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!!

Take Your Licking

I love to find recipes online, don't you? What's even better is to find them for those expensive craft supplies we need. So I wanted to share a few recipes you may like to try to save your budget for more imprtant things like PAPER, adhesives, MORE PAPER, digi images, and LOTS MORE PAPER! LOL

Here's a recipe for those of us who make our own envelopes.  It comes from one of our DT members, Virginia:

SEAL AND ENVELOPE MUCILAGE (GLUE)

You will need:

6 TBS. pure white vinegar

4 packets (1 once) unflavored gelatin

1 TBS. flavored extract (it says peppermint, but I found that was very strong and a bit overwhelming). I suggest another flavor not as strong.

How to Make it:

1. Bring vinegar to a boil. Add gelatin and stir until complete dissolved.

2. Add extract. Stir until well blended. Makes 1/2 cup.

Directions:

Use a brush to spread glue thinly on back of a label or an envelope flat. Dry. Moisten to seal.

Store in a capped bottle---will keep for several months without spoiling. It will set when cooled; however, to use again, melt by setting bottle in a pan of warm water.

Virginia M.

Anyone use FlowerSoft? I have a recipe to share for this type of medium. While I haven't had much luck with coloring the stuff, it looks fabulous on winter cards!

"FLOWERSOFT" SNOW:

You will need:

Two styrofoam balls

large sheet of paper to gather up your homemade FS

How to Make it:

Hold a ball in each hand and rub together, causing flakes to fall off the balls.

Move them around in your hands to get the most out of them.

When finished, make a funnel from the paper holding your flakes and pour into baggies or containers.

Apply wet glue or Liquid Glass to the area on which you want to apply the Soft Snow (that's what I named my faux FS) and drop onto it, pressing slightly into the glue. 

Let dry and your winter scene has come alive with dimension!

Have you found a crafty recipe that you like? Share with us because we all like to save a little money (and you know where mine goes!). Since the challenge is Anything Goes, link your recipe and a photo of what you used it on TO DOUBLE YOUR CHANCE to win a set of Fiskars Embossing Plates and the embossing tool.

Click HERE to go to the challenge post.

Technique Thursday - Paper Piecing 101

Paper Piecing 101 -
Give your images a New Look by Paper-piecing instead of coloring them! For this project, I used Squigglefly’s Moon Fairy. Since it is a digi-image, I printed out several images onto full-sized papers.

When you use rubber or cling stamps you can stamp onto leftover pieces of patterned paper. I used PaperTrey’s Raspberry Fizz and Hibiscus Buzz cardstocks, as well as 2 sheets of patterned paper leftover from my rummage sale stash.

Building up from your base layer (I’m using a sheet of white paper), cut out pieces from your colored papers and adhere to your base.

I always make at least two copies of my base image, so that I can color if needed and add layers from it (and for mistakes, which everyone makes!).

I cut out the full image from the lace patterned paper and attached it to the white base first. I then cut out the lighter pink cardstock, just the fairy image, and attached it. I then cut out the darker pink cardstock and placed it on my image.

I colored her face, arms and legs from the second white image, cut it out (keeping it one piece) and attached it. Finally, I cut out her hair from the second image on the lace paper and added some color to it before attaching it to my image. I added some Yellow and some Icicle Stickles to help her outshine the moon.




Once everything that’s wet is dry, you can cut out your paper-pieced image and apply it to your background paper!

It’s not as hard as it looks, and the finished product is a nice change from coloring. Even if all you did was print or stamp your image onto one extra piece of patterned paper and used it with your base of cardstock, you will have tried something new! So, what are you waiting for? Let’s see your projects!!