Nancy makes it shimmer, glitter, and shine!

Today I’m going to show you how to paint with Stickles, glitter glue and Liquid Pearls. I'm going to share two projects with you and the steps so that you can do it too!  I have a background in decorative painting and I draw from that experience for my papercrafting.  I'm sure you will enjoy this fun way to add sparkle to your papercrafting projects!  

What you will need: 

A palette - I usually use a clean styrofoam base that most meats come on.  I cut one in half (see picture below) or a piece of wax paper or parchment paper will do (but I prefer the styrofoam.)

  One or two flat brushes- one should be very small for getting into tight spaces

Liquid Pearls, Stickles or glitter glue

Cup of water for rinsing brushes

Paper Towel 

In this first project I used Lavender Liquid Pearls so when I say "Liquid Pearls" it also means any other medium including Stickles, glitter glue and acrylic paint.

You will want to dip your brush into the water and then gently dab it onto the paper towel to remove any excess water.  You don't want your brush to drip.  The water is to make the bristles of the brush pliable and able to accept the medium (paint, Stickles, Liquid Pearls, glitter glue, etc).  Next pour out a little bit of of your Liquid Pearls onto the styrofoam palette.  You don't want to pour out too much because you don't want it to dry.  In the photo below you can see that I did a sample of two different types of Stickles, two glitter glues and Lavender Liquid Pearls.  

When loading your brush with Liquid Pearls, you will want to use just a little bit at a time.  Just pick up a little on the tip of the brush and work it into the brush. You can dab a little off if you feel you have too much paint on the brush.

When painting you will want to try to use even strokes so you don't have peeks and valleys.  

Below is the Fairy Tilda after I painted most of her wings.  See how it shimmers in the light?  You will also see how I keep my tools while painting.  I am right handed so I keep my brushes, palette, paper towel and cup (not shown but it's to the right of the palette) on my right-hand side and the image I'm painting is slightly to the left of the tools but is actually right in front of me.  Be sure to rinse out your brushes as soon as you are done using them.  It's much harder to wash them if the liquid pearls (etc) dries.  You also run the risk of ruining your brushes by leaving the medium in the bristles.  Use either liquid hand soap or gentle dishwashing liquid to clean your brushes.  Pour a tiny bit of soap onto the palm of your hand and "paint" your brush in the soap with a little water.  Rinse your brush while painting on your palm underneath running water.  Gently squeeze out the water from the base of the bristles pulling out toward the tip.  Dry horizontally so the water doesn't drip into the bristles which can lead to the bristles falling out.

Here's Fairy Tilda at a different angle so you can see how thinly I painted the wings with the Lavender Liquid Pearls.  (I had already stamped the dress onto designer paper and adhered it to the main image.  I added shadows to the dress using Copics.) As you can see, I painted the Liquid Pearls onto the stamped image without adding any coloring underneath.

In this next project I used Stickles.  Most of the Stickles are transparant so you may want to color your image before painting.  Below is a sample of the transparency of the Stickles and also shows the slight difference between the Diamond and Star Dust Stickles.

The Diamond Stickes has a warmer tone and more gold while the Star Dust is a cooler tone with more blue sparkles.

Here I colored Tilda with my copics and added the shading to her dress.

After painting her dress and crown with Star Dust Stickles you can see the shimmer.

I also added three dots to the center of the flower.  This is another trick I learned while painting.  You dip a stylist or the round end of a brush into the paint (this time I used Buttercup Liquid Pearls) and then touch it to the paper where you want the round dot.  The smaller the end of the brush or stylist the smaller the dot.  

You can also dab a little off onto the palette and the dot will be smaller and smaller as you dab it onto the palette (without reloading with paint) as shown below.  Liquid Pearls, Stickles, etc. are thicker than paint.  I recommend to do a test on your palette to make sure you know what size you want and how to get it that way.  If you prefer, you can add a drop of water onto the Liquid Pearls - mix on the palette - and it will be a little easier to do the dots.  But don't add too much water.  A little goes a looooong way!

Here is the Tilda in Pink card.  

Here's the finished card using the Fairy Tilda.  I colored her star wand with yellow copics and then painted it with Star Dust Stickes.  I painted a little bit of purple glitter glue onto the petals of the large flower to add a little interest to it.  

I hope you have fun painting with new mediums such as Stickles and Liquid Pearls. Try something new - it's so much fun!