Fran*tage Friday: Faux Mother of Pearl

Welcome to the latest installment of Fran*tage Friday! Paper Craft Planet is pleased to be partnering with Stampendous to bring you weekly inspiration and eye candy using Stampendous products. This week, I’m sharing a quick tutorial on how to do the faux mother of pearl technique as seen on the stamped panel in the photo above.


First, you’ll need some pearly paint—I used the new pearlized acrylic paint from Martha Stewart—and a piece of plastic wrap (yes, that’s right, the plastic wrap from your kitchen!), along with some glossy white cardstock. Put a bit of your pearly paint on a palette or some other surface to start. I used a scrap of acetate as a palette, but an acrylic block would work just fine, too. Crumble the plastic wrap up into a loose ball, press it into the paint, then dot the paint all over your glossy white cardstock. You want it to be smooth and fairly well covered. Once you’re done covering the cardstock, set it aside to let it dry. Mine dried pretty fast, even with lots of paint coverage.

Once the paint is dry, use a sponge to cover the cardstock with dye based or distress ink. The paint will resist the ink, leaving a pretty pearlized look with a soft color tint.


After you’ve finished inking your paper, you’re ready to stamp your image over top of the pearlized paper. I used the Jumbo Dogwood image on mine, but this also looks nice with a solid or detailed line art image. I did the stamping with StazOn ink. I tried and found that dye based inks work okay—but need drying time so the image won’t smear.

Here’s my finished card using the image I stamped on my faux mother of pearl panel. I decided to cut out the large flower to use it on my card. I stamped the image a second time and cut out just a portion of the image so I could layer it onto the full image with foam tape. I added some super sparkly Champagne crushed glass glitter to the center of the popped up flower as a fun, feminine accent.

The flower is set on a piece of patterned paper with a doily pattern. I attached a coordinating solid pink strip to the panel and stamped the friendship sentiment from the Friendship Assortment set on the panel. It’s edged with some lace tape. I also wrapped a piece of linen thread around the panel, securing it along the right side of the card with a cream button. The patterned paper panel is set on a kraft panel, then on a cream card base.

Want to win some Stampendous goodies for yourself? Just leave a comment on my Fran*tage Friday post on the Paper Craft Planet blog before midnight on Thursday, October 20 to be entered into the random prize drawing. The lucky winner’s name will be shared on the Paper Craft Planet blog.

Materials Used:
Jumbo Dogwood and Friendship Assortment stamp sets, Champagne crushed glass glitter (Stampendous); Jet Black StazOn (Tsukineko); Pretty in Pink Classic ink, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin’ Up!) Sweet Blush cardstock, Fine Linen button (Papertrey Ink); Baby Steps 6x6 paper pad (Simple Stories); lace tape (Love My Tapes); linen thread (The Cat’s Pajamas); foam tape