Rock n Roll Crafts: Stencils plus Glass Glitter equals True Love

With the release of their newest Stencil 1 Book, Stencil 1 Stationery, I thought it the best time to finally share my glitter stencil technique. With a little bit of modeling paste, glass glitter and a beautiful stencil image...gorgeous, glittery, crafty goodness!

How to Make Stencils Glittery
Supplies:

For this sparkly project, you will need the following: A very cool mylar stencil (brass/metal will also work), German Glass Glitter in Silver 100 grit, some modeling paste:

a palette knife, masking tape and the project you want to make..I'm making a greeting card.
To start, tape the stencil to the front of the card with masking tape.

The tape not only holds the stencil down, but also protects the rest of the card from extra paste..I have this one taped on just one side because the mylar is protecting the rest of the card. Also note that this is one stained and dirty stencil! I thought the old ink would help in the pictures to define the image for viewing. If you are going to use a dirty stencil..just be sure that it's actually stained..or the colors could run into the paste.

So next up, apply the paste to the card with the palette knife. Use a pretty fair amount of paste and apply in a cake frosting type manner. You want to use a lot of paste because you don't want to have to run the knife over the stencil too many times. You want to get a nice, even layer of paste in the image and the more times you run the knife over the top, trying to make it "perfect", the more risk you run of pushing the pasted under the stencil and making the edges blurry.

This one didn't come out as smoothly as I would have liked..but you can always fix these during the glittering process..

Lift the stencil up and remove. I always try to lift towards the side with the tape and then up and off. You can see here that I pushed a little too much and there is a slight ring around the image..oh well. I'm still happy.

Now let's cover with glitter!!!

This is german glass glitter, 100 grit. The glass part of it makes it a little more dangerous than plastic glitters. This 100 grit is pretty fine, so not as sharp as the bigger grits. I keep a small wisk broom handy to clean up any spills or overages. You definitely don't want to get this stuck in your hand! owie.

This glitter is also sterling silver coated, so over time it has it's own patina effect..like vintage glitter. mmmm. So go ahead and just dump that glitter over the top of the paste image. Do this fairly soon after removing the stencil..the paste does set up pretty quick. I also like to very gently push the glitter into the paste..be careful. Tap off the excess and voila...For best results, let dry overnight and remove excess glitter with a clean stencil brush.