Back in June I visited Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the first time and taught workshops at a wonderful shop called Bizzy B's.  Barb, the owner, gave me a tumbled tile to decorate.  They place these on the wall in the store.  The pretty gallery of tiles is lovely to see.  But this little tile has been sitting on my counter for far too long – so this morning I attacked.

Tumbled marble tiles are fun to decorate.  The surface isn't sealed, so you can do a lot of neat techniques.  It's slightly glossy, but does absorb liquid media.

For my first step, I did a quick test by spraying Glimmer Mist lightly on the tile, over a butterfly stencil and then immediately blotted it off with a paper towel.

It definitely stained the surface, so I knew I was on the right track.  In order to make the Glimmer Mist dry more evenly on subsequent coats, I lightly sprayed the surface with Copic Blending Solution.  It has been my experience that once dry, this gives the Glimmer Mist 'tooth' on glossy surfaces and allows it to go on more smoothly.

Apply a second coat of Glimmer Mist and allow it to dry thoroughly.  Leave the stencil in place as it dries.

Look at that glimmer!

This is a great background – but I wanted to pump up the color and the details of the stencil image a bit more, so I airbrushed with three Copic Markers (RV25 / V17 / BG07), with a little B21 around the edges for definition of the outline.

Copic Markers are translucent, so you can see the Glimmer Mist underneath this layer.  It's so pretty in person!

I collaged on some book page punched flowers with Tutu Pink Glimmer Glam on the front and back to act as a gel medium adhesive, decoration and sealer for the delicate papers.  I outlined this loosely with a purple Identipen.

I stamped a flower (Stampendous) with Stazon ink over the collaged flowers.  I highlighted the phrase 'suited her coloring' with RV23, which because of the properties of the ink, removed any of the Stazon ink from the flower image that had overlapped the wording.  It's much easier to read in person.  I love the serendipity of finding that phrase on the book print…

And now it is boxed up and ready to go to its new home in Toronto.

I cannot believe it is August 1st.  My July hiatus was short, but very sweet and now I am back on the road.  I kind of jumped the gun by ONE DAY, demoing for Scrap-Mart at the CKC in Valley Forge yesterday — but I will post about the show later.  After all my first workshops are next weekend and I have one more shipment to put together.

Tiles make me think about decorating and home interiors.  On the home front, the most I've been doing lately is a constant assault on Flat Surface Syndrome.  But now that my creative needs have been met I need to get back to painting clapboard.  (which is wayyyy less fun, btw).  But a bit of home maintenance has been going on for a while, and Joe is now working on the garage area.  There is NOTHING like a good handyman when your house needs a bit of sprucing up.  All of the wood around the windows, white framing and now the clapboard and underlying plywood around both garage doors is being replaced.  But whatever 'Casa MacDonald' needs, she gets.

Enjoy the rest of your day and evening.