Paper Crafting by Heidi Angelika: Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Precious Metal Pen review for Craftworld.

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Precious Metal Pen review for Craftworld.

I was one of three lucky members of Craftworld that were chosen to do reviews of the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Precious Metal Pens a while back.

The Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Precious Metal Pen Set contains three metallic brush nib pens, that have non-drip reservoirs for the inks.

I was really curious to see whether or not it would be easy to activate the Aqua Shimmer Pen, so I eagerly read the instructions on the back of the packaging, and went to work. I was both happy and relieved when it turned out to be really easy. (see video)

After activating the pens, I started making swatches on three different colored papers, white, black and red. I did two swatches on each color, to see what several layers of ink would look like, as supposed to just one layer.

Of the three pens I by far liked the coverage of the Blush Rosette (878)pen the best. That goes for all the swatches, no matter which colored paper I tried it on. One thing I was a bit dissapointed by, was how runny especially the Midas Touch (881) was.

I also tried the Aqua Shimmer Pens out on letters, this time on white as well as on black letters.

When trying the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pens out on letters, my favorite changed from being the Blush Rosette (878) to being the Glitter Gloss (882). The reason for this being that I feel that when adding shimmer to letters, the shimmer should be just that, a nice shimmer on top of the letter that just adds to the letters instead of changing the letters completely. Although I found the coverage of all the pens to be better this time around, I felt that especially the Blush Rosette (878) totally covered up the letter, and just left it rose gold, completely changing the initial color of the paper. Although it is pretty, it is not really what I was after. The Glitter Gloss on the other hand, lets the color of the paper shine through, just adding the shimmer to it that I wanted.

I also tried the Aqua Shimmer pens out on a stamped and colored pointsettia that I had l lying around. I colored it with alcohol markers quite some time ago, and I thought it would be perfect for trying the pens out on top of alcohol markers.

I used the Glitter Gloss (882) on the petals, the Blush Rosette (878) for the middle of the pointsettia as well as on the berries on the outside of the leaves.

Next I wanted to make some cards on which I added the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pens as an embellishment. I first decided to make a Christmas Shaker card, with a snow flake front, on which I was aiming to use the Glitter Gloss Aqua Pen (882) on the whole front.

I am quite happy with the finished card, although the Glitter Gloss (882) Shimmer doesn´t really come across in the photo. (it is much easier to see in the video I have enclosed.)

On the second card I made, I encorporated all three Shimmer Pens.

I first used distress oxide inks (Mermaid Lagoon, Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass and Broken China) and made an ink blended background, on which I first spritzed lightly with water. I then adhered some waves, a mermaid tail and a sentiment onto the background, before I squeezed some drops of Glitter Gloss (882) onto the background as well. I guess I was curious to see how it would react with the distress oxide ink. The reaction is evidence that these pens are "Aqua" pens, as the drops left the shimmer in a circle in the middle, before spreading out into the ink. I tried to touch the shimmer in the middle of the drops once they were dry, and they rub off very easily. I aslo used the Glitter Gloss on the waves, while I colored in some of the scales and the tail with the Blush Rosette (878) and the Midas Touch (881).

My conclusions after trying these Shimmer Pens on various projects, are;