Picket Fence Studio’s Paper Glaze is a gorgeously creamy medium used to create all sorts of finishes, from obvious applications like stencilling to ideas which are more outside of the box such as painting. The finish you end up with is an elegant shimmer, though it is very dependent on how you’ve applied it and what you’ve applied it to. In this masterclass I’ve stencilled with the Paper Glaze, used it with a Gelli Printing Plate as well as trying an emboss-resist technique, diluted the glaze to make it into a spray, blended the glaze to create backgrounds, painted with it, and stencilled onto different types of card. The possibilities with this versatile medium are endless.

It dries extremely quickly, which comes with both pros and cons: generally it’s great to have a product that has this feature as it enables you to carry on with your project, but the downside is that if you don’t clean up immediately you could spoil your tools or work surface. My advice is to always have a small bowl of soapy water nearby to drop your stencils and tools into – this will temporarily prevent them from drying.

Having said this, even though it’s fast-drying I would still advise leaving it to dry overnight before finishing your project if time permits. This is because thicker applications of the Paper Glaze, like stencilling, do take longer to dry and it would be a shame to spoil your beautiful work!

This product comes in many stunning colours. Here I’ve used Ocean Poppy, Daffodil Yellow, Succulent Green and Snowdrop White – and of course, you can create your own unique colours too by mixing those provided by Picket Fence Studios. I would recommend you buying two or three colours you’re drawn to, grabbing a few stencils and dipping your toes into this technique with a simple method like stencilling to start off with. Once you start using the product and get a feel for it, who knows where your imagination may take you?

Browse the range of glues and varnishes available from CraftStash, including

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For you sister

HOW TO: get started using Paper Glaze for background panels

1    Using a palette knife and stencil apply Succulent Green Paper Glaze to glitter card.

2    Remove excess using the palette knife and carefully lift stencil from the panel.

3    Dry overnight, or speed up the process using a heat tool – once dry, trim to size.

4     Layer the panel into position and stamp the sentiment underneath as shown to finish.

Top Tip

Paper Glaze is pretty quick drying – keep a small bowl of water to place stencils in after use until you can wash properly

Hello

Simply make

1 Stamp and heat-emboss the background stamp onto white cardstock.

2 Using a blending sponge, add Ocean Poppy to the stamped card and allow to dry.

3 Trim the panel to measure 6.6x15cm and layer onto black cardstock, leaving narrow birders down each long edge, before securing to the card front.

4 Die-cut the ‘hello’ sentiment from black cardstock and add to the card front as shown. Add Crystal Drops to the flower centres to finish.

Just because

Simply make

1 Spray the back of the stencil with Stick and Spray and place onto a piece of scrap cardstock.

2 Using a palette knife add Succulent Green Paper Glaze to the card. Remove any excess glaze and carefully lift the stencil from the panel.

3 Place the stencil straight onto the Gelli Printing Plate, add a piece of white cardstock and use a brayer to transfer the image. Once dry cut down to 8.2x16cm.

4 Add Daffodil Yellow glaze and water into a spritzer bottle, shake to mix well. Spritz onto the printed image.

5 Allow to dry and layer onto black cardstock before securing to the card front. Stamp the sentiment on the bottom of the panel, and add a Crystal Drop to finish.

Love you so much

Simply make

1 Spray the back of the stencil with Stick and Spray and place onto white cardstock.

2 Using a palette knife add Succulent Green Paper Glaze to one corner blending out as you go. Next, add Daffodil Yellow, then finish with Ocean Blue.

3 Remove any excess and carefully lift the stencil. Once dry, trim around the shape of the curved square to create a topper.

3 Cut a 13cm-square piece of white cardstock, add the stencil to the panel and run through your die-cutting machine to dry-emboss.

4 Layer the embossed panel onto black cardstock, leaving a narrow border, and secure to the card front. Mount the topper on top.

5 Stamp a sentiment onto white cardstock as desired, trim and mount in place using 3D foam pads to finish.

Top Tip

Add a sheet or two of copier paper to sandwich to increase the depth of the embossing

Thanks

HOW TO: step up the skill level to paint with Paper Glaze

1 Using a blending sponge add Ocean Poppy and Snowdrop White to some watercolour card.

2 Spritz the panel with Daffodil Yellow glaze mixed with water in a spritzer bottle.

3 Using clear ink, stamp the image onto the panel using clear embossing ink.

4 Heat-emboss the image using Tonic’s Glacier White embossing powder.

5 On a glass mat, mix Daffodil Yellow glaze with water to make a paint, then using a paintbrush, add colour to the stamped image. Allow to dry.

6 Die-cut three sentiments, layer them together to create a thicker element, add clear ink and heat-emboss with black powder. Allow to cool and repeat two or three times.

7 Trim the painted panel to measure 10.3x15cm, layer onto black cardstock and secure to the card front. Add the heat-embossed, glossy sentiment from Step 6 as shown to finish.

Top tip

When stamping clear ink onto white cardstock, using a stamp platform and stamping the image several times enables you to have the confidence all of the image is stamped

Hugs

Simply make

1 Using a blending sponge, add diluted Ocean Poppy to watercolour card cut to 13cm square. Run the stencil and card through a die-cutting machine using an embossing mat.

2 While the stencil is still in place, ink the raised areas with diluted Daffodil Yellow. Carefully remove stencil.

3 Die-cut a large heart from a masking sheet, remove the backing and place onto the embossed panel.

4 Mix Ocean Poppy and Succulent Green with a little water and blend over the panel. Remove masking paper. Matt and layer onto a piece of black cardstock, leaving narrow borders.

5 Add Ocean Poppy and Succulent Green glaze to a piece of scrap watercolour card and die-cut the sentiment from it.

6 Add clear ink and Crystal Clear embossing powder and heat-emboss. Allow to cool. Repeat this a further two or three times until you have a thick smooth surface.

7 Die-cut another sentiment from black cardstock, layer up so it creates a drop shadow to the heat-embossed die-cuts and mount in place to finish.

Top tip

To protect surfaces, use an old metal tray to heat emboss the die-cuts