Playing with Color Burst

A friend/enabler of mine (you know who you are... Chris!) introduced me to a product by Ken Oliver called Color Burst, and I've been having fun with it!

Color Burst is a pigment powder that comes in six different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. While these are the main colors, each bottle also contains specks of other colors. When water is added to these pigments or the pigments are added to water, amazing things happen! Here are some of my experiments with the product:

Experiment 1:

For this being my first attempt, I think it turned out pretty good. I used blue and purple Color Bursts and added water very gradually. In some areas I let the water take the pigment wherever it wanted to, and in others I moved it around with a paint brush and blotted with paper towels.

For all of these experiments I used Tim Holtz's distress watercolor paper, and used washi tape to attach it to a clipboard so that it could be easily moved while minimizing warping due to the water.

I want to give a shout out to two of my StampNation Sistahs who were with me as this Color Bursting was going on. Sharon, who lives in Colorado, was in my area to visit family, and she managed to break away for a few hours so we could meet and play. Then shortly after we started playing with the Color Bursts, Carey joined us on Skype and worked on her own project. The three of us laughed so hard and had so much fun, you wouldn't believe it was the first time we had gotten together!  ... which is just another reason I love StampNation so much! There aren't many places where you can instantly connect with like-minded people as we do in StampNation. (There's a new video describing the place, and I promise you want to check it out!)

Experiment 2:

On this one I used lots more blue and purple Color Burst and lots more water.

Experiment 3:

This one was done at Carey's suggestion. She noted that she likes the patterns more when there's less water and less playing around with it, so I grabbed some green and tapped out some of the powder, spritzed, and let it do its own thing.

Experiment 4:

This one is my favorite so far! I'm thinking I may want to do something floral with it, but I haven't decided what.

Experiment 5:

Here I clear embossed a butterfly, then added water and a lot of red ColorBurst. The color was too intense for my taste, so I blotted it and then tapped in some blue powder. I used way too much water, which is why the color bled into the butterfly.

Experiment 6:

After embossing the butterfly with detail white embossing powder, I added (instead of water) shimmer spritz over the Color Burst powder. The result is stunning in person! You can see just a hint of the shimmer in the bottom picture.

Experiment 7:

I salvaged some of the washi tape I had been using to hold the watercolor paper onto the clipboards, and lined it up on a scrap piece of cardstock. I plan to use this piece in a collage someday.

Experiment 8:

I used a piece of watercolor paper to sop up extra Color Bursted water, and this is what I got! I think it's pretty enough to make a card out of.

Actually, my next challenge is to make cards out of all of these! We'll see what happens next...

With Color Bursting Smiles!
Joyce Spear a.k.a. StamperJoyce

P.S. If you have any questions about these fun, exciting Color Burst powders, leave a comment below and I will be sure to answer!