Monday, March 9, 2009

Salted Background

Hello! We woke up to yet more snow here in the North East today, which is no longer fun when Spring should be here, but the upside is I got to play with my Shimmerz!

One of the features I like about Shimmerz is its consistency. It's fluid enough to use with techniques you would normally use with watercolor paints. One of my favorites is making salted backgrounds, so why not with Shimmerz? Here's how:

You'll need: Shimmerz/Blingz, watercolor paper, spray bottle filled with water, flat paint brush and salt.
1. Generously spray the paper with water and apply a wash of Shimmerz or Blingz with the wide paint brush. Be liberal with water and paint so that the salt has something to absorb.

2. Sprinkle the wet paper with salt and set aside to dry. This can take up to an hour, but you can use a heat gun to speed things up. The salt will absorb the Shimmerz or Blingz and leave the surface with a speckled look.

3. Once paper is completely dry, brush off the salt. If a few pieces of salt stick to the paper, rub these off with your finger or thumb. The dried piece will curl up at the edges, but you can flatten it in a book if you need to.

4. I love the subtle texture that the salt gives to the paper and the final piece can be used as background for a card, an ATC or scrapbook page. It is smooth enough to stamp on, for journaling or to run through a die cutting machine.

From this piece I punched out some butterflies and to add a little more texture, I spritzed and edged them with a navy marker.






Thanks for stopping by the Shimmerz blog and have a wonderful week!

Supplies:
  • Stamps: Silhouette Branch (Memory Box), Essence of Love (Stampin' Up)
  • Paper: Not Quite Navy & Very Vanilla c/stock, watercolor paper
  • Ink: December Sky Blingz, Old Olive craft ink, markers: Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, Not Quite Navy
  • Accessories: Dew Drops, clear embossing powder
  • Tools: Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), Color Spritzer Tool (Stampin' Up!), flat brush, salt, spray bottle, heat gun

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great background! I can't wait to try this technique. Love the butterflies.

Karen said...

OH MY GOODNESS!! So pretty. I love the technique.

Unknown said...

Oh that is a cool technique, I am going to have to try this!!! Beautiful work.

Kim Dellow said...

That looks great - I'm definitely having a go at this :)
Kim

Jen said...

That's just cool!!!

Stacy Cohen said...

Beautiful! I love the technique . . . I can't wait to try it!!

Lila H said...

Stunning technique!!! I too, can't wait to give it a try.....

Anonymous said...

Ok, This is amazing! What a fantastic idea - that no one except you could come up with :) Love the card.
Blessings~~~ Danielle

Stac said...

Great tutorial. I love butterflies. They look to delicate. Great job!