How to Make My Own Glimmer Mist
Glimmer mist is essentially water, color and a reflective metallic powder. When the reflective specs in the shimmer powder or metallic paint mix with water, the effect is a shimmery liquid that you can spray onto a variety of surfaces. Glimmer mist is used in card making, scrapbooking, ribbon crafts, handmade tags, paintings and other art. If made with skin-safe ingredients, you can also apply it to the skin for a glittering glow.
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Things You'll Need
- Bottle with mister top
- Eye dropper
- Re-inker
- Pigment powder or mica powder
Instructions
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Add the re-inker to the mister bottle. According to the Tim Holtz website, one eyedropper full of the right re-inker should produce a vibrant color. The My Creative Exposure website says that acrylic paint can be used in place of re-inker. Use any color ink or dye you desire; consider that the color of the dye and the color of the shimmer will be mixed. Crafters at Your Chocolate Headquarters use metallic acrylic paint as a dye for glimmer mist. They replace pigment powder altogether by using the metallic paint and thinning it with water and an adhesive. Experiment with what you have in the cupboard and try different combinations of paint, ink, dye and powders.
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Pigment powder is the reflective material that gives glimmer mist its gleam. Add a small scoop of shimmer powder to the bottle. The Tim Holtz site suggests using the end of a craft stick to scoop the powder. That is all that is necessary to achieve shimmer. Mica or pigment powders come in a rainbow of colors. Gold and silver add a metallic shimmer to any color of ink. To achieve shimmer without a metallic sheen, use a colored pigment powder with the same color of dye. Consider not using any dye at all and letting the glimmer mist stay slightly transparent.
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Mix the ingredients and fill the remainder of the bottle with water. Many crafters include additional ingredients in their glimmer mists. Your Chocolate Headquarters adds Mod Podge to the mixture as an adhesive. A couple of drops of any type of glue will give the mist an adhesive quality, allowing it to stick to many materials. Warm water may aid in dissolving any glues or lumps of powder that are floating in your mixture.
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Test the glimmer mist by spraying it on some scrap paper. Move the paper around in the light and decide if the shimmer is bold enough for your crafting purposes. Look to see if the color is bright enough and how many sprays it takes you to achieve the saturation you want. If you want the glimmer mist to be more shimmery, colorful or more concentrated, add more dye and powder. Adding pigment powder will raise the number of reflective elements in the mixture and give it more shimmer per spray. Adding dye will give the mist a darker tone.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit moment of spray image by Robert Kelly from Fotolia.com pigments image by Allyson Ricketts from Fotolia.com
