2017 #14 Glitter: Xmas Ornaments with ESC {By Raquel Burillo }

2017 Topic 14: Glitter

Another glitter-averse PaperArtsy blogger nails it with a glamourously glittery idea! And shows us how to make a flat stamps 3 dimensional to boot!

Hi everyone! Raquel from scrapcosy.com here. 

Today I come with a project which involves a very unusual (and unused) supply for me, which of course is: glitter! I haven’t used glitter (pure glitter, that is) for the past couple of decades perhaps… I think this is because when I think of glitter, I can already imagine the mess that I will get on me and on the area around me once I finish! 

However, after seeing the project that Alison Bomber did on her last release, that lady stamp (The fire of the frost) and the video of it, OMG! I felt the urge of getting THAT type of glitter (glass crushed glitter I believe), heavier and perhaps less messy than its plastic sister, and with a finish that just astounded me! So as usual, on my first shopping chance I had, I went crazy, and in Ally Pally I bought around 7 colours of that glitter. I couldn’t find the one Alison used, but still, I was happy with my shopping.

I had a project in mind: using it to create my own handmade Christmas tree ornaments using my new stamp set ESC08.

 Eclectica³ {Scrapcosy} Set 08

Initially I wanted to create 4 big ornaments using different colours of glitter, but instead of that I thought I would do a different thing: Just one stamp, the star, and 9 different techniques using all the glitter (and glitter-like, shimmer) supplies I had on my stash (most of them were presents gifted to me that I’ve never used) in 2 colours each, gold-like and copper-like. I have made a video will with all the steps shown below. There are many more videos on my YouTube channel and my blog.

I enjoyed so much doing all these stars and experimenting with my supplies! And I love the fact that the star can be folded to actually create a 3D ornament. 

It's really easy, and believe me, after 10 stars stamped, cut and folded, you get the hang of it and you can do it even with your eyes closed :)

Crushed glass glitter - I just love the type of shine you get with this glitter, it seems to me real and proper shine. What do you think? 

I found that using 3D Matte Gel by Prima over my stamped 3D shaped star and pouring the glass glitter on top was the best approach for this technique (all thanks to Lauren who introduced me to this in Ally Pally. You can't imagine the joy of pouring the glitter to the star and see all the shine on it. I really had fun!

Classic glitter - Although I hate the mess this type of glitter gives you, I fell in love with this one. The glitter is so fine that it perfectly lets you see the shape of the star and the creases. I love it!

Glitter embossing powder - I had some glitter embossing powder in bronze by stampendous and some in gold by ranger. First I used Infusions Golden Sands for the gold version and Infusions Rusty Car for the bronze/copper version to watercolour my paper and then I stamped and embossed. I’m really pleased with the gold version, but I don’t feel I’ll repeat the brown version with that background, I would perhaps colour that star into a more brown darker colour, with perhaps Rocky Road instead of Rusty car.

Distress Oxides and ZIG - It was hard to get a distress colour for “gold”, I chose Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide, I find the star ended up too bright. However, for the copper/bronze I went for Vintage Photo Distress Oxide (I know, not very coppery, but It’s my fab colour!) and I really like the result. The idea of this version is: you stamp with distress oxide, smudge with a sponge dauber or a piece of cun-n-dry foam and then you use the ZIG wink of stella glitter pen to add that shimmer. Since that pen is water based, you get an extra reaction on your distress oxides! I love it the combination! This micro-glitter is so fine...

Then I moved to less glitter and more metallic finish, still shimmering though. And I used in all cases the same base of infusions, again: Golden Sands and Rusty Car and then I used a different supply on each technique.

Bonding powder with foil - I love this one! I think I would love to have my xmas tree decorated just with the rose gold foil start. Don't you think it's gorgeous?

Fresco gold and copper mixed with glaze - I used Fresco Finish Satin Glaze mixed with some fresco paints for each star (Gold and Copper) to create a more translucent paint so I didn't cover entirely my stamped image. It's a nice soft shimmer, more subtle than using glitter, but still festive :)

Perfect medium and perfect pearls - This one was more shiny before, but after touching the stars so much with my fingers to glue them together it became a bit dull or matte. There is still shimmer although the pictures can’t reflect that. I would say I gave with my hands an extra distress vintage look to it, which I find pretty interesting.

Gold and Copper embossing powders and ZIG pen - This one is also a nice metallic effect, but after using other techniques I would say it’s not my favourite.

Kuretake watercolours - for this one I didn’t use infusions as a base, I just stamped and then painted with the watercolours. It's a pity that I can't capture the shine of it. Again this one is a matte distress look on a star. Next time I would perhaps add some colour to not get so bright white at the back, although for a simpler look it's a good option to leave it as is.

I'm really pleased with all my experiments for this Challenge. Perhaps it's not a finished project as such for the challenge, but it was a good exercise and it lets me get my hands on supplies that otherwise would still sit in my drawers.

So tell me, if you had to decorate a Xmas tree, which option would you choose? Which one is your favourite among the above? Or would you dress up the tree with all these 18 ornaments which are all different? I think I may do that :) 

And the other option: what if instead of ornaments, you use them as a label or a hanging for your gifts? Using some tissue paper and twine to wrap the present and then hanging the star from the twine. You would choose the technique for the star according to the person you'll give the present to.

That was all for today! If you want to stay in touch and see more, here are all my social media contacts. Thanks very much for reading and stopping by! See you soon! 
Raquel

Blog: https://scrapcosy.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/scrapcosy
Instagram: https://instagram.com/scrapcosy/
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Scrapcosy

I think your tree will look amazing with all those co-ordinated stars across it! It's amazing how we can use elements we already own to create such a wide range of glitter effects! As soon as Raquel's video is ready we will drop it into this post, and alert you on socials! ~Leandra

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