Spotlight Artist - Lisa - Brushos Techniques

Hello, everyone!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!! I'm going to share some techniques with you today using Brushos, a highly pigmented, incredibly versatile water color powder. Brushos can be used on paper, canvas and even wood and are completely non-toxic and non-hazardous. The results are never the same and can be vibrantly unpredictable...in a good way :)

To start, I punched holes in the bottles so I can easily sprinkle the powder without opening the jars each time. I used a Tim Holtz pick tool to punch the holes.

Technique #1) Brushos on Wet Paper

To get started, spritz paper with water. I used Strathmore Watercolor paper for all of these techniques.

Sprinkle as many colors of Brushos as you desire onto the paper. They react instantly with the water.

You can keep adding water and Brushos until your happy with the result.

Technique #2) Brushos on Dry Paper

Sprinkle Brushos directly onto paper.

Spritz with water and watch the colors blend!! You can either let it dry like this or...

...dab with a paper towel or baby wipe for softer, muted colors.

Technique #3) Fireworks Effect

This one I discovered completely by accident :) Spritz paper with water. Open the lid of one of the  jars and pinch a small amount of Brushos with your fingers.

Drop onto the wet paper. I love how the edges fan out, giving a beautiful exploding fireworks effect.

Technique #4) Starch on Dry Paper

For the next couple of techniques, we're going to use starch. I chose this brand with a lovely scent of mountain lavender...pretty colors, pretty smell :)

Sprinkle Brushos on dry paper and then spritz with starch.

Continue to add more Brushos and more starch to intensify the color.

Move the starch around to blend the colors.

You can pat some of the color with a paper towel or baby wipe for a nice ombre look.

Technique #5) Starch With Cling Wrap

Sprinkle Brushos on paper and the spritz with starch.

Keep adding Brushos and starch and move the starch around until you get a nice blend.

Crumple a piece of cling wrap larger than your paper and then unfold it. Pat it onto the wet starch. Let dry completely before you remove the wrap.

Once it dries, you get a nice depth of colors.

Here's another example of this technique with different colors.

And the finished result.

Technique #6) Sea Salt

You can get beautiful color and texture using sea salt.

I love this one...it looks like blue marble.

You never know what you're going to get...I love the color and texture of this one.

And one more using rainbow colors.

Technique #7) Embossing

For this one, I inked a Wendy Vecchi stamp with Versamark, then heat embossed it. I used clear embossing powder since I wanted the white paper to show through.

After embossing, sprinkle Brushos onto paper and spritz with water. You can see the circle pattern showing through. You can see it better in the next picture...

Technique #8) Bleach

To add more depth, stamp an image onto the paper (please ignore the face on my acrylic block...that happened the first time I used the Stampendous Beauty Face stamp :)

Fill a waterbrush with bleach. Paint inside the petals...the bleach will remove the color.

Here's another example using a flower stamp.

The bleach works on both lighter and darker colors.

And one more using a checkered floor stamp.

Technique #9) Using Stencils

There are several ways to use Brushos with stencils. For this one, I sprinkled Brushos onto my craft mat and then spritzed with water. Dip paintbrush into mixture (you don't want it too wet or it will bleed beneath the mask) and brush over stencil.

A pretty blue butterfly :)

Technique #10) Brushos, Stencils and Texture Paste

Cover stencil with texture past and then sprinkle Brushos over the top while the stencil is still in place.

Spritz with water and then remove stencil. I didn't show this step, but you can then turn the stencil over on another piece of watercolor paper for a beautiful background.

Technique #11 ) Coloring Texture Paste with Brushos

Combine Brushos with texture paste and stir with pallet knife until completely blended.

Spread blended mix over stencil. The color options are unlimited...you can make your own custom color of texture or crackle paste.

These are just a few techniques I've learned. I would love to hear about some of your techniques using Brushos in the comment section below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Don't forget to join in our current challenge hosted by Niki, The Birds and The Bees. You have until July 4th to link up. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Lisa