. Actually, I’m on two missions. First: glitter all the things! And second: get Tara from Seven Hills Crafts to stock my favorite Elizabeth Craft Designs Glitter again and that means getting YOU guys to let her know you want it so she knows if it makes sense to order it. I’m going to share a few glitter cards over the next few weeks to make you crave glitter, too! (And if you start craving it, leave a comment here on this post that you want this fantastic stuff to come back to the store :) )

Today, I’m going to show you how to add glitter to outline images. I know! Usually, you wouldn’t, but there’s a super duper easy technique (so I easy I’m hesitant to call it a technique, but the effect is too cool not to share).


Told ya. The effect you can get when you coat Glossy Accents with glitter is amazing. If you are generous with the glue, it even dries slightly raised, so it will look even better when it is sparkly all way around. Also, be generous with your glitter as you are dumping it on the project. You need to make sure it’s covered all around, and you can easily funnel the excess glitter back into the jar so there’s no waste.


As with all glitter, you will get it on other places than just the glue. That’s just something you need to accept, but you can reduce the glitter mess considerably with some very easy steps:

  • Set up your workspace so that everything that you don’t need is out of reach.
  • Grab a sheet of scrap paper to dump glitter on. After you funneled the glitter back, fold the paper and throw it away.
  • Use static cleaning/dryer sheets to wipe off excess glitter from your work surface. Works like a charm and no mess!

You might still look a little sparkly after using glitter, but believe me: it’s by FAR not as messy as you might think if you just prepare a bit.



I am so pleased about how these My Favorite Things flowers turned out and how clean and simple the entire design it. Since I wanted the glitter to take center stage, I made sure to keep the rest of the card basically completely white as to not to distract. That’s not to say you can’t have other elements on your cards together with glitter, and I’ll show you different examples of that throughout the next weeks.


If you have sticky embossing powder (that turns sticky when heated) you can use that to stamp sentiments or more intricate shapes, and then pour glitter on that sticky powder (Versamark itself is not sticky enough).

Just don’t forget that you need to wait a while until the glitter has dried before you can finish the card. I usually err on the side of caution and give my project at least 30 minutes, if not an hour. After that time, I use a pen or brush to knock against the backside of the panel to shake off excess glitter (remember that scrap sheet of paper and those dryer sheets!), then use a brush to wipe off whatever still sticks where it ain’t supposed to go. Once the glue is dry, you can rub (gently) over the glittered areas without trouble.


Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you got inspired! And if you like glitter and want to use these gorgeous colors from Elizabeth Craft Designs, let Tara know so she knows to stock them (non-US peeps only, please) - leave a comment on this blog post! In an upcoming project I’ll show you why I prefer this glitter to other brands, so stay tuned!

Oh, and if you want to see how I created this card, as usual hop on over to my blog (link in sidebar) for a video tutorial. Cheers!

Saturday, 9 April 2016

Partial Die-Cutting and Combining Markers with Pencils

Good day, crafters! Thanks for stopping by today – I have a fun project for you showing you two techniques that will allow you to give your projects just that extra touch. One of them is partial die-cutting, and the other one is to combine two coloring mediums.


The partial die cutting technique is much easier than it appears. I know that I felt intimidated when I did it first, confused as to where to put my plates. If you do it a couple of times, though, you will see that it will become easier and easier each time and let's face it – partial die cutting just looks so cool!


As for coloring with both Copics and pencils – that's something I picked up from my crafty friend Marika, who is just the queen of this technique. I find two huge benefits using this technique:

  1. By adding a base shading with Copics, I need to work less with my colored pencils. It's much easier to color your image with very simple shading with Copics, and it is really fast. Then you can come in  with the pencils and just add shadows here and there without worrying about adding tons of layers or blending colors because underneath you already have a base layer.
  2. I am rater heavy handed, so adding in fine details with a pencil is much easier for me than trying to get in fine lines with a Copic marker. Also, Copic ink usually feathers just a little bit, but pencil lines never do and give me much more control.



To finish up a card, I always try to add little details that will make it stand out. Here, I opted for stark black ink for the sentiment because it gives great contrast, some black dots within the flower, a glitter border for sparkle, a light stamped background and a few embellishments. I kept all of them as subtle as I could so the focus would remain on the coloring and the sentiment; the rest is just the supporting cast ;)

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you had fun. Cheers! PS: If you want to see the coloring process, hop on over to my blog (link in the sidebar) to check out my video!

The Persian Motifs are currently out of stock (at the time this post was published) but will be back in stock early next week already! Follow the links below and sign up to be notified (on the product page) so you won't miss out when they are back in the store!

Saturday, 30 January 2016

Inlay Die-Cutting on Acetate

Hi crafters, today I have a rather simple card for you – well, it looks simple, but I used a few tricks to get the look that I wanted. I had a few failed attempts with this card, too, so here's what came of it:


I started out by die-cutting the Adorable Array by Paper Smooches from watercolor card stock and then used my ZIG Markers to color it. You can use regular card stock and color it with pencils or Copics or whatever medium you prefer – do what feels best for you. Then I wanted this floral pieced to "hover" over my card base. Cutting tiny pieces of foam tape was out of the question, since I didn't want anything to attach the shape to the card. I tried adding glue to the edge of the die cut and fitting it back into the panel – let's just say it was a terrible mess and total failure. So in the end I grabbed a piece of acetate and added my floral piece on top of that.


For the bottom layer, I wanted to add something extra, but I didn't want it to distract from the rest of the card. I grabbed an impression plate by Lil' Inker Designs and added the stitched pattern to only a portion of the panel by having the rest hang off – you only die cut or emboss what's between your cutting plates.


A strip of two-sided adhesive tape provided a surface for my glitter which covers  up the transition between the pattern and non-embossed part of the panel. I did have a bit of trouble getting the sentiment stamped because I simply forgot about it until I had adhered the panel to my card, so there were some spaces without foam tape and of course that's where I wanted my sentiment. I salvaged it somehow, but I wonder if I will _ever_ learn to simply stamp the sentiment before I attach my stuff to a card.


I hope you enjoyed today's project! Catch you again soon.