So, I was working on a holiday card using some of the great Definitely Decorative Stencils from Stampin' Up!. I wanted to use the Vintage Ornaments set, and was determined to recreate the look of some of my own favorite "vintage" ornaments passed down from my mom. You may know the ones: a richly jewel-colored, satin-finished glass ornament that has an embellishment of glitter.
That led me to a play date with different inks and paints and different orders of application. And the results of my playtime are below.
For this image, I stenciled the flourish using Golden-brand Heavy Gel Medium first. After removing the stencil, I applied glitter, let it dry, and then swirled on Cherry Cobbler ink.
I did not like the result. It removed lots of glitter, the edges of the flourish were not clean. On to the next attempt.
Here, I stenciled the ornament with Cherry Cobbler first. Then I stenciled the flourish with gel medium, and added glitter.
Nope. The gel medium is too transparent, and the image of the flourish disappears into the ornament.
Sticking with stenciling the ornament image first, I did this one with Real Red. Then I stenclied the flourish with Frost shimmer paint. After it dried, I stenciled gel medium over it, and added glitter.
Unh-unh. This one is also too transparent - and the fourish does not stand out.
After stenciling the ornament, I used a stiff stencil brush to apply a pearl-colored oil-based paint stick. After adding gel medium on top, and glitter, I STILL wasn't satisfied.
The image is still too transparent for my liking. On to acrylic paint.
Ick! My acrylic paint was too fluid, and my stencil brush was too wet. I might have done better with a drier brush, but decided to try a sponge instead to apply the paint.
Okay, better. The acrylic paint is the most opaque (although still not as much as I'd like). And I used a sponge to apply it over the stencil, making sure that the sponge was relatively dry. Then gel medium, then glitter.
But it was still not the look that I was going for. So, I gave up.
BUT not completely. I did abandon using glitter, and went for gold pigment ink and gold embossing powder, containing glitter, instead.
And while I did not completely replicate my mom's ornaments, I still love the look. And I made my cards for my newsletter. Phew!!
(If you did not see the stenciled ornament card that was part of the 12 Weeks of Holidays, just sign up for my newsletter, and request the past issues for 2010!)
