Glossy Accents Tutorial

One of my favorite products is Glossy Accents (now known as GA) by Ranger. My husband jokes that I would GA the entire house if I wasn't monitored closely.

If you're familiar with this product, you may know the many ways this product can function for you. Here are just a few techniques - some I tend to use on a regular basis.

Covering chipboard.

GA dries clear and soft - almost like an epoxy covering. Here I took 2 pieces of chipboard. Each one will show a different technique. I use the Cats Eye chalks for this. You can use regular stamp/ink pads but make sure you give the ink time to dry. GA will soak up the ink if its still wet and you'll get a marbelized look.

So, ink your chipboard.

Next, decorate it. For the holly, I just drew some accent lines. The Christmas Ornament is coated with a thin layer of GA and then I sprinkled some Pink Paislee Pixie Stix lose glitter.

Set your holly aside to dry. When its dry, you have your embellishment. I'm really bad about bubbles. Use a straight pin to pop them before they dry.

Your Christmas Ornament can be left alone to dry or you can add another coat of GA to seal the glitter and give it a finished look.

Rubons:

Rubons and chipboard - two staples in scrapping right? Want to make them pop off your page?

Take your rubon and rub it on to the paper you want to use. I tend to use a light colored cardstock so my colors come through.

I used a regular colored pencil to color in the leaves. Again, you can use watercolor pens, paint etc to color in your rubon. Just make sure it dries.

Apply your GA and let dry. Don't worry about staying in the lines because you're going to trim the excess cardstock away.

Making your own embellishment:

Sometimes you need a little extra something on your page right? I was using up all of my chipboard trees from Maya Road too quickly and it was getting costly. I love the way they look, but I tried something new.

Here are two different versions of a tree trunk.

Version 1:

I stamped the tree trunk and then coated in GA. Let dry. Again, don't worry about the GA and staying within the lines. You're going to trim it away.

Version 2:

Ink a section of paper with whatever color you need. I used brown for the tree trunk. I quickly cut out a trunk shape with my craft knife and coated with GA. You can draw freehand any design you want. I needed trees for a layout so this is what you're seeing.

Here are my three different trees all dry:

The best thing about GA is when its applied to paper, the paper curls up just enough to give you the dimension. You also don't have the bulk of chipboard. I like to cut things from patterned papers like flowers. Add GA to them and you have just a little something special on your layout.

Here are some links to more Glossy Accents samples. I hope you take the time to try at least one of these techniques.

Together Layout - coated the chipboard after inking it

Where did the Time go layout - here I stamped the clock image on the kraft cardstock. Next, I stamped the same clock image on another sheet of kraft cardstock. Each clock was cut out and then coated in GA. The GA clocks were then adhered over the stamped image with pop dots to give it more dimension. I used the Tim Holtz distress inks and put the GA on before it dried to get the vintage look.

Back 2 School card - October Afternoon journaling card with the apple printed on it. To make the apple stand out, I put a thin layer of GA on it.

Best Wishes card - coated chipboard stars with ink and then added GA.

Tree Card - I used the same trunk idea as I did above just skinnier trunks.

Chipboard heart pendant - Maya Road chipboard heart. This comes from the Love keychain set. I painted the entire heart red and then coated with GA. While GA is still wet on one side, drop a small crystal in there so it sets. Make sure you coat the sides with GA too so you have a ready to wear necklace.

Home Sweet Home layout - Butterflies are cut from Websters Pages paper and then GA added. It makes the paper curl up just a little to give these butterflies some dimension on the page.

If you have any questions, please post a comment here or you can email me at admin@yourscrapbookstash.com.