WOYWW 197 and a Cool Technique

Hello again all you wonderful WOYWWers.

Confused? Head over to Julia's place to get the head's up!

I'm actually typing this on Tuesday night and scheduling the post as I've got a busy day on Wednesday and probably won't get to any WOYWW business until late on - hope you don't mind too much!
I know I'm not going to get any crafting done tomorrow so I'll post pics of how my desk looks now - there won't be any changes - unless the Craft Fairy comes out to play during the night...

I'm currently working on a page in my Art Journal, trying to finish the page I started in class. I really had no idea where was going with this page - but it has begun to evolve - just a little more time and I'll have it!

This is a closer view of the end of the desk where all the "overflow" from my working area seems to gather. At the moment the back corner has work related stuff on it - my box of templates, a box of Cuttlebug dies and my trusty Sidekick (a freebie with a mag subscription - it is brilliant for those quick mini die cutting moments when you don't want to bring out the BIG GUNS.)

You can also see my collection of stencils/masks (I'm art journaling - it would be weird not to!), the plastic wallet contains digi image printouts which I'm collecting to use in my AJ.

The CD at the back is one of my Mother's Day presents - it is Laura Mvula's new album Sing to the Moon - I LOVE IT (it was playing whilst I was taking these pics.) and my new Copics are in the green bucket with my growing collection - Thank you to my lovely boys for my gifts and my UNIQUE card!

At my AJ class we discovered the joys of combining Dylusions ink sprays with Perfect Pearls mica powders to add great shimmer effects to backgrounds. I've tried to get some close ups but you know how it is with shimmery stuff it never looks as good on "film" as it does in real life - but hopefully these will give you an idea...

This one is the background of my journal page. The inks are Dylusions Bubblegum Pink and Squeezed Orange and the Perfect Pearls (PP) is Perfect Gold.

(Having just looked at the post preview I really recommend you click on these pics to view them full screen - you can really see that shimmer!)

The technique is simple

1. Spritz your chosen inks next to each other on  your craft mat
2. Using a dry brush sprinkle your chosen PPs over the inks, "puddles" of PP will give vibrant shimmer patches, "dusted" PP will give an all over shimmer
3. Lightly mist with water to activate PP
4. Smoosh your tag, ATC or whatever through the inks and PP until desired effect achieved, dry with a heat gun
5. You can stamp, stencil or ghost these backgrounds as normal, although the shimmer will still show through and ghosting doesn't seem to be quite as intense (? is a ghosted image intense? I don't know and I'm too tired to think of a better word!)

Below is the tag I made in class to try out the technique, again using Bubblegum Pink and Squeezed Orange Dylusions and Perfect Gold PPs.

Additional technique for colouring stamped images

1. Stamp image in Archival ink onto dried background (as above)
2. Using any ink remaining on craft mat sprinkle chosen PPs on top of ink
3. With paint brush mix PPs in to the ink to create a paste (do not add water) use this paste to paint in details as required

I loved this effect, which works particularly well with this Dyan Reaveley Further Around the Edge stamp.

Well that's all from me folks, I'm plum tuckered! Good night...