Sealers: Krylon Preserve It! Matte (digital photo & paper protectant) & my Collage Charms

The very small spray can of Matte Preserve It!
In my ongoing quest to find a sealer I can be happy with, I bought a small spray can of Krylon's Preserve It! Matte spray finish from my favorite art stamp store Art 'n' Soul, and gave it a shot.



The art charms I've posted here are my Asian-inspired paper charms for the Art Charms Yahoo Group January/February 2011 swap. I began with two sheets of Mixed Media Paper, then I punched circles with my 1" circle punch, and glued to both sides of a circle punched from cereal-box-type-cardboard. Punched flowers created with mixed media paper and embellished with Ranger Stickles add a little style, and for a finishing touch, I added a tiny phrase to one side of each charm. Rather than using MicroGlaze (BTW, a great online source for MicroGlaze is SkyBluePink) to seal my inkjet-printed words, I decided to try something new - I scribbled lightly over them with my Caran d'Ache wax artist's crayon in silver.





One of the nearly-completed still-unsealed art charms, ready to have its edges rolled on a shimmery white pigment ink pad.






Two art charms, sealed with Krylon's Preserve It! Matte spray.






An art charm sealed with Krylon's Preserve It! Matte - notice the not-quite-shiny, more like "satin" finish.




For comparison: an art charm sealed with Diamond Glaze - notice the shiny finish.
OK, so this is all well and good...but...how does this stuff stand up to water?



I conducted another of my not-so-scientific-but-still-kind-of-cool water tests, using a clear plastic tray that some dried mushrooms came in. I used the tray to hold my two paper charms while I sprayed the Krylon Preserve It! Matte on the charms, and as you can see, there was plenty of overspray. FYI, I sprayed quite heavily...probably not the best practice, but it worked OK here.

I put a few drops of water into a couple of the wells of the tray, and allowed the whole thing to set for the afternoon.

After I let it set a good long time, I dumped out the water and dabbed the wells dry with a towel...and found no change in the appearance of the spray finish, as compared to other parts of the tray that did not sit under water.



Based on this result, I feel fairly confident that most artwork sealed with Krylon's Preserve It! Matte spray finish will be reasonably water-resistant, though, as always, your mileage may vary.



Check out the different finish texture (more "pebbly" and "rough") on the plastic tray as compared with the "satiny" art charm posted above - I don't know that this really means anything, but I thought it might be of interest to someone.