Mousse Me ~ A Fun Background Technique!

O.k...I was so uninspired today...nothing I wanted to do was working out. I *wanted* to share a fun little box to hold candy and such but I tried and tried to come up with a pattern that would work to no avail.

So I decided to give it up and experiment.

I thought and thought about it and finally decided to play with re-inkers and "stuff"...basically anything I could get my hands on.

I tried some things using Vaseline...had moderate success but still not a look I wanted to share just yet.

I tried some hand lotion ~ again not what I was looking for :(

I was getting discouraged until I pulled out my Mousse! Now, I don't know about you guys but I curl my hair every single day. I have since I was in high school and I think I will till I die. I just love curling my hair...call me weird but I really enjoy it. Anyway, I have pretty straight hair so I use mousse on it every day as well.

I figured why not give it a try....I did and it worked!

Here is what I came up with!

Mousse Me!

Background Ink Technique

Supplies:

Mousse of your choice

Re Inker

Heat Tool (a must)

Cardstock

Instructions:

1. Spread a thick layer of mousse over your piece of cardstock. It needs to be pretty substantial ~ like 1/4" (.635cm) thick or more. I tried thinner layers and you just don't get as nice color distribution as you do with thicker layers.

2. Add one drop of ink. You seriously don't need anymore than that. If you use too much your colors will turn black in the end. Trust me on this. I added 4 drops to one piece and ended up with black streaks everywhere.

3. Mix the ink into the mousse. I used a paint brush handle and my finger once (now I have a blue finger). Stir the ink until virtually all of the mousse is colored for an all over look. The areas of mousse that are still white or almost white will finish that way.

4. Begin to heat the inky mousse with a heat tool. You're going to melt all of the mousse but it's going to take a while - 1-3 minutes depending on how thick your layer is and the type of mousse you have.

This is about 1/2 way through the heat time. You can start to see the patterns emerging where the mousse has been melted away.

And this image is about 95% of the mousse melted. You can still see small peaks of mousse yet to be melted.

Here is the finished product!

You can actually see where the layers of mousse were thicker and left behind more colors. In addition to the layers of color you will also notice where the tiny mousse bubbles popped and left behind little round inky signatures! In person (didn't show up so well in the photos) you can also see where the color layers overlapped each other for a cool faux texture look.

These are a few more examples using different colors....

So there you go...

You'll never look at your Mousse in the same way ;)

I don't however recommend you try this in your hair....if my fingers are any indication LOL!!!