If you have never seen the shiny gimmery glow of Lumiere paint in person, I hope these projects give you some idea of how beautiful this paint is. Lumiere paint is an acrylic paint made by Jaquard. (www.jacquardproducts.com) It is an extremely smooth paint, glides onto almost any surface and can be cleaned up with soap and water. It can be sponged, airbrushed or painted with a brush. Some surfaces you can try are wood, canvas, paper, clay, fabrics and Styrofoam. It is bright, opaque, looks excellent on dark backgrounds and covers with one coat. Painted fabric becomes washable and dry cleanable when set with a hot iron or dryer, yet remains flexible and soft. I like to sponge paint it with synthetic sponges and use the paint out of the cap so I do not contaminate the bottle.



Lumiere Paint comes in many beautiful colors, which may not show up correctly on a computer screen. There is a full line of Pearl colors, as well as Metallic, Interference colors that only show up on black, and Duo colors that shimmer with two colors at once. Jacquard also makes non-shimmery paint called Neopaque. This has similar consistencies of the Lumiere, but without the pearl or metallic glow. The White, Black and Ochre are a must for use in priming and blending. Pearl-Ex or any powdered pigment can be added to the white or black paints to create your own colors.



Don’t be afraid to use this paint on paper. It works on light or dark colors, and there are some interference colors that work best on dark. The paint can be sponged and blended while wet, which gives you some time to get the art the way you like. You can speed drying with a blow dryer. A heat gun will be too hot (remember the original use of a heat gun was to remove paint!). I like to use a blocking technique to show off the background - but it isn’t necessary. You can use any low tack tape to block off areas from the paint. See Abstract Card and Southwest Album for examples of blocking.



I have done a few album projects, and those have turned out to be my favorite. This is because I can use any colors and any stamps to customize my album cover. Dark colored cloth albums work best. The Dark color highlights the metallic glow of the paint. Make sure you press your tape down firmly on the edges so that the paint doesn’t seep under. This same technique can be used on any fabric, such as a shirt or a tote bag. Slick surfaces such as dominoes and laminate tags can also be painted with Lumiere without any special primer. I painted directly on the slick surface and allowed to dry between coats. Creating multiple layers builds the depth of the paint, and blends it well.

Another slick surface that can be painted is a CD (yes - I mean Compact Disk). Any CD can be used to create a card, or use a small piece and create a pin by adding a pin back. The Broken CD was almost a disaster project! Remember - CD’s are plastic, and plastic melts! I almost had the entire CD melted in the pan. But, it still turned out beautiful after it was broken into pieces. HINT -- Do not let the CD sit in the hot pan for too long. It just goes to show that there are almost no mistakes that cannot be fixed in stamping. It is truly an art form.

Sherrill Kahn is an artist that uses this paint often. She has an entire book on paint called "Creating with Paint". Her work is very beautiful and really shows off the range of uses of this paint.

I hope you seek out some Lumiere paint to experiment. There are now packs of paint in small dropper bottles called Exciter packs. These would give you a small sampling of many colors. I encourage you to dig in, get your fingers dirty and try blending many colors and painting on any surface you can think of. There are beautiful things waiting for you to create them!