October Color Challenge | Jen McMurtrey

Hello Shimmerz friends!

It's Jennifer today with my October Color Challenge project. When contemplating what color to use for the challenge, I knew that it had to be purple because it is the color I struggle with the most. 

I totally went into this blind when I asked Stacy to surprise me with a purple color . . . and, believe me, she delivered! When I opened my Shimmerz package, there were five purple shades to choose from!! Five! 

Here's a look at the Shimmerz colors I used:

Coloringz Punked Up Purple

Inklingz Honeymoon

Inklingz Pugnacious Purple

Shimmerz Wisteria Lane

Creameez Purple Rain

Creameez Get Glowing

To get this project started, I pulled out all of my Pinkfresh Studio stash and selected purple papers and embellishments to match my paints. I ended up using a piece of black and white floral patterned paper, which I painted using each of the purple shades. After painting the flowers, I used Creameez Get Glowing to paint all of the leaves. This was a pretty time-consuming process, but it was well worth the effort!

Once all of the paint had dried on the patterned paper, I sent it through my Silhouette Cameo using the Flowers For You cut file from Paper Issues.

While that was cutting, I added more of the purple colors to a piece of white cardstock.

Next, I went to work layering everything on the page.

Again, I chose purple embellishments from a couple of Pinkfresh collections to accent all of the beautiful Shimmerz colors.

I love all of the texture and the gold with the purple is stunning.

Here's one more look at the completed project. Despite my lack of love for purple, I am really liking how this turned out. 

Loving the colors you see here? Be sure to visit the Shimmerz shop and pick yours up today. Remember to type JENNIFER in the comments at checkout to receive a freebie with your order.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are inspired to create!

- Jen

Choose To Shine

Hi everyone! Melissa here for Shimmerz Paints, with my second page for June! 

I discovered a new favorite color, called Christmas Cheer Shimmerz. I used it all around the page, and splattered it on as well. It tied the other colors together, with its shimmery, golden yellow tones. I love using gold as a neutral color, I usually use gold mica powder, but the Christmas Cheer had just the exact color and shimmer that I needed. 

To make this page I used paper by 49 and Market. I arranged the chipboard and flowers around the photo, and took a photo for reference. I took things apart so I could work on the chipboard,

and painted them with Green Olive Shimmerz. When dry, I put on a layer of Miner Miner, 49er Inklingz. I painted on a thick layer of Clear Rock Candy Crackle, and when dry brushed on a little gold mica powder. I glued them on the page, and started adding the embellishments. 

To add visual interest I added micro beads, seed beads, glass glitter,glitter glue, distress glitter glue, distress glitter,mica flakes,tulle, Prima flowers,sequins,dried flowers,lichens,birch bark, gold leaf, pearls, charms,Tim Holtz metal,  and metal and bling from my stash.

I used Pugnacious Purple,and Imperial Amethyst Inklingz around the page on the watercolor mat. I rubbed on gold mica powder in various places on the mat and page.

There are a few layers of clear glass glitter, gesso, and paint to the right of the photo. All of the white in the background is Tidy Widy. It's shiny, and has a nice, thick, creamy texture that would also be perfect for stencil work.

The sticker titles are from 7 Dots.

I used some Shimmerz stamps:

Bed of Roses, and Petite Poppies.

The lavender butterfly to the left of the photo is from Reneabouquets.

If you write my name in the comments section when you order, you can get a surprise freebie!

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great week!

Happy Mail!

Happy Mail! 

Hello my fellow Shimmerz Siren’s, it’s me Joyce.  Here today to share some Happy Mail for a dear mixed media mistress.  Pssst… I hope her package makes it to her mailbox before this post is published. 

Years ago, when I moved into my 1925 home, I found in the trash container a number of very old black scrapbooks. It was a joyful day to find I had moved into a fellow artists’ home! I browsed through her small snippets of watercolor images, her written stories published in old magazines, poetry and small plays. This was indeed a treasure trove to me.  And, as I was spring cleaning this week, I came across these scrapbooks again. I stopped working and spent a few hours going through them and tearing out pages of old magazines…. And this little mini fabric/junk journal was created in a day…a very long day. 

This fabric/junk journal is also a mini kit I prepared for a dear mixed media mistress. Inside each of the Glassine bags are remnants of fabric, lace embroidered fabric, embroidery thread, bulb clips with tear drops of pearls, beads and rhinestones I assembled to use as little embellishments, and some aged fabric flowers too. I know she’ll create something beautiful this this mini kit. 

The page above features one of the old torn out paper clippings. I loved the title! I spritz under the white doily a combination of Vibez-Princess, and Spritz-Rock a Fella Blue to achieve a periwinkle color. 

On the page above, I applied some dried floral on top of textured cardstock, and applied a thick coating of matte gel to hold it town and receive some more of the periwinkle color concoction. I adore how this treatment turned out, and you will see me use this idea again.  

The  lacy page above was originally intended to be an internal page of the book, but in the end it became the title page.  After laying down a piece of Pellon (found in fabric stores and used as a stay in collars) on top of watercolor paper and sewed down, I applied many different pieces of laces and applied matte gel on top of them and let it dried thoroughly.  Paint brushes loaded up with Inklingz-Pugnacious Purple, Inklingz-Precious Posey, Treasured Hymm, and the same periwinkle color concoction were applied sporadically over the lacy bits. I then used a stiff brush loaded with gesso and pounded the brush down on top of the paints and beads to soften the colors.  

The music sheet page features a piece of white lace and a white flower that were spritzed with the periwinkle concoction and pretty Spritz Tuscan Sun.  A few more pages are featured on my blog should you wish to see them. 

Thanks for letting me share this with you!  I hope I have inspired you to use your Shimmerz Paints on a fabric/junk journal too.  

Listen for my siren to bring you back on April 30^th.

Get Your Rainbow On ~ Art Palette Canvas with Video Tutorial

Hello Shimmerz fans!  Gabrielle here with you today to share an OTP (Off the page) using a really fun wooden art palette canvas I got in the September kit at Flying Unicorn Kit Club.  There were so many cool metal ornaments included in this kit so I went and used these and some of the flowers and Shimmerz mixed media elements included in this kit as well.  I also added other colors of Shimmerz paints as well. Here are the Shimmerz products I used in this project:

~Golden Wheat Shimmerz

~Grape Escape Vibez

~Caribbean Sunset Spritz

~Hot Fudge Vibez

~Beets Me Inklingz

~Pugnacious Purple Inklingz

~Me and Blue Inklingz

~ Giddy about Green Inklingz

~Gold Mine Inklingz

~Pink Inklingz

~Tarnished Treasure Inklingz

~ Brass Knuckles Inklingz

I recorded a video tutorial on how I made this canvas design, hope you enjoy!

I thought I would share a bunch of close-ups that you can enjoy at your leisure. Above is a close-up of the embellishment cluster, a combination of metal accents, blooms and gems.  I gave the whole thing a coat of gesso and then spritzed and painted with Grape Escape Vibez.  Last but not least, I dabbed on some Brass Knuckles Inklings to further the metalic look on my embellishment cluster.

I used a variety of stencils....Heidi Swapp Moroccan stencil, Crafter's Workshop 'Art Is' stencil and the Prima 'Sunrise Sunset' Checkerboard stencil to create a textural background on my palette.  I then layered on lots of Shimmerz colors to create an 'artsy' looking background.

I chose a quote that I thought would work nicely with the art palette design....'Art is not what you see but what you make others see' ....I used the Tim Holtz alphabet stickers (included in the Flying Unicorn kit mixed with some Webster's Pages alphabet stickers I had in my home stash).

Here is another shot of the embellishment cluster.....I finished the design with a few colorful adhesive gems.

Originally I had planned to use a bunch of large colorful gems as my 'paint colors' but couldn't find them in the size and colors I was looking for....then I came across these 'sugared' gems at a local dollar store and went with these.  I used a variety of coordinating colors of Inklingz as a background mosaic design behind the colored gems.

There are a bunch of paint brushes included in the palette set, so I took two of these brushes as accent pieces to my design and 'dirtied them up a bit, giving them a well used look, by smudging on some paint colors before I applied them to my canvas.

I hope you enjoyed today's project! If you would like to order some of the beautiful Shimmerz products used on this project you can find them HERE.....and remember if you would like to get a FREE/Bonus Shimmerz product, be sure to mention my name 'Gabrielle' in the INSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT part of your order, and Shimmerz will send you a bonus product in the color of your choice.

Before I leave today I want to share some exciting news!!  The lovely folks at Shimmerz Paints have been hard at work creating NEW and EXCITING paint colors!  I just had a peek and the NEW colors are up and ready to go!  I don't know about you but I'm super excited to give these new color palettes a go! xo