Sparkly Bits is WOYWW

I have had a crazy few weeks. The kids seems to get socially hyperactive at this time of the year, and I decided to tackle the garden and grow some veges. Plus we have been really busy with designing and all the usual stuff going on here at PaperArtsy Central. Courtney had her prom a few weeks back, and I must put up all the piccies. Been trying to do that for what seems like forever. Anyway, my most recent desk activity is as follows. Sparkly Spritzing.

This year I have been really enjoying finding out about Crafty Notions Sparkly and Dye ink Sprays. The colours of the dyes and the micas are really surprising - the kind of colours where you find yourself doing a little internal squeal of excitement!  Over the last few days I have been making samples of all the colours we have in stock to photograph for the on-line shop, and for our display boards at shows. Here's the scrumminess. Millie and Ella helped and it was not only fun, but surprising how the colours were so different to what i expected from the label description. They really need to package these things with spots on the bottles.

People often ask what is the difference between these and other sprays out there. I am no expert as I really haven't played with loads of UK based products, so can't really compare those but I did sell and use Glimmer Mists a lot in the past couple of years. We decided to switch due to a change in supplier resulting in a price point too high for the UK market. Plus at the same time, the UK market seemed to provide a wide range of alternative sprays.  I do like the extensive range of on-trend colours in various hues available from Tattered Angels, and I like how they release new groups of colours regularly, but at £6-7 a bottle it's too much to expect people to pay. 

I also like that they had colour spots on their bottles...and so that is what prompted me today to add colour spots to all our CN stock, plus all the class-sample bottles I have. It's not hard, just get some white-spot stickers spray, let dry, then stick to your bottle. This is going to make it so much easier for people to see what they are buying at the shows!

When using the CN sprays, the first thing I noticed was the binder in the spray seems to allow the mica to be suspended in the liquid, rather than float on top so if you dab off some excess liquid with a paper towel, you only take away the excess liquid leaving lots of mica with the dye. If there is no binder in a spray the mica seems to float on the surface of a sprayed puddle, so if you dab off excess, all the mica ends up on your paper towel. A binder should also prevent the mica rubbing off when the product is dry. 

Ohh check out my rectangle 'spots' showing the yummo colours inside the bottles!! 

I think any mica spray product can clog, if the mica is not evenly dispersed in the liquid (ie well shaken) before you spray,  then either the fine nozzle or the sucky-up tube will inevitably block. You do need to hold the bottle upright, and keep shaking frequently as mica can settle quite fast, and you don't want a concentrated amount of the particles to go up the tube and get stuck there. If you use your sprays infrequently, and the liquid totally dries up in the mechanism, then you could have difficulty kicking it back into action again. Usually a soak or rinse of the spray mechanism in warm water will loosen any stubborn particles that may have blocked tubes and nozzles. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat and buy a new mechanism, but if that is not an option, then try decanting what you need into a Ranger mini mister, the spray action of those babies produces a perfect mist!
So after today's effort, all these bottles have moved off the workdesks and onto the shelves ready for purchase.

So its not just the sparkly ones that I'm all excited about, don't overlook the 2 that look to be the most boring - the Black and White Matte Sprays. Don't be deceived! I call them magic sprays because, well these guys are a different animal altogether. I have no idea what is in the product, but they are a LOT of fun, and can instantly fix disasters. 

If you make a backgrounds that is way to busy, and you totally overcooked it? Take a mask/ stencil, place it over the background, and spray the matte black or white on top. Or don't use the mask, just spray, then dab at it with a paper towel. The busy background is instantly toned down by the black or white. Simple. 

You know how distress inks are a deliberately unstable ink - this means if they get wet, they bleed/ wick... so if they are applied direct to paper, chipboard, card etc, and then sprayed with the white matte spray, they are instantly softened into a really delicate background. If you use really strong colours like aged mahogany, walnut stain, spiced marmalade directly from the ink pad onto the same surface with a really heavy application, expect some cool bleeding up into the white matte that can be very interesting to watch, and a great way to to create a totally unique background with distress inks.

 Ignore the frame embellishment above, just look at the background. It was victorian velvet and bundled sage applied direct to a white chipboard, then lightly sprayed with the matte white, and excess dabbed off. By dabbing off the excess the colour comes through, but in a much softer way than if it was distress on its own.

But the cool thing is you can still stamp on top of this matte white spray, so here the flourish and script was added, and more distress ink rubbed to the edges, but it still looks muted.

Here is another sample in rustic tones which has been overstamped, the black at the base is archival, but all the rest are Distress inks with matte white spray.

 Here is another made by an ArtsyCrafts attendee (sorry no idea who) in lovely greens with pinks.

So you might like to give it a go, it was one of the fave new techniques we taught at ArtsyCrafts in May and everyone was very surprised at how easy this product was to work with. Remember it is quite thick and creamy, so you do need to shake a long time to get the product well mixed before you begin to spray. Think of it as exercising while you craft!

If you're a WOYWWer thanks for dropping by, do check out what everyone else was up to today here at Julia's place!

Have a great week.

Leandra