There are many options within GIMP to use, I'm just trying to sift through and find some good ones. Your result looks good and wispy. Sort of like text leaving a smoke trail.
It's helpful to know as many different ways to do the same thing. Ease of use is a powerful tool, but it often makes people lazy to discovery. Like the GIMP Chat motto declares: Where Imagination meets Innovation, imagining is thinking outside of the cookie cutter box.