Infusions Mini-Album–First Sample Pages

Studio time! At last! Today I felt better enough to actually get in my studio and start playing! I can’t tell you how good that made me feel, even if I did stay up there too long, and ended up getting overtired and having an aching back at the end of it!

I got my new set of Infusions recently and was anxious to start playing with them.

The above photo shows both sets of 12 colours – set 1 on the left, and set 2 on the right.

Having seen so many different ways of using Infusions recently, I thought it would be fun to make a mini-album detailing the various techniques, as a little reference guide, and also an opportunity for making another book (I love making books!) and making something that will hopefully be attractive and fun.

I decided to make it in the form of a toilet roll mini-album, using the hidden hinge method of binding. Inside the pockets created by the flattened toilet rolls, I intend making tags with explanations of how the various effects were achieved. Each tag may have a decorative fibre embellishment on it, to enable it to be pulled out.

Before beginning the project, I removed the small piece of padding from inside the lid of each pot of Infusions, and pierced a hole in the top, through which the crystals can be sprinkled, and put a noticeboard push pin into each hole to prevent spillage. I have raided these from my office noticeboard which has left me a bit short, so I have ordered some clear pushpins from Ebay, and when they come, I shall be creating small circular labels to stick on each lid, with the name of the colour and a sample of what it looks like, so still a bit more work to do on that. This will save having to take each one out of the box in order to see what colour it is. I’ve done this with my Brushos too, although I have yet to pierce holes in the lids.

When I got the Brushos, and then the first set of Infusions, I decided not to do the recommended thing and pierce the lid of the pot, but to use a soft brush to pick up the crystals, which I felt would give me more control, but I found this to be a bit of a pain, and have decided to go with the majority after all, and go with the pierced lid method. So far it seems to be working extremely well. The experts are usually right!

To start with, I cut plenty of small sheets of white card from some offcuts that I had hanging around – they were almost exactly the width of a flattened toilet roll. You can see the unused ones, and one toilet roll, in the back centre of the photo, between the two sets of Infusions.

At the front are the 12 sheets for each set. I sprinkled on the Infusions and then spritzed them with water, and immediately blotted off half, to show the difference between the Infusions when they have bee quickly dried, and when they have been left to dry naturally, so that the walnut fragments have time to develop that gorgeous brown grungey look that makes these paints so desirable.

I shall also create pages showing how Infusions can be used with other products, such as texture paste, paint, stencils etc.

I took a couple of sheets of scrap paper (not very good quality) to mop up the excess from the craft sheet, and used kitchen paper to blot off the samples. Here are these sheets drying, and I shall save these and use them in other projects. I didn’t take great care in separating the different colours so in some places they are a bit muddy but I quite like the random colour blends on these sheets.

The new range of colours of Infusions are simply gorgeous. So are the original ones, come to that! I love these paints, and I’m very glad I decided to invest in the new set once they became available.