Today the Design Team brings to you a technique challenge. Product of the Month for April is
Smooch Spritz so the team decided to teach you what they know about
spritzing!!
First, let's start off with a fabulous in-depth article written by Michele......
YOU GOTTA LOVE SPRITZING!
Smooch is our favourite product this month! Why? Simply because Smooch is awesome and versatile! Smooch is an alcohol-based dye ink that comes in the form of a spray. It’s fast drying and easy to use. It contains shiny metal pigments which most definitely add a special touch to your projects!
The first thing that is fun to do is to just squirt once or twice on your background paper before you place other papers and ornaments. You should have a prior idea of where you will place everything so that you don’t hide all of your spraying.
You can also use masks with your Smooch. This is a great way of adding texture while getting the perfect colour for your project because the bottom colour from your paper remains if you don’t squirt too much. You can use any mask, make your own with any punch, cut out a silhouette, use the fancy ones that you can purchase, use a fancy chipboard to mask or even use items from nature such as tree leaves, etc... Let your imagination go wild!
You can use Smooch to colour elements or change the colour of elements such as papers, chipboards, letters, flowers, grunge board, I mean, the sky’s the limit! Smooch dries so fast that you can instantly get the colour you want. Since I discovered spritzing, I keep stock of all kinds of white things. When I struggle to find the right colour, I just grab my beloved Smooch!
Another fantastic asset of the Smooch, which makes it so versatile, is that it has a «high concentration» of dye ink and metal pigments, it’s thicker than other misters, the alcohol in it evaporates quickly and this enables you to color plastic or glass ornaments. It takes a wee bit longer to dry than it does on paper but besides the Copic markers, this is the best product on the market to do just that. Again, it allows you to get the colour you want to match your projects.
You can use more than one colour of Smooch, just one squirt of each colour in layers can give you really fun effects, very much like the inks you spray with compressed air, and it’s a lot cheaper as you can imagine! You start with red on one side and blue on the other and you will have purple where they overlay.
A touch of Smooch can really make your projects come to life, it gives you the bling you need on wedding layouts or anything fancy, it brings that funky look on teenagers’ layouts, again you have to fall in love with this kind of versatility with one single product!
Hints with using Smooch:
1. Use paper (newspaper is great or any scrap paper) to cover an area of the table (or the floor), a couple of layers minimum (because it will go through the top layer and more depending on how much you spray), before you spritz with your Smooch. While it will dry on plastic, if you’re not careful and spritz a lot; before drying, the liquid might run and stain your project where you don’t want it to, so yes, a paper behind absorbs and is better to avoid messes. I use white paper behind my project and sometimes I use pieces of it in my next projects... Talk about being cheap!! LOL I mean, try squirting and afterwards, look at what you’re left with underneath, you’ll see what I mean, it can be interesting!
2. Shake really well to get the metal pigments loose. Spray once on the table/floor covering paper before you spray directly on your project or elements. This tells you where you are aiming, it gives you control over your spray. Most say you should spray at 8 to 12 inches but spraying closer gives you a different effect. Spray farther away to avoid big blotches.
3. Practice squirting fast or slowly (while pressing on the spray with your finger), you will get very different effects.
4. If you are trying to get a particular colour on paper, spray a tiny sample of your paper first to see if it matches, to see if it’s what you want.
5. Unless you really want to colour an item, such as a chipboard for example, don’t over spray. When you squirt too many times, the colour becomes solid. Again, maybe that’s what you want but maybe not.
6. Always replace the cap on your container right after use. Don’t leave it off because if you do, your spray may clog. Although that’s not the end of the world if it does. All you need to do is unscrew the top (you could cover the container in the meantime with a small piece of Saran Wrap so the liquid doesn’t evaporate) and run the top spray under hot water and squirt away until it unclogs and all the colour is out. Be careful though, alcohol inks stick to most surfaces including your porcelain sink, so wash fast or do this in a stainless steel type sink, or it might stain. You can let it soak in a hot water filled bowl (apparently Windex works well too, soak for 20 minutes.) and squirt it outdoors to avoid messing up the sink if you want. Or simply transfer to another small spray bottle. You can clean stains with alcohol but some surfaces will retain a bit of the colour.
7. If your layout curls a bit, sprays can do that if you put a lot of it; that really doesn’t matter because once your layout is inside the album plastic, it will not show at all and it will flatten over time. No problems there!
Okay, now that you know all there is to know about spritzing, let's get to the eye candy.....
Julie - Sprayed Smooch onto bubble wrap and pressed onto the paper
Products used:
Nikki Sivils paper: We are family
Smooch Spritz
Maya Road bingo chip and bingo card
Bo Bunny rub-ons (arrows and circles)
Bo Bunny chipboard flourishes
EK Success border punch
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Virginia - I wanted orange letters but didn't have them so I covered plain white fabric thickers with snapdragon smooch
Supply list:
Patterned Paper - Nikki Sivils Summer
Snapdragon Smooch
Cardstock - Bo Bunny, Kraft
Punch - EK Success
American Crafts Thickers
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Cherie - I placed letter stickers down for my title, sprayed over them and then removed the letters once the ink dried to create a negative title.
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Paper: Nikki Sivils Beatrice
Tag & Die Cuts: Nikki Sivils Beatrice
Ink: Smooch Spritz
Brad: American Crafts
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Michele - Technique - Butterfly: The shape is from Tim Holtz's cutting die and cut into clear plastic. Spray with Smooch, let dry.
Technique on white cardstock: First get a damp cloth ready nearby. Then choose an embossing folder, spray the top portion inside the folder with Smooch and quickly wipe off the ink on the surface only (leaving the ink on the lower cuts), place your paper in the folder and run through your press. Then run to clean up your folder! Alcohol cleans it well. This is for all white and pink pieces below. You can add detail by stamping a Memento pad gently over your detail to make it stand out, as shown on the pieces that also have black. You can get even more detail if you start with a cardstock that has shiny features on it, which is what I did for some pieces here, the ones that shine white.
I also Smooched the background a bit, everything Smooch on this LO!!
Material Used:
Paper: Nikki Sivils, Max & Mollie collection
White and Pink Bazzill card stock
Inks: Smooch Spritz-Cherry Ice
Crimson Cat's Eye chalk ink
Black Memento ink
Ornaments: 1 black button, 2 pink brads and 3 dew drops
Also 2 little pins with hearts and clear plastic for the butterfly
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Jenn - Technique - a very simple technique of using Smooch Spritz by Clearsnap to colour flowers! Using white Prima flowers, I smooched each of the 3 flowers with 3 different Smooch colours. I also coloured the letters, which are fabric Thickers, with Smooch.
Simply place them on cardboard or other surface to ensure overspray is caught. Spray item you want coloured with any Smooch colour your desire! For a lighter misted colour/texture, just a couple of sprays. For a deeper more solid and vibrant colour spray more.
Products used:
Nikki Sivils "It's Your Day" Paper
Prima White Flowers
Smooch in Tickled Pink, Electric Blue and Sun Kissed
BoBunny Candy Jewels
White Fabric Thickers
Kaiser Rhinestone Butterfly
Jute
Clear with Multi Coloured Stars Ribbon
EK Success Border Punch
Bazzill Cardstock
