The big experiment

It has always surprised my that crafters spend so much money buying lots of different sparkly paints when there are artist mediums that cost a few pound and will mix with felt tip ink, stamp pad ink, watercolour paints etc. After a bit of discussion on ILWS about twinkly paints I decided to put this up to show the 2 mediums together as well as experiment a bit.

Using a stamp from Stampin'Up!s Seaside Fun set I stamped with stazon on to 300gsm bockingford watercolour paper. The dress is coloured with ink taken from the Lovely Lilac SU marker which was scribbled onto acetate. Before I picked the ink up I dipped the tip of the (old and tatty) water brush into the lid of the iridescent medium. The hat is using the same marker ink but this time I mixed it with a teeny bit of the pearlescent medium. You might be able to see how the colour has slightly lightened. In real life it looks like I've stamped onto pearl paper when it's tilted in the light which is how this photo was taken.

I've used the iridescent on the back area of the grass and the pearlescent on the front grass. Now when using either medium the water doesnt flow from the waterbrush as much as normal so it's "stiffer" when painting and the paint doesnt spread as far. You don't want to be using your best brush with the iridescant as the glitter is a nightmare to remove fully. With both mediums you'll need to wash your brush as soon as possible.

This picture is taken straight on and although you can see the sparkle in real life my camera wont pick it up.

I did have a eureka moment a while back and thought it might be fun to fill my water brush with iridescent medium. Doesnt work :( the glitter is too large to go through the valve, even the cheapie waterbrushes that normally leak like sieves don't like it. Spray bottles wont work either.

However it is possible to mix the pearlescent medium with water and use it through a spray bottle. You need more medium than normal, I used about 5 pea sized blobs and mixed with 1fl oz of water. Now this is where the experiment came into being.. could you make faux glimmer mists by adding a drop or 2 of reinker? Not having seen them in person I don't know how close the effect it but I added a couple of drops of a blue archival ink to the mix and gave it a quick squirt over some black card. Might not be perfect match but for those who very very occasionally want this sort of effect without having to spend lots of something they might never use again perhaps it's a good enough compromise.