Mica Magic on MDF

 

     This weekends project was to use Mica Magic from Craft Artist, it's mica in a soft cake form, not a powder, a bit like eye shadow but definitely NOT for eyes.

     John has said this product was developed for colouring flower foam but has turned out to be very useful on other materials aswell. 

     With this in mind I die cut a foam Cornflower and then coloured it with the Mica Magic Basic Brights set. I coloured front and back, then pulled and twisted the petals to give them some shape.

      The best thing for sticking the foam together seems to be Glue Glaze, again from Craft Artist, although I'm sure there are other glues that will work, it just needs to be thick and strong.

     Once the flower was assembled I moved on to an MDF tag from Stix2. I have seen Mica Magic used on MDF with no need for a primer, I wanted to see if this was easy and what it would look like.

     Not wishing to stick much to the tag once the mica was applied I chose to glue down some spare die cuts I had lying in my stash. These were bits left over from previous projects so they were a mix of colours, this would show me just what the micas would look like over a coloured base. All the bits were cut from card so reasonably sturdy but not too thick.

     Once all the bits were dry I began to apply the Mica Magic with my finger, you can apply it with a dauber or a sponge if you wish. I started with a mix of greens at the bottom and blended it into blues with a touch of  mauve at the top.

     The coverage was very good, it blended very well and took to the die cuts well. It does make a difference what colour the substrate is, dark colours really show of the mica, while paler colours give the mica a more muted look.

     There is a halo around the die cuts were the mica didn't reach the very edge but I quite like this look. If you don't want that then maybe the die cuts should be stuck on after colouring the background.

     The corner die cut was black which mixed with the brown MDF underneath and the bronze mica gives the look of aged metal.

     Once all the mica had been applied I gave the whole tag a buff with a cotton cloth to make it shine and to remove any stray bits, this is when you find out if you stuck all the die cuts down well!

     The butterfly looked a little dull so I decided to try some Pebeo wax, it worked well, I wasn't sure if the two mediums would mix well but they get along very nicely. The wax is a great medium but only available in a limited colour pallet, the Mica Magic comes in a wide range of colours so now it's possible to get that great shine in greens, blues, purples and more.

     The last thing to do after buffing the tag was to add the flower, this was stuck on with Glue Glaze. I like just the one flower, less is more on this tag as it's meant to show off the Mica Magic and it's great coverage of the MDF. A small length of seam binding coloured with inks added the finishing touch.

     Conclusions on Mica Magic - great coverage on MDF, no primer needed. Easy to apply.  An amazing shine once buffed.  The ability to colour almost anything porous - so does not work on glass, plastic or metal.

Materials used 

Craft Artist Mica Magic - Basic Brights

Craft Artist Mica Magic - Metallics

Craft Artist Glue Glaze

Flower Foam - cream

Cornflower Die - retired

S57447 MDF Tag x4 - Stix2

S57262 - 3D PVA glue

I would like to enter this tag in the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - #201 Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. - #586 Not A Card

Creative Moments - #208 Anything Goes

Crafty Creations - #418 Anything Goes