DIY Absorbent Ground & Shimmerz Watercolors | Zinia Amoiridou

Hello artsy friends! It's Zinia here and welcome back to the Shimmerz blog!
Today I'm going to share with you an art journaling spread I created with my Shimmerz watercolors.

To start with my page I decided to prime my journal with a layer of absorbent ground. That is pretty much like a gesso for watercolors. It creates a nice absorbent base for your watercolors to sit on.

There are a few companies that make such primer but if you don't want to invest in it, you can create it on your own by mixing gesso with light modeling paste. The general ration is around 1:1 but I usually add a little bit of extra paste to make it extra absorbent. 

I decided to tint my primer with a tiny dot of AcriTonez in Roses are Red. 

Before you start adding watercolors on your page you need to make sure your ground is completely dry. I usually let mine sit overnight cause I like adding a relatively thick layer.

Then I picked some of my favorite colors of Creameez and Inklingz and randomly added them on my page to create a watercolor splash look. The products I used were: Creameez in Just Peachie, 1 Hot Mama and Inklingz in Gosh Garnet, Coral Reef, She Packs a Punch and I'm not Limon.

When that layer dried as well, I decided to add some doodles as focal points. I used one of my Coloringz in Pink Stilettos and instead of adding color in a palette and picking it with my brush, I used a droplet tool and I filled a waterbrush with the color. This way I had my own DIY Shimmerz pen to doodle with.

When my doodles dried too, I went over them with a white paint pen to add more details and finished the page by adding some opaque white splatters all over.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I really hope you enjoyed the process of this page. If you got inspired and you want to grab some gorgeous Shimmerz goodies make sure to mention my name "Zinia" at the comment section of your order to receive a FREE Shimmerz product! 

Easy & Textured Cityscape Art Journal Page | Zinia Amoiridou

Hello artsy friends! It's Zinia here and today I'm back to share with you a really easy and full of texture art journal page I created using my Shimmerz pastes.

Before we get into the process let's take a look at our palette.

The products I'm using today are:

• White & Black Gesso
• Paste-eez in Baby Boy Blue, Tree Hugger & Raspberry Sherbet
• Dazzlerz in Sea U in the Mornin', Foiled Again (mixed with a few drops of Distress Oxide in Cracked Pistachio) & Pucker Up Pink
• Texturez in Crushed Coral, Gold Mine & Maroon Over Miami (this last color won't really make it to the final page but it is in my initial palette)
• Shimmeringz in Heavy Metal
• Vibez in Glorious Day
• Coloringz in Well Blue Me Down

We are going to start on a primed page. Make sure to evenly cover the whole page with a thin layer of gesso. Then we are going to start adding intuitive brush strokes using a big flat brush.

For the first layer, I started by adding some building with black gesso and darker colors so my lighter shades will have a nice ground to sit on.

As I started moving forward I decided to tint my background with some sprays. I randomly sprayed over my page till I was happy with how everything looked. To help the drying process, I blotted some areas with a towel and accidentally left some marks on the paste that wasn't completely dry yet.

I liked that look so much that I intentionally pressed my towel on top of different areas to add even more texture.

After that I continued adding my buildings but this time I switched my brush for a palette knife. The effect you get with the palette knife is completely different and definitely worth it. I really loved how the color of the Texturez skipped at some areas when I applied it with this way.

While working on this page my brain malfunctioned for a bit and for some reason I decided that the front buildings should be smaller than the ones behind. I only realized that when I was editing my video but you know what, I'm really glad I did it this way. There's no rule that says that my art journal pages have to be realistic! Same goes for you. Never worry if you create something out of the ordinary, as long as you enjoy the process and have fun, there are no mistakes in art journaling.

The final touch was to add some white gesso around the edges with a dry brush to help every thing pop nicely.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I really hope you enjoyed the process of this page. If you got inspired and you want to grab some gorgeous Shimmerz goodies make sure to mention my name "Zinia" at the comment section of your order to receive a FREE Shimmerz product! 

Abstract Finger-painting using AcriTonez and Pastes | Zinia Amoiridou

Hello once again shimmery friends! It's Zinia here and today I want to share with you another abstract art journaling page I created using a mix of AcriTonez and some Shimmerz Pastes.

So before we get to the fun part let me tell what colors I used on this page:

• AcriTonez - 3 Sheets to the wind
• AcriTonez - Jiven Jade
• AcriTonez - Blue My Top
• AcriTonez - Pinkadelic
• AcriTonez - Roses Are Red...
• Dazzlerz - Gummy Berry Blue
• Dazzlerz - Lemon Drop
• PASTE-EEZ - Tree Hugger
• PASTE-EEZ - Hold the Mustard

To begin, I used a plastic palette and mixed my own shades using the colors I mentioned above. I wanted to have a pastel palette with a few pops of bright colors. (I'd definitely recommend watching the video for some great tips on creating your own color palette and mixing colors.)

I roughly added a thin layer of gesso using a palette knife leaving all sorts of messy marks to create texture. Then I started dipping my fingers in the paint and spreading the color all over the page.

There's something really special about having physical contact with your art work. It becomes much more personal plus it's really a lot of fun to use your hands and fingers to apply the paint :).

The whole process was really intuitive and I wasn't really thinking about composition or shapes, I just wanted to add color on my page.

I tried to lay down the color without over blending it, creating interesting strokes and texture.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I really hope you enjoyed the process of this page. If you got inspired and you plan on ordering some yummy Shimmerz products make sure to mention my name "Zinia" at the comment section of your order to receive a FREE Shimmerz product! 

Lost Fairytale Art Journal Spread | Zinia Amoiridou

Hello shimmery friends! It's Zinia here to share with you another art journal spread I created using some of my favorite Shimmerz products.

The products I used are:

• Shimmerz Paints in Bubble Gum Blast, Ultra Marine, Tickle Me Turquoise and Sunny
• Blingz in Pixie Dust
• Paste-Eez in Hold the Mustard
• Creameez in Boogie Boardin' Blue
• Inklingz in I'm not Limon, Coral Reef and Blue My Mind
• Acritonez in Pinkadelic, Jiven Jade and 3 Sheets to the Wind

This spread is really so full of layers and texture. I started with a layer of inklingz and creameez in blue and green shades just to set a base for my page. Then I continued by adding some random shapes using a mix of Acritonez.

The background building part is usually my most favorite. It's a really fun and spontaneous process. I kept adding layers and areas of color until I was happy with how it looked.

Once my background was relatively dry, I sketched a little girl with a pencil and went back in with various Shimmerz products to color it.

The Coral Reef Inklingz works perfectly as a flesh tone. I mixed in a few drops of gesso for opacity and used it to color the face.

I added some final shading and details with my brush markers and then I wrote my journaling. I really love the look of messy script on an art journal page. I really feel like is the detail that makes everything come together.

Thank you so much for joining me. I really hope you enjoyed the process of this spread. If you got inspired and you plan on ordering some yummy Shimmerz products make sure to mention my name "Zinia" at the comment section of your order to receive a FREE Shimmerz product! 

Create with Shimmerz and Amy Prior

Hi everyone! Amy Prior back with you all again today to share another recent creation using tonnes of gorgeous Shimmerz paint products. 

I have recently been spending lots of time reorganising my scrap studio and I wanted to create some new decor items to add to the space as the ones I had were made over 7 years ago so needed updating. My style has changed dramatically in 7 years.

I had these gorgeous raw Natural Canvas Banner pieces in my stash (amazing what you find when you clean, sort and organise your space). I knew they were perfect for my first decor piece and when I realised that I had 6 pennants, the perfect word came to mind to use and that was "Create".

I have quite a large stash of old Chipboard letters in a box but I could not find the same type of letters in either upper-case complete or lower-case complete. I went with a mix of both and I just love the whimsy look it gives to the finished project.

The Canvas Pennants were raw so after wetting them with lots of water, I started to add various colours of Shimmerz to the background to create gorgeous girlie rainbows over each piece. 

I was running low on Pink Shimmerz so I have also added some Beets Me Inklingz to the backgrounds because, well, it is my favourite LOL. Next step was to paint my chipboard letters and I went with White to create a nice contrast against the intense colours of the background. I am just so chuffed with how this turned out.

Final touches included lots of gorgeous little flowers mainly Scrappers Garden & Petaloo plus some Flourish with a Bling pearls scattered around. The petals of the flowers and leaves were given a little dip of Tidy Widy Texturez to bring that white into them a little.

Shimmerz Paint products used include...
Shimmerz in Tickle Me Turquoise, Sunny, Pink, Key Lime, Jilted Jade & Magenta colours,

Inklingz in Beets Me colour, 

Dazzlerz in Spun Sugar colour,

Texturez in Tidy Widy colour.

Thanks so much for stopping by and until next time, happy scrapping!

Amy Prior xx

Canvas Art with Shimmerz Paint FREE mini Series Class

Welcome to the next video in this FREE Shimmerz Mini Series Class this week on Canvas Art.
In this video I show you the process I took to create a canvas,  many many layers in this canvas.
With this style, the process you take along the way is almost more important than the end result, and often you will not have a clear vision of the end result in your mind as you create.
It is a very free-ing style of painting.  You really have to let go and just put paint on the canvas, and create without too much thought, using mixed media to create something fun, and thoroughly enjoy the process, having it change and evolve with every stage.

This is quite a lengthy process so parts had to be skipped so you didnt have to watch hours of footage, and this video is in fast forward so you can get a good idea of the various stages you go through before getting to the end result.....and it looks pretty cool along the way too!!

So lets watch the next video!




Have a great day, and remember to stop back tomorrow for the third video in this FREE mini series class.