Last of the Perfect Pearls

I went a bit overboard with the Perfect Pearls samples this time....love that there are so many ways to use it and they all look very different! Here are the final samples.


"Words are alive"... (thanks for putting me onto the little "cross punch" Michelle!)


"Forbidden"...

"Stone Monuments"... (the ubiquitous texture paste, this time in white, around the picture. If you click on the image to enlarge it you'll see I used a set of Angel wings to stamp and emboss on the background. I used the Antiquities Cement embossing powder so it's very subtle)

Next class is using crackle products...and there are several of them. Golden Crackle Paste, Ranger Crackle Accents, Helmar 2 step crackle, Jo Sonja crackle, Ranger Distress Crackle and probably even more that I haven't used!

More Perfect Pearls

There are so many different ways of using Perfect Pearls and I've been playing with them for several days now, so I have a few more to show.


I also made a card using the overspray background that I was spraying the Perfect Pearls, Distress Re-inker & water combo onto the card stock....can't let anything go to waste!!! It's a pity that the Perfect Pearls are not done justice by the flatness of the computer screens, the shimmer when you tilt them to catch the light is unbelievable! First up, more samples of atc's.


"Showy"... (Lost Coast Designs stamp. Cuttlebug "Ironworks" chipboard shape)

"Preoccupied"... (Green Pepper Press stamp from the Curvature plate)

"Twilight"... (Cherry Pie stamp - moon & clouds, Green Pepper Press building stamp from Printed Matter plate)

"Aim for the moon"... (Same stamps as above but a different portion of the building stamp, the whole stamp is about 10 inches long!)

"Go confidently"... (This is the card, quote stamp and flourish stamp from one of Tim Holtz range from Stampers Anonymous. Embossed section up the top is one of the new Cuttlebug embossing range of 5 borders in 1 pack)

I still have another couple to post but they can wait until my next post.

On another note, it's been one year today since my Dad passed away. I really don't like the term "passed away"....it's too soft for the sharp impact of the actuality of the event. Died is much more blunt, real and to the point. Though I think Dad would've preferred "shuffled off this mortal coil"!!! That's the Monty Python humour he always had, right to the end! Remember this photo? It still makes me laugh....yes, that's the sick bag on his head while he was in ICU (it was empty!). That's my friend Joan with him, 2-1/2 short months later she was gone too. I'm not as sad as I was, as they say...time heals, and it does. ;-)

Perfect Pearls Class

Next up in my ATC Technique classes is Perfect Pearls. These have been around for years in the stamping community but clever people keep coming up with new ways of using them so they never get "old"! Here are a few samples of what the girls will be learning in my classes.

"Too Many Freaks"... Zetti stamps with the face, also by Zetti, done on shrink plastic.

"Invertebrate #1"... (Stampers Anonymous Dragonfly Legend stamp....again!!!)

It's a real pity that the beauty of Perfect Pearls just can't be appreciated on the computer, it's definitely a must-see in real life for their shimmery colours are just wonderful, especially on black card stock. You'll just have to trust me, or better yet, go buy some and try it out!

"Invertebrate #2"... (same Dragonfly Legend stamp - but the other side of it)

"Melancholy"... (Hero Arts (discontinued) Vintage Map Stamp). The Perfect Pearls is sprayed onto the background of this atc - I used a combination of Weathered Wood Distress Re-inker, Pewter Perfect Pearls and water in a mini-mister and spritzed the card. Also, down the bottom is the new colour of German Scrap we are selling at Scraptivate, Iridescent White. Very different from the normal plain white German Scrap we sell in the various styles, it looks like it's had pearlized paint applied to it, more creamy in real life compared to the starkness of the normal white. Something else to try? Yes, we do post all over the World and we have excellent prices on the German Scrap, probably the best you'll find across Australia!

"Captivating"... Not sure who's stamp this is? The Perfect Pearls are brushed onto a piece of acetate that's been run through the xyron first so it looks like a shimmery painted image.

"Royal"... (Another stamp I'm not sure of? The crackle effect over the top is Perfect Pearls in Pewter brushed over the top of the stamped card (after the face was stamped) using Versamark and the Perfect Pearls. If you tilt it to the light you see the shimmer effect of the Perfect Pearls rather than just a flat grey crackle as it shows here on the computer.

"Awaken"... Stamp by Cherry Pie, background sprayed as "Melancholy" was but using Brushed Corduoroy Distress Re-inker, Gold Perfect Pearls & water in a spritz bottle.

This next atc isn't anything to do with Perfect Pearls, it's a gel medium transfer atc that's for a Yahoo Group I'm in, Paperarts. One talented bunch of girls in this group! It's for the WTA - Winner Takes All - sort of a lottery that runs every month where one person gets to win all the wonderful atc's that are entered for that month.

More Perfect Pearls atc's to come....some are still happening in my studio - have to wait for that Texture Paste to dry!!! lol

ahhhh....Foil Tape!!!

I have been using Foil Tape in my artwork for several years now and there's nothing better than introducing it to someone who's not used it before! Hopefully I'll have that chance in my upcoming Foil Tape classes....though I think I show it to just about everyone who walks into Scraptivate, I love it that much! You can buy it from hardware stores like Bunnings here in Australia but the one they sell has thick black tar underneath the foil and is really too thick and yukky to use. I much prefer the one we sell at Scraptivate (for only $1 per metre!!!!!!!), it's self-adhesive and is perfect for several techniques.


Firstly, you can attach it to chipboard and run it through a cuttlebug to give a great silver background that can then be alcohol inked or, as I prefer, painted with acrylic paint then wipe it off to leave a little bit of paint behind to grunge it up.

I also like to use a metal letter stamping set (which we also sell at Scraptivate!) on either foil tape attached to chipboard and treated the same way as above, or, colour a piece of chipboard with a sharpie, then stamp the word with the metal letters, then rub some metallic wax over the top to make the impressed word stand out. "Silence" below has this technique. The "Metal Fatigue" wording is done using the foil tape.

Another way I use it is to stamp an image onto it after it's been attached to card stock, then using a stylus, trace over the image leaving an indentation, then paint over the whole thing and immediately wipe off the excess paint, but leaving some in the indentations so you can see the stamped image. When I first started doing it, I either used black or brown acrylic paint, but now I've started using other colours as well. I think it works.....do you?


"Silence"... (bamboo stamp by All Night Media. There's that black texture paste around the image too!)

"Metal Fatigue"... (this background is made using one of the new Cuttlebug embossing folders, looks like the bed of a truck! Great for male cards! Image by H.R. Geiger....I used to have a huge poster of this image on my bedroom wall when I was 19! lol)



"Sooner or later"... (tree stamp by Stampers Anonymous)

"Be still"...(this is an older atc showing the black acrylic paint on the foil tape. Stamp by Michelle Ward - Green Pepper Press - from the Juliet plate.)

That's it for the moment....Perfect Pearls are next in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the enquiries after my "lobe"! lol It's getting better though I did need a stronger antibiotic as the first one just didn't cut it.