All that shimmers…..introduction day!

Before i get into the post i have planned for you today i just want to take a minute to salute my new DTs on their first *official* day – you guys ROCK! the playgroup has been positively spinning with activity and i am thrilled at the enthusiam! we have been doing lots of plotting and are cooking up fun things! be sure to check all of their blogs today and leave a little welcome love!!

We all love bling!! Thankfully there are lots of ways to get it! Catherine is heading up a product spotlight this month in the Playgroup focusing on all that shimmers. We carry Perfect Pearls, Liquid Pearls and Dimensional Pearls in the store. Other products include Pearl Ex, Twinkling H2Os (recently discontinued) and Shimmerz Paints.

I know by reading the message boards that I am not the only one thinking – Do I need them all? Is there a difference? So I thought I would start out by talking about all of them, explaining the differences and similarities and showing some samples.

All that shimmers...

i don’t have EVERYTHING so I can only show you the ones i have:
• Perfect Pearls – shimmery mica powder with binder built in
• Pearl ex – shimmery mica powder with no binder
• Liquid pearls – shimmering acrylic paint
• Dimensional pearls – shimmering acrylic paint
• Twinkling h2os – shimmering watercolor cake
• Shimmerz paint – shimmering liquid paint

Fairies are So popular right now and i must admit i just LOVE them. And of course they require LOTS of shimmer. I used a fairy image from Katie over at Paper Makeup Stamps for my samples:

Liquid Pearls

Twinkling H2Os

Shimmerz

Perfect Pearls

And now the details for each picture:

Angel wings are all done with the equivalent of white in all of the products.  Her top is colored purple with copics and then the same white I used on the wings is painted over the purple to add shimmer.  er shorts are done with a colored version of each product.  the smudge to the right of each image is done by mixing the original white color of each with reinker.

SO i am not going to say only one product is the best or one is better than another BUT you can see that they ALL deliver plenty of shimmer.  However there are differences in how the products can be used.  I like them all but i prefer perfect pearls because of the versatility.  The drawback of them is the lack of a wide range of colors.  however there are plenty of colors to choose from if you don’t feel you need (or can afford) dozens.

For detailed wtercoloring H2Os are probably the best.  For general shimmer or FASCINATING backgrounds perfect pearls are my go to product.  throughout the month Catherine & I will be doing projects that include tutorials on all of the ways you can use Perfect pearls, liquid pearls and dimensional pearls in your projects for LOADS of *WOW* – along the way the girls from Pezzy’s Playgroup may join in too.

And now for a shimmery wonderful project to start us off – i used this week’s Mojo Monday sketch:

Mojo Monday Sketch

 

Liquid Pearls Scrunch

This is a digi easter Anya I got recently – too cute right??  she is colored with copics.

The shimmer....

And now the shimmery panel – a new use for your bottles of perfect pearls other than making dots (which i DO love don’t get me wrong!). This is super quick and easy. pick out a few colors and squirt a puddle of each out on your craft mat.  Take a piece of saran wrap and ball it up LOOSELY – you WANT it to be crinkly.  Dip it lightly into your first color and dab lightly onto your cardstock.  Again you WANT the crinkly pattern.  dab randomly and sparsely over the cardstock.  Take a NEW piece of saran wrap and repeat for each color.  continue until you are happy with your piece!  i hope you all try it out!  i’d love to see some samples if you do!