It's Tracey here today to share a card I created featuring Helmar Gemstone Glue. One of my favorite mediums to include on projects to give beautiful sparkle and shine is super fine glitter. There's only one problem, this sparkle has a way of invading my workspace, even spreading into the rest of our home, not to mention making me sparkle. If you've used glitter, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've come up with a wonderful solution, so be sure to scroll down to check out my tutorial for making your own glitter glue.
Thank You Card
Tips and Techniques
Here's a close-up of my glittered flower. I die cut the layers from printed paper and printed cardstock, then misted. When dry, I brushed with my handmade glitter glue. Even though I secured the flower with a brad in the center, I like to glue each of my petal layers together to make sure the petals will stay offset. To adhere paper to paper, my go to adhesive is Helmar Premium Craft Glue. Below the flower you can see some of my die cut layers.
Here you can see the pearls and sequins I scattered across the top corner of my tag. I used Helmar Gemstone Glue to secure them in place. I squeeze some of the glue onto a craft sheet or scrap of wax paper that I can toss when finished. Then I pick up a pearl or sequin with craft tweezers, dip the base into the glue, and place on my card.
Another view of the flower, pearls as well as the heat embossed sentiment. I found my homemade glitter glue to be slightly tacky when dry, so after I put my flower together and before adding the brad center, I sprayed it with Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish Spray to give this gorgeous glowing finish that still allowes the glitter to sparkle.
A side view of my card. You can see my mixed media background. Any time I need to afix something to mixed media, my go to adhesive is Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive, which adheres well to mixed media surfaces and texture.
Now I'll share my Glitter Glue Tutorial. As you can guess by my previous comments, I love the look of glitter on my projects, however, not how it invades my space and home. I got to thinking . . . Helmar Gemstone Glue dries perfectly clear so what would happen if I mixed my glitter into the glue? Yes, there are several glitter glues on the market, but none of them have the sparkle that I get with Fairy Dust Glitter which is super fine and has several sizes of glitter flakes mixed together. My little experiment gave me some happy results that I will be using over and over on my future projects!!
Glitter Glue Tutorial
Supplies
Superfine Glitter ~ I used Clearsnap Fairy Dust Glitter by Donna Salazar Designs
Something to mix the glitter on ~ I used wax paper
Something to mix the glitter glue ~ I used a toothpick
- Step 1. Squeeze out some Helmar Gemstone Glue onto the wax paper. The amount you use will be determined by how much area you have to cover.
- Step 2. Place a small scoop of glitter next to the Helmar Gemstone Glue. You can vary the amount of glitter depending on how much sparkle you want to achieve. I like sparkle, so used a lot of glitter.
A close-up of the Helmar Gemstone Glue and glitter:
- Step 3. Use a toothpick or skewer to mix the glitter into the Helmar Gemstone Glue.
- Step 5. Use a paintbrush to apply the glitter glue to your project. A stiffer brush works better. You can apply this glitter glue to flowers, decorative elements, or even to your page background ~ anywhere you want glitter.
Here's what it looks like right after applying:
And another photo after drying. You can see that the Helmar Gemstone Glue dries perfectly clear, allowing that glitter to sparkle and shine in all its glory!!
Hint ~ I did notice as mentioned previously that there was just a slight tackiness that remained even when completely dry. That was easily taken care of with another fabulous Helmar product. I simply spritzed with Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish Spray. The glitter still sparkled just as brightly and the flower took on a lovely glow from the glossy varnish.
Here's a photo of the finished flower on my card:
I can't wait to see the projects you create with your own homemade glitter glue!!
Helmar products used to create my card:
(I highly recommend getting the larger Gemstone Glue if you want
to try this technique, because you won't want to stop!!)
Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish Spray
Other products used: Donna Salazar Designs Products: Clearsnap Fairydust Glitter ~ Pralines and Cream, GCD Studios Antiquities Collecton and Crafy Chronicles, Clearsnap Mix'd Media Inx and Embossing Powder, Zutter Distrezz-it-All by Donna Spellbinders Grand Peony Dies. Additional products: Spellbinders and Sizzix dies, Tattered Angels Chalkboard Mist, Heidi Swap Color Shine Mist, Stencils by TCW and Pink Paislee, CTMH stamp.
~ Blessings ~
