Mica Sparkle

Hello everyone! This week at Simon Says Stamp and Show the challenge is 'for the love of sparkle', so create something with a bit, or a lot (!), of sparkle and shine and join us this week.

I love mica with its beautiful natural sparkle and imperfections. Even as a child, I used to love finding stones with a bit of mica glimmer. So for this week, I made a wall-hanging from recycled cardboard celebrating all things mica.

This was a hard project to photograph, since it is very sparkly and since it is long and narrow (30 x 6 cm). You can see the details better on the photos below. I found a piece of cardboard and and used it just as it was. 7Gypsies Life Collage tissue paper was glued on top with multi-medium. I love the different quotes on this tissue paper, and there is even one about mica, so it was perfect for my project. Then I tore off a little bit of the top layer here and there.

The background was stamped with a dot stamp using Versamark and gold embossed. I painted patches of Tattered Rose Distress Crackle Paint here and there and let it dry. Then the background was inked a bit with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. Finally, I applied Rock Candy Distress Stickles almost everywhere for even more shine.

To hang the wall-hanging, I put two Hinge Clips on top, which were first coloured a bit with gold alcohol ink. Then I simply tied a piece of twine through the clips.

You see the gold embossed dots better on this photo. All the hearts and the wings were die cut from grungeboard and painted white. The wings were painted with Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint and when dry smeared with a bit of Rock Candy Stickles.

The hearts were coated with Glossy Accents and then I added a vintage button to each one. Each heart was covered with a different colour and type of mica flakes. On this pink heart I used Melissa Frances Pink Snow Mica Glitter.

On these two hearts I used Stampendous Pearlized Mica Fragments and Shaved Ice. You get a lot of mica flakes in a jar, it will last a long time. The pearlized ones are my favourites. I added three Studio Calico wood veneer birds to the wall-hanging, since I love birds.

I filled a Tim Holtz corked vial bottle with some of the pink mica flakes and cut out the word 'mica' from a left over piece of tissue paper. It was attached to the wall hanging with wire.

This heart was covered with Stampendous Gilded Mica Fragments. A bit of paint was rubbed into the words of the Word Band to make the text more visible. It was attached with wires.

I wanted to make gilded flowers to add to the wall hanging (see this tutorial on faux porcelain flowers by Tim Holtz). I melted clear UTEE in my melting pot and then added a bit of gold UTEE. The flowers were dipped into the UTEE. Then I made a second batch adding Platinum UTEE instead of gold, and dipped the flowers a second time, not covering them completely. Be careful, the UTEE gets very hot.

Here's a close-up of the flowers, the mix of gold and platinum gives them a great look. Quite different from the white roses I started out with.

The last heart was covered with Melissa Frances White Mica Flakes. I also die cut a Vintage Lace from red kraft core paper, sanded and coated with Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

I hope you will join us this week and show us your sparkly projects. As always, Simon Says Stamp gives a $50 gift voucher to one random (and lucky) participant, who can do some fun shopping.

Thank you for visiting!!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix Mini Gadget Hearts, Heart Wings, Vintage Lace
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Tiny Textures
Inks: Distress Ink: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain; Adirondack paint dabber Snow Cap, Adirondack alcohol ink Gold Mixative; Versamark
Paint: Distress Crackle paint Tattered Rose,  Rock Candy
Stickles: Distress Stickles Rock Candy
Embossing powder: Clear UTEE, Platinum UTEE, Gold UTEE, gold embossing powder
Mica: Melissa Frances Pink Snow Mica Glitter and White Mica Flakes, Stampendous Shaved Ice, Pearlized Mica Fragments, Gilded Mica Fragments
Surfaces:7Gypsies Life Collage tissue paper, Tim Holtz Idea-ology grungeboard, Metal Word Bands, Hinge Clips; Tim Holtz Core'dinations kraft core cardstock; recycled cardboard
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Corked Vials, Studio Calico wood veneer birds; old buttons; paper roses; Hemptique Thick Natural Twine

Tools: Ranger Melting Pot, Sizzix Big Shot