Experiments with Marabu Mixed Media

Hello fans of Mix Media, I am inking with Marabu products today. The Mix Media Monthly team got to play with a few of their products this month. I decided to make a few art cards while experimenting. To see how these products perform read on! If you would like to win some see the challenge at the end of this post.

Here is Art Card #1, I will be posting a few more on my Instagram over the next few days so follow me over there to see what I come up with. https://www.instagram.com/karenbearse/

These are the products I was given. A stencil called Mandala, an Art Crayon in Sunshine Yellow, an acrylic Art Spray in Sunshine Yellow & Acryl Mousse in White (pastel paste). 

Acryl Mousse

I started with, (to me) the obvious what happens when the paste is used with a stencil? The paste is a gritty yet fairly smooth consistency. It held it's shape up well when scraped through the stencil. Dry time was 15-20 minutes for a thin layer, 30-40 for a heavier stenciled layer. I love the texture it creates.

Art Crayon

The best way I would describe this is- "if a Gelato & a Distress Crayon had a baby it would be this Art Crayon". Medium softness, water reactive with a good level of pigment, works better on a gesso surface. It is also "wipe proof" in 24 hours which is nice for layering. I did a test to see how the crayon would perform & was impressed with the results. This was just on card stock, it acted similar to the other products. I like how the pigment held up when water was added.  

I mixed a bit of the crayon with the Acryl Mousse & was impressed with how easily the crayon blended into the Mousse. The color saturation was also very good, ie: the paste did not just become a pastel color even though I did not use much crayon which indicates good pigment. Great way to color your mediums.

Art Spray

Billed as an Acrylic Spray that is highly pigmented, water soluble (when wet) with colors that blend. This I was very interested to play with as most sprays are watercolor & re-activate when water is added. Thus less desirable for creating layers. I found the spray went on easily with very good coverage. The color was bright & when water was dribbled while still wet, I could create water spots. Bonus when I dried it with a heat gun the color did not budge, even with a wet paintbrush and scrubbing. 

Let's Put Them Together

What happens when we put them together? I took my stenciled image & scraped the Acryl Mousse through it, let it dry. Next I added the crayon through the stencil on another part of the art card. The crayon blended easily through the stencil which was good. Using a baby wipe definitely helps this process. However I wasn't overly fond of the design I had created. User error!

I decided to blend out the crayon which was very easy to do & using Art Spray, misted over the stencil paste image. As it is an acrylic spray it did as expected which was to completely cover the white paste. 

Deciding that the white paste looked good, it was a simple fix to put the stencil back & add another coat of the mousse. I was surprised that the mousse stayed a perfect white, normally the spray color underneath bleeds through. That is the advantage of the acrylic spray. When dry it is fixed with no bleed through-hum.... 

Overall I thought the products performed really well. Really love the acrylic spray and the texture on the paste! Remember to hop over to Mix Media Monthly & participate in the challenge & you can win a prize package from Marabu Creative!