Written by: Kate

When I saw Deanna Pannell's first glitter demo at our store, I knew that I simply had to play with her glitter! But I felt intimidated by the technique because I'd never done anything like it before. Then I realized that if I feel that way, then there's probably some of you that feel that way too! So I decided to take the plunge and take a risk! I purchased some colours that I was drawn to and....well, let me show you!

 I knew that my first step needed to be a simple laying down of adhesive and applying glitter. So that's what I did.

1. I applied a line of the 35mm Sookwang adhesive to my cardstock and removed the backing paper (which is a very important tool in your glitter repertoire, so never throw it out!) Oh, and be careful to not touch the adhesive once the backing paper is removed. Any oil from your hands will decrease its stickiness and effect the overall look of your glitter application.
2. Then I sprinkled pink glitter over top of the adhesive and shook off the excess onto my tidy tray. I noticed that Deanna used a large, soft blush brush to remove her excess glitter from her projects. I'm definitely going to pick one up from the loonie store! But since I didn't have one, I used a clean foam brush.
3. I then 'burnished' (i.e. rubbed firmly all over) the glittered area with my fingertips. And voilà! I had a lovely line of glitter, that felt smooth and looked beautiful. I then found some matching cardstock and a sticker and created a card with it.

Phew! Step one done and it was super simple. I did make a note to myself, however, that I need to get a glitter magnet next time I'm in the store (you'll find these at the Glitter Ritz/Sookwang display) and some larger plastic containers for my glitter. This would definitely take some of the 'mess' out of the process.

Ok, so onto the next project! Tanya gave me a beatiful card this Christmas using the burnished velvet technique. So I scraplifted her design :-) Can't get much easier than that!! Again, this card basically uses a strip of the burnished velvet glitter as an accent piece (similar to how you'd use a strip of patterned paper or cardstock), instead of as the main focus of the card. It's a neat way to use the product; it gives the card a very simple, less 'glitz-ified' look, and it's super easy.

Well, now that I had made two simple cards and had a couple of pieces of adhesive backing paper available to play with, I decided to increase the learning curve and go for a 2-tone effect. This card was created using a 'negative punch mask'. Here's what I did:

1. I applied a line of the Sookwang 35mm adhesive to the bottom third of my green paper (which I trimmed to 4 x 5.25" because I knew I'd eventually apply this creation to the front of a card) and removed the backing paper.
2. Using a flower punch, I punched out several flower shapes from one of my pieces of backing paper (don't throw these pieces out when you're done - find a little container to put them in and keep them for future projects).
3. Using a pair of needle tip tweezers (an essential tool for this technique), I placed my punched backing paper pieces down randomly on my line of adhesive (glossy side down), careful not to get my fingers on the adhesive. I took a solid piece of the backing paper and placed it on top of my adhesive and punched pieces, and rubbed firmly to make sure the punched pieces were well attached.
4. Then I took my Merlot glitter and poured it over the adhesive, shaking the excess off into my glitter tray.  I brushed the excess glitter off with my foam brush (soon to be a blush brush :-) ) and 'burnished' with my fingers.
5. Using my needle tip tweezers, I gently removed my punched backing paper pieces. I then poured my Pink glitter over those floral spots, removed the excess, and burnished. And there you have it! A 2-tone glitter effect. I love it! I then finished the card off with a couple of rub-ons that I found in my stash.

Then it was definitely time to up the ante, and move on to a layered glitter effect. This is where I thought things would get difficult but it was actually quite simple once I understood the steps. I'll walk you through the bottom portion of this card, as the top part is the 'negative punch mask' as described above.

1.  I started by applying a line of adhesive to my card and removing the backing paper. I then punched a random design of slots out of the backing paper using a tag slot punch (you can do this effect with any punch design that you'd like).
2. I carefully re-applied my backing paper (which now had punched holes all over it) over the line of adhesive, careful not to touch the exposed adhesive with my fingers. I then used an extra piece of backing paper (actually, I think I used an empty sticker release sheet that I had lying around - worked great!) and burnished my 'postive punch mask' into place. This is an important step, so that the glitter doesn't 'leak' underneath the mask and contaminate areas that you don't want it on.
3. I then poured my Black glitter over the mask, shook off the excess, burnished it, gave it a final brush, then removed the mask. Step one done!
4. Next, I took a solid piece of the adhesive backing paper and cut 2 curvy lines across it lengthwise, cutting the backing paper into 3 strips. I applied the top and bottom pieces, lining them up nicely with the edges of the adhesive, and then burnished them in place with an extra piece of release paper. Again, this is an important step so that the Bronze glitter, which I was about to add, wouldn't seep underneath the edges and ruin my design.
5. I then applied the Bronze glitter, removed any excess, burnished, brushed and removed the backing paper. One step left!
6. Lastly, I poured the Latte glitter over the remaining exposed adhesive, removed excess, burnished and brushed....and it worked great!!
7. I finished the card with a 'negative punch mask' effect above my original glittered area (see card #3), and a little sticker.

I was most definitely becoming a convert to the wonderful world of Glitter Ritz! My last and final step was to see how well I could 'marry' this technique with my love for all things QuicKutz :-) And so I created this last card using my QuickStripz, Cosmopolitan alphabet and flower die. I was very impressed! Here's what I did:

1. I cut out an 'h' and a 'b' ("happy birthday") using my Cosmopolitan alphabet and my Revolution. The trick was that I used my QuickStripz and placed them in the machine upside down so that the adhesive was on the right side of the letters. I then removed the release paper from the letters, dipped them in the Merlot glitter, burnished, removed excess....it worked fabulous!! I was very impressed. 
2. I did the same technique with my flower die and my squeeze handtool (using Liberty Blue glitter). This time it didn't matter which way I placed the QuickStripz in the tool, as the flower is symmetrical and doesn't have a 'wrong' side per se. I applied the glitter, burnished, and that was that.
3.  I had also purchased some transparent glitter (cool highlights) and I wanted to see what that looked like. So I applied a line of it near the bottom of my card, to act as a background for my embellishments. It works great, and really allows the patterned paper to show through. *Note to self - I think the transparent glitter with warm highlights would have looked better, so I'll need to pick some up :-)

And that's that! I made 5 cards and feel way more skilled and knowledgeable about this technique. I will definitely be using this technique in the near future and am delighted with how it adds to the versatility of my QuicKutz dies.