Stampin’ Up! Tutorial Tuesday: Faux Page Pebbles

For the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with Crystal Effects and exploring how it can be used to re-create the look of some of the products that are popular in card making and scrapbooking today.  One of the products that has been around for awhile, and which I have always thought were really neat,  are page pebbles. Now if you’re wondering what page pebbles are, you can see a picture HERE.  So, for today’s Stampin’ Up! Tutorial Tuesday, I thought I’d show you how to re-create the look of a page pebble using Crystal Effects. I also found a couple of tips that make it really easy to work with them.

Here’s what I did:

Step 1:  I punched out a few different sized CS and designer paper circles using both a 1/4" handheld punch and a 1/2" circle punch. Take your circles and stick them onto a mini glue dot, and then onto a waxy piece of paper.  TIP: While you can use wax paper for this, you’ll achieve much better results if you use those really waxy sheets that our Stampin’ Up! images come on (when we assemble our stamps – hey we’re recycling right – *lol*?).

Step 2: Carefully squeeze Crystal effects onto the CS and DP circles, using the tip of the bottle to help spread it out.  Tip:  when working with Crystal Effects – DO NOT SHAKE the bottle, or you will end up with all sorts of little bubbles which you then have to use a tip of a pin to poke.  I keep the tip of my crystal effects bottle clear with a sewing pin.  When the Crystal Effects is wet, it has a cloudy look.  Set it aside to dry overnight.  *Update: I wanted to thank those that pointed out that you shouldn’t STORE your crystal effects with the pin in it as it can rust in your bottle tip and muck up the crystal effects.  I actually don’t store it with the pin in, but didn’t think to mention that (oops!) I only keep the pin in there while I am working with it or for the duration of a class. Once I’m done with it, I take the pin out and put the cap back on and store it upright*

Step 3:  This is what your page pebbles look like when they are dry.  To use them in a project you just peel them off of the label sheet (they come off super easily) and stick them to your project! (yes there are a few more in the bottom picture as I added them AFTER I had taken the above pictures).

A couple of things you will notice when working with crystal effects is that it dries flatter than when you first squeezed it out.  Also, you could make clear page pebbles by just squeezing some crystal effects onto the waxy sheet, but you have to be really careful when peeling them off.  They are not as rigid as a real page pebble, so you have to handle them gently or they will "stretch".  That is why I much preferred to re-create them on top of a piece of CS or DP.  Below you’ll find a couple of cards I made with them.

The page pebbles above were made using the 1/4" circle punch.  Notice that I also used the same card layout as for the Stamp Simply Saturday card.

Stamps: Tart & Tangy, One Smart Cookie
Paper: Whisper White CS, Whisper White & Old Olive CS, Summer Picnic DP
Ink:  Basic Black Classic Ink, Real Red, Old Olive & Close to Cocoa Stampin’ Write Markers
Accessories:  Real Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, faux page pebbles.

The card below used the 1/2" circle punch.

Stamps: Zoofari
Paper: Whisper White & Basic Black CS, Jersey Shore DP, Old Olive DP, Summer Picnic DP
Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black Classic Inks
Accessories: Spiral Punch, faux page pebbles, Ribbon Originals.