Saturday, September 29, 2007

Glitter, Glitter, Glitter

Who doesn't Love glitter! Whether a little or a lot. But how do you get it to stick to the paper and not to you? To explain this I need to share a recent experience...

Several weeks ago, I walked into the new Achivers (LOVE IT) and there it was the most adorable Halloween card and as part of the card they had glittered an entire 4 x 5.25 orange piece of cs. The WHOLE piece! Well as I'm walking towards it I'm preparing myself to now be glitterized. Well to my surprise, I pick up the card, rub it, look at my hands, rub it some more, look at my hands and what to I see.........ONE FLECK of glitter. How can this be? It feels like glitter. It looks like glitter. But it sure doesn't act like glitter. With that revelation I start staking the nearest store associate to ask HOW? We ask everyone and still no solution. We look at the inside of the card for the recipe:

Tsukineo; The Essential Glue Pad
Stampendous Ultra Fine Glitter

Now I have The Essential Glue Pad and I LOVE it. But when I use it I still get glitter on my hands for days afterwards. With my question still unanswered I find myself on a mission, to figure out how they did it.

Well a few days later, by accident I needed a card to dry quickly so I used my heat gun to dry it and it seemed to set the glitter. Is that it? Now to test my theory.

I did several samples and tested several different products to see if the product played any part of the equation or not.

My Supply list:
CTMH Inks: Garden Green, Cranberry, Barn Red
CTMH Stamp: Elegant Floral
Versamark
Tsukineko The Essential Glue Pad
CTMH Glitter
Stampendous Ultra Fine Glitter
Heat Gun

Here is what I found:
Versamark with Stampendous Ultra Fine glitter: Heating it will discolor the ink, the glitter will turn dull and it will smoke a lot. The glitter WILL NOT stick.
















Versamark with CTMH glitter: Heating it will not discolor the ink as much and it doesn't smoke a lot but the glitter does turn dull. The glitter WILL NOT stick.
















Tsukineko: The Essential Glue Pad with Stampendous Ultra Fine glitter: Heating it will not discolor the ink, the glitter stays sparkly, some smoking but..... The glitter WILL stick. (Yeah!)















Tsukineko: The Essential Glue Pad with CTMH glitter: Heating it will not discolor the ink, the glitter stays sparkly, there is not much smoking but.... The glitter WILL stick. (Yeah again!)
So here is what I've concluded.....HEAT is the key. Even though heat is not necessary to use the Tsukineko: The Essential Glue Pad it helps it set so that little to no glitter will come off in your hands and that alone is a miracle.

In regards to the glitters used, Stampendous was a finer grain and it gave more of a sparkly, diamond look and there was a texture to it. Where as, CTMH glitter was a larger grain and it gave a more iridescent look and it has less texture. Both were beautiful it just depends on what look you are going for. And one last tip to help your glitter stick better whether your going to heat it or not it once I have my image glittered. I place it in a zip lock back, take a rubber brayer and roll over it a few times to help set the glitter and the best part less mess on me!