One thing I love about visiting craft supply shows is that you always find something different. I recently bought some Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powder in the colour Firework. Pixie Powder comes in a small plastic bottle a bit like a glitter glue. The product itself is a mix of different coloured dye and mica powders, that you can apply to wet paper. The powders spread and blend to create a coloured paper that is totally unique.
Did I know how to use it? No! but that’s half the fun. I decided to combine this review with a tutorial on how to use Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powder and what to do with the finished results.
Experiment #1: Brush
The Pixie Powder bottle says that you can apply it to wet paper and then either spray or brush on more water to create the coloured effects. I decided to start with a brush. After wetting the paper, I squeezed the bottle and puffed the powder onto the paper in a few different areas. Next I used a large wet paint brush to add more water onto the paper. This seemed to make the colours very muddy and they puddled in the pools of water.
Experiment #2: Spray
The second technique says to use a spray bottle to mix the power. I decided that maybe squeezing out the powder meant that too much product came out and made muddy colours. This time, after wetting the paper I tapped on the bottom of the Pixie Powder bottle so that just little flecks of colour came out. I then took a piece of tissue and dabbed at the areas of pooled water. Lastly I sprayed the paper with water to mix up the colours. I think this technique worked a lot better.
Results
These are the dried results. The top image is the paper I used with the brush. The bottom image is the paper that I sprayed with the water bottle. I much prefer this second technique. You can see all the different colours clearly and it covered the whole of the paper rather than pooling in the middle. Overall I think the Pixie powder looks really interesting. It dried to a pastel finish and I like that each time you use it, it will look different.
What next?
I used the finished Pixie Powder paper to make a card topper. After cutting out a heart shape from the paper, I stuck it onto a piece of card that picked out the purple colours in the Pixie Powder. Then I cut out the heart shape again and stuck it onto the front of a card. Lastly I used puffy paint and glitter glue to outline and add patterns to the heart.
Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powder is a fun product and it comes in loads of colours. I think it would be great to use as the background of mixed media art pieces, or just to create a coloured paper like I did here. Have you ever used Pixie Powder? I’d love to know how else to use it, so be sure to comment with any tips.