Mica Powders

Mica powders are another medium that I really enjoy working with.  I find that they are very versatile and can be used wet or dry; in fact you can 'paint' with them in their dry state. They have their own binding medium in them, so you can cover them with a thin clear acetate to protect your work when it's finished and given a little time it will stick to the powder.  I used mica on the venetian masks in the previous blog, but I thought I would post another example.
This one uses a similar technique to the masks cards, again it's based on a Barbara Grey with a few of my own additions.  Using double sided sticky acetate, peel back one side of the wax paper and place your stamp down (the house); replace the wax paper.  On this one, I turned the piece over and worked on the reverse - you can work on the same side, but I wanted to stamp the birds and foliage on the foreground. Using a very sharp craft knife (but not pressing too hard - you don't want to cut through the sticky layer), score your hills, trees and path in place. You can use a punch for the moon - I used whatever to came to hand that was the size I wanted! You then need to cut around ALL of the bits of the cottage - window frames, door handle, chimney - the lot.  It IS fiddly. 

Quirky Cottage

Pick out your first piece of wax paper on the house, I find it easier to start on the smallest pieces first, remember that once a piece of the sticky is coated with mica, nothing else will stick to it.  I used an old paint brush to apply the mica, you need the tiniest bit at a time - tap it on brush it off. After the house was done, I moved on to the path and the grass. To get the shades you can mix the mica powders, a touch of white into the green gave me the lighter shade.
You can then move on to the sun (or moon) before doing the rest of the sky.  When it comes to the sky, dab a few small bits of white onto the sticky and sweep it across before you go in with the blue. Finally the trees; remove the wax paper from the trunks and dust with your preferred colour. then you can remove the foliage cover. You can use mica, but for this I selected some gilding flakes - normally I would put a pinch of them on and scrub off, but this time I was selective and picked a few good sized leaves to get the effect I wanted. Give the piece a gentle buff to give it a lovely sheen.
To finish off I layered it onto another double sided sticky sheet, (but you have to watch for air bubbles) and was then able to stick it directly onto my backing card.  White or a pale colour is best, black can make it look gloomy.  I then removed the front piece of wax paper from the work and stamped the birds and foreground foliage before covering with acetate - again being careful to avoid air bubbles.
If you do all of the work from the front, you will still have a sticky back and although covered with powder on the front, you will not need any more adhesive for a thin acetate to cover your work and protect it and there is less chance of air bubbles being trapped.
This is great for making fridge magnets, stick the whole lot straight onto white card and then glue it to the magnetic sheet.