Oil Slick

MATERIALS

	Cheap nail polish - clear	Newspaper
	Tap water	Rectangular bucket or a marbling tray
	Black card (not glossy) - smaller pieces are easier to work with

PROCEDURE

	Fill bucket to a depth of 5cm (2 inches) with tap water.
	Drip 1 -2 drops of clear nail polish onto water surface. You will see the polish spread out as soon as it hits the water and form the 'slick'. This is the easy bit.
	Now if you've ever done any paper marbling or suminigashi - forget everything you know. DO NOT PUT THE CARD ON THE WATER - this will not work and you will be very disappointed! For this technique you need to carefully slide the card into the water vertically (trying to stay away from any of the oil slick) and then move the card into a horizontal position once under the water.
	You should have the card directly beneath the part of the oil slick you'd like to use and then gently (still holding the card horizontally) lift up out of the water. The idea is to 'catch' the oil slick on the card surface.
	Once this is done, place slicked card onto some newspaper to dry - resist the urge to poke at the oil slick as this can break the surface tension before the nail polish is dry and ruin your card.
	When dry, you can use it as a background, stamp over it, cut or punch it out.

HINTS & TIPS

Why didn't it work!
You might have used an expensive brand of polish - this doesn't slick very well as is too thick - great for nails, but terrible for oil slick technique!

You may have left it too long before putting the card into the water - you oil slick can dry - if this happenes you'll get a stringy blob looking a little like shrivelled cling wrap plastic - not very nice!

You might have 'caught' an oil slick, or part of one, when you were putting the card into the water. The polish won't stick properly to itself so you will get a result like at right, or you may get a silvery/pearly patches.

DO NOT HEAT
The entire slick will vanish before your eyes! This means no drying with heat gun, no embossing - nothing involving heat. Wonder how I found this out??? THE HARD WAY!

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