Make Your Own Mists

Have you seen all of the videos/demos/tutorials for color mists?

Studio Calico has some (Mister Huey's), Maya Road has some, even my favorite of the cheapie brands, Inkadinkado has some. In terms of shimmer, major props go to Ranger for their Perfect Pearls Mists, and Tattered Angels for their Glimmer Mists.

Super cute, super fun...but they can get crazy pricey. Most of these are around $3 to $7, depending on the brand, size and whether or not it's on sale. 

Always the frugal shopper, I decided to make my own. Cheap, easy, just as cute, and insanely customizable. 

There are two basic ways to do this: with your stamp pad re-inkers, and with acrylic paints. The colors tend to be more sheer when using re-inkers, and more opaque with paints. It just depends on the look you're going for.

Here's what you need:

- Empty spray bottle. I like the Mini Mister from Ranger, because if I don't love a color, there's not much wasted. I use the regular-size Mister from Ranger for the colors I use a lot, like the sheer pearl. (You can also buy 2 oz. mister bottles from the dollar store...just sayin'....)

- Liquid glue, Modge Podge, Glossy Accents, or something similar.

- Re-inkers in your color of choice, or, acrylic paints in your color of choice. No need to worry about the brand - get the cheap stuff. I won't tell.


- If you want some shimmer (and really, who doesn't?) you can add some Perfect Pearls to the mix. But I've found this product, and I love it, and it's a lot easier than dealing with a powdery mess: Pearlizing Medium by Art Deco. I just paid $2 for this bottle and a small squeeze did an entire 2-ounce spray bottle full of pearly mist. I'm a happy girl.

- Warm water. I don't need to tell you where to get this stuff. It's cheap.

Step-by-Step:

1. Fill your bottle about halfway with warm water. (Mine's a little less than halfway, I didn't want a huge amount of this color. Oh, and note the slight amount of steam creeping up the bottle? WARM water.)

2. Add a drop of your choice of glue. Not a lot, just a drop. (Picture's not great. It just got cloudy. You get the idea.)

3. Add some color: if you have the dropper kind of reinker, start with half a dropperful. If it's the drip kind (I'm so technical), I do about 12 drops to start. Acrylic paint? One squeeze. If there's no spout for it, I just dip the little tube in my mister top in there, grab some paint, and put the lid back on. (This is about 10 drops of green acrylic paint, plus about 5 drops of the pearlizing medium.)

4. Shake. A bunch.
    Not sure if you can see the shimmer here, but it's so pretty in real life!

5. Spray.

No really. That's it. The more color you add, the deeper the color of the spray. Shocker, I know. 

For some other great shimmer, you can buy metallic acrylic paint. The gold is GORGEOUS. Might actually be my new favorite.

Anyhow, that's all. I hope you enjoy saving money and having awesome spray mists in every color you could dream of. Because it rocks!

Here's a great project using some darker ink, courtesy of Kristina Werner.

Some more subtle masking here, and some bolder stuff here.

Oh, and you can full-on color with this stuff, like Nichol Magouirk does with her word diecuts on this awesome art piece. 


Or I might just frame this. I love shimmer :)