DT Special Assignment Day!

Let's Talk Perfect Pearls

by Michele (Mimita) Harris

Perfect Pearls by Ranger Inks are a fun and easy product to work with. The powders give you an awesome pearly, very shiny, shimmery and rich finish (that pictures don't give justice to!!). The colour changes as you move it under the light. It is beautiful!! It can be a bit messy, it's fun to get dirty!! But the upside is that it doesn't stain at all. It wipes off as a charm with a wet cloth. And they come in so many different colours!!

You can use Perfect Pearls in many different ways, this is another versatile product, like most Ranger products are!! I will show you how to use them both wet and dry.

Here is what you will need:

A Perfect Medium pen by Ranger

One colour or more of Perfect Pearls powder by Ranger

Water in a spray bottle

A small container (I use a glass bowl, it cleans easy)

3 paint brushes: one small round, one medium round and one medium flat, all with soft bristles 

Now, while water fixes the powder, when you touch Perfect Pearls, a little bit may still stay on your fingers. I don't like that and that is why I use a fixative when I'm done, with all my Perfect Pearl pieces. All you need is a very quick Spray, only a little bit will suffice!! It's easy to use and you can return to work over it even, if you wish, this product is fantastic, I use the Krylon:

So let's begin with the dry method:

First choose your background paper. I like the black and white here but Perfect Pearls can be applied over any colour. In fact most people go nuts over its wild effect over a dark paper (the shimmer is less subtle and more stunning, I made the solid piece over black to show you, as you will see below...), then mark where you want your photo on the layout. Why waste Perfect Pearls where it will be hidden, right? 

Then, with your Perfect Medium pen, go over all the areas that you want to cover with the Perfect Pearls:

Move under the light to see what you are doing. 

Now using your small round soft brush, you apply Perfect Pearls powder over the medium:

You don't need to worry about being neat... The brush helps it stick to the medium:

Keep going until you cover it all:

Then, with your medium round soft brush, brush the excess powder off:

Don't worry, it will all come off, just keep brushing the powder off:

Do you see the shimmer under the light? This is very hard to capture on a picture unfortunately, the real life is much more stunning:

Now you need your water spray to fix the powder:

And spray lightly over your entire surface. This blends the powder a little bit and it brings out the shine. It is also suppose to fix the powders. It does. But not entirely as mentioned above. I still add a light coat of Krylon fixative in the end but it's optional. The water fixes most of it. I'm just very picky...

You can turn the paper and press over another paper to get the excess water off if you want (that's if you are impatient like me.. lol) and that's it!! You are done with the background:

Now let's continue with the wet method:

First, pour a bit of Perfect Pearls powder in your small container: 

Then add just a little bit of water over the powder:

Mix this really well, you don't want any clumps left:

With your medium flat soft brush, simply apply as if your Perfect Pearl mixture was a paint. Note that I used a black paper to show you how it shines even more over a dark surface:

Perfect Pearls can also be used with stamps:

Actually, you can purchase the Perfect Medium in a pad format, which makes this method easier of course. But you can do it with a Perfect Medium pen too. Again here, you can use any paper to stamp over, I am using a small piece of white cardstock to show you: 

Simply apply Perfect Medium over the lines of your stamp:

And stamp over your paper:

Now apply the powder over it with your small soft brush (like we did with the dry method above):

Brush the excess powder off with your medium round soft brush and the image will magically appear! This is a fun and thrilling part!!! Just think of the possibilities, text stamps, etc...

It gives you a subtle classy finish over a light paper and more stunning, bright and obvious finish over dark paper:

You can also Mist Perfect Pearls!!

If you look on the internet, you will find several recipes for making your own «glimmery» mist. But they are now available already in a spray form, which is the best. It has bearings inside that mixes the powder really well with the liquid, you need that for best results. And these Perfect Pearls Mists by Ranger already contain a fixative, nothing comes off of this when dry, you don't need to spray any Krylon. And these also come in many different colours!!

Extra notes:

You can mix colours with Perfect Pearls!! This is particularly beautiful when using stamps. Start applying powder with one colour on one side and continue with another or more colour as you progress to the other side, the effect is FUN!!!

You can also do this with the wet method. You can mix your colours, blend them together with a paint brush. You can cover the entire background this way, also very FUN!!!

You can apply Perfect Pearls over anything that is porous, not only paper. So yes!! You can shimmer anything and with a quick coat of fixative in the end, you'll have a piece that will last and last.

Here is another layout made with Perfect Pearls:

Again, it is very hard to see the shimmer effect on a picture... I used 3 colours of Perfect Pearls on this one. 

So now you know everything about Perfect Pearls!!  I so hope you have fun!! Be creative with your Perfect Pearls!!