ATCs - Scrapmatts DT

Hello. This post went live on the Scrapmatts blog on the 5th but I forgot to load it on my personal blog. I was a little distracted because my baby turned 3 on the fifth! If I'd been planning ahead, I would have done a couple of layouts of him to celebrate. But instead, I was too busy trying to plan the party and get everything ready for my family visit, so I have a variety of small projects to share instead. :)

I'm a big fan of ATCs as they were the start of my journey into scrapbooking. They are also really great projects for when you only have a short amount of creative time. For these ones, I painted ATC10-010 Bracket 01 with gesso, then sprinkled Tinby Designs Color Crush powders across them and activated with water. They had a beautiful vibrant colour while wet but unfortunately the gesso mutes that as they dry.

I've used stencil ST5024 in the background of all three ATCs, but each one was used differently. On 'Discover' I used a small Versacolor stamp pad in charcoal to ink through the stencil, this gave the crispest edges to the image. On 'Remember' I misted Kaisermist through the stencil, you can see it leaked in some places because my ATC based had warped a bit after the gesso layer. Finally, on 'Inspire' I flipped the stencil over and stamped the left over Kaisermist onto the image, then misted white Glimmermist to highlight the design.

The sentiments all come from CB1199 Scrapwords 07. The leaf pieces come from CB1146 Leaf Spray 01, CB5144 Layered Poinsettias 01 and CB1235 Leaf Spray 14. I finished them off with the lace, flowers, sequins and D-lish Scraps enamel dots.

Maybe next month I'm be organised enough to show you a layout celebrating my son's birthday. ;)

Hearts and Words ATCs

I found a swap themed 'Hearts and Words' over at ATCsforAll.com. The example cards by the host looked great and some of the other participants had created amazing cards too. I thought it seemed like the perfect theme to continue to work on some of my new art journal skills so I whipped up these four cards.

 

 

I started by pasting down some scraps of book paper, then sponged some red Distress Ink over the whole background. I tried to apply some embossing ink through a stencil over the top of this but it didn't really go through, so then I sponged some gesso through the fish stencil and applied clear embossing powder of that while wet to create a resist.

 

Each card got a different colour spray over the top, then some red stamping to finish off the background. Four hearts were cut from another sheet of book paper, edged in black ink and stuck to the ATC. Top and bottom details were added to the cards with a pen.  

 

I used Gelatos to add colour to the bottom loops and also over the heart, blending this with water. The word sticker was added, along with some builder's tape. White details added with pen/gesso. Applied to backing card using polymer varnish.

 

And now, after a massive 17 projects in one month, I'm going to go a bit quiet. I need to work on a project I've been putting off for over 2 years! Wish me luck I finally get it done, please. :)

Journal Journey - January Detour

I have been interested in art journals for a while now, as some people manage to create such beautiful works of art in them. The idea of no rules, no 'wrong way', just the chance to try out a whole bunch of new techniques really appealed to me. The problem was I'm the kind of person who likes to follow a process and the unstructured format of art journaling left me not knowing where to start.

 

Kreative Koncepts changed that by running their Journal Journey 2015 free online program. This will run for the whole year, with time at the start of each month devoted to learning new techniques before walking you through creating a page using the new skills.

 

The theme for January is 'White with Two' and the technique for the first week was resists. I have spent the last two days playing with some different ideas in ATC size. To be honest, I'm not really happy with the results for most of them but it was fun trying out some new things and I might refine them a bit more later.

 

 

From left to right: Vaseline resist with acrylic paint (it stripped too much of the paint off while I was removing the Vaseline, this was also a bit too messy even for me), Vaseline resist with spray mists (happier with this result, still some minor smudging), polymer resin resist with spray mists (I think I needed to wipe the mists off the card while still wet, the resin also seeped under my mask).

 

From left to right: crayon resist with distress inks (I think I went over the images too many times and didn't allow it enough time to dry before using the crayon), polymer resin resist with spray mists (worked better getting the ink off sooner but I still had trouble with seepage), crayon resist with distress inks (this one I actually like the results).

 

Since I didn't want the time spent on these cards to go to waste, I added some extra detailing to a few of them to create simple ATCs.

 

 

I liked the colours I ended up with for this card but had lost the image in the resist as I smudged away too much paint too. I just re-positioned the stencil over the top once it was all dry, making sure it was slightly off-set from the original resist and applied black ink over the top.

 

 

This was probably my second favourite card but it seemed a bit plan. I had added some detailing with gold and pink metallic pens then added some rub-on phrases.

 

I was liking this one but them I think I applied too much ink and it started to bleed through the crayon resist and smudge the stamping. I wanted to add colours to the wings but can't because of the resist so this was stayed pretty plain.

 

 

 

I brought back the fish images with a fine nibbed pen and added eyes and details. It has a certain cuteness which appeals to me now. I am tossing up adding some 'fish in the sea' writing to it but I'm pretty sure I will ruin it if I do.

 

 

This is the card I was most happy with. Initially while applying the yellow I didn't think the resist had worked, but as I continued to apply the ink and moved to darked colours the resist became much clearer to see. I haven't added anything to this one.

 

I haven't done anything to the red/yellow polymer resist card but I'm thinking of maybe adding a stamped sentiment/quote to it. Otherwise, I think that is enough experimenting for this week. Let me know if you have any tips for improving my resist results.

Christmas Artist Trading Cards - Scrapmatts DT

The second Scrapmatts DT brief was to create a Christmas theme ATC. I love the range of different shaped bases available so I decided to use three different ones and decorate them in a similar style.

 

Pretty quick and easy design:

1/ Cover chipboard and words with gesso and let dry.

2/ Spray red and green dylusions ink from opposite ends, sprinkle with salt to get fluctuations in colour.

3/ Run a gold ink pad around the edges.

4/ Stamp versamark flourish design over background and emboss with clear UTEE.

5/ Heat emboss the amazing reindeer designs in gold.

6/ Adhere film strip and chipboard to bases.

 

The film strip was a bargin item I picked up from Reverse Garbage in Brisbane. I got two 10 meter rolls, one green tinged and one red tinged, for $4 each! So much cheaper than getting the Tim Holtz versions. :)

Scrapmatts chipboard used: ATC10-004, ATC10-008, ATC10-010, CB5050, CB5097.

Imagine ATC

The June challenge over at Scrapmatts was an ATC swap. I had so much fun creating some ATCs recently that I had to sign up to take part. I went with a steampunk feel to it and played with the gesso/lace/gears/misting technique again.

 

Cards and ATCs

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I've been looking forward to getting a lot of crafting done during this long weekend. I had my goodie bag of Scrapmatts product including some of their beautiful new releases so I sat down and created some new ATCs. It's been so long since I've had a good play with ATCs and I really enjoyed myself.

 

 

I talked to Annette about the problems I had making my steampunk inspired card and she gave me some pointers to improve so I had another go at this style. I remembered to include some lace this time and also added some bits and pieces from my stash. I'm really liking the end result.

 

I also finished up the greeting cards I made during the Scrapmatts class at the Stitches and Craft Expo last weekend. I loved the idea of threading the banner through the wire of the flower.

 

 

Today my hubby and I also went exploring to find some koala sculptures hidden around the Gold Coast. We found seven today meaning I've now found 11 out of 21. :)

 

 

Card and an ATC

Scrapmatts have requested all their DT members create a card to be added to their display for shows and expos. I had just seen Annette's stunning card, Love Wishes and Dreams, and was inspired to try a similar style. Mine is no where near as cool as hers but it was a lot of fun the play with all the mists.

 

 

I also whipped up a quick ATC just because it's been so long since I've done one. Scrapmatts chipboard for the trees too.

 

 

Elemental Dragon ATCs

After creating SO many more LO's than I normally do last month I felt like a bit of a change so decided to check out my old Artist Trading Card forum, ATCsforALL. They had a magnificent dragon themed swap and I figured I couldn't pass that by. The cards are Twinkling H2O backgrounds, Prismacolour pencil for the dragons and white acrylic paint borders. I tried to do elemental dragons, which one is your favourite?

Christmas ATCs

Wow, how long has it been since I last did some Artist Trading Cards? Mum was hosting a 'Christmas' swap with the critera being NOT hand-drawn or painted cards. I decided to get back into the swing of it considering how many different scrapbooking paper ranges and embellishments I have with a Christmas theme. It was a challenge to ge thte design principles happening again.

Sorry for the bad scan, I had to do it in a rush before I flew to Melbourne to give them to mum.



Bird-A-Thon ATC's

I normally trade my ATCs over at ATCsforAll.com and even though I haven't been making too many of them recently I still pop in every now and then. I found out they were having a Bird-A-Thon this week, which involved everyone getting together and making as much bird themed art as they could and then we all go crazy with trades. Given birds are one of my favourite themes to collect I just couldn't pass this up.

Here are the four I've come up with so far:

Some ATC's, finally!

I'm spending time at home with my mum at the moment and she is into making ATC's. We went to Paperific last Sunday and made some cards to trade however were sadly disappointed no one else was there to trade with. Anyway, it meant I made 9 cards for the first time in months. The theme was 'Sense of Time'.

I also owed mum a RAK, so drew up this card yesterday.

Alice and a Pencil Eye

I decided that some of my available cards have been in my gallery too long so gave them a bit of a re-make. The Alice card below I made over so much I decided to count it as a new card.

Card 101/365: New Cup

I think I might try doing a series of these pencil eye cards, they're quite fun and I always enjoy doing pencil work.

Card 102/365: Pencil Eye III

Hen ATCs

Yes, I spent today creating ATCs rather than scrapbooking LO's! It was good to get back into the swing of painting and I'm REALLY happy with how these hens turned out.

Card 93/365: Hen 1

Card 94/365: Hen 2

Card 95/365: Hen 3

Oh, and I also created another ATC while playing around with all the scrapbooking. This one is similar to the Mermaid Portraits I did earlier. Twinkling H2O's, rubber stamps and gel pens again.

Card 96/365: Mother Nature

More ATC's

Here is my King Charles II card to finish out the 8 cards needed for the February PAT swap. It's a good thing this host lives in Australia or I'd never make the deadline!

Card 88/365: King Charles II

I also made up two quickies just for an excuse to play with my Twinkling H2O's.

Cards 89 & 90/365: Moroccan Abstracts

I've fallen 10 cards behind now in Project 365! They're having a giveaway today to celebrate the 100th day of the Project. Head on over the check out the details.

Project 365 - More Catch Up Cards

I got so close to catching up with this project, posting card number 74 on day 75 of the project. Then I just lost all motivation. I managed to hussle up some extra cards in case I could find anyone interested in trading at the craft expo I went to yesterday so these will be catch-up cards.

Cards 75- 80 / 365.

ATC Progression: from 2005 to now

One of the ladies on ATCsforAll.com compiled an image showing her progression since 2004 and requested other people share their progress. I thought I'd make one up to since it's a slow morning this Saturday. I only started in October 2005 and the under the sea card is my first ATC ever created, I still have it. I lost a lot of my files from 2005 and 2006 six didn't have as much variety to chose from there.

Don't forget my blog giveaway is being drawn on Monday. Details can be found by clicking the image at the top right of my blog.