How to: DIY glitter cardstock with Verity

Hello, it's Verity with another video and blog post as a Creative team member for WOW! If you're like me, you might have quite a few pots of glitter and embossing glitter in your craft room and there are several ways you can use it in your papercraft projects. Often these colours are more varied and interesting compared to buying regular glitter cardstock and they can really step your projects up a notch. So today I have 3 ways to create your own glitter cardstock and make your DIY cardstock the focal element of your cards. 

How to: DIY glitter cardstock video:

(You can view this directly on WOW! Embossing Powder YouTube Channel HERE)

How to: DIY glitter cardstock written step-by-step tutorial and photos:

Technique 1: Double-sided adhesive tape

The first technique combines WOW! Sparkles glitter with double-sided adhesive tape. Cover a piece of A5 WOW! Superior smooth card stock completely with the tape - wider the better, I used 2" wide tape. If you have full sheets of double-sided tape you can cover it with this. WOW!'s card stock is great for this technique as the card isn't too thick, so when the glitter is applied you can still die cut from it.

Remove the release paper and then cover with WOW! Sparkles glitter. I'm using Stroke of midnight; this is a stunning dark blue and silver glitter mix. Next, you need to burnish the glitter into the adhesive so it sticks well. So cover up the cardstock with another scrap of paper and using your bone folder, just rub this over the top really pushing the glitter down.

 Die cut a stitched rectangle from the card panel, in addition to die cutting the word happy from this using Altenew fine alphabet dies. To make sure the letters are straight, I've used my grid mat to align the letters on some washi tape. As I've only got one P, I've just temporarily used another letter similar in width to work out the positioning for the Y. Obviously, remove the R before your die cut and then run it through again, just moving the P along - make sure you keep the inners of the A and Ps for this card. 

 To complete the card, add the word happy in white, layering the letters up 3 times for some dimension. Once the letters are in, place the winners of the A and P's back in with some glue for a seamless look. To add the heat embossed sentiment, I'm foam mounting this onto the panel. Now, foam tape won't stick well to glitter cardstock. To overcome this, just add some dabs of liquid glue to the foam before you adhere it down. Lastly, I added some silver sequins to highlight the silver glitter in the card.

Those leftover letters can be used to create another card. Adhere the letters to corresponding letters die cut out of white fun foam. For the background, I used a stencil to create a textured tone on tone look. I applied some embossing paste from Altenew through the Handpainted stripes stencil from Thirsty Brush & Co with a palette knife.  

Once the panel was dry, I die cut another stitched rectangle and foam mounted it on the cardbase to reduce any warping that may have occurred. Next use Gina K connect glue to adhere the foam mounted letters onto the panel. Again, I'm finishing the card off with some Silver and Dark blue sequins.

Technique 2: bonding powder

For the second technique, we are going to use bonding powder along with WOW! Sparkles to create glitter cardstock. When you use bonding powder you create a sticky surface that you can either apply foil to or adhere glitter to. So you use it in the same way as embossing powder, you need to cover your surface with Clear ultra slowing embossing ink from WOW and then cover with bonding powder. Next, using your heat gun melt the powder until it goes clear. Now, I repeat this 2-3 times to get a good sticky layer on my card and when you're happy with the amount you have, we then ready to apply the glitter. 

The Sparkles I'm using here is Ice Pop and this is from one of the Catherine Pooler Inspired by Trios called Melon Ice. After you've covered it in the glitter, I like to just heat it again, to allow the bonding powder to soften and let the glitter sink in more. Now I'm repeating covering with bonding powder and then with glitter just to build up the intensity and colour of the glitter. But you can leave it at whatever stage you prefer.

To create the card, I die cut the Altenew Fine Bouquet die using a metal shim as this is quite a delicate die to die cut through the glitter. This was added to a grey stitched rectangle as the contrast in colours allows the glitter to really pop. I added a black stamped 'Just for you' from the Altenew Floral vine stamp set and then finished it off with Trinity stamps Soapy Bubbles confetti mix, which ties in beautifully with the Ice pop Sparkles.

Technique 3: embossing glitter

So the last the technique for creating glitter cardstock is to use embossing glitter. WOW! has a whole host of embossing glitters. Embossing glitters work the same as embossing powders, but they have glitter added into them. So after adding embossing ink to some cardstock cover it with Turkish Nights embossing glitter. This has gold and red flecks of glitter mixed into gold and a pinkish copper embossing powder which is gorgeous when heat set. 

You may wish to add 2-3 coats of the powder to get good coverage and to build up the layers on the card. Now, if you don't like the texture of embossing glitter as it can be rough, you can do one simple thing to smoothen it out. Add a top layer of clear gloss embossing powder. Not only does it smooth out the surface, but it also emphasises the shine from the flecks of glitter.

For the card design, trim the embossed panel down into 1/4" strips and foam mounting the strips onto a grey stitched rectangle. I find it best to adhere the top and the bottom strip first, and then add the remaining strips in between to allow you to evenly space out the strips. For the sentiment, I'm just adding a single white Big Hello sugar script die cut from Birch Press designs to the front and finishing it off with some gold and soft pink sequins to bring out the colours from the embossing glitter. 

WOW! Supplies used:

Other supplies used:

Stamps used: Floral Vine stamp and Birthday Builder (Altenew)

Dies used: Fine alphabet and Fine Bouquet die (Altenew), Big Hello Sugar Script (Birch Press Designs)

I hope you enjoyed today's video and stay tuned for more to come. If you make a card with this technique, make sure to tag us #wowembossingpowder so we can check your creations out!

Till next week,

Verity

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