Group of Cardmakers - Stencilling with Mica Powders

Hi everybody.  I'm back again with this month's technique over at the Group of Cardmakers, and this time it is using Mica Powders with Stencils.  For this card I have used one of a set of mica powders which I bought recently, and a set of stamps, stencils and a die from a recent Indigoblu magazine called Mixed Media Special 10.  I used one of the four stencils that came with it and also a snowflake corner stamp, and a large sentiment die, all being used for the first time.  

I started with the snowflake stencil and with the intention of using a 5" x 7" card I made it just a little bit smaller..in the end I decided to do a 6" square card instead so cut it down.  I had to use the stencil twice as they are quite small stencils, and I chose a light blue mica powder.  The snowflakes on the stencil are fairly small and I had a bit of trouble getting a good coverage with the Versamark Pad that I have, so in the end I used my Versamark Pen and just rather laboriously went over at one to get a good impression.  It did work better and I was fairly pleased with the result.  I brushed on the mica quite carefully so as not to smudge the image, but it did smudge a bit but not too badly.  I did think that these would not work with a spritz of water to set them as I assumed they would not have the binding agent but it did seem to work and when putting the card together and handling the piece quite a lot it didn't seem to transfer onto my hands or the card so that's good.

I continued with the stamping onto the white base card using the corner snowflake stamp and heat embossed it with WOW Metallic Silver Embossing Powder using my stamp positioner by twisting the card to get the same position in each of the corners.  On the second corner I had a bit of a problem in that when I heat embossed I must have overheated the powder and it went dull.  I decided to ink and heat over the top for a second time and it worked well, so on the first and then the subsequent other two corners I did the process twice to match...a bit laborious but it worked.

I then cut a silver mat to place beneath the snowflakes, and I cut the sentiment from the silver too and I put the card together.  I did wish that I had used a darker blue as I think it would have had more impact but never mind it does look quite pretty if a little pale, but not as pale as it looks in the photo..the light was very poor when I took it.

This second card I feel has been more successful and I used darker shades for a more colourful look using a set of stencils from Crafter's Companion called Love Hearts which has three stencils..a background heart covered stencil, a border and a heart filled heart.  I also used a new unbranded set of stemmed hearts and a new sentiment.  Everything on the card is being used for the first time.

I cut a scallop edged heart using a snippet of white card, with a set by Nellie Snellen..absolutely ancient but I still love it, and it was a bit larger than the heart stencil that I used so left a white border.  My first go was not successful leaving the stencil in place when adding the mica powders as when I removed it it was a bit smudgy so obviously there had been some creeping of the powders under the stencil.  I decided to cut away the scalloped edge and turn the heart over.  I also used a ball tool to round the more blunt edges on the reverse.  This time when I had added the Versamark I lift the stencil away all went well.  I decided on this one to add some WOW Clear Gloss EP over the top and heat set it which worked well.. I did use a softer brush to add the powders which helped I think to stop any movement of the Versamark and gave it a crisper look.  I cut the stemmed hearts and the sentiment from snippets of white card and decided to cut an extra white sentiment so I could double it up to give it more substance.  

To finish I used a 5" x 7" white card and I embossed the heart border down the centre of the card and then put the stencil in place and added colour using first Picked Raspberry DI and then to make them a little redder I used Candied Apple DI.  I then fixed the heart with the stemmed hearts attached behind it at an angle over the border stencilling, and then added the sentiment over the bottom of the heart, and to make it stand out more I added some Wink of Stella.

I am entering this anniversary card into the following challenges:

Stencil Fun Challenge - Nov. '25 Anything Goes/Golden Days.

Snippets Playground Challenge - No. 520 Where we use up our snippets of paper and card etc.

Allsorts Challenge - No. 837 Focal Sentiment/Anything Goes.

NBUS Challenge - No. 80 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.

I do hope you will visit us over at the Group of Cardmakers and we do have Robyn as a guest this time and you will be able to see the beautiful cards made by her and the rest of the team.  We do also have a Linky so if you make any cards you can display them there so we can all enjoy seeing what you've made.  There are also a couple of videos to watch too.  Thank you for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.