Paperclipping 58 – Show Notes: Glimmer Mist
A while back I did an episode about painting with masks, and I used a gorgeous Heidi Swapp butterfly mask with acyrlic paint to demonstrate some techniques for using them. Today I want to show you how you can use Glimmer Mist with your own homemade masks for another stunning, artistic effect.
1) This is Glimmer Mist–it’s a spray and comes in lots of different colors. This is actually a lot easier to use with masks than paint, because you ‘re not making contact between your paint brush and the mask, so it’s not important that your all the parts of your mask stick to the paper.
This means you have a lot more freedom in what you can choose as your masks. For example, you probably can’t recognize what this is…it was a screenprinted design on a Starbucks gift bag. These are leaves that I cut out of the bag. You can imagine how hard it would be to try to stick all these leaves and stems down temporarily in order to paint around them. I would never even try. But Glimmer Mist is just a light spray so it actually worked with me just holding a few of the leaves down with my fingers.
This is the design I got out of it with two different colors of Glimmer Mist. One thing I like about this is it plays up the texture of the Bazzill cardstock in the unpainted areas.
2) Here is another piece I played with–a leftover piece of K.I.Memories Pop Culture Die Cut Lace paper, and I got this really fun look in one of my art journals using three different colors–sage, suede, and auburn.
One thing you may have noticed are these larger spots. The color doesn’t spray perfectly even. You get a finer spray, along with these larger drops. I think that is part of the appeal of the mist and gives it a more artistic look. Plus, if you drop your art journal after spraying it, the way I accidentally dropped mine, you’ll get these directional lines from the larger drops of color!
3. Notice the difference in the definition between the numbers on this side (bottom corner) and the numbers over here (top sage corner). By spraying an area more directly, you get more definition. By spraying less and at an angle, you get a more blurred or soft look, like over here. It’s also softer if your mask isn’t lying flat on the paper.
4. Here is a leftover piece of plastic mesh that I have, and I’ve already used it with the Auburn Glimmer Mist, and you can see that I accidentally laid this cardstock on top of it while it was still wet. I really like the way these two colors play off each other, so right now I’m going to this little accident into a nice background, and you’ll get to see the Glimmer Mist in action.
(over the shadow)
Because it was the painted piece that left this mark on this cardstock, you’re getting the positive side of the mesh–it is a stamp effect. Now I’m going to use it as a mask, to get the negative effect instead.
5. You can control the direction of the splatters and spray. I can spray straight down and go back and forth for a more concentrated look, or I can spray sideways in one direction for a thinner layer and to give it a directional pattern–resulting in a sense of movement in the direction that you sprayed.
If you want to use more than one color, make sure you let the first color dry before adding another, or they’ll mix and give you a muddy look.
6. Here is an example of a completed page where I used the Glimmer Mist and two types of masks. On the side is the mesh scrap, which I laid down in steps until I got all the way down the side.
I also added the Heidi Swapp Letter Masks for the title across here.
I sprayed a very light layer of sage mist over this orange paper to tone down the brightness of the orange.
And I sprayed the main color over the top corners of my photo, so the photo would blend into the piece–it’s a way of anchoring the picture to the page, so it doesn’t look like it was just stuck onto the paper. It feels more a part of it. Plus, it looks neat, with the color showing up in the highlights of my hair.
If you enjoy an artistic look, Glimmer Mist will be a great addition to your supplies. You could use it with a specific design in mind, or you could just play around on different papers like I did, and then keep them as your own homemade patterned paper to choose from when you are scrapbooking or doing some visual journaling.
