A few days ago I decided to play with my new bottle of Crystal Effects from Stampin’ Up! I wanted to see how different it was compared to using the Fine-Tip Glue Pen in adding shine to an image. The more I look at it, the more I think the finished project still needs some tweaking, but here’s what I have so far.

BERRY BOUGH

What I needed for this ‘test’ was an image with berries, and I found exactly the right thing in the Frosted Foliage Stamp Set. But before I got to the Crystal Effects I first needed to do a little preparation.

First I wiped a layer of Whisper White Card using an Embossing Buddy to remove any oils and static. Then I stamped the berry bough image twice with VersaMark ink. Next I sprinkled the VersaMark with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and tapped off the excess. Then once I’d removed a few stray specks I melted the rest with my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

My sentiment also comes from the Frosted Foliage Stamp Set and after wiping the card again with the Embossing Buddy I stamped and embossed that too.

While I had the embossing equipment out I embossed a single berry bough along the bottom edge of another layer of Whisper White Card. This would eventually go inside my card base.

With the embossing complete I then used a Poppy Parade Stampin’ Write Marker from the Brights collection to add some colour to the inside of each berry. To give it a bit of a watercoloured look I used a Water Painter to add a tiny bit of clean water to each berry. Then I set it aside to dry while the water reacted with the marker ink.

Before cleaning and packing away my berry image I had one more bit of stamping to do. I used Soft Suede ink to stamp it onto the flap of a Whisper White Medium Envelope.

CRYSTAL EFFECTS

Once the painted berries were dry I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the the sentiment layer onto the front of a Poppy Parade Card base. Then I proceeded to squeeze a small amount of Shimmery Crystal Effects inside each of the embossed berries.

Shimmery Crystal Effects is a very thick liquid with tiny pieces of a glittery substance suspended in it, and the applicator nozzle on the bottle allowed me to be very precise in where I placed it. By the time I had finished I had created a little opaque dome inside each embossed berry.

Of course it was only at this point that I realised that I hadn’t glued my other white layer inside the card base. I wasn’t going to add Crystal Effects to this layer but if I opened the card I risked damaging the front. There was nothing I could do but to wait hours for the Crystal Effects to dry completely and turn from opaque to clear.

When I returned to the card the following day the Crystal Effects were completely clear and dry. Unlike the glue from the Fine-Tip Glue Pen the Crystal Effects had remained dome-like while it dried. Exactly the result I was looking for. All I had to so was use liquid glue to fix the remaining Whisper White layer inside the card base and I was done.

Or was I?

As I said, there’s something about this project that’s niggling me. Despite the embossing and amazing berries with their clear domes it seems ‘unfinished’. So, I’m going to leave this card out on my shelf in front of where I create. Eventually I’ll ‘see’ what needs to be done and I’ll be sure to show you the ‘mark 2’ version when I’ve completed it.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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UPDATED 2020: Sadly the Frost Foliage Stamp Set and Embossing Buddy have retired and are no longer available from Stampin’ Up!