Daubers

Written and Created by PaperCraftCentral Susan

Have you ever used ink or paint daubers? Do you paint when you craft?

"I don't paint things.
I only paint the difference between things".
~Henri Matisse

What are Daubers?

I discovered the Radiant Rain product comes in an appropriate rainbow of colours and they shimmer beautifully.

They come in little bottles of thin, paint-like liquid and include metallic shimmer in the bottom.They are called Hybrid Watercolours or Acrylic Shimmering Colours.

There is a sponge applicator on the top of the bottle.

There are lots of other brands  out there too, and spray mists as well. I just tested these particular daubers to see if I could cover some chipboard with a subtle shimmer.

How to Use Daubers

Daubers are different to sprays as the first type comes with a sponge tip applicators instead of a nozzle for spraying.

When you want to use your paint in a bottle, make sure you shake said bottle really, really well first. Otherwise the metallic colour will stay on the bottom, the mixative will stay at the top and you won't get the effect you would like.

Unless you shake it, you may even clog your sponge tip applicator with thick metallic colour. If this happens, shake the bottle up some more and run the sponge under warm water. It is best to do this straight away rather than waiting for the paint to dry in the sponge.

After it is thoroughly mixed (I shake it like I would a bottle of nail polish. You will hear the little ball bearing rattling in the bottle to help mix it up) just turn the bottle upside down onto your project and tap away on it till you have the colour laid down the way you want it. The paint will gradually come through the sponge applicator on top of the bottle. Sort of like a shoe polish applicator does.

You can keep adding colour in layers to your project.

If you are colouring something porous like chipboard, you may want to do lots of layers as the thin paint will soak into the cardboard until it has been saturated enough to thicken up.

You could try sealing the chipboard first but many forms of sealant may resist the application of the colour. I recommend experimenting before trying it on your finished project.

You can add more than one colour to your project of course. When I made this Twinchie, I used both copper and gold Radiant Rain. I waited a few minutes between layers to allow for drying time as I did not want to contaminate the sponge applicators in different bottles with another colour, but you could speed things up with your Heat Tool as well.

You can also take off the sponge applicator top and use your the contents like you would use a regular bottle of paint! Just pour a little out on a palette, dip in your brush and start painting. I would use a painter's palette rather than use the colour directly from the bottle to avoid mixing another colour or two into the paint.

If you haven't tried them before, daubers can be fun to use.

If you are looking for a subtle shimmer effect though, you can fill a spray bottle with a little water and some rubbing alcohol, then add some  shimmer paint and you will get a lovely fine sheen. The alcohol makes it dry quickly too compared to water based sprays. This way you get an even misting too rather than having various sized droplets of paint.

NOTE: You can also get this product in a spray bottle. The mist it makes does not lay down evenly, but I like the larger and smaller drops of paint that shimmer over something like a scrapbook page background.

You can read more about this product at ColourArte.