Sparkle and Sizzle

I mentioned that I took a great class with Mike P. at Mystic Paper last Sunday. It was his Shimmer and Shine class-Part 2. I'm not a huge fan of all the sparkly products out there but I was in the store Friday evening, saw the sample and signed up right away. I was especially attracted to the intense coloration and the embossed examples. My embossed pieces are above, Mike's were shiney, smooth, intense red....

I was one of the last to arrive for class which means I didn't get to sit at the big table with everyone else... My two table companions and I played well together and we had a blast. We weren't equally attentive ALL the time and had to help each other out with some of the steps. In the end we did a little extra here and there which Mr. Mike was cool with.Our end product was a sample booklet of a variety of techniques on flash cards. We started out with pearlescent powders and stamping with Perfect Pigment. Since I don't use these powders I know little about the differences between pigment powders, Twinkling H2Os, etc. Now I understand that Glimmer Mist is a liquefied pearlescent powder! I won't tell you how many bottles of Glimmer Mist I own but it's product I do love...
Next we moved on the embossing. The double layer of embossing looked like water, OOOOhhhh! I also liked the mottled look from only one layer of embossing powder. I sprayed one end with Glimmer Mist and it was absorbed into the exposed paper. I made a second tag with just that technique. It's the bottom one pictured above.From embossing we moved onto experimenting with color on grungeboard. Distress inks, pearlescent powders and Glimmer Mist were used. Every once in awhile I would run my grungeboard over an extra tag and the color and harlequin pattern transferred, (pictured below).
We tried out some more techniques including how to make our own glimmer mist from powders, comparing it with the pre-made product. I couldn't tell too much difference but know that I prefer to raid my stash and use what I have on hand rather than mess with powders and mixing, etc.

Lastly, we used Glimmer Mists and stencils on wrinkled tags, over stamped tags, as stencils and as stamps. FUN results. Now I wish I had taken Part One! Luckily, the "Best of.... "class will be offered in January.

I did take my tags home and played with them some more at home. I finished adding color to most of the tags before gluing the smaller examples on. It has been a slow week in the studio so far but my kitchen is a lot cleaner!
Marissa