Another shimmery paint product from LuminArte, the creator of Radiant Pearls!!!

These individual jewel pots of dry watercolor cakes of sparkly paint are quite entrancing. They come in two sizes of jar: 10 gram (regular size) and 5 gram (Little Twinklers). The 10-gram size is sold in sets of either 6 or 12 colors and the Little Twinklers are sold in sets of 24, 12 or 6 color. I'm not sure if they are sold open stock.

If you are looking for a retailer near you that sells Twinkling H2O's, there is a retail finder on the Angelwings Enterprises web site.

Twinkling H2O's are beautifully translucent dry cake watercolor paints. They have all the advantages of watercolors but also have that wonderful shimmery look and feel that Radiant Pearls are so well known and loved for. I like that fact that they come in individual pots of color and they travel wonderfully too, if you do a lot of traveling.

The success to of Twinkling H2O's is dependent on the surface you paint them on. I tried several different types of cardstocks and found that a matte cardstock with a somewhat "smooth/slick/lightly coated" surface tends to work the best. These types of cardstocks are less absorbent than "standard" matte cardstocks, so they tend to keep that beautifully shimmer "up close and personal". They really are very beautiful in person! I found a few types of cardstocks in my personal collection that tend to work extremely well with Twinkling H2O's - keep in mind that this isn't the ONLY cardstocks that work well.

1. Sheer Heaven - this surface is probably the BEST one for use with Twinkling H2O's. I experienced NO problem with the surface buckling under the wet work and the shimmer stayed right up on the surface of the paint (on ALL colors), looking fantastic. The paint moved beautifully on the dry Sheer Heaven.

2. Beckett Expressions cardstock - this is a nice, smooth matte cardstock and once again, the Twinkling H2O's performed beautifully on it. Minimal warping occurred, and this would probably not be a problem at all if you block the cardstock prior to painting. The paint moved beautifully on the dry cardstock.

3. Cougar Opaque Cover cardstock - another nice, smooth matte cardstock on which the Twinkling H2O's performed beautifully. Minimal warping occurred, and this would probably not be a problem at all if you block the cardstock prior to painting. The paint moved beautifully on the dry cardstock.

4. Gilbert Oxford Cover cardstock - this is a medium weight matte cardstock with a slight texture, similar to cold pressed watercolor paper. The Twinkling H2O's performed nicely on the dry cardstock, but would probably have moved better working wet-into-wet on this cardstock.

5. Bristol Vellum/Sketch Paper - I had a cheap pad of sketch paper and I decided to try the Twinkling H2O's on it. I was surprised to find the Twinkling H2O's performed nicely, though the shimmer was decreased a bit. Minimal warping occurred, and this would probably not be a problem at all if you blocked it prior to painting. The paint moved beautifully on the dry sketch paper. I know that there are different weights of Bristol Vellum, a heavier weight may have worked better.

6. Scrap Matte cardstock - I just took a piece of smooth matte cardstock out of my scrap box and tried Twinkling H2O's on it. They performed nicely with minor warping. Some colors of the Twinkling H2O's look better than others on this cardstock. I would suggest testing a few colors of Twinkling H2O's on any standard matte cardstock prior to starting a project.

7. Stardream Cardstock and Stardream Text Weight Paper - while the Twinkling H2O's worked nicely on this cardstock and paper with no warping at all, the shimmer is completely lost. I would not suggest using Twinkling H2O's on this surface.

8. Plain Text Weight Paper - The Twinkling H2O's looked very nice and retained their beautiful shimmer on plain old paper, though it did warp significantly under the moisture. Blocking the paper first MIGHT help.

9. Glamma Vellum - while Glamma vellum is probably the most absorbent of vellums and a wonderful surface for some techniques and products, I would not suggest using Twinkling H2O's (or any other watercolor) on this surface. It buckles horribly when water is applied and this effect had nothing to do specifically with the Twinkling H2O's. I do not believe that blocking the vellum prior to painting would even help.

The Twinkling H2O's are a beautiful paint and I confess that most of the problems I experienced had more to do with how the surface reacts to water and less to do with how the surface reacts to the Twinkling H2O's. This is a common issue for most people using any type of watercolor product.

Twinkling H2O's come in some very beautiful colors, including metallics and interference colors. Most of the colors were consistent in application and how visible the shimmer was. I did find that some of the metallic colors tended to have a bit of a grainy look. They are wonderfully transparent and lend themselves to seamless blending of color. Since they are water based, they resisted beautifully to heat embossed lines and other standard resist techniques. Most all basic watercolor techniques can be applied to Twinkling H2O usage.

I tried painting with them a few different ways. First I used a waterbrush (a standard paintbrush can also be used) and simply drew the wet brush tip across the dry cake and painted on my surface. This yielded a nice, deep hue. I then put a few drops of water right in the pot and let it "wet" the dry cake. The more water you use, the thinner the paint is and the lighter the hue becomes. This allows you to achieve dark colors for detail as well as lighter colors for background and washes. VERY nice.