Fun ways to Shimmer Sprays with Melinda

Hello scrappy friends, Melinda here with you today! 

First up, a big Happy Halloween if you celebrate and if not, happy Monday to you ;)

I am here with you today sharing some fun ways to use some of the beautiful, shimmery, shiny Colour Shimmer Sprays.

I go through a few different ideas in this video but if for any reason you can't/don't watch process videos, read on!!

For this process I did a couple of things before I started filming. First up I grabbed a couple of pieces of (cheap) water colour paper from my stash and cut them down to fit a card front. Then I applied a very light coat of white gesso to some white textured card stock and when that was dry I chopped that into pieces for card bases also. Lastly, I grabbed a scrap of white card and chopped that down to the same size.

I have done a very basic technique in order to see what the colours actually look like on different papers/mediums.

I sprayed (top) and then I used some plastic packaging and smooshed the colour (bottom) onto the paper and lastly I used the nozzle from the bottle to do a few sprinkles.

Here are my 3 samples all together - I have used the Leather Colour Shimmer Spray for this little experiment

I was REALLY surprised at how different all these samples look! Especially the gesso, I thought I would get a much more vibrant colour!

But here are the samples by themselves

Next up I did a little water colouring :)

I had 2 pots of water on hand - one for only clean water and the other to clean to the brushes as I went. First up, I mixed some of the Sunshine, Envy and Deep Water Colour Shimmer Sprays with a little water in a colour palette and then I used a wide flat brush on some water colour paper with plain water to apply a quick coat of water. While that was still wet I applied each colour using a wet, round number 20 brush with the colours over lapping a little so that the colours blended together a little so as not to create a solid line between colours. Be aware, that if you are doing this sort of thing it is super handy to have a basic understanding of the colour wheel so you don't mix colours that essentially make "mud" ;)

Next up I used another piece of water colour paper and again a quick coat of water using a clean brush.

Again, while that was still wet I applied my colour - this time I used the nozzle from the bottle and flicked the colour onto the wet card stock. I have used 3 colours here - Tangereen Dream, Rose Petal and Sunshine. While they were still wet I added a few splashes of water where the colour had hit an area that the 1st coat of water had already dried on.

This is a very pretty effect and I have used this before on art journal pages and it gives such an array of colours when you use more than one colour!

My next technique is very similar to this one but gives quiet a different effect!

This time I have used white card stock with a coat of gesso and rather than apply water and then colour I applied colour and then flicked water on. I used only 2 colours this time - the Tangereen Dream and the Sunshine. I started with the Sunshine, just flicking drops of colour with the hose of the nozzle and then went it with some clean water with a paintbrush and flicked over where the colour had landed. After I was happy with the Sunshine I did the exact same thing with the Tangereen Dream. I did a quick dry with my heat tool and went back in again with some splatters of the Sunshine.

And a side by side comparison of the 2 different/very similar techniques

While that dried I decided it was time to do a little more water colouring with some sprays! I quickly stamped an image on a piece of white card stock with gesso on it using versa mark ink and then applied the Bling Colour Embossing Powder and heat set. I do go more into detail about embossing with the gorgeous powders over on this video so if you haven't seen it yet feel free to pop over and check it out! Once the embossing powder was cooled I grabbed my fave water colour brush, one of my fave Colour Shimmer Spray, Envy and applied a very quick coat of colour directly over the embossed stamp image. I dried that off and decided I wanted a bit more colour so grabbed the brush again, dunked it straight into the bottle and applied a little more colour! I forgot to take progress shots of this technique and the card front has since been made into a card and given out but here is the finished card front. 

I finished it off by wiping off any excess Envy spray on the embossed sentiment with a damp baby wipe, a few enamel dots in purple, some splatters of the very pretty Violet Colour Spray and a very quick outline in purple around the edge.

Next up I decided to have a play with chipboard and some Colour Shimmer Sprays!

First up, chippy with a coat of gesso. I simply sprayed the Bling Colour Shimmer Spray straight onto the chippy and left to dry.

How pretty is that?!

Next up, some raw chippy and THIS is where the magic REALLY happened! I was totally blown away at just how shimmery and shiny the Bling Colour Shimmer Spray is on the raw chipboard!!

This photo does not do the word any justice but OMG, it was so so pretty and it got me thinking.... "If the bling looks so pretty on such a dark background, what will the other colours look like on a dark background?" Ok, 3rd piece of raw chippy and my Tangereen Dream Colour Shimmer Spray.

The colour looks alot more flat on the screen on than it does IRL but this totally opened up my mind to what can I try next!!

I hadn't yet tried the Colour Shimmer Sprays on black cardstock (the idea hadn't even occurred to me if truth be told!!) so I grabbed some scrap black card stock and started spraying away!

I started with the lighter colours - Bling, Sunshine and Snow White

Ahhhh! Look at that that shimmery, shiny goodness!!! Oh my stars!! Ok, so that worked a treat! I wonder what happens with the other colours!!

Here you go:

Some of the colours change quiet a bit on the black while others stay very true to their actual colour so if you haven't already discovered this magic grab your sprays and some black cardstock!!

I did have some other fun ideas of how to use the sprays but got so side tracked by the effect on the darker surfaces that I thought I would stop here otherwise the blog post and video would be WAY too long!!

I hope I have inspired you to maybe use your Colour Shimmer Sprays in a way you perhaps hadn't thought of before and if you do please come over to our FB group here and share away all of your beautiful Colour Blast projects!!

Have a fabulous day!

Melinda