Spring Bling Glass Glitter Tutorial

Hello crafty friends! Well, can you feel it? Ahhh, the sun is getting warmer and burning off the chill in the air. Can you hear it? The trickling sounds of melting snow up north and the trees bursting into leafy song down south. Can you see it? Daffodils, crocus, hyacinth all wearing their spring finery.

I'm in Maryland, smack dab in the middle of all the seasonal changes. The lawn at my in-laws in southern North Carolina has already been mowed twice, mine is starting to "green up" and dear Kimm up in northern Pennsylvania still has mounds of snow. Still, yesterday was the first official day of Spring 2011. Yay!

Before I get into this tutorial, I want to remind you of our current challenge - make a project using a Spring theme, enter it into the challenge and you're automatically entered into our Birthday Bash giveaway! We've got 5 prizes to give away to our challenge players - check out all the details HERE.

German Glass Glitter Tutorial

Today I'm sharing a how-to on our German glass glitter, along with my newest spring-themed card.

I couldn't resist Echo Park's Springtime paper collection. How sweet is this?! I knew I wanted to bling out blank chipboard letters, and just *had* to cut out the sweet little trees. Add a few puffy white clouds et voila! -- an easy, springy card!

I love altering the blank letters - either chipboard or grungeboard. Here's my first step today - drip Ranger Alcohol ink on the letters to let them soak it up and dry. The ink matches the glass glitter I'll be using, and will blend right in if I have any thin spots.

Now that my letters are dry I assemble my supplies.

• Meyer Imports German Glass Glitter in Lime-Green
• Glue - any white glue will do
• Tweezer Bee Precision tweezers
• Pointy instrument - any kind will do - it's to use as a teeny tiny extra finger for moving wet gluey, glittery things around
• Tidy Tray or large piece of paper that you can make into a funnel to pour unused glitter back into the bag

Now that you've assembled your supplies, bring out the bling! Add a thin layer of glue to the entire surface, keeping it off the sides (if you get it on the sides you can use the pointy thing to wipe it out - it's handy!).

Next, plop the letter down into the little pile of glitter on your Tidy Tray or paper work surface and give it a little smush all over to work the glitter all over the exposed glue. Lift it up with your tweezers and give your tweezer hand a tap or two to let go of the loose glitter pieces.

Here's a quick view of the tree glittering action - I used a pointy thing (an embossing tool) to dab glue onto the leaves, then smushed the tree into the pile of leafy, glittery goodness. :)

The last step is clean-up! Pull the plug off the tray and pour the glitter back into the bag. It's helpful to use a cup to hold the bag up.

Ok, so that's just like using the plain old plastic glitter, right? Yes! You definitely have to have your sensible cap on and take care with the glitter - it *is* glass, after all. It's best not to brush it off your work surface with your hand. It will do more damage to your table surface than your hand! After the glue has been sitting for a while but not quite dry, I use my fingers to push the glitter down and smooth edges as needed. Once it's bone dry I brush my fingers over to dislodge any stragglers. I haven't had any problems with this kind of handling *at all*. 

What's the payoff for using German glass glitter over plastic glitter? Sparkle and bling! It shines and reflects light unlike any other glitter and is beautiful! Thanks for reading this tutorial. I hope it inspires you to give our German glass glitter a try - you won't regret it!

Card Recipe

• Paper - Echo Park Springtime; Bazzill Basics - 50% off!
•  Embellishments - Meyer Imports German Glass Glitter; Trees and clouds cut from EP Springtime "Spring Border Strips" 12x12 paper; letters are TH grungeboard; lace and ribbon from stash
• Medium - Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Lettuce; Distress Ink in Broken China, Bundled Sage and Dusty Concord; Stickles in Fruit Punch, Waterfall, Yellow for tree flowers
• Adhesive - Scor-Tape; 3-D Dots; Fabri-Tac; Ranger Matte Accents
• Tools - Scor-Pal; Honey Bee scissors; Tweezer Bee tweezers

Thanks for visiting today! check back all week for more Spring theme projects using our fabulous German Glass Glitter!

Cheers,
Susan