Mica Powders - Take 2

Mica Watercoloring

Deb (aka Paper Crazy Lady) here today with more ideas for the amazing possibilities of Mica Powders. At the end of my inaugural project for the Eureka Stamps and QKR Stampede Techniques and Tutorial Team, I teased you with this beautiful image. It features my favorite mica technique - Water Coloring! It's my favorite because it's so much fun and the results, as you can see here, are fabulous! For this project, I used 1/4 sheet of black Recollections cardstock from Michaels, Eurkea's Partridge in a Pear stamp, and the Jewel mica powder collection for this project. You might remember me saying that Partridge is a big stamp, approximately 4 x 4.75 inches, so it makes a great focal image.

   

Here's what you do to create this kind of look...

• Ink your stamp well with VersaMark and press firmly onto black cardstock;
• Heat emboss with gold powder; 
• Take an artists pallette and add to each compartment 1 part Mica powder, 1 part Binding Powder and 1 parts water. I used 1/8 tsp. mica, 1/8 tsp. binder and 1/4 tsp. water. Mix each well.

• Using fine paint brushes, dip into your desired pot of color and apply to various areas in the image. For more intense color, apply a second coat after the first has dried. (Note: If you wish, you can allow your pots of mica paint to completely dry out. Simply reconstitute with a bit of water, or stroke across the dried paint with a wet brush.)
•  To finish this card, I simply trimmed the image panel and adhered it to my green card base. A tiny bow completed the picture.

Mica Powders with Embossing Powder

The beautiful project below was just so easy with mica power from the Jewel collection.

Here's how to proceed...

• Simply mix a small amount of mica powder with an equal amount of clear embossing powder.
• Ink your stamp with VersaMark and apply to black paper;
• Sprinkle over with the mixed powders, tap off excess;
• Heat;
• Dust with a dry Swiffer cloth to remove any stray mica powder.

 Here's how the image looked before heating - quite a change in color.

To finish the card, I cut and embossed a piece of the base cardstock, and adhered it to a strip of the black card. A couple of crystals just gave it a bit more sparkle.

Mica Over Sticky Powder

OK, maybe this was my favourite mica technique - I mean look how pretty this is!

To proceed...

• Stamp your image with VersaMark on black paper.
• Sprinkle over Sticky Powder  
• Heat the powder till it turns from white to shiny – no longer! 
• Gently brush mica powder over with a soft brush. Here I’ve used the Metallic collection in a diagonal pattern;
• Tap off excess and remove any last traces with a Swiffer cloth.

 Below, you can see my project as it proceeding from being sprinkled with sticky powder, to brushed with mica

To finish the card...

Trim the image and adhere it to a slightly larger piece of colored cardstock. Then adhere to a 5 ¾ inch card base. I have used Stardream Metallics for the base, and DCWV Shimmer Paper for the color. Punch a few pine boughs and adhere along with some berries made of shimmery self-adhesive dots. 

Before you log out today, be sure to pop over to the QKR Stampede Blog to see today's Tutorial about the Basics of Card Making posted by my Technique and Tutorial team-mate, Sassy Raggedy.

If you have any questions we would love to hear them. Your comments are so appreciated.

For more ideas, please visit my blog at http://papercrazylady@gmail.com