Hello All! Today I am back with Micaceous Iron Oxide paint by Golden. I love this paint. I usually buy it in the jar, vs the liquid version. It’s a charcoal or graphite gray color, it’s a gritty texture, and it’s got a shimmer in it. I’ve done other projects with this before- one of the things I love it for is embossing using embossing folders. I can then come over it with color, either Distress Oxide or metallic ink pads or paint.
In a previous post/video, I was working on a card where I planned on using an embossing folder bit over Micaceous Iron Oxide, but I wanted more of a brown base than a black. I mixed in a couple of squirts of Distress Oxide spray, painted it on and then embossed and I definitely got varying shades of brown. In that episode I also sprayed over the top after the paint was dry, and although it’s brown, it had a little less shimmer. So today I wanted to try to work with the Micaceous Iron Oxide and the Distress Oxides. I’m going to do one sample where I just paint and then spray right away rather than letting the the paint dry like I did in the other video. I wanted to see if there would be more of the shimmer. The other thing that I showed in the previous video, was using a stencil over the wet paint and removing the paint, which left a cool two tone textural look because the Distress Oxide mixed in the paint transferred to the cardstock. Removing the paint left some of that color from the Distress Oxide. So today, I wanted to try to paint the Micaceous Iron Oxide, spray with Distress Oxide and then use the stencil to remove the paint/ink and if I would still get that two tone look.
I discuss how when using the removal technique to use a lighter coat of paint. If you are going to emboss, you can put as much paint on as you like. When you want to remove the paint, it’s better to have less paint to remove since Micaceous Iron Oxide is a thick, gritty paint. I also discuss the types of stencils which seem to work better for this technique. Stencils with fine details like I tend to gravitate towards, are definitely harder to work with. I demonstrate a couple of different examples.
In the first sample, I used Walnut Stain Distress Oxide and sprayed while the paint was wet. Then I showed removing the paint. This example had some finer details and a lot of background to the stencil which left a lot of texture when I lifted the stencil up. I showed how to attempt to smooth the paint out which it was wet and then later in the video, I showed how to use a sanding block to smooth the texture. I also showed how to clean the stencil and pull the leftover paint and ink onto another piece of cardstock. The shimmer from the Micaceous Iron Oxide will show up in random places and so the secondary pull can often times be almost as cool as the original project!
With the removal technique, I do think works better with more of an all over background. I wanted to also try this current technique with a different Distress Oxide color, rather than brown and I chose a different Yupo paper stencil (you can use a store bought stencil as well) and Uncharted Mariner Distress Oxide spray for the second sample. I repeated the process- painted with Micaceous Iron Oxide, sprayed right away with Distress Oxide in Uncharted Mariner, and then placed the other stencil over the top and used a wipe to remove the mixture. I did get some of the blue color in the background. I was still left with some texture when I removed the stencil, but I liked the look so didn’t plan on smoothing it at all. Overall, I was pleased with the results of this second sample.
Another thing I tried in this video was using a stiffer scrub brush to help remove paint from corners and tiny spaces. It worked great although you do need to be careful so that you don’t cause the cardstock to shred. This is always a possibility with this technique- especially if you are using cheap cardstock like I was. The Distress line of cardstock- especially the watercolor cardstock would work a bit better I would think.
I also showed an example where I used Scattered Straw Distress Oxide over the Micaceous Iron Oxide and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. It was a piece that I ruined because the stencil moved and I was using spray, but I wanted to show the difference with bring a lighted Distress Oxide color over the top if you need more contrast. And finally I showed a sample where I sprayed red and green Distress Oxide sprays- Festive Berries and Peeled paint over the wet Micaceous Iron Oxide. The colors did show up, yet also seemed to react a bit with the wet paint. Another cool background, I think!
At the end I showed a couple of other samples including one where I sprayed regular Spray Stain over one of my secondary pulls.
I love the technique even those the results can be somewhat random and maybe not even always work. But the ones that do are gritty, grungy, textural, but with shimmer and color. They are a very different look from the normal stamped or sprayed backgrounds.
Hope you give it a try! Enjoy!
