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jessica frost-ballas

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Add a little sparkle…(part 3) with a sparkly giveaway!

23 Sep

Good morning!  If you missed the first two parts of this series you can find them here and here!  I originally thought that I could wrap up this series with a third post but I think I might need to share one or two cards tomorrow.  This ended up being a little longer than I expected… 😉

I decided to do a comparison of 6 different shimmer sprays on plain cardstock and on a watercolored background.  So here we go…

For the non-watercolored cards I took 7 pieces of dark blue cardstock and applied the following sprays to each panel: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Perfect Pearls, Tsukineko Sparkle, Tsukineko Frost, Iridescent Medium, and WPlus9 Shimmer Spray.  I took a 7th piece of cardstock and left it blank.  For the iridescent medium I diluted it with water and then painted it onto the cardstock….the rest were sprayed on.  To be consistent (#sciencenerd4life) I sprayed each panel 5 times.  I let those air-dry while I worked on the watercolor backgrounds.

  1. No shimmer
  2. Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist
  3. Perfect Pearls
  4. Tsukineko Sparkle
  5. Tsukineko Frost
  6. Iridescent Medium
  7. WPlus9 Shimmer Spray

For the watercolored backgrounds I took 6 pieces of 4.75″ by 6 Canson watercolor paper and taped them to my work surface with post-it tape.  I wet each piece and then swirled on Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I used three different paint colors on each piece and when I was happy with the coverage I let them air dry.

  1. No shimmer
  2. Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist
  3. Perfect Pearls
  4. Tsukineko Sparkle
  5. Tsukineko Frost
  6. Iridescent Medium
  7. WPlus9 Shimmer Spray

Once those were completely dry I added the various shimmer sprays the same way I did for the plain cardstock.  I also left one watercolored panel plain and then let them air dry.

To complete the cards I went over the panel with my embossing tool and then stamped the large sentiment from Mama Elephant and heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder.  I also stamped the star and embossed it with silver pearl embossing powder.  Next I die-cut the landscape silhouette from Memory Box with white, silver, and black cardstock.  I offset them and layered them together.  I trimmed them down to fit the background panel and then mounted the background panel on a white cardbase.  So here’s a close-up look at each shimmer spray and finished card!  First up the plain cardstock and plain watercolored backgrounds:

The first shimmer spray is the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist…I picked this up at a local big box craft store a few months ago and I think this is the first time I’ve used it.  It was quite sparkly but sprayed very unevenly.  You can really see on the left side that there were big drops all over the place and uneven coverage on the bottom right.  It would definitely work if you wanted that specific look but it’s probably not the best if you want a really even spray.  This one also has a bit of a blue-green sheen to it.

The next cards use a DIY Perfect Pearls spray.  I mixed a 1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls with water in a mini-mister.  This spray gave a lot of coverage but it was definitely shimmery and not sparkly.  If you look at the little jar of Perfect Pearls it’s not sparkly so much as shimmery so it makes sense that it would turn out shimmery.  It’s definitely the most subtle shimmer although it puts on the most coverage.

The next two sets of cards use Tsukineko sprays.  First up is the Sparkle spray…this puts down a really bright sparkle.  It’s definitely contains the largest pieces of glitter and is quite eye-catching. Coverage was good although it also tends to spray larger dots.  I’m also wondering if it might be my mister…

The Tsukineko Frost spray also contains larger pieces of glitter but they’re not quite as large and not quite as bright as the Sparkle spray.  It also seems to be a little less sparkly…but WAY more iridescent.  Of all the sprays, this was hands-down the most even coverage.

Next up is iridescent medium!  Of course this was painted on so you can’t really compare the coverage to the other sprays.  It’s still my favorite way to add sparkle to cards…it’s a super fine glitter but it’s SO sparkly.  Seriously, if you don’t own iridescent medium yet, you need to stop what you’re doing and buy it!  It’s relatively cheap and will last you for a LONG time!

And last but not least, here’s the WPlus9 Shimmer spray…again, some coverage issues but it might be my nozzle.  I don’t remember having these problems with it before.  Anyway, this is another one that’s definitely more shimmery than sparkly (which makes sense since it’s called a shimmer spray…) 😉 It’s more eye-catching than the Perfect Pearls but after this experiment I’ve realized I’m definitely more a fan of sparkle than shimmer.  Also, depending on how the light hits, it has a slight green cast.  You can’t see it as much in the photo below as you can the group photo at the top of the post.

There you have it…that’s a lot of sparkle and shimmer!  And I still didn’t get to two methods…so I guess those will come tomorrow!  But in the meantime, I decided to have a little giveaway for those of you who are patiently reading through all of these long posts! 😉  Thanks so much for visiting and I hope I inspired you to add some sparkle to your cards!!

Giveaway:

Leave a comment on any of my sparkle posts (the first two can be found here and here) by 11:59PM EST on Sunday, September 27th and I’ll pick one lucky commenter who will receive a bottle of iridescent medium and a container of clear hologram sparkle embossing powder to add sparkle to their own creations!  You don’t have to comment on all the posts but you’ll increase your chances with additional comments!  If you’ve already commented on the first two posts those comments will be included in the drawing!

Supplies:

Interested in the products I used?  To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. (Affiliate disclosure can be found here). Your purchases help keep my blog running and I thank you for the support!)

WPlus9 Shimmer Spray
Tattered Angels GLM-20970 Glimmer Mist, 2-Ounce, Iridescent Silver
Winsor Newton Watercolor Iridescent Medium-75ml
Tsukineko 2-Pack Pssst Sheer Shimmer Spritz, Ultra Fine Mist, Frost and Sparkle
Ranger Perfect Pearls Pigment Powders, Pearl
Ranger Inkssentials Mini Misters, 3-Pack
Mama Elephant Peace on Earth
Memory Box Dies, Cityscape Silhouette
Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi 12-Color Painting Set
Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi 18-Color Painting Set
24 color set MC20/24V Kuretake Kuretake picture letter face color Unleashed (japan import)
Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 Color Set Japanese Traditional Solid Water Colours for Professional Artists
Canson Watercolor Pad For Beginners 9 in. x 12 in.
Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80# Cover 8.5
Crafter’s Companion Shimmering Cardstock, 6 by 6-Inch, Silver Starlight, 20-Pack
Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# SOFT NAVY Blue SN23
Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# BLACK Black8
Sizzix 657900 Big Shot Cutting/Embossing Machine with Extended Multipurpose Platform, Powder Blue/Te
EK Tools Powder Tool, New Package
Tsukineko Full-Size VersaMark Pigment Inkpad, Clear
Wow Embossing Powder WOW! Super Fine Embossing Powder, 15ml, Silver Pearl
Ranger Embossing Powder, 1-Ounce Jar, Super Fine Silver
Milwaukee Model 1400 Heat Gun
InLinkz.com

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Comments:
26 Comments
Categories:
card-making, crafting
Tags:
kuretake gansai tambi, mama elephant, memory box

« Just a quick share…
Add a little sparkle…(part 4) with a sparkly giveaway! »

Comments

  1. Lisaerica says

    September 23, 2015 at 9:07 am

    Jess, gorgeous as always!!! If you didn’t say anything I would’ve thought they were all done using water colors, just beautiful. And I love the next get sky’s, I still haven’t mastered that yet. Thanks for sharing your uber talents and inspiring us.

    Reply
  2. Jennifer says

    September 23, 2015 at 9:11 am

    Thanks for the comparisons. I have a few of these products but don’t have the iridescent medium so I guess I need to get some!! Thanks!

    Reply
  3. Ina Good says

    September 23, 2015 at 10:16 am

    Lovely Xmas cards so sparkly and simple but divine!

    Reply
  4. Rosali says

    September 23, 2015 at 11:18 am

    Those are amazing!! And thanks for the very detailed comparison, really interesting!

    Reply
  5. Yvonne C. says

    September 23, 2015 at 11:52 am

    Gorgeous cards!! Wow!! Love how those sprays really make a difference.

    Reply
  6. Tricia says

    September 23, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Love your cards!! I put sparkle on nearly all my cards, I think it adds alittle something special to them. I use only one kind that I can find here!!

    Reply
  7. Victoria Dent says

    September 23, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    Thank you so much for the great side by side comparison, as well as your insight and honest impression of the products. Very nicely done.

    Reply
  8. Karen Dunbrook says

    September 23, 2015 at 12:51 pm

    just a lovely set of cards…

    Reply
  9. Amye says

    September 23, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    I’m loving all the shimmer! You know a trail of glitter leads to a happy crafter!

    Reply
  10. Pam Spicer says

    September 23, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    This was so informative – thank you so much for the details and photos..

    Reply
  11. Sue D says

    September 23, 2015 at 3:21 pm

    FAbulous cards and thanks for all the comparisons!

    Reply
  12. Kimberly H says

    September 23, 2015 at 4:06 pm

    Great comparison! I have the Tsukineko sprays so was glad to see how they did next to the others. Thanks!

    Reply
  13. Denise Bryant says

    September 23, 2015 at 6:19 pm

    wow…gorgeous cards! I love all the different versions! Hard to decide on a favorite!

    Reply
  14. Valerie says

    September 23, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    They are all very pretty in their own way!

    Reply
  15. Donna says

    September 23, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    I love posts that compare products and illustrate the differences well. Your post could not be more detailed and the pics were wonderful. Thank you. I need some shimmer now!!

    Reply
  16. Vickey E. says

    September 23, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    Oh yes! I need iridescent medium in my life! You have me convinced!! Must. Have. Sparkle!!

    Reply
  17. KT Fit Kitty says

    September 23, 2015 at 11:15 pm

    Thank you for the comparison! This will save me a lot of money! Actually all the cards are beautiful, but the iridescent medium looks awesome!

    Reply
  18. Shona Chambers says

    September 24, 2015 at 7:42 am

    Wow Jessica, how do you come up with all these cool ideas AND find the time to make all of these?? They are so gorgeous and love all that blue with silver. So many different ideas and techniques to try. Amazing!!

    Reply
  19. Nicole Sherwood says

    September 24, 2015 at 10:34 am

    It is so nice to see what the different option out there is. Such a beautiful design. They all look fantastic!

    Reply
  20. Mary Schmidt says

    September 24, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    What fun! you’re making a dent in your Christmas cards.

    Reply
  21. Robin says

    September 24, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    I love the blues with the black and of course, the sparkle! You are so talented. Thanks for the chance to win!

    Reply
  22. Myra says

    September 24, 2015 at 9:32 pm

    Thanks, and I definitely want to try the irredescent medium!

    Reply
  23. Miriam Prantner says

    September 25, 2015 at 2:05 pm

    I really love the layered skylines and dark to light, great cards!

    Reply
  24. Jean Bullock says

    September 26, 2015 at 11:26 am

    I loved this post. The comparisons were very interesting and informative.

    Reply
  25. Celeste Goff says

    September 26, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    Wow, the background on these are gorgeous!!!

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Jess! Thanks for visiting my blog where I share my adventures in cardmaking and papercrafting! I hope I can inspire you to craft with a little extra sparkle!

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