Product Review: Cosmic Shimmer; Vintage Mica Flakes

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In today’s post I will be reviewing; Cosmic Shimmer Vintage Mica Flakes by Creative Expressions.

Cosmic Shimmer; Vintage Mica Flakes

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Creative Expressions: Cosmic Shimmer
• Item number: Tarnished Bronze; 055260 904440. Precious Gold; 055260 904457. Luna Silver 055260 904433.
• RRP at time of writing: £3.65 each. I bought mine as a set of three on Create & Craft.

Reason For Buying

Impulse! I am not a fan of glitter because it gets everywhere and I have a lot of static so this makes it worse. THIS on the other hand has much larger flakes. I saw these Mica Flakes demo’ed on Create and Craft by Sue Wilson and they seemed much heavier than glitter and gave a dazzling result. I want to use them with a series of different mediums and experiment, I could see a lot of possibilities with these. I also liked that they were more vintage colours rather than bright or candy colours which isn’t my style.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• 50 ml pot. Large enough to experiment with but not too big to store
• Good fitting screw top lid
• The flakes vary in size which adds a nice dimension to projects too.
• Nice stable pot, with a wide top for pouring the flakes back into. Although I’ll put mine into a bigger box, makes it easier to use and less to clear up
• Lovely vintage colours, I can see more potential for my uses for these than with bright or candy colours that glitter often comes in. The gold is a nice soft old gold kind of colour, the silver is more like soft pearl and the bronze is a warm version of autumn leaves. Tricky to photograph, but they are totally lush!

Cosmic Shimmer; Vintage Mica flakes. Precious Gold, Luna Silver, Tarnished Bronze.

Cons

None, just a little outside my comfort zone

Build Quality

Nice, I like the variation on flake size and the vintage colours. The pots have a nice wide opening making it easy to pour any unused flakes back in. The jars have well-fitting lids that hold well but aren’t difficult to open.

Value for Money

Fair. You get lots in the little pots, and a small amount goes a long way.

Would I buy it Again?

Ask me in a few months. I’m not a big one for glittery things, so I need some time to get used to the concept and how I’ll incorporate them into my style.

Summing up

This was a leap of faith for me, I wanted to add a more textural dimension to my projects and experiment with more colours.

When I’ve had more time to play and experiment, expect to see more projects and tutorials using this product. I can see a lot of potential for this and look forward to finding out what more I can do with it.

Links

• Creative Expressions UK
• Cosmic Shimmer; Vintage Mica Flakes

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Embossed book

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Today I’d like to share a picture of some books I created using an embossed panel that I decorated with Daler Rowney Interference colours. This first one features, Shimmering Blue and shimmering gold interference colours.

Blue & Gold embossed book

This one features Shimmering copper and Shimmering Gold; interference colours and the Swirls; Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Embossed book with interference colours

Aren’t the colours just lush! I ‘m looking forward to experimenting more with these paints, I love how they work so well with each other and over a variety of surfaces. Hope you get to try some of this paint soon, its amazing. More pics next week.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial: Purple Distressed Panel

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As part of the online workshop

Vintage Purple Distressed Panel

You Will Need

• Winsor & Newton Galeria Flow formula Acrylic paint: Winsor Violet
• Daler Rowney; Shimmering Colours: Shimmering Gold
• Cotton Rag
• Jar of Water
• Palette Knife
• White Mount board
• Plate to mix colours on

Method

• Apply a layer of Winsor Violet to the mount board using the palette knife. Allow this layer to dry before you move on.
• For a darker finish apply a second layer of Winsor Violet to the mount-board. If you apply the paint generously, you can also dab the flat of the knife into the paint to create additional texture. Allow this layer to dry fully before you move on.
• Put some Gold Interference colour onto the plate. Pick up some of this colour using the rag. Dab off the excess paint on to a clean area of the paint. You only want a small amount on the cloth.
• Swipe the rag over the board, just catching the top surface. The colour will catch on areas of texture and highlight them. While you get used to the technique, start on the sides of the board and work inwards, if you have too much paint on the cloth you will get a different effect! By starting at the edges of the board and working inwards, the excess paint will be worked off a little on the sides of the board.

Options/Added Extras

Vary how you apply the paint, for different effects. Use varying amounts of paint at each stage and experiment to discover an effect that you like. Try applying the Shimmering gold over other dark colours of card or paint to find more colour combinations you like.

Links

• Introducing Shimmering colours
• Daler Rowney
• Daler Rowney Shimmering Colours
• Shimmering colours at Jackson’s Art Supplies

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, do let me know what you think and I’d love to see your experiments with this technique.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial: Introducing Interference Colours

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After my review in the last post, today I’d like to share a video with you as part of the online workshop series Adventures In Acrylics. In the film I’ll show you around the interference colour palette and some of the amazing results that you can achieve with it.

You Will Need

• Daler Rowney; Shimmering Colours. Interference colour of your choice
• Jar of water
• Cotton Rag
• Dark and Light card stock

Here’s a few examples of items that feature Daler Rowney Interference Colours

Interference Colours; So many possibilities

Links

• Daler Rowney
• Daler Rowney Shimmering Colours
• Shimmering colours at Jackson’s Art Supplies

Quote: Daler Rowney Site: EFFECTS

Shimmering Colours (Interference Mediums) Available in six colours: Shimmering Gold, Copper, Violet, Red, Blue and Green. Used straight from the tube and applied to a black surface they produce a magical shimmering, metallic, transparent lustre. The most dramatic effects are on black, where colour shows with electric intensity. – Gold  Code 128 075 709 – Violet  Code 128 075 710 – Blue  Code 128 075 711 – Copper  Code 128 075 712 – Red  Code 128 075 713 – Green  Code 128 075 714

Shimmering Colours Set  Gives a shimmering pearlescent metallic lustre when mixed with pure acrylic colour. – Code 128 900 125

End quote

Hope you will give these Shimmering Colours a try, they are stunning on dark surfaces. In the coming weeks I’ll share some techniques using them, and I’ve got plans for a Christmas project with them later in the year. As I mentioned in the film, if you can only get one colour, I’d go for the Shimmering Gold, its the one I use the most and I find the most versatile.

If you already have these paints, I’d love to hear how you use them and see your projects with them too.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Dark Wooden book

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In today’s post, as part of the Adventurs in Acrylics workshop, I’d like to share a book I recently made. I decorated the cover using a painting technique that I’ll show you how to create, in a video tutorial on friday. This book features Coptic stitch binding, one of my favorites as the book lies flat when its open, handy for taking notes.  I can’t believe its been so long since I made a book. Between crocked back and whiplash, it seems to have been forever!

Coptic stitched handmade book, with dark wood effect covers

Hope you like the book, I’m pleased with how it turned out. There’s a bookbinding tab at the top of the blog, if you want to learn more about bookbinding or find out where to get bookbinding supplies from. Check out the tutorials tab, or the grab button in the sidebar for more information about the online workshop series, Adventures in Acrylics.

The closure on the book features Billie’s Book ties that I shared a video for recently. I added bead spacers in place of actual beads, as they were such a nice brass colour, they went well will the books colouring. If you would like to see how to make the ties, check out the video Billie’s Book Ties.

Its been  very tricky to get a photo of this book, in real life there are so many beautiful tones of colour in it, but the weather has been so dark, getting them to show up on camera, hasn’t been easy. Check out the video tutorial on friday, as that was recorded on a brighter day

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial: Weathered Wood

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Earlier in the week, I mentioned how I like natural textures, and taking photographs of anything weathered and worn. This tutorial was inspired by a weathered picket fence. The technique is quick and simple and because you can creat this with a flat finish, its ideal for cards, art journals, ATC as well as book covers and altered art surface decoration. Join me in this latest instalment of Adventures in Acrylics to create a weathered wood, paint effect.

Weathered Wood Paint Effect

You Will Need

• Mount Board in white
• Winsor and Newton: Galeria; Acrylic Paint: Buff Titanium and Raw Umber
• Scrap of car sponge
• Palette

Method

• I am working on  white mount board, that hasn’t been gesso’d. You can also use other board but for this effect you will need to apply a layer of white gesso to it, to give you the white base. That does affect how the paint will move on the board though.
• Put some buff Titanium onto your palette. Choose a direction for your wood grain.
• Dab your car sponge into the paint to pick up some colour, then dab off the excess paint on to the palette, this also blends the paint into the sponge.
• Swipe your paint across the board, in the direction you chose for your wood grain. You just want to catch a few areas here and there, this is to create some texture, rather than covering the card. Let this layer dry completely before you move on.
• Put some Raw Umber out onto your palette, dab into this paint using a clean area of your sponge. Dab off onto the palette before moving to the board. Apply this colour by swiping the sponge across the board in the same direction you did for the lighter colour. Allow this layer to dry before you move on.
• To get the best results you want to break up any large areas of colour, layer over particularly dark areas with the titanium buff, and over light areas with the Raw Umber. Let layers dry between coats or the paint will merge together rather than tone down the earlier layers. Continue these last few steps until you have an effect that you like.

I have written the instructions as well as the video, so that if you don’t speak English, there is always the trusty Translator I’ve put a link to one, in the side bar.

Options/Added Extras

Here’s a paper mache box that I decorated using the weathered wood paint effect.

Weathered wooden fence

The Winsor & Newton Galeria, is a flow formula acrylic paint, if you want a more textured effect try using Daler Rowney Cryla as that is a heavy bodied acrylic paint. The consistency of Cryla is more like that of toothpaste, so will leave a more textured result.

Try altering the colours for different base wood effects.

Since making the film, I’ve noticed the Cryla equivalent; called Titan Buff and is not as yellow as the Galeria Titanium buff paint. This is not a problem if you apply the Galeria one lightly, but it will need more careful blending if you get larger areas of it on this project.

If you want to seal in your colours, apply a layer of matt medium over the whole piece, this takes a while to fully dry but does not affect the colours. I’ll be going into more detail about mediums, later in the course.

Links

• For suppliers: Check out the Art tab at the top of the blog, for manufacturers and retailers. They will be in the supplies section.
• For more information about the Online Workshop series Adventures in Acrylics, check out the dedicated Workshop page.

Hope you enjoyed today’s tutorial and will give this technique a try, I’d love to see your results. Do leave a comment and a link to your projects if you post them on your blog.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Weathered Wood Box

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Wherever I go I love to take photos of textures, be that rust, lichen, aged stone and brick, peeling paint that sort of thing. A few years ago I found this wonderful weathered fence and just had to take a photo.

Weathered wooden fence

Now that I’ve been experimenting with acrylic paint, I discovered a great way to replicate the weathered wood look. I dug out a little card box, that I bought to alter and have been ‘saving’ and decided its time had come and that it would become a weathered wooden box.

Weathered wooden fence

Previously when I’ve been creating this effect, I haven’t used any gesso as the board I was working on was already white. This time the box was brown, so I applied a coat of gesso using a scrap of car sponge. Anyone joining me on this workshop will discover that car sponge will become a bit of a trade mark as my go to tool of choice. I’ll let Blue Peter keep their sticky backed plastic, its car sponge for me hehe. The paint behaved differently over the gesso so it took more blending that I had expected, but with more layering and blending, I am very pleased with the result.

Do you like it? Would you like to know how to create this paint effect? Join me on friday for a video tutorial on how to create ‘Weathered Wood Paint effect’. You won’t believe how easy it is, and the result is flat (unless you want to add additional mediums to the paint to bulk up the texture). So this effect would be perfect for art journals, cards, ATCs as well as book covers.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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