Art Fun Cheap

“Glitter is good,” is my motto. The great glitzy stuff I love goes by various names: glitter glue, dimensional paint, paper glaze, and fabric paint. The textures and finishes are different, but all are fun and useful. I use them for art journals, artist trading cards, drawings, paintings, greeting cards, origami paper, and all kinds of things.

In addition to using them on paper, you can use them on water-media acetate or overhead projection slides that are made for printing in inkjet printers. I sometimes layer all these together: glazes, glitter glues, dimensional gels. All layer well if you allow them to dry between layers.

The only exceptions are the pearls, which tend to melt and blend with other colors applied on top of or around them. That can be used to create beautiful effects, though, so I don’t consider it a defect. This is all truly wonderful stuff.

One of my favorite fun-art-supply-makers is Elmer’s, partly because the products are so varied and so widely available. Yep, the glue people have turned into the fun art supply mavens.

Several other companies also make wonderful glitzy stuff, including RoseArt (finest-pointed applicator), Crayola (next finest), Ting-a-Ling Sparkles (very fine), and Creative Hands.

Glitter glues and dimensional paints include not only clear gels with colored glitter in them, but also pearls, translucent colored gels, metallic gels, opaque colors, milky colors with transparent glitter, and clear or colored gels with metallic, opaque glitter or confetti.

Most of them come in tubes with fine tips that allow you to write or draw fairly fine lines. But you can also uncap the tube and squeeze out larger amounts. It’s fun to spread this gooey stuff with your fingers, and you can get effects you probably can’t get any other way.

Some come in small jars or larger bottles for for when you need to cover larger areas. Spread thinly they can turn any plain paper into glitzy giftwrap.

Experiment with combing and other texturing methods. You can also drop in confetti, glitter, sequins, and other items for added texture and effects.