Craft Crush: Dylusions Ink Sprays
As I’ve mentioned in my Deals & Steals posts, being on the email list of your favorite craft stores can bring big savings. When I’m lusting after a particular craft supply or item I either use a coupon for 40% or 50% off or I wait for a great sale. This is how I’ve gotten my craft storage at a great price (btw, I purchased two more modules since my post, update soon!) and how I’ve gotten some of the more expensive art mediums, etc. So on Friday when a Michael’s email landed in my inbox declaring that Dylusions products were 40% off I knew that a trip to Michaels was in the cards.
My local Michaels doesn’t carry a large selection of Ranger’s Dylusions line by Dyan Reavely, but they do have her Ink Sprays and a few (very few) stencils and stamps. They tend to be a bit on the pricey side, much like Tim Holtz’s Distress line. I’ve been dyeing (ha!) to try Dyan’s Ink Sprays for mixed media backgrounds, but my problem was that I couldn’t decide on just one of the 2-color packs at the store. This was my chance to get enough to really play with!
I ended up with 8; and then had my daughter pick up another package on Monday with a 40% off coupon to make 10. The colors I ended up with?
- White Linen
- After Midnight (a deep purple)
- Postbox Red
- London Blue
- Pure Sunshine (a golden yellow)
- Fresh Lime
- Vibrant Turquoise
- Crushed Grape
- Cherry Pie
- Funky Fuchsia (When I sent my daughter, I really wanted an orange and Bubblegum Pink, but Michaels didn’t carry them, so Funky Fuchsia /Cherry Pie it was.)
I also grabbed a small Dylusions Creative Journal. Between the sale and a 20% off entire purchase coupon I ended up saving over $20. Not only could I now play with Ink Sprays, I did it at a bargain.
Win win.
I decided to turn the small journal into a mixed media planner, so my first test of the inks was on an October two page spread. Since I didn’t get any orange, I decided to combine the Pure Sunshine and the Postbox Red to create my own. I’ve been watching Dyan demo the inks in YouTube videos for a while now, so I was ready to really spray them on and let them ‘puddle’ as she puts it in her awesome English accent. I even spritzed them with water and closed the opposite page so that I ended up with a mirror image for my second page. It. Was. Awesome.
After drying the page a bit I started building up my layers. I ghosted a Heidi Swapp dot stencil, spritzed some of the White Linen in spots, stenciled through Tim Holtz’s Halloween layering stencil with black acrylic paint, stamped with some $1 bin Halloween stamps and archival black ink, used matte medium to glue down some pieces of dictionary, including of course the word Halloween, stamped 31st and 2015 with some number stamps I picked up at A.C. Moore a few weeks ago, added a cute girl skull glitter die cut that I made on the Explore, a pumpkin die cut I made with a Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Sizzix die on the Big Shot, spritzed a little bit of After Midnight, accented here and there with a little white gesso and then did some lining and wording with black and white pen. The entire time I was mesmerized by the vibrancy of the inks in the background.
In fact, I’m not sure if it was the inks themselves, the awesome smooth pages of the creative journal or the cool ghosting technique, but looking at the finished page it really appeared 3D, as if certain elements were floating on top. I wasn’t just crushing anymore, I was in love! I couldn’t wait to play with them again, so I cut out some watercolor bookmarks (again with the Explore) and used the Vibrant Turquoise, London Blue and Fresh Lime. This time I didn’t get the same 3D effect, but it was still bright and beautiful, even on the textured, heavyweight watercolor paper.
Now I’m revisiting all of Dyan’s videos to learn lots of new ways to use these amazing inks. Yup, craft crushing BIG time here.
How about you? Have you used the Dylusions Ink Sprays? What did you think? Are you crushing on something else? Let me know about it in the comments section!
P.S. One thing to note about Dylusions Ink Sprays, they are made to interact with water, that means that layering anything wet on top will cause the color to seep, run, or be picked up. For example, the gesso on my October pages picked up both a hint of purple from the After Midnight on the left side and a hint of orange on the right. This is why I used Archival ink for stamping, so that it would stay put during the layering process. This is something to keep in mind …if it gets wet, it’s going to react, it’s what these inks were made to do.