Eye shadow or mica powder? (and a Friday Smile, too)

I want to begin by giving a huge thanks to Jo at JoZart for generously teaching this technique on her blog.

Many of you saw my visit to the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Swap and Shop yesterday, where I picked up a can of spray starch.  This prompted me to remember Jo's background technique.  You can find her spray starch background tutorial here. 

Last year I began my month of recycling, reusing, repurposing by showing how to make your own shimmering mists.  Later, I updated the post with this one, and Nancy Lee asked if I thought eye shadow might work equally well.

So I decided to use Jo's tutorial to see if eye shadow could be substituted for mica powders.  The supplies I used are above from back left clockwise:

Old, never used eye shadow that was given to me
Spray starch picked up at the HHW Swap and Shop
WOYWWendy (watching in anticipation, but not part of the supply list)
Mica powders (the brand that doesn't have a binder)
Card stock
High end glossy photo paper cut from junk mail
Not shown: Wet wipes (handed out at the grocery store to wipe your shopping cart handle)

I started by using a make-up sponge to rub the eye shadow powder onto the card stock (CS), but got bored rather quickly,

and decided to scrape off bits of the caked eye shadow powder, which I then sprinkled on the CS.
 
I then sprayed some spray starch on the eye shadow, card stock, and much of my table!

Using a free wet wipe I got at the grocery store, I blended the colors, pushing them into the spray starch,

while coloring the wet wipe along the way.  When dry, I'll add the wet wipe to my stash of hand dyed-hand painted fabric.

Next it was time to see how the eye shadow compared to the mica powders.

I sprayed the starch on the dry CS and mica powders and loved what I got.

The glossy card stock I cut from junk mail was another story, though.  The paper didn't allow the starch or the mica powders to soak in, instead sitting on the surface of the paper.  The only places they really soaked in were at the cut lines.

Once again, I used a second sheet of CS to remove some of the excess starch and mica powders.  To mop up the last of the residue, I grabbed another wet wipe, then allowed everything to dry.

I made a few changes for the final experiment.  First, I used a tool to break the eye shadow into powder, making it more like mica powders.

Then I sprayed the CS before adding the colors, something I had not done in the previous two experiments.

Again, I used a second sheet of CS to mop up the excess powder and starch.

This time, instead of using a wet wipe, I laid down a plastic bag, as Jo did.  Of course, Jo used plastic wrap, but we in the States have so many wasted plastic bags, why use a new product, when a used one will do?

Once dry, I liked the piece that had dried under the plastic bag, but not the one that dried on its own.

Although I loved the end result I got with the plastic bag, you can see the eye shadow still doesn't look as good as the mica powders.

So, to answer the question about replacing mica powders with eye shadow, my belief is they definitely don't work the same way, at least when using Jo's spray starch background technique.  For some reason, I thought I had another set of eye shadows, but I need to look for them and get more distilled water.  Then I'll see how well they do when I replace mica powders with eye shadow in my handmade shimmer mists.

Now I'm not sure if this qualifies as a Friday Smile or not, but  I hope Annie at A Stitch in Time won't be too unhappy if I share this for the 63rd Friday Smiles.

Today, which is Day 5 of recycling projects leading up to bEARTHday,  I recycled spray starch I found at the HHW Swap and Shop, two free wet wipes from the grocery store, junk mail glossy paper, a plastic bag from the grocery store, and eye shadow that my friend was going to throw away.  I'd say a pretty good day overall, because I got 5 sheets of CS for mixed media backgrounds, and two colored wet wipes to use in fabric collages.