Technique Tuesday - Homemade Shimmer Misting Sprays

I love using alcohol inks in all forms -ink pads, sprays- and for all types of media -cards, altered art, mixed media canvas, using masks.  So imagine my delight when I discovered that markers,especially sharpies and such, are made with alcohol!!
So, I went to work cleaning out all the "dried-up" markers that are used at the school I work at. Can we say TONS of markers that I got to take home and re-purpose? After my granddaughter Bella sorted them into color families, the fun began. First, I poured some alcohol into glass jars.

Then we took off the markers' caps and I pulled the nibs off, placing them in the glass jars by color family. Within five minutes the jars were sporting nice colors. To really get the most out of those "dried-up" markers, I cut them open and pulled out the cores and added them to the jars.

After about an hour (we were very impatient), I was ready to play. Then I remembered that I have had some Pearl-X powder for the last ten years that I hadn't used but of course couldn't bear to get rid of (thank goodness).

So I added roughly a 1/4 tsp of powder to my bottles of alcohol inks and made some homemade "glimmer mist."

Can I get an "ooh, shiny" from you?  The next step was to make sure I had all my inks in spray bottles with the Pearl-X added. Now I have a nice supply ready for me, and all it cost was the price of a bottle of alcohol from WalMart (98 cents).

Bella was disappointed that I didn't have enough spray bottles/misters to make her some purple shimmer spray! I do have another bottle, red, that is still "cooking" and I promised her that I will have purple ready for her on her next visit.
One last Note, that I guess I should have put at the very top:
Wear gloves and do all this in the sink. I lost half my blue and 45 minutes of stressed out time frantically cleaning up a major spill on my kitchen counter top (and dishwasher, new shoes and tile floor) when a stubborn nib wouldn't come loose without the jerk that sent  most of the ink spewing all over. I wept while I cleaned. Don't tell hubby but there is a slight tint, almost not noticeable, on that kitchen counter--you know, the one I've wanted replaced with pretty marble ever since I moved into our house 19 years ago.

And here's a pretty card I made using my new shimmer mists on both cardstock for a background and the paper doily. The image is from Squigglefly by artist James Horvath, and the sentiment is from a rubber set from SU.
If you like those glimmer mists but don't want to pay the fiddler, try this method. I am VERY happy with what I got, and there are loads of "dried out" markers left to make more!!