Recently I showed some mark making techniques for our art journal pages and mixed media work and to make it clearer and easier, I used misters to deliver the ink without explaining about them and a lot of you said, hey wait, what is a mister anyway? Basically it is nothing more than a small spray bottle. When filled with pigment, it is a versatile tool for getting your colour into your mixed media and art journal projects. I keep several with a variety of colours and intensities both for starting and for embellishing pages. This video should make things clearer.

You can buy them premade or you can make your own, and in that way choose your palette. Ranger has a line of mini-misters. They are in most craft stores and you can also order them online here and also here. Another (and cheaper) option is to just use spray bottles, the size used for getting your liquids past airline security. You find at any supermarket, online, in Poundland or the Dollar Store, or in any chemist or big box store. They are inexpensive and should last for ages.

Usually I use ink but they may be because I have a lot of it around. I use fountain pens and have amassed a wide range of colours and brands through the years. I also make my own handmade ink out of black walnuts and also acorns and since the shades they give are really in my palette, I make it in several in different intensities. As a rule ink is very potent and I rarely use it in a mister at full potency. Instead, I tend to delete to about one part to three of water. If I have enough spritzers free I also make more watery ones for a wash or slightly more thick ones for a blast of colour.

If you don’t use ink you can mix colours by adding any kind of paint to water. You could use watercolour or gouache or what you will. I like to make it with acrylic pains. A small dab of paint and a few tablespoons of water and you shake it like crazy to really get it mixed. Now it is basically an acrylic ink. It needs to be quite thin or it will clog the sprayer. So see what you see in your art supplies already that you can turn into pigment and hey presto, you have a new, versatile art supply in your creative toolbox.

Let me know if you are going to try this or if you have any questions in the comments below!