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Sheer Heaven
Author: Tyra L. Smith
(Manufacturer  Cre8it!  http://www.dotcalmvillage.net/)

Sheer Heaven is a new "art surface" created by a company called Cre8it! which is truly nothing short of "heaven". It looks a bit like vellum, but acts completely different. Water will not buckle this surface and it is heat embossable. It is somewhat translucent, which allows for wonderful dimensional applications. It is also stunning when used as the surface for lamp shades and luminaries. You get all the wonderful properties of vellum without the headaches! Be to check out the Cre8it! web site for some wonderful tips for use with Sheer Heaven!!!

I would also like to add here that Jessica Wesolek and Cre8it! sponsor an email group at YahooGroups called "New Ideas Exchange". It is a wonderful group of highly creative people and a list worth looking into. Sign up information can be found on Cre8it!'s web site above.

I sat down and played with this cool new Sheer Heaven, my findings are as follows:

1. Radiant Pearls look beautiful. Sheer Heaven on the front is absorbent but still gives enough wet time with RP's for blending. Dry time is slow, RP's remained tacky 4 hours after application. Heat gun used to speed up drying, piece still tacky a bit after heating. Let piece set overnight, still tacky next morning. Heat set again (front and back), still tacky. Spray with matte sealant and is "dry" to the touch now. This leads me to believe that it's possible any RP work will need to air dry at least an hour, heat set...then sprayed with sealant. RP's do not work well on the back of Sheer Heaven.

2. Faerie Myst: works beautifully, dry time is slow, piece was tacky 4 hours after application. Heat gun used to speed up drying with good results, no "tackiness" after heating. Shimmer appears nicer on Sheer Heaven than RP shimmer. FM does not work well on the back of Sheer Heaven.

3. Peerless Watercolors: dries fairly quickly, paint does not bead up and surface does not buckle, warp or pill. The waterbrush works like a charm on Sheer Heaven. These watercolors bead up when brushed on the back of Sheer Heaven, do not work well on the back.

4. Heat Embossing: will warp (only if you try hard) but not nearly as easily as vellum. Hold heat gun 6-8 inches above surface and heat EP slowly for best results. The key to heat embossing is holding the heat gun up higher than you would on regular cardstock and SLOWLY heating the surface. Patience is a virtue! The fine line or detail embossing powders retain exquisite detail on the Sheer Heaven.

5. Colored pencils work on either side of Sheer Heaven and look quite stunning, almost like suede. Blending is effortless.

6. Markers and gel pens apply smoothly with very few (almost negligible) brush strokes being visible. Dry time is quick. Markers can be used either front or back on Sheer Heaven.

7. The following brands/types of inks were stamped on Sheer Heaven (results in 7A and 7B):

Dye Inks: Memories, Fresco, Ranger Vintage, Ranger Adirondack, Ranger Stamp It, Ranger Archival, Ranger Sea Shells, Ranger Sea Brights, Marvy Matchable, Vivid!

Pigment Inks: Ranger Color It, Encore Metallics, Versacolor, Ranger Antiquities, Brilliance

Misc: Dr. P.h. Martin's Watercolor inkpads, Dr. P.h. Martin's Iridescent inkpads, Ranger Fabra-Ca-Dabra

7A. Experimentation with various brands of ink on the FRONT of Sheer Heaven achieved the following results:

-both dye and pigment inks dry nicely.

-Encore Metallic pigment inkpads dry more slowly than other brands of pigment inks but do look stunning.

-Brilliance pigment inkpads dry quickly and the pearlescent colors give a "faux embossed/raised" look to the stamped line. -Ranger

-Archival, Ranger 213 and Brilliance inkpads are permanent enough when heat set that you can paint on top of them (or use a blender pen) without smearing the stamped line. -All inks used created a nice and crisp detailed stamped line and also filled in the bolder areas quite well.

-Dr. Martin's Watercolor inkpads look quite nice, but the Iridescent inkpads are less "interesting". (if the "iridescence" is of interest, the Brilliance pads in the pearlescent colors work and look much better than the Dr. Martin's Iridescent inkpads)

-Ranger's Fabra-Ca-Dabra (fabric paint in a dobber bottle for inking up stamps and stamping on fabrics, is permanent when heat set) does not work as well on Sheer Heaven as I had thought it would. I think the paint is a bit thin for crisp clear stamped images on Sheer Heaven.

7B. Experimentation with various brands of ink on the BACK of Sheer Heaven achieved the following results:

-Dye inks stamped well, though dried much slower on the back. I used a heat gun to speed up the dry time. One thing interesting to note is that I stamped the Ranger Stamp It dye inkpad (using a brown color) on both front and back of the Sheer Heaven. On the front, the brown dried true to color, but on the back it dried a light olive green. This was the only brand of dye inks (and only one color in that line) I had that type of color difference after it dried on the front and back of Sheer Heaven. Another item to note is that the Vivid inkpad created a less defined stamped line (the ink sort of "spread out" after stamping) on the back of Sheer Heaven while the other brands of dye inks retained the crisp definition.

-Pigment inks dried MUCH slower, once again I used a heat gun to speed dry the ink. The Encore Metallic inkpad is resistant to drying on the back of Sheer Heaven, remaining tacky.

-Dr. Martin's Watercolor inkpads look quite nice, but the Iridescent inkpads are less "interesting". (if the "iridescence" is of interest, the Brilliance pads work and look much better than the Dr. Martin's Iridescent inkpads)

-Ranger's Fabra-Ca-Dabra paint beaded up after stamping on the back, and dried only after using the heat gun to speed dry. Did not like the way it looked.

8. Using a make up sponge to dab acrylic paint on the stamps and stamping on the Sheer Heaven (front or back) works nicely. The Lumiere paint line is very stunning with the shimmery nature of the paint, plus it is a bit thicker than other medium viscosity acrylic paints which lends itself better for stamping with paint. I like to use a bit of the Ranger Cut 'n Dry Foam pad to create an "inkpad" using the thinner acrylic paints (like Dr. Martin's Ready Tex.)

-The Ready Tex line has several "pearlescent" colors that are very pretty when used as an ink to stamp with...they do appear light when stamped on the front of Sheer Heaven, and even lighter on the back of Sheer Heaven, and quick drying on both sides.

-Jacquard Lumiere paints are exquisite to stamp on either front or back of the Sheer Heaven and quick drying on both sides. The wonderful "shimmery" nature of the Lumieres are more evident than that of the Ready Tex.

9. Stippling with dye and pigment inks on the front of Sheer Heaven yields a superb realism in the finished piece. Colors stipple smooth and lightly (more so than on glossy white cardstock), so there are times when you use darker colors than you would on glossy to achieve depth of color. Holding the piece up to the light gives a delightful appearance, though very light in color. You can layer the piece on cardstock to bring out the beautiful colors or to subdue them, depending on the base cardstock color. Cardstock with a cloudy pattern will show thru the Sheer Heaven piece for a very unique textured appearance. Dye inks dry slowly enough on the front side of Sheer Heaven to allow for seamless blending of colors with the stipple brushes. The back side of Sheer Heaven accepts stippled dye inks as well and the dry time is much slower. So, in essence, you can work a two dimensional piece by working both on the front and an on the back with the stipple brushes, dye inks and stamps.

10. Acrylic Paints are quite stunning painted on Sheer Heaven. The front tends to be absorbent and the paints like to dry fairly quickly. I used a waterbrush to layer colors of paint, one on top of another, for depth. The waterbrush smoothed and blended the paint without leaving obvious brush lines. Acrylic paints of all brands will dry on both front and back of Sheer Heaven.

-Dr. Ph. Martin's Ready Tex acrylic paints are a bit thin and have a tendency for some colors to show brush strokes. The translucent colors of Ready Tex are quite stunning on Sheer Heaven as the translucent nature of it allows light to shine thru both the paper and the paint. Opaque colors are also nice and do allow a small amount of light to shine thru, which makes a nice compliment to the other translucent colors of Ready Tex when painted on the Sheer Heaven. The paints apply nicely without any beading. When applying a second color of the Ready Tex on top of a dry color, the Ready Tex re-wets the first color and creates a bit of a problem. If a second layer of color is desired, a waterbrush works best to apply smooth color for blending.

-The Lumiere and Neopaque Acrylic paints by Jacquard apply smooth and effortlessly on Sheer Heaven with very few noticeable brush strokes. This paint is thicker than the Ready Tex and more opaque, but light will still shine thru. While the Neopaques are non-sparkly, they do appear to have a slight shimmer on the Sheer Heaven which is quite nice. A waterbrush can be used instead of a regular paintbrush to achieve lighter hues and for shading if desired. Multiple colors of these paints can be applied on top of one another without rewetting the dry paint beneath.

-Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics work nicely, though due to the thin nature of the paints brush strokes can be quite evident if you aren't careful. What I found to be particularly nice is that the Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics are light in color which allows for some beautiful shading from the back. You can work the brush stroke marks into the "fabric" of whatever you are painting for a unique texture. These paints are also nice for calligraphy work and look stunning on Sheer Heaven.

-Dr. P.h. Martin's Iridescent Calligraphy colors are very very think acrylic paints which work beautifully either as a paint or an ink for calligraphy applications. These paints have less of a tendency to show brush marks than the Pearlescent Liquid Acrylics.

-Dr. P.h. Martin's Iridescent Accents are a nice paint to use on the Sheer Heaven. Applied with a waterbrush or with a regular paintbrush you get a soft shimmer and easily blended colors. Dry time is a bit slow on both front and back, but you can speed dry with a heat gun. These paints do remain a bit tacky after drying, spray with sealant.

11. Chalks apply smoothly on the front of Sheer Heaven. There is enough tooth on the front to grab the chalks and hold them. I used both a Q-tip and eye shadow applicator and they worked beautifully. A white eraser can be used to remove chalks from an area to either highlight it or remove the chalk because it "smeared" where you didn't want it to be. Chalks yield a very soft satiny feel on Sheer Heaven. A sealant should be used on the finished piece.

12. Pastel Pencils work much the same way as chalks, though in pencil form. A stump or wet brush/waterbrush may be used with equal effectiveness to blend pastel work on Sheer Heaven. Colors are light and may require more layers of color than what a basic matte cardstock will require. However, the look and feel of pastel pencils is totally unique on Sheer Heaven, more than worth any additional work one would have to do. A sealant should be used on the finished piece.

13. Direct To Paper (DTP) techniques and dye inks work beautifully with Sheer Heaven. Sponges, Ranger Cut 'n Dry Nib and the Colorbox Stylus are very versatile tools for use with the DTP techniques. Dye inks can be applied to either the front or back of Sheer Heaven with equal success. Dry time of the dye ink is extended enough on Sheer Heaven for even and seamless blending.

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