Monthly Archives: December 2010

I love Loves2Smock

Spellbinders 2 Comments

My very bestest crafting buddy (or maybe real buddy actually) is Loves2Smock.  Please click here to see more about why I love her so much.  Anyway she is just awesome (she’s the one that saved my Christmas cards when my Cuttlebug had a heart attack and died) and she often doesn’t fully get…ok wait she NEVER fully gets just how awesome she is and so I have to remind her from time to time.  Here’s a lil card I sent her just because I can:

Her favorite colors are brown and blue.  Inside I wrote her a love note and included two beaded corsage pins…one of my new favorite obsessions!  Here’s a picture of her pin…I made her two that matched.

I ♥ Toys!

Spellbinders 3 Comments

At least crafting ones anyway.  My favorite tool(s) aside from my Cricut and my ATG are my Spellbinders Dies and Cuttlebug (but only because I couldn’t use my dies without it).  I am up to about 14 sets of dies and just bought my first ones within the last 6 months.  In the picture below you can see my two books I made to store them in.  I’ve gotta get to work on more books because I’ve almost filled both of mine already!

 

Just a few of my favorite things.

Sparkle and Shine all the glimmer I want is mine!

Glimmer Mist 10 Comments

If you’ve read through the posts on this blog from start to finish or vice versa then you will know I first heard about DIY Glimmer Mist on the Cricut Message Board when a BlackDiamond posted about it.  She put directions on her blog, but even at the time of this post, that blog is no longer functional.  At any rate…she used Perfect Pearls (which already has a binding agent in them), water, alcohol and alcohol ink or re-inker or whatever.  Hers turned out great so I tried it.  Not bad at all, but I was pretty sure I could do better so I searched for more recipes.  The next one I tried involved decoupage glue, water, Pearl Ex powder, and something else I think.  You can find the exact instructions for the second recipe I tried at Elisabeth’s Paper Art but I used more Pearl Ex powder than she did. I really like it to shine!  The Frugal Crafter used gum arabic and water with liquid water-color.  She said you could even use food coloring and I have tons of that so I gave it a try…you can tell from this picture I really kind of like it!  Oh yeah I should mention, I have not yet used gum arabic.  Even with a coupon it is expensive compared to PVA glue.

 

Glimmer me beautiful!

I even ran through a bottle of PVA glue pretty fast (with a 50-50 ratio) making Glimmer Mist and it’s a bit on the spendier side (even when I got it bogo) so last night I said to myself  “what the heck lemme just try it with good ole fashioned Elmer’s Glue.”  I opted for clear glue this time but actually think I prefer white glue that dries clear.  The Elmer’s worked just fine (when back-to-school sales role around again in the fall I’ll be buying out the store lol)…the only reason you need glue is to bind the Pearl-Ex powders to the paper so they don’t rub off.  Some people have used hairspray even but glue is working great so I’ll stick with that.

Here’s what I’ve noticed as I’ve mixed up 16 different bottles now…

  • the amount of glue doesn’t have to be equal to the water…as long as some glue is in there it doesn’t seem to matter how much.  I’m not using a lot less glue (about a quarter of the bottle I’m mixing in instead of half)
  • Dollar Tree has a great powdered eye shadow in this awesome gold color and it makes a great additive if you don’t have Pearl Ex powders.
  • Pearl Ex has much more shimmer than Perfect Pearls
  • Using a pearlizing acrylic medium can help bring out the shine (several of my bottles above have pearl paint added to the mix).
  • The quality of your spray bottle doesn’t really matter because even if it sprays in globs you can spread it out with a foam brush for beautiful coverage
  • The size of the flakes DO matter.  I have this yellow Pearl Ex powder and it’s too thick to get out of the spray bottle.  To make the yellow seen above I had to use the pearl white powder with some pearl acrylic paint.
  • The order you add ingredients seems to make a difference too…this has worked best for me…food color (or re-inker or whatever), glue, powder, water.
  • Glimmer Spray can be used to color floral embellishments (stay tuned I’ll have pictures later)
  • Pearl White or anything like it (Macro Pearl, Micro Pearl) powder can glimmer any color no matter what so buy lots of this one.
  • And, last but not least, Glimmer spray is messy…wear gloves when making and using!

I can’t wait to hit the goal of 100 subscribers by my 90 day anniversary so that I can share this awesome stuff with a few lucky winners!  I mean I DO already have the supplies and everything so you can’t get cheaper than free can ya?