Rust, Pastel, Bright: 3 Ways of Using Shakers and Gesso

Hi gorgeous Lindy’s friends!

It’s Olga Ravenskaya here and I’d like to share several ways of usage Lindy’s Magical Shakers and gesso.

I’ve noticed that it’s very easy to get different effects mixing Shakers and gesso, today I’ll show you three of them – how to create rust, pastel and bright looks with some tips and ideas.

RUST EFFECT

The recipe: magical shakers + black gesso + clear gesso + quartz sand

To begin, I mixed a black gesso with a quartz sand…

…and roughly covered all the wooden heart with this mixture using a firm brush, you want loads of texture.

No need to wait for the gesso to dry, just the opposite – sprinkle two gorgeous shakers, Octoberfest Orange and Cowabunga Copper onto the wet layer.

Then I took a round firm brush and tapped the grains of magicals into the wet gesso as shown on the photo below.

Repeat this step as many times as you want to achieve a better effect. It also works very well if you want to rust a metal embellishment, for example, a metal key.

After that, I mixed clear gesso with Guten Tag Teal and Time Travel Teal Shakers. The clear gesso provides a thick but transparent base for the mixture, shakers = intensive colors.

I partially went over the surface with this mixture, to highlight the texture, using a soft dry brush. For the key I used the mixture of Grab a Guy Gold Shaker with a clear gesso.

Look closer at this effect – the particles of teal are beautifully revealed on the raised areas of the surface.

And here is the “rusty” key – isn’t it gorgeous?!

PASTEL EFFECT

The recipe: magical shakers + white gesso + wax/candle

I took another wooden heart and prepared two mixtures of contrasting colors, Bratwurst Brown and Alpine Ice Rose, with a white gesso. The white gesso makes the colors pale and pastel, but keeps the colors shades.

I applied the first layer to cover the piece totally using the brown mixture.

I rubbed the edges of the heart and some places on the surface with an ordinary candle to create a waxy resist area. You can also use a special wax for this purpose.

Remove the excess candle wax with a soft cloth and covered all the piece with a contrasting pink, blend.

Dry very well and then remove a layer of pink color from the waxy areas using sandpaper and a spatula – the excess just “peels off” the upper layer.

I do love this effect! It’s a good way to imitate old walls, worn surfaces or to make shabby projects. A little note – as the upper layer is thicker than the final texture of the surface will be more expressive. You can also make three layers of colors with a waxy area between each one to create three-colored effect, from the darker up to the lighter.

I always leave the paint mixture to the end of my working process – for using it to tone the embellishments to match them perfectly to the background. For example, here I toned white flowers and lace with a pink mixture using a dry sponge.

BRIGHT EFFECT

The recipe: magical shakers + clear gesso + a small amount of water.

I began with a wooden heart covered with a texture paste through a stencil and a layer of magical shakers: Octoberfest Orange, Grab a Guy Gold, Time Travel Teal and Guten Tag Teal.

Then I mixed the same colors of shakers with a clear gesso and glued some flowers and art stones to my piece to show how the mixture of the shakers and gesso will work with them.

Mix very well to get a thick bright “paint” and then cover the flowers, art stones and partially the surface with it. It’s a good way to protect your embellishments with a gesso for further work, make them colorful, in full bloom, and to match the base colors of your project perfectly.

Maybe you have noticed that in this heart I used practically the same colors of shakers as in the rusty sample, but created such a different effect!

And my fav step – “dropping” 🙂 Add a small amount of water into each blend and use thin brushes to make colorful splashes.

A little tip is that the less water you add, the more volume and bigger drops will be – look closer on the photo below!

Lindy’s Products

• Magical Shakers: Guten Tag Teal, Time Travel Teal, Grab a Guy Gold, Octoberfest Orange, Cowabunga Copper, Bratwurst Brown, Alpine Ice Rose

Gesso: Finnabair’s Clear and Black Gesso, Decoart White Gesso

Hoping you’ve enjoyed this post and found it useful for your gorgeous projects!

Thank you for stopping by!

Hugs,

Olga