Paint

By rowarrior

Never thought you would be a painter? Well here's some tips on applying paint to your layouts.

First, the type of paint you use. Acrylic or watercolour are your main options (oil would be just too, well, oily!) but due to the nature of these paints they perform in different ways.

Watercolour does pale, translucent effects on your page, which can look beautifully ethereal, but given that it's main constituent is water it can make your paper buckle and warp quite badly. The best paper to use with it is specialist watercolour paper, however even that can warp if there is a lot of water used. To avoid this, apply your paint sparingly, sufficient to cover the required area, but try to avoid repeatedly painting over the same area.

Acrylic is rather more versatile, however there is a dazzling range available to buy. MM have their own range of acrylic paints, grouped into colour schemes with 6 colours per range, which then co-ordinate with other lines in the MM range. Other manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon, and although there is nothing wrong with the scrapbook manufacturer's offerings, there is a cheaper option to be found at your local art store. There is a vast array of colours to be had in several sizes of container, again from different manufacturers, and if you can't find the exact colour you want, then you can always mix your own.

As a hint to mixing your own colour, if you want to create your own shade or hue, mix the colour in an airtight container and always make more than you think you need. Doing it this way means that if there is leftover paint then you can use it on another layout, although you may find that you use all the paint anyway as your original estimate wasn't quite right! (If you're anything like me, you'll find that mixing your own colours up always involves fairly large quantities of paint from the colours being mixed anyway)

Acrylic paint has a number of uses on layouts from painting your own background, to distressing your page, to embellishing accents, to stamping with it, and the list goes on.

To stamp with it, or to use it for distressing, the best tool to apply the paint is a foam brush, which can be purchased extremely cheaply from your local craft suppliers.

To paint your own background, both normal and foam brushes can be used – the foam brush will give you a slightly smoother finish.

To distress with it using a foam brush, first make sure the brush is completely dry. Next dab it very lightly in the paint so it doesn't pick much up, then distress away! Alternatively, you can use a brush. A fairly large brush is best, and it too has to be completely dry. Again dab it very lightly in the paint and distress at will. The difference between the two is that the foam brush will give a more even coverage with the paint, whereas the brush, which usually has bristles of slightly different lengths, will give a more random effect.

When using acrylic paint on metal accents, there are a number of finishes that can be attained. Firstly you can apply the paint straight onto the surface and leave it as it is. Secondly you can apply it to the surface, and when dry you can sand some of it back off. Thirdly, you can then stamp patterns on top and possible finish off with Diamond Glaze, or similar.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I hope it will at least point you in the right direction!

Here are some examples of paint used in a variety of ways: