The Stamper's Mall: Stamping on Mica

What is Mica?
Mica is the name we use for a group of minerals that are found in most types of rocks. Mica is silica-based and is flexible and heat resistant. What makes mica so interesting is that it is formed in flat sheets naturally. It has what is called “perfect cleavage.” This means that you can separate it into very thin sheets fairly easily. I grew up in New York State and used to find it by river beds and loved pulling it apart. Little did I know that this was a precursor to my artistic renderings with mica now. Mica may be colorless, black, brown, green, or violet. Mica has been used for many things for a long time (including being a part of windows and lamps).

Mica in the Rubberstamping World:
There are numerous products that contain mica chips.
* Mica Magic (Pigment ink)
* Mica contained in glitter
* Mica sheets

Our project is a trinket box. The lid is topped with a shaker box and stamped mica sheet.

Artist Corner Project:

You will need:
Mica Sheet: that can be cut to 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" (The mica sheet needs to be separated into layers. You don’t want it
so thick that you cannot see through it. You should be able to separate the sheet into a sheet of 2-3 thicknesses. (See Picture 1
and See Picture 2
)

Mat board with the following measurements.

Box: 4 pieces of 3x3 (See Picture 3)

Lid: 1 piece of 3 3/8 x 3 3/8, 4 pieces 3 3/8 x 1 ( I designed this lid to fit loosely. If you want to have a
tighter fit, please subtract 1/8 from each of the lid measurements except for the width of the sides which should remain 1 inch.) (See Picture 4)

Paper: Yuzen Washi or similar paper is used here (I used a cloth like paper that is flocked.) I used green suede paper for the inside of the box. One 8-1/2 x 11 sheet will cover it.

Put Your Box Together:
Use a strong glue to glue the sides of the box to the box. Do the same for the lid. (See Picture 5)
Place a piece of scotch tape lengthwise down the corners to hold each in place. (See Picture 6)

Cover the box and lid with the paper:
The Box:
The way that I folded the paper to cover the box includes an origami fold for the corners. I strongly suggest that you cover and fold without glue first, then go back and glue the paper. Place the box bottom in the center of the paper you have chosen. The paper should be at least 9-1/2 x 9-1/2. Fold up two sides (should be opposite sides, not next to each other). (See Picture 8)
Cut slits so that you can tuck the edge of the paper into the box. (See Picture 7)
The corners will look like this (See Picture 9)
. First crease the corners (See Picture 12)
Fold the corner so that you have a crease on both sides. (See Picture 10)
Open up the triangle and line up the center crease line with the corner of the box. Press the paper to the corner (be careful). This causes paper on each side which you should now also crease. This is called a squash fold. (See Picture 11)
. Glue the paper as a squash fold and trim the top to 1/2 inch and fold into box (you need to cut a corner slit to do this). You will need to glue both pieces of the fold. I used glue stick for everything except the squash folds which require a stronger glue to hold. I used wonder tape. (See Picture 13)

The Lid:
The lid is easier to paper. You need a piece of paper measuring 6-1/2 x 6-1/2. Place the lid in the center and glue down. Cut a diagonal slit from the corner of the paper to the lid. Fold one side around the corner of the box and glue. Fold the other piece down and glue to box. (See Picture 14 and See Picture 15)

The Interior:
Line the inside of the box with green suede paper. Line the lid after decorating it. (Suede paper is rather thick so you can substitute mulberry or washi.)

Decorating the lid:
Inside:
Add beaded fringe to the inside of the box lid before adding the green suede lining. (See Picture 16)

Outside:
You need:
* Scrapbook paper (vintage design)
* Mounting tape
* 2 x 2 piece of mica
* StazOn Royal Purple
* Dragonfly rubber stamp (Inkadinkadoo: Montage Collection)

Glue 2x2 piece of the scrapbook paper to the center on the top of the lid. Place mounting tape (quadruple thick) around the paper, overlapping about 1/8 inch. Place brass charms and beads in the center. (Try mixing bugle beads. They make a great addition to any shaker box.) (See Picture 17)

Cut the mica to about a 2x2 piece. Stamp one dragonfly on one corner and the other dragonfly on the opposite corner. Be careful not to tear the mica. Mica is a slick non porous surface. This is an exciting challenge for the advanced rubber stamper. It is similar (but not the same) as stamping on transparency. Transparency is flat but mica may have an uneven surface due to shearing of some of the mica layers. You can easily heat set on mica as mica is heat resistant.

Place the stamped mica sheet on the mounting tape so that it covers the box of charms and beads. (See Picture 18)
The light brown shade of the mica adds a vintage look to our box.

The top piece that will cover the tape should be about 3 x 2-3/4 and have a window of 1 5/8 x 1 7/8. Use the same scrapbook paper that was used in our first step above. Glue it to some heavy cardstock. Cut out your frame for the top of the shaker box. Punch out four fleur de lis in purple (or a matching color) and mount one on each corner of the shaker box.

Paint the sides of the mounting tape in metallic purple pen. Glue a gold yarn around the sides of the shaker box.