These beautiful, colourful backgrounds contain mica powder which makes them shimmer and shine in the light.
What is Nuvo Shimmer Powder?
Tonic Studios’ Nuvo shimmer powder is a craft product.
It is available in a wide range of colours, including every colour of the rainbow, as well as metallics and other hues.
You can mix the powder with water to make a sparkly water-based paint, or spritz it gently with water to unlock the colours and create rainbow bursts of colour.
Here is a photo of the full range:
What’s amazing about Nuvo Shimmer Powders is that each bottle contains a variety of different colours and shades. This allows you to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind card backgrounds in just a few minutes!
Materials list:
- Nuvo shimmer powder
- Watercolour card/paper
- Water spritz bottle
- Craft heat gun/embossing gun
Step 1: Choose your colours
Choose the powder bottles to go on the card. I like to mix two or three different colours together.
Important: Before you begin, cover your work surface with newspaper or something similar to protect it from the colours that will be sprayed!
Step 2: Tap the powder onto your card
Remove the lid from each bottle and place it upside down on top of the paper. To apply powder to your card, tap the bottom of the bottle.
The best card to use is the artist’s watercolour card or paper because it absorbs water well and prevents it from running off the sides when spritzed with water.
Step 3: Spritz the card with water
Spritz the card with water to activate the powder and get the colours to run together.
When the powder is wet, it appears to “explode” with colour.
The more water you add, the more the colours will mix and run into each other.
When you spritz the bottle from various angles, it creates more abstract shapes that move in different directions on the paper.
If you think your background could use some more vibrancy, tap out some more powders.
It will react with the water already on the paper, so you may not need to add any additional water.
Step 4: Dry the card background
You can let the card dry naturally, but this may result in “pools” of water that appear splotchy when dried.
Using a craft heat gun to quickly dry the paper is a faster way that I believe produces better results.
To prevent the heat gun from becoming too hot, move it in small circles around the paper.
Step 5: Use the Nuvo Shimmer Powder to make a card!
When the background has dried completely, it is ready to be used on a card!
You can use it the same way you would patterned paper. Use it in large pieces as a large background focal point for the card, or cut it into smaller pieces for accent shapes.
