Two spoons and a fork

... that's what Tom said I should call my latest cutlery piece when I asked the family.  It needed a name as it's for an auction at church to raise money for something (I can't remember what though!!  Oops!)

I decided I rather liked that as a name and promptly labelled a piece of recycled pizza box and packaged them up.

This time the words say

Happy voices in nature

singing

to God, who makes all lovely things

I used the old hymn book (I picked it up at a bookshop so it has no sentimental value, I couldn't cut one up I'd owned)!  Hymn books are actually great for adjectives, and are fab for this kind of thing, even if you don't want a religious-type message.  I am definitely addicted to making these though, but I need more spoons - hurray, an excuse to go shopping :)

I've also been playing around with the idea I got when working with the mica tiles from USArtQuest.  I'm teaching a card making class at The Cubby Hole, Crewe tomorrow, and wanted a couple more cards that didn't feature sewing lol.  This time I used clear shrink plastic for the base before layering with text and imagery with clear, thick embossing powder.  I missed the natural brown shading of the mica, and being able to chip into the mica to add another layer to the collage, but I like the effect.  It's just different.

mica tile

clear shrink plastic

Before I go, I just wanted to say hello and thankyou to my new followers, and to all of you who leave comments and suggestions of other places to visit - I love this aspect of blogging as I then get to go and visit other blogs I may not otherwise have seen :)

USAQ DT project #3 playing with Mica Tiles

 The Design Team at USArtQuest post fortnightly with a new kit that Mrs USArtQuest sends us (aka Susan Pickering-Rothamel).  I'm not sure where the last two weeks went, but it's time to post a new project, and this time we had Mica tiles to play with.

I have wanted to play with these forever, but never seemed to get round to it so I was very excited when I received them through the post :)   I peeled them apart, had a bit of a play with my cuttlebug, embossing and cutting the tiles; I added gold leafing and Stazon ink, but it wasn't really 'happening' for me.  All I could think was "I could do this with acetate or a piece of card, what's so special about mica tiles?"

Sometimes it helps to talk to a friend when you get stuck, and Wendy kindly reminded me that they are heat resistant, so it's great to trap embossing powder between the tiles.

 

Well!  I happen to LoVe the translucency of old paper when layered using clear embossing powder.

Can you see how you can see the text from both sides of this page from an old hymn book?

And you can 'distress' the tile with the edge of your fingernail, or by ripping bits off round the edge (but be sure to keep these tiny bits, they add sparkle to any project!)

I've had to drag myself away from the craft table to come and post this, I'll certainly be back playing with my mica tiles, and finishing some projects.  

If you're in the UK, your local stamping shop can get mica tiles for you as Woodware is a UK stockist for USArtQuest.  Glenda at Graphicus has them in stock here.

Now for the 'how to':

Trim your mica tile to size and shape.

Using your fingernail, split the mica apart (it's made up of compressed layers of rock!).  Use two pieces for this project.

Lay your tile over a piece of text and tear to fit.

Attach the paper to the tile with PPA Gloss, or clear embossing powder.

Add more torn paper, and gold leafing flakes to your collage.

Note how opaque the pieces are here as I've used PPA Gloss to attach the papers.

Cover the whole piece with clear embossing powder and lay a matching (shape, not collaged)

piece of mica tile on top.  Just look at that shine!  And can you see how the text paper

is now translucent?

I'm going to mount up this little house and give it away to someone.  I think I'll steal Suzi Blu's idea and include a piece of  Mica tile for you to play with too!  Leave an 'arty pondering'  by midnight GMT Sunday 25th July to be in with a chance. I'll use a random generator to pick a name on Monday 26th July.

Don't forget to head on over to the rest of the DT members' blogs, and the USAQ blog to see what other yumminess has been produced with these mica tiles :)  Suzi's got a giveaway too!

Suzi Blu

Lea Cioci

Jessica Griffin

Jan Henning

Terri Sproul

Connie Vogt

USArtQuest blog

EDIT:  I've just discovered that The StampMan's new challenge blog has the theme 'Anything Goes' this fortnight, as Vix wants to see what we can all do!  So I'm heading over to enter this, and I KNoW Jill can get these mica tiles for you if you want any :)