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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

What do you think about melted pearls?

I don't know if everyone is familiar with this technique...

Melted pearls is where you clear emboss an image, and apply Perfect Pearls or Pearl-ex to the embossing with your finger or a paint brush. You can apply different colors of pearls to different areas of the embossing. You then re-heat the embossing to incorporate the pearls. The last step is to buff the cooled cardstock with a Swifer cloth to remove any excess pearls. You end up with multicolor pearlescent embossing.

Some tips I've learned are:

  • You really don't need much pearl powder. Too much is just wasted and blows all over the place when you try to reheat.
  • The pearls will stick a little better if the embossing is still warm, but cool enough not to smear.
  • You can heat from below to avoid blowing powder everywhere. But I tend to over emboss when I heat from below for some reason. I think I get my gun too close.
  • In my experience, you need to play with colors a little. The embossing is not always the pearl color when you finish.

I have mixed feelings about this technique. Sometimes I think its kind of cool and sometimes I think it just makes a mess! What do you think? Like it or hate it?

Here is my sample. I used Ranger Brand Perfect Pearls. The Flower and background is done with Forever Violet, Berry Twist and Blush (see what I mean about the colors?). The stem is Forever Green.








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1 comment:

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