Technique of the Week: Adding Glitter to Die-Cuts by Pam Nelson

This week's technique by Pam Nelson is a re-run from last November. It's still as wonderful now as it was then! We have Elizabeth Craft glitter in stock, including the beautiful translucent glitters in Warm Diamond and Cool Diamond. These would be perfect for this technique! We think we saw this snowflake die coming through in Recycled Rubber!

This week’s technique comes as a result of a question from a customer this week about using the new Tim Holtz Platinum Glitter Dust.  It also builds on Marj’s technique of die cutting your Nuance panels from last week’s newsletter.

Before I get started on the directions, do you have a question about a technique that you’d like to see here?  If so, just email us, call us at the store, or comment on this blog post and we’ll start making a list for future columns.

It is very simple to add glitter to the negative space of your die cut and then use that as an accent or the focal point of your card.  You will need a prepared piece of cardstock.  In the examples here, “Joy” was die cut into a piece of watercolor paper that had been colored with Distress Twisted Citron and then stencil stamped with a Magenta Poinsettia stencil.  The glitter is Tim Holtz's new Distress Platinum Glitter Dust.    The “Merry Christmas” was cut into a piece of watercolor paper that will then be cut down and added to another card.  The Glitter is Elizabeth Craft Red.  The snowflake was cut into a piece of cardstock that had been colored with Distress Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet, then lightly dusted with Perfect Pearls.   The glitter is Elizabeth Craft Warm Diamond.

Die cut your image for your prepared cardstock.  As in Marj’s technique it is also important to save the negative pieces such as the centers of the letters.  If you look closely at the word “Joy” you will see that each letter has a negative piece – the bottom of the “j”, two pieces in the “o” and the bottom of the “y.”  After die cutting your image, apply Stick-it or Scor-Tape paper on the back over the opening.  Turn to the front side and carefully place those negative pieces where they belong in each word.  Tweezers or an X-acto knife work great for this.  Next, put your piece on a sheet of wax paper and pour glitter all over the open area onto the sticky tape.  Burnish it well using your finger or a piece of wax paper.  The more you push the glitter into the sticky surface, the shinier it becomes.  Pour the excess glitter back into the jar.  You can clean the excess glitter from your cardstock with a Swiffer cloth.

Dies like the snowflake work very well for this technique because they cut into the paper, leaving the snowflake design.  You don’t have to attach any of the negative spaces, just put Scor Tape on the back and add glitter.  The positive die cut of "Joy" and "Merry Christmas" can be used on another card too.

I’ll have a few samples in the store so you can see that this technique is quick and easy.