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Pearl Ex Painted Embellishments

By Wanda Troupe
Hot Rod Scrampers
Advanced Scramping Team Designer

Have you ever painted with Pearl Ex powders? I think many of us have them in our supplies and more often than not, they usually sit neglected.  At least mine did until I found a simple way to store and use them. A friend of mine brought her Pearl Ex Palette Paints to a meeting and I painted with them. I loved the shimmer and color they gave to my stamped images. Several years ago I tried to make my own, but when I painted with them, the colors were not intense enough for my taste. After playing with my friend’s paint set, I decided to try and mix them again increasing the amount of powders I added to the Gum Arabic. The only “recipes” I could find online called for Powdered Gum Arabic and all I had was a bottle of liquid on hand. At $12 a bottle, I wanted to use what I had; besides, I couldn’t find the powder at my local store anyway.

Here’s what I did:

Pour a small amount of Gum Arabic into one of the palette wells. Add a small amount of Pearl Ex and begin to mix it until the powder dissolves. I continued to add the powder until I had a thick, creamy mixture. Then I let them dry for at least 24 hours. You can purchase the paint palettes with plastic tops for storage. Now when I want to paint with them, I just wet a paintbrush and dip it into whatever color I want to paint with. The results are wonderful! I wish you could see the shimmer from the scan, but I guess you’ll just have to try them for yourself!

Supplies:

•  Image stamps (The Angel Company, Making Memories)
•  Alphas (Making Memories, Wordsworth)
•  India Black Inkpad (Stewart Superior)
•  VersaMark (Tsukineko)
•  White Acrylic Paint (Plaid)
•  Gray Acrylic Paint – Rainy Day Gray (Anita’s)
•  Yellow Cardstock, (2) 12”x12” (Bazzill)
•  Gray Cardstock, (2) 12”x12” (Bazzill)
•  White Cardstock scraps (George Pacific - Walmart)
•  Black Detail Embossing Powder (Stampendous)
•  ¼” hole punch (Regular paper hole punch (unknown)
•  ¼” Silver Eyelet (unknown)
•  Pearl Ex Paint Palette
•  Small paintbrush
•  3” Paintbrush
•  1” Sponge Brush
•  Foam Hydra Sponge (Mehron)
•  4” Tile (I use this to put my paint on and work from) – optional
•  Large Tag Punch (Emaginations)
•  Label Buddy
•  Heat Tool (Uchida)
•  Black Photo Corners (unknown – Michael’s)
•  Scrappy Glue (Magic Scraps)
•  Microtip Scissors (Fiskars) 

Instructions:

1. Cut one each of the yellow and gray cardstocks to 10 ½” x 10 ½” size. Center and temporarily adhere the yellow to the gray background and the gray to the yellow background.
    
2. Lightly apply gray paint to flower foam stamps using sponge brush. You don’t have to cover every single space on the stamp. Stamp repeated onto backgrounds.
    
3. Lightly dab 3” paintbrush in gray paint and tap off extra on the tile or scrap paper. Dry brush background in both directions to give a woven appearance. Repeat this process with white paint. (This creates a faux fabric appearance. For more detailed information see my project instructions from November 2005.)
    
4. Remove the 10 ½” pieces and ink all edges with black ink using a sponge. Now glue them to the 12”x12” backgrounds, being sure to match the images up on all sides.
    
5. Arrange photos as desired and attach to backgrounds using adhesive of your choice and small black photo corners. Stamp title using foam alphas and black ink.
    
6. Create journal labels with label buddy and attach as desired.
    
7. Stamp flower images several times on white cardstock scraps using VersaMark. Apply black detail embossing powder and melt with heat gun. Color images with Pearl Ex Paints and cut out.
    
8. Punch one tag from yellow cardstock and one tag from gray cardstock. Stamp definition image on both stamps using black ink. Sponge edges with black ink using hydra sponge. Punch hole at top and attach eyelet. Thread fiber through hole and glue flowers on tag. Glue yellow tag to gray background and gray tag to yellow background, arranging fibers as desired.
    
9. Cut a couple of extra flowers and leaves and attach to top right corner of left page.
    
10. Glue yellow lace to left side of left page and bottom of right page.

That’s it, layout complete! If you have any questions regarding making your own Pearl Ex Paint from the powders, please feel free to email me.

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