Today I'm going to play with something new, Dina Wakley Pouring Medium - it's fun and a little scary and my friend Kylie thinks I'm about to make a huge mess, she might just be right (though I hope not)!  My entire project today will be an experiment!  An experiment with products, colors and mediums - not all of them recommended for use with the Dina Wakley Pouring Medium PLUS I've never done an acrylic pour before so I'm learning everything as I go - perhaps you can learn from any mistakes I make and get an idea or two about what to do with your acrylic pour once it dries.

The product information says.......
Use Dina Wakley Media Pouring Medium to achieve colorful poured sheets, puddles, marble, and flow effects when mixed with Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints. Pouring Medium is non-crackling and dries to a satin finish without holding bubbles and allows you to write, stamp, and draw on your pours. Dina Wakley Media Cell Creator changes the density of your paint mixtures to create isolated variations in the colors, commonly referred to as “cells” in pours. Pour over various surfaces such as Media Board, journal pages, wood panels, canvas, and more. Available in 8 oz Pouring Medium, 1 oz Cell Creator, and 4 oz Pouring Medium and .5 oz Cell Creator set.

So what it is....

Pouring Medium is an acrylic medium that you mix with Dina Wakley acrylic paint (or any acrylic paint really). This mixture becomes a pourable, fluid paint that you play with to create interesting effects. To help you create cells in your pours, we also created Cell Creator.  Just a few drops in your pour mixtures creates serious MAGIC!  

So how do you use Pouring Medium and Cell Creator?

1. Start by adding a little Dina Wakley paint into a small mixing bowl or cup - use a different bowl for each color.  I think perhaps limit the colors to 5-7 different colors to begin - just so you don't make a really big mess!
2. Add the Dina Wakley Pouring medium to each cup, a good ratio to use is 1 part paint to 4 parts pouring medium
3. Stir gently with a spoon or paddle pop stick
4. Add 1 drop of the Cell creator to some of the paint mixes for larger cells, or add more for smaller cells, you can try adding more to one color of paint and see what happens
5. Tip each paint mixture over your surface - one after another 
   OR for a DIRTY POUR tip all of the paint into one bowl or cup and quickly upend this over your surface
6. Tilt the surface or encourage the paint to move across the surface using a brush or paddle pop stick to create interesting patterns and effects
7. Once happy with your design leave it to dry.  Drying time depends on your climate, more humidity means a longer drying time - give it at least 24 hours.

For my mixed media journal cover, I also created a little combination of Lindy's Magicals mixed with water and Pouring medium and added this to the mix (next time I would NOT add any water to this as it made it too runny) and I also added some glitter - again I wouldn't add this to a colored pour as it got lost - looked way better sprinkled over the top.
Just look at those amazing patterns, cool cells and stunning vivid colors!

To finish off the journal cover I've added stamped images and then embellished with paint pens, stenciled images and a few paint drips - keeping it simple!

I've created a video so you can watch my little experiment and see how I finished off my journal cover just in case you might like to try something similar.

Tips

• The pouring medium dries to a satin finish, though depending on the acrylic paint you've used it can turn out quite matt.
• The fresher your Dina Wakley Media acrylic paints are, the more easily they will mix into the pouring medium. Either way, just keep mixing until your pouring mixture looks consistent - you've got lumps, keep stirring!
• What can you pour on? Well, almost anything including plywood board, canvas, paper, wood, plastic, glass, metal, cardboard, and even aluminum foil! 
• Not sure what to use your pour for?  Think about canvas, book covers, collage papers, backgrounds, journals, and because the surface is matt you can paint over them or even draw on top!

 I hope my little experiment inspires you to have a play with this for yourself, I promise the most nerve-wracking part is lifting the cup!

 SUPPLIES

• Dina Wakley Pouring Medium and Cell Creator Kit
• Prima Travelers Mixed Media Journal
• Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint: Magenta, Fuschia and Blackberry or other brand acrylic paint
• Dina Wakley Stamps: Silhouetted Women
• Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paint : Turquoise
• Dina Wakley Fude Ball Pen
• Art Alchemy Paint: Gold Rush and Mermaid Teal
• Fine Paint Brush
• The Crafters Workshop Stencil: Mini Stars Background
• Tim Holtz Stencil: Numbered
• Punchinella
• Lindy's Magicals: Time Travel Teal
• Golden Fluid Acrylic in a Fine Tip Applicator Bottle 
• Higgins White drawing ink
• White Sharpie Marker
• Black Archival ink

Final thoughts

So what did I think of the Dina Wakley Pouring Medium and cell creator kit? 

Well it was easy to use and the instructions were simple, I was expecting bigger more dramatic cells but because I tried something a bit different (ie on a VERY small scale project with minimal paint, adding water, and using a heavy body acrylic) I can't really complain that what I got was smaller cells.  The finish was more matt than satin, though as I mention in the video this is possible due to what I used paint wise - either way, I loved working over the surface.  It accepted stamped images well and was surprisingly smooth and easy to write, stencil or draw over.  None of the paints bled or seeped into any of the paint colors added once the pour was dry (which was a nice surprise) and the pour itself was simple and pretty easy - once I got over the fear of making a huge awful mess.  This is something I will be trying many, many more times on a bunch of different surfaces to see what works and what doesn't and I can't wait to find a way to create complete magic!  I think this is absolutely worth the cost of a kit and I look forward to seeing everyone else's experiments with this product!

As always my review is my own and while products may have been provided for me to play with, my comments are honest (positive or otherwise) oxoxo