Twinkling WHAT?!  When I first heard about this new product I had no idea what to expect. After using Twinkling H2Os by
LuminArte, Inc., however, I've become one of their biggest fans.

Twinkling H2Os are hard, cake-like, watercolors that simply need a wet paint brush or waterbrush to activate. They have small bits of mica embedded in the paint that bring the colors to life and come in several glorious colors. I've always loved bright colors and found that Twinkling H2Os fulfill my need to add brightness and shimmer to my pages.

According to the manufacturer, Twinkling H2Os can be used on watercolor paper, vellum, and cardstock. They can also be used as a watercolor wash to create a beautiful background and spread over a transparency and stamped on for another wonderful effect. Another way to use this product would be to bleach out part of a stamped image and paint over the bleached area with the Twinkling H2O's. You can paint Twinkling H2O's on a solid stamp and stamp the design on layouts or cards. The ideas are almost limitless.

In the example below, Twinkling H2Os were stippled on a piece of glossy cardstock with a stipple brush and allowed to dry. The colors used were Playful Peony, Golden Opal, and Hot Cinnamon. Once the cardstock dried, I cut out the letters for my title. The letters were bright and sparkly and really made the title jump out from the page. I also wanted to experiment with painting with Twinkling H2Os. I stamped and embossed some tulip images and then used a wet paintbrush to paint them in. It's important to start with the light colors first. The more water you add to the brush the lighter the color will be. Since I prefer intense colors, I used very little water, basically just putting the tip of my brush in the water and then dipped it in the Twinkling H2O color pot to pick up the paint. I used Playful Peony, Douglas Fir, Periwinkle, Golden Opal, Hot Cinnamon and Blue Ice to paint my stamped images. The result was a very vivid, sparkling image.

This product is great for scrapbookers, stampers, AND scrampers alike!!

Supplies

• Twinkling H2Os - LuminArte, Inc.
  
• Quickutz hand tool and Quickutz Venus upper and Shadow Alphabet. (Quickutz, Inc)
  
• Black, lime green, white and glossy white cardstock. (Michael's Stores)
  
• Red and burgundy colorblocked cardstock (unknown)
  
• Xyron 150 (Xyron Corp.)
  
• Scotch double-sided tape (Scotch)
  
• Stampin' Up Spring Garden Stamp Set (Stampin' Up)
  
• Carl 12" rotary trimmer (Carl)
  
• Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad (Tsukineko Inc.)
  
• Stamp-n-stuff Midnight Black embossing powder (Mark Enterprises)

Directions:

• Using a stipple brush, gently stipple paint onto glossy cardstock until you have covered enough area to cut out all the letters you will need. In my example I used Twinkling H2Os (Angelwing Enterprises) colors Playful Peony, Golden Opal, and Hot Cinnamon. Let the cardstock dry.
• Using the Quickutz diecut tool and the Venus Upper Shadow Alphabet cut out the title "Spring Tulips" using black cardstock.
• Next, using the Quickutz diecut tool and the Venus Upper Alphabet, cut out the title, "Spring Tulips" using the stippled glossy cardstock.
• Attach the stippled letters to the black cardstock shadow letters after running the stippled letters through the Xyron 150 machine (Xyron Corporation). Set aside.
• Stamp the image of the tulips in the watering can and three tulips (Stampin' Up Spring Garden Stamp Set) onto a piece of white cardstock using Versamark Watermark Ink (Tsukineko, Inc).
• Emboss the stamped images with Stamp-n-stuff Midnight Black Embossing Powder (Mark Enterprises) and set with a heat gun.
• Now you can be as creative with the Twinkling H2Os as you would like. I painted the images with Playful Peony, Douglas Fir, Periwinkle, Golden Opal, Hot Cinnamon and Blue Ice Twinkling H2Os.

• Trim the stamped watercan/tulip image into a 2" x 3" rectangle and mount on black cardstock. Trim the black cardstock approximately 1/8 inch larger around the borders. Mount the finished product on lime green cardstock and trim the edges approximately 1/8 inch larger around the borders than the black cardstock.
• Trim the three stamped tulip images to approximately 1 inch x 1 ½ inches each. Mount each image on black cardstock and trim to approximately 1/8th inch around the border. Next mount on the lime green cardstock and trim to 1/8th inch borders.
• Attach the title to the top of two 12 x 12 inch color-blocked pages using the Xyron 150. Attach the watercan image to the bottom right of the right page and the three tulip images to the bottom of the left page.
• Crop your photos to fit the pages. On page one I cropped three ¼ inch strips off the sides of my photo and mounted the photo and strips on lime green cardstock leaving a border around the strips. Mount the finished product onto black cardstock leaving an approximately 1/8th inch border around the lime green cardstock.
• Attach the photos with Scotch brand double-sided tape. This completes your project.