You can use glitter glass to create beautiful, sparkling, multi-colored stamped images. Glitter glass is made of glass so it doesn't cur or lose it's shimmer when heat is applied. Please remember that the color is not lightfast. It will fade over time. It will still remain metallic looking, just not at vibrantly colored. In this tutorial we use both red liner bead tape and Tsukineko's Glue Pad for applying the glitter glass. We use both the glass shards and the fine glitter glass in this project as well as a touch of metallic micro marbles.

Step 1

Apply 1/8" red liner bead tape around the edges of the card. Leave the liner covering the tape for now. This particular card face is 4" x 5 1/4" but these techniques will work with any size card.

Step 2

Stamp your image using the Tsukineko Glue Pad. This pad has a nice dense foam so glue doesn't get embedded into the crevices of your image when you're trying to stamp. If it's been awhile since you used your Glue Pad you may need to reink it. It does dry out and become tacky when not used for a long period of time. Reinking it is pretty easy. You can smoosh the glue around with your finger and it washes off easily.

Step 3

With your fingers, sprinkle your first color of fine glitter glass over a portion of your image. This is broken glass so you will feel some slight grit on your fingers but it isn't much more than touching sandpaper. ** Note: Sometimes I feel like a little piece has is stuck in my fingertip so you may wish to wear latex gloves when handling glitter glass.

Here we're using a dragonfly from our Take Flight rubber stamp set. Use a stamp of your choice. For this particular technique it is best to use a bolder or thicker lined stamp rather than a high detail stamp.

Carfully pour off the excess, taking care not to pour it over the uncovered areas of the glue. Give the cardstock a good tap so loosely hanging on particles fall off. This is important if you're trying to save the glitter from each application to put back into the jar. If you use your glitter sparingly you can simply save it all into one multi-colored pile for use on another project.

Step 4

With your fingers sprinkle the second color in selected areas and pour off the excess. You can continue this process with as many colors as you like.

Step 5

In this step we sprinkled a few glass shards around the tips of the wings and shook off the loose pieces before pouring some metallic micro marbles over the rest of the uncovered image. These larger, heavier items do not stick to the glue from the glue pad as well as the fine glitter glass. If you choose to use these, you'll need to emboss the whole image as shown a couple steps later below.

Step 6

Stamp your greeting or another image using the Glue Pad.

Step 7

Sprinkle some more fine glitter glass over the new image, shake off the excess and stamp any other images you wish using the Glue Pad. The Glue Pad as works well with embossing powder, not any better than embossing ink, but sometimes it's nice not to have to dig out another ink pad.

Step 8

Cover the entire card, including the two unglittered moths at the bottom of the page with Super-Fine clear embossing powder. Pour off the excess and give the card a good tap or blow. When you pour off the excess there will likely be a few tiny peices of glitter in it. You might want to keep a "dirty" jar for processes like these. Heat the entire card using a heat tool. This helps secure some of the larger items to the Glue Pad ink.

Caution: This is ground and broken glass. Be sure to hold the card at arm's lenth away from your face and blow away from you when using the heat gun. You want to be careful not to get any particles into your eyes. They don't fly too far because they're heavier than plastic glitters but it's best to be safe.

Step 9

Remove the red liner tape liner and pour some glitter glass shards over top. You will have to press these into the tape. If you find this hurts your fingers, simply use some latex gloves or a scrap of paper wrapped around your finger for this stip. If you heat the tape first it will be tackier and easier to get the shards to grip. Pour the excess off the card.

Apply your card front to a folded card.