Vendor Spotlight: Shimmerz, Blingz, and Spritz

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Reported by Erika Martin

Bring on the Bling! That's what Shimmerz is all about and I sure wanted to find out for myself.

I admit...I'm not the bold and daring bling person that many girls tend to be. I like my bling a bit muted and earth-toned, which worked perfectly for me, since Shimmerz had colors that worked for my style and preference. But, if you're a flashy and bright bling girl, Shimmerz also has colors that will show off your bold personality on your projects with 39 different colors of Shimmerz Paints, 11 different colors of Shimmerz Bling and 20 different colors of Shimmerz Spritzs to pick from in their Shimmerz Shop.

I really enjoyed playing with the paints, blingz, and spritzes, and tried them out on different media with different techniques. There's quite a bit of versatility, especially with the paints. Following are a variety of ways in which I used the paints and spritzes....I really gave these products a work-out!

The first project I created was a card. I wanted to add a bit of shimmer and sparkle to my card embellishments, and chose some paper flowers to work with. I shook up the little pots of Shimmerz Blingz and Paint (I used Spiced Cider Blingz and Golden Wheat Shimmerz for my flowers) and painted it directly onto my flowers. I found that they dried rather quickly, which is definitely a plus when it comes to working with paints of any kind. I did find, also, that the paintbrush needed to be cleaned off very quickly after, as the paints dries quick on a used brush. A quick run under the kitchen faucet was all it took to wash the paint out.

The finish of the paint on the flowers has a very brilliant shimmer and even a bit of chunky sparkle when applied thickly to a couple of the flowers. The paint actually made the paper flowers a bit more sturdy.

(I used the Bold Flowers set for this card - found at GinaK Designs. I discovered that the Golden Wheat Shimmerz Paint is a perfect match for Stampin' UP's So Saffron ink and cardstock.)

When turned in the right light, you can also notice a bit of gloss under the shimmer.

One of the projects that I really looked forward to using these products on was an altered book. I'm always looking for new ways to add finishes to the surfaces on the altered books that I create.

I started out with a small children's board book (which already had the shaker window on the front) for my project and painted the cover and some of the pages with acrylic paint as a base to work on. I used some of the Mudpie Shimmerz paint with a cotton ball (which I dipped on the underside of the cap so that I wouldn't soak up too much of the paint onto the cottonball) and swiped it across the cover of the book. This gave the front of my book a nice aged look. Since the paint is water-based, it allows some of the base material to show through. I know I'm going to be using these paints on quite a few projects that I'm planning on aging.

I used a white gel pen over the top of the paint, but had a little bit of trouble with it since the paint is a bit slick to work on with markers or gel pens. I kept at it, though, and eventually got what I was going for. I'm in love with the finish this created on the front of this book.
Next, I tried stamping with the Blingz. I brushed some of the Blingz directly onto an upturned rubber stamp (from the Elegant Flowers set - GinaK) with a paintbrush. I then stamped it onto one of the pagese of my altered book (painted first with acrylic paint). It took me a couple of stamped images to get the amount of Blingz right and found that I had to put the Blingz on VERY thinly so that it didn't squish out from under the rubber image when applied to the book page.

If you try this technique, make sure you clean your stamps off directly after using them and take care to clean them well, as the paint and glitter likes to hide in the the cracks and details of your stamps.

I cut a make shift stencil with a pair of pinking scissors and painted against it to create a shimmery border on one of the pages of my altered book. Though it was good in concept, because the paint is more on the watery side, I found that the next time I try this technique, I'll need to use a decorative edge with a bigger design, rather than the small pinking edge I used. Still, I liked the idea, and know it will work next time with a bigger stencil.

Below is a view of the stamped images I created with applying the paint directly to the rubber image.


I also tried the stencil technique with the Shimmerz Spritz. I punched a bunch of designs from a strip of cardstock and then sprayed over it with the Mocha Shimmerz Spritz. The result was a bit of a watercolor look. I also sprayed down the top of the page with the Spritz to create a bit of aging and shimmer.

While I like the effect that the Spritz creates, it took a little bit of practice to aim and distance from the surface to get the look I was going for.

The one problem I had with the Spritz bottles was a bit of leaking around the top after the first few pumps to get it working. I thought it was just a fluke with the first bottle, but the second and third bottle did the same thing. I had to make sure I didn't tip the bottle while spritzing or the spritz would leak out. When I held the bottle completely upright to spritz it was fine. It does provide a bit of an issue, though, as I can't hold all surfaces up to spritz them. This is something I'll be letting the company know about so that they can take a look into that particular batch of bottles.

I like to play around with colors and finishes and tried mixing some of the colors. I painted the base of the page with blue acrylic paint and then went over it with the Spiced Cider Shimmerz Blingz. Because the Blingz are thicker, it creates a bit more coverage on the surface you're painting it on. I used my heat gun to dry it quickly, and then placed a paper flower on top of the page and painted around the edges with Golden Wheat Shimmerz Paint. I rubbed the paintbrush a bit so that it rubbed away some of the Spiced Cider and allowed some of the blue from underneath to poke through. This created a really cool background effect on my page.

The flower provided a negative stencil effect that I really like. Because the Spiced Cider Blingz and Golden Wheat paints mixed a bit, it created an all new color on top of the flower. Not one to throw much away, I used the flower as an accent on the facing page.
When I dried the paint with my heat gun on this page, I held the barrel of the gun really close to the paint to cause it to bubble. It gives a raised and bubbled effect that looks really edgy and artsy.
Mixing together the Spiced Cider and Golden Wheat Shimmerz Paint created a very earthy peach color, which I doctored up with a little bit of doodling from a white gel pen and a large gold brad.

If you're like me, you probably have a ton of cardstock scraps that you never throw away because you know you're going to eventually have a use for them....someday. If you have some Shimmerz Spritz, some cardstock scraps and some punches, you're all set to go.

I sprayed some of the Sapphire Spritz over a piece of cardstock, holding it rather close to get a mottled effect (if you hold the bottle farther back, you get more of a fine mist effect).

While the paint and fine mist of Spritz dries rather quickly, when you hold the Spritz bottle close to the cardstock, it tends to stay wet longer and you can use a heat gun if you want to speed up the drying process.
I used a 3/4 inch circle punch to punch out a bunch of little circles to use as embellishments on a scrapbook page.
I sprayed some Olive Branch Spritz on a piece of green cardstock and hand cut some leaves to go behind the blue cirlces to create blueberries for a page about blueberry picking with my daughter and grandmother.
I was surprised at how much the punched circles looked just like the blueberries in the photos I used.

This was a great way to get rid of some of the scraps I've had laying around for years and a perfect way to add some extra shimmery embellishment to a page that otherwise might have looked rather "flat."

Pros:

• A variety of colors to choose from - 39 paint choices, 11 Blingz choices and 20 Spritz choices.
  

• The Spritz bottles will last a long time - the bottles are 2 ounces each.

• The shine and shimmer from these products are vibrant and brilliant.

• Great for aging techniques, for background effects and glazing effects.

• Wonderful versatility factor for all kinds of paper crafting.

• The paints, blingz and spritzs are already mixed - if you've ever tried to make your own, you'll know what a time and mess saver it is to have this already done for you!

Cons:

• Spritz bottles leaked after the first round of pumping, so the bottles, as well as the project, had to be held upright to avoid leakage.
  

• Products are waterbased so they may dry out a bit, but the website advises to add a little bit of distilled water and mix to rehydrate the products, so this is not entirely a "con" as there's an easy fix to this issue.

Overall, I was very happy with all the experimenting and playing I did with the Shimmerz Paints Blingz and Spritz. I can forsee a lot more techniques tried with these products and am looking forward to trying my hand at painting some line art rubber stamp images with the paints.

Where to buy:

• Shimmerz Shop
• Our Daily Bread Designs
• Firecracker Designs by Pamela

Shimmerz Paints retail for roughly $3.99 per paint pot.
Shimmer Blingz retail for roughly $4.00 - $4.10 per pot.
Shimmerz Sprtitz retail for roughly $4.99 per 2-ounce bottle.

Shimmerz has a great page with Tips and Tutorials, as well as a Shimmerz Blog showcasing the work of their Design Team, so make sure to check them out!

Giveaway time! Tell us how you add sparkle and shine to your projects and you will be entered to win a Shimmerz gift pack including 3 Shimmerz, 2 Blingz, and one bottle of Spritz. You have until Friday at midnight to enter. Good luck!!