Thursday 27 August 2009

Shimmering Marble

Here's my final project in the Cornish Heritage Farms and Shimmerz product swap - something a little different for a wedding today.

I played around with a technique I've seen to make marbled effects from shimmer sprays. Never content to just do things as they're described, I've added "splodges" (technical term) of Shimmerz paint to the basic spray idea for areas of subtly contrasting colour.

To achieve this kind of effect, just spritz a piece of card quite heavily with your Shimmerz Spritz (I used "Concrete"). Once you have good coverage, add random splodges of a toning colour of Shimmerz paint (just drip it off the end of a paintbrush or toothpick). Scrunch up some plastic food wrap, flatten it out a bit and plunk it down onto your card piece and pat gently with the flat of your hand to get good contact.

Now go and have some lunch, walk the dog, pick the kids up from school or whatever happens to fit your day and get you away from the craft table for a while.

Once it's had a good while to dry, peel off the plastic wrap. See what happened? (You can click through on the pic for a better view.) All those lovely mica particles got concentrated into the wrinkles in the plastic wrap and you have a shimmery, marbled piece. Leave it for a while to make sure it's thoroughly dry and then cut it up and stamp away to your heart's content.

I went with an elegance thing and used the beautiful medallion-style stamp from the Ornamental Beauty set so that the background is playing a key role in the piece but there's plenty of interest in the pattern, too.

The other thing I did here was to use the Shimmerz paint on black cardstock. Just enough of the colour shows (and of course you get the shimmer) that you end up with a kind of verdigris effect. My Prima flower also got a coat of paint.

Stamps (Cornish Hertiage Farms):
Ornamental Beauty (Rummage Bin line)
Wedding Centers (Mona Lisa moments line)


Paper:

Smooth white

Black


Ink:
Brilliance byTsukineko (Graphite Black)

Other:

Shimmerz Spritz (Concrete)

Shimmerz Paint (Mint)

Flower by Prima Marketing

Antique copper brad by Making Memories


Thanks for stopping by today, hope you enjoyed the card and the few days of shimmer!

12 comments:

Deborah said...

A beautifully understated and elegant card. Thanks for sharing how you achieved the background.

Kathy said...

oh, this is a beautiful effect and a stunning card. Fab work, Joanne

Lottie said...

It is just perfect - love the technique and the subtlety of the colours

Never got a chance to comment on the pink elephants - fabulous

Kaz said...

Another stunning card Joanne. I love it. I think I may have a try of this with glimmer mists - not sure when though!!

Unknown said...

Ooh..... I likey! Fab card Joanne x

Darlene said...

What a FANTASTIC spin on the typical glimmer mist technique! Thanks for sharing this! Your card is so elegant & chic! LOVE it!!

Karen said...

oooo I love this background Joanne and the stamping is so perfect with it! XXX

Janice said...

What a great technique, sounds like something I could do! Love that stamp too.

Unknown said...

That is one really stylish card!

Ellen said...

very elegant and the shimmerz gives a great effect . What is the difference between Shimmerz and
H2O paints ??

it made that flower really shiny

Mari said...

Absolutely gorgeous!
Love the colors & that stamp! :)

Hels Sheridan said...

WOW...another stunning creation hun...this is amazing...love it to bits! x