Shimmer Paint Adventures

Today was interesting, not so much by design as by gravity. But more on that later...

I came up with two very similar cards this afternoon using Stampin' Up!'s Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint (available in the Holiday Mini Catalog). The main difference is that on one of these I stamped the snowflakes on the card base with Rich Razzleberry (second card below), and on the other I used the shimmer paint for the background snowflakes (first card). I was amazed at the difference the shimmer paint made!




I intentionally posted a less-than-perfect picture in the first photo so that you can see just how shimmery the shimmer paint is. To accomplish this look, I simply inked up my stamp with dye ink, then used a sponge dauber to pat a wee bit of the shimmer paint onto the stamp before stamping it on Whisper White. Is that cool, or what?

Stamp sets: Serene Snowflakes, Four the Holidays (on the inside)
Colors: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulance
DSP: Rich Razzleberry Patterns
Big Shot: Texturz plate (on the Orchid Opulance layer)
And: Champagne Mist shimmer paint

* * * * * * * * * * *

And now, for today's adventure:

I may have created a new technique! It could be called "Painting by Gravity" or "Klutz Backgrounds" -- but it certainly wasn't intentional.

I was oh so very careful using my shimmer paint today. Really I was! It's such great stuff that I didn't want to waste a drop, so I was very carefully daubing out of the cover of the bottle with the bottle itself put safely out of the way. Or so I thought. I went to put the lid on the bottle after stamping the snowflakes when, to my horror, I dropped the opened bottle! I quickly put the bottle right side up so I wouldn't lose any more of the paint, and then sat there in shock for a few seconds. Instinctively I grabbed my bone folder and started scooping up as much paint as I could to put back into the bottle. (I still have 2/3rds of the bottle left, so I consider myself fortunate.)

Faced with a remaining puddle, I grabbed the nearest paper and started blotting up the paint. It happened to be a sheet of solid Rich Razzleberry DSP, and when I looked at the design the paint made on it, I thought to myself, "Hey, I may be on to something!" So I grabbed the nearest cardstock, Chocolate Chip, and blotted up the rest of the paint that hadn't dried yet.

I put the papers aside to dry while I cleaned up the rest of the mess. I must say, my grey sweatshirt is looking mighty glitzy tonight! Astonishingly, no paint hit my keyboard, my pile of DSP and cardstock, my camera, or the carpet. I took pictures of the dried papers from several angles, and below are two photos of each piece.








I have NO idea what I'll use these nifty papers for, but perhaps I'll find the right stamp down the road that just begs for something like what I have here.

I can't say that I'd recommend this new technique to anyone -- it aged me rapidly -- but I did my best to make lemonade out of lemons.