Rock Candy Glitter Inspiration....

Hello friends...

Hope you're all having a great week!

I'm just popping by today with a little tutorial featuring some quick tips and tricks on how I use Rock Candy Glitter, Rock Candy Chunky Glitter, Snowflakes and Mica Flakes to create some magical sparkle to my Christmas projects.

So, whether it's trees, backgrounds or adding some twinkle to idea-ology products ~ come with me as I start to prepare for my holiday makes...

WOODLAND TREES AND GARLANDS

I chose to use a mixture of the Tim Holtz idea-ology Woodland Garlands, Alpine Trees and Woodland Trees and started by adding some white gesso to the tips of the trees. This is going to add that snowy effect to the tips, by resisting the colour we're going to apply. It will also help your glitter to not pick up the colour of your spray and in turn, go green when you add the sparkle. 

To apply the gesso, you can use a paint brush or if you're like me, I use my fingertip. You only need a light coverage and apply to the tips only.

Allow for the gesso to dry throughly before the next step of applying the colour.

For my trees, I used Distress Spray Stain in the following colours:

Iced Spruce, Rustic Wilderness and Speckled Egg and placed my trees and garlands in the Splatter Box before spritzing them to create an even coverage.

In the photo below, I've shared the trees with and without the gesso ~ you can see how the gesso resists the colour, creating snowy tips to the trees.

Dry the trees naturally, or if you're slightly inpatient like me, you can use a heat tool on a gentle setting and heat dry them.

Once the stain is dry, it's time to add the sparkle and after applying Glossy Accents to the tips, I sprinkled the glitters over the trees, tapping away the excess to reveal the magic.

On the individual trees, I used all the glitters to create different effects...

Once dry, the Rock Candy glitter creates a subtle shimmer, the Mica Flakes or Snowflakes will give a vintage sparkle and the Chunky Rock Candy will give a beautiful twinkle.

BACKGROUNDS

For my sparkly backgrounds, I used the fine Rock Candy Glitter and added a spoonful into a mixing cup.

I then added a couple of drops of the following Alcohol Inks to colour the glitter:

Green ~ Sage

Red ~ Cranberry

Dependent on how much glitter you have in your cup, you will need to add more alcohol ink, so just add another drop until you're happy with the colour but remember, you can always add, but never take away...

Mix the ink into the glitter with a spatula and then set aside.

Using a palette knife, apply Translucent Texture Paste through a Layering Stencil ~ I used the Mini Stencil Set 19 and the Christmas Element stencils in my examples.

Remove the stencil and wash immediately in warm soapy water.

Working quickly and whilst the medium is still wet, sprinkle the glitter over the paste and tap away the excess. Any glitter you have left over can be stored in these cute little storage jars.

Once dry, some of the glitter will shed, but don't worry the paste will have captured most of that sparkle and it's not going to go anywhere! The backgrounds are now ready to use for my tags...

You can also add the glitter over the top of Distress Grit Paste. On the tag below, I inked up the background using Distress Spray Stains and once dry, I applied the Grit Paste through the Nordic Stencil in the Mini Layering Stencil Set 2. Once again, working fast before the medium starts to dry out, I sprinkled Rock Candy Crystal Glitter over the top and left this to one side to dry to reveal a beautiful subtle sparkle to your background.

BAUBLES AND ICICLES

By now, if you're like me, you'll be hooked on adding some festive sparkle and I continued to add glitter to  some idea-ology Bauble Adornments.

I coloured the baubles with Alcohol Inks and also kept some white, as these can be used for "snowballs". I smeared all my baubles with Glossy Accents, and sprinkling the Rock Candy Glitter over the top.

For my final bit of sparkle for today, I added glitter to some idea-ology Icicles.

To show you the different effects, I used three types of glitter on each individual icicle....

From top to bottom:

Snowflakes

Rock Candy Crystal Clear Glitter

Rock Candy Chunky Glitter

For the icicle in the middle, I painted the back of the plastic with Picket Fence Distress Paint, this colours the icicle and adds more of a frosty finish to the piece.

I hope you've enjoyed some of these ideas and I hope it's going to inspire you with your Christmas makes...I warn you though, once you start, you won't stop!

Thanks for stopping by today and I can't wait to see how you'll be adding some of this magical vintage sparkle to your projects because this is only the tip of the iceberg ~ Rock Candy Glitter and Mica Flakes can be used on so many products, and not just for Christmas!

To all my friends and followers in the USA ~ Happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you soon...Emma xx

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