METALLIC WATERCOLOURS ON BLACK & WHITE

I have three sets of metallic watercolour paints (Gansi Tambi) as well as 50+ pots of Twinkling H2O's which are also watercolour paint.  These paints are solid and will activate when you spritz with a little water or use a water brush.  Because of this, they are very portable and you can leave the lids off them and they won't dry out.  The metallic watercolour paints work beautifully on black cardstock as well as white.  I have used plain black cardstock and white watercolour card for these samples.  Because plain cardstock isn't as water-friendly as watercolour card, you need to be mindful of how much water you use.  In some of the samples I have used the metallic watercolours purely as a wash over the background, others I have coloured the stamped images in.  The die-cut leaves in the 2nd sample are cut from a black piece of card that was painted with the watercolours as a wash, then die-cut.  Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, it's very hard to convey the shimmer that is in these samples.  Trust me, you'll just have to do some yourself and see how wonderful they can look.  I have embossed with white embossing powder before colouring and also stamped with black pigment ink and then clear-embossed (less chance of those stray black bits of embossing that way).

"Rule number 1"

"Feel the rain"

"Hum of bees"

"Inhale the future"

(The tree die-cut has also been made from

a piece of black card that was coloured with

green and gold metallic watercolour

paints as a wash before die-cutting)

"Life is short"

"OMG same"

(The raised centres of the flowers are made from

Ferrero Rocher chocolate gold wrappers, with

double-sided adhesive on the back for stability

and stick-factor, then punched out with a sun-

burst punch, then a little square of black foam

tape in the centre, then attached to the centre

of each flower.  Can you say:  fiddly???

I also used a baby wipe to wipe off some of

the metallic paints around the little man

and flowers.)

MICA TECHNIQUES

Mica is a product that has been around forever.  I remember buying some nearly 20 years ago and I still have some of it left.  Since then I have used several different types of Mica, from donut shapes to different colours of Mica through to Mica flakes.  The Mica I have used for this class is absolutely clear in colour, transparent and also flexible so it doesn't shatter the same way that my other Mica does.  Consequently, I used alcohol inks to add colour to it so it would look different from say, a piece of acetate (because that's exactly what it feels like!).  However, because this is Mica, it is heat resistant and you can emboss on it.  I even tried using the Distress Glaze Embossing Powder on it and it works beautifully as it just changes the colour of the Mica but also gives a nice bumpy sort of texture.  There's no sample of that here amongst these ones, I was just trying out all sorts of things to see what would work and what wouldn't.  Love that I can staple or brad these pieces on too.  I even die-cut a piece (the heart on the 2nd ATC) though that took a bit of hand-cutting too.  It made me want to do another class using the other ordinary Mica, though there is nothing ordinary about any Mica!  Love it all.  

"Plastic melts"

"No refunds"

"Aquaholic"

"Evil"

(Yes, you can even stamp on it with Black

Archival Ink and heat set with a heat gun)

"dos"

(I've been waiting for ages to use

this quote 😉)

"Take the leap"

(The leaf shape in brown is the Mica coloured

and with some clear embossing on it)

Finally, these last two are samples from last week's class, Embossed Waxed Backgrounds.

"Zombies"

"Steampunk"