Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Homemade Glimmer Mist

I've never bought glimmer mist before, I guess it's because I'm too cheap! (smile)  Not sure what I was looking for, but I stumbled upon a couple You Tube videos about making your own mist.  The first few I watched still had too many ingredients I'd have to buy to entice me, but then I discovered a "recipe" for making glimmer mist that is easy and cheap to make! This mist takes only two ingredients -- water and metallic paint.  Since I already had some Metallic Pearly White on hand (for painting my homemade dew drops) I decided to try it and see how it worked.  Here's a photo of two card fronts - side by side to show you the difference.
Can you tell in the photo that the one on the right is a pearly/sparkly white?  It's exactly like some expensive paper I had a while back.  (It looks a LOT better in real life - pictures can't quite capture it.)
Dollar Tree sells little travel size bottles  - you can get 3 for a $1.  Of course they don't all have the sprayer top, but it's not a problem for me to switch the sprayer when I need it (it's not like I'm going to use it on every project).
You can see I also recycled a travel size hair spray bottle .  In the above pictures you'll see two Extreme Glitter Acrylic Paints --- these both came out with more glitter than color.  Nice if you want to add glitter to a project - but doesn't seem to add a lot of color to your paper.

Glimmer mist recipe:
~ 2 - 3 Tablespoons paint
~ Water (fill bottle 2/3 full)
Optional:
~ 1 Tablespoon rubbing alcohol (to keep the sprayer from clogging)

Here's a breakdown of the cost:
  • The bottle of paint only costs about $1.47 (and you don't use it all)
  • The bottle cost about 33 cents (if you buy the 3 for a $1) 
  • The end product only cost about 70 cents as apposed to $6.99!! 
I'm not the kind of person that needs every color -- in fact I'm pretty happy with what I have right now. No big investment, but a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment!
 
Here's the other card I made WITHOUT the mist --- I'll post the top one again so you can compare the two.
Can you see how the second one shimmers?  I think this pearl one is my favorite of all of them -- love white pearly paper!
Supplies used:
  • White/ Blue Cardstock
  • Vellum Sentiments 
    • ColorBok
    • Making Memories
  • Homemade Glimmer Mist
  • Homemade Dew Drops
    • painted with pearly nail polish
  •  Butterfly Die and embossing folder (Provo Craft)
  • Butterfly punch
  • Martha Stewart Corner punch (can't remember the name of this one)
I'll leave you with a "teaser" for tomorrows post -- glimmer misted flowers!
    This post linked to:
    Take a Look Tuesday
    Handmade Tuesdays 
    Penny Pinching Party
    Ten Buck Tuesday 
    Whipperberry Friday Flair 
    Humble Homemaking Weed-end Review 
    Made With Love Monday

    17 comments:

    Lindy@Itsy Bitsy Paper said...

    This turned out great! I love crafting and making cards so I may have to give your idea a try! Thanks for sharing.
    http://itsybitsypaper.blogspot.com

    Christa said...

    I'm too cheap for storebought glimmer mist, too. :) The recipe you found seems a likely candidate for me (i.e. not a lot of ingredients to buy), so I'll be sure to give it a try sometime!

    Renee Matarese said...

    What a GREAT idea! I'll have to try this! Seems easy enough. Thanks so much for your kind words on my blog. After seeing this great idea I'm going to have to check out the rest of your blog. Have a great day!

    Vivianapachecofineart said...

    You're brilliant, I have some glimmer mist I got from a friend as a trade and I love it...but have never bought any more either because the prices in Canada range from 7.99 to 10 for a bottle! Thanks for this, I will definitely use it!

    Unknown said...

    thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I have metallic paint in my basement right now!! All I have to do is go buy little squirt bottles! I can't wait to try this... if you read my Ten Buck Tuesday post, you will see that I needed something to restore my MOJO!! Thank you! :)

    http://whimsywords.blogspot.com/2011/03/mojo-lost.html

    Stephanie said...

    Cool. I might have to try this.

    Vivianapachecofineart said...

    So I went and got myself a couple folk art and extreme glitter paints, all turned out amazing. I will blog about your idea and link it up for others to find your and post some pics for everyone to see my results with it. Cheers!

    Unknown said...

    Looks great thatnks for the recipe! It is so true that glimmer mist is pretty expensive especially if you can make it for that cheap :D

    abranconier.blogspot.com

    Emily Carter said...

    Nice! I love cheaper versions of things! Thanks for sharing!

    Rebecca said...

    I saw this link back on another blog, will have to give this a try. I have a couple of glimmer mists bought with coupons lol, but would love other colours.

    mel m. m. mccarthy said...

    Genius! Love how simple the recipe is. Beautiful cards. The shimmer on the embossing is gorgeous!

    Little Birdie Blessings said...

    What a great idea. I like the pearly card better too. I'm going to have to try this. Thanks for sharing. ~ Abby

    Mynn xx said...

    Yeah...I bought the expensive stuff and am almost out...so I WILL NOT be buying that ever again!!!!

    Sue@creativetryals.blogspot.com said...

    Perfect - I used all the pumps for home made lotion - now I can use the sprayers for the glimmer mist! Thanks for sharing!!

    Anonymous said...

    This is too perfect!! I've been hunting for this very sort of thing and yours fits my budget wonderfully! Have you come up with any alternative color stain sprays?

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