At the Bottom of My Garden - ATCs

Here are some ATCs from a swap a couple of months ago.  It took a while to come up with something for 'At the Bottom of My Garden'.  Lots of different images, colours and combinations were tried, before I settled on these.  My favourite is the sunflower one.

Cards were cut from white card stock and brick image was stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed with Distress Embossing powder.  Once cooled the embossed images were rubbed, activating the 'release crystals' in the powder - distressing the images.   Any particles were removed with a soft brush, allowing colouration of the card with distress ink in brown tones using a foam applicator.  Further illusion of bricks were added roughly with coloured pencil.

On some of the cards heat embossing was used again, over the little yellow flowers (clear powder over yellow ink) and blooms in pink (pale pink powder) on the card with the watering can.  All the soil detail, dark green leaves and shoots were stamped directly on the cards with dark green archival ink.  The bird and ladybird, were also stamped directly on the card, the ladybird and shoots were coloured with felt tip pens.

The rest of the stamped images were stamped onto white card and cut out, colour was applied from watercolour pencils, waterbased dye ink and watercolour pens.  Some of the images were stuck flat to the cards with PVA others were applied with dimensional glue.

The lettering was printed from Word and matted onto lilac painted card.  The words were applied to the cards using foam pads.

Things With Wings ATC Swap

This is an ATC swap from a while ago which never made it to the blog.

When the theme was announced for this swap 'Things With Wings', I knew I had to use this butterfly stamp from Crafty Individuals (CI-347).

This was the first time out for the Distress Markers, they were were used for watercolouring the butterfly image which was stamped with sepia Versafine ink.

The backgrounds were prepared with a collage of stamps; script, lettering, alliums and postmarks, using post-its as a mask in sepia Versafine ink.  Brown colours of Distress Ink and a co-ordinating colour to the butterfly flourishes were added from a craft mat.  Once dry 'splats' were added from a brown colour Distress Stain.

The butterfly stamps were trimmed and mounted on the cards with dimensional glue.  A final embellishment of a self-adhesive pebble, was added to each card.

Craft Stamper Challenge: Science Concertina Tag Book

My latest challenge is from Craft Stamper magazine.  The Take It, Make It Challenge.  This challenge was to make something inspired by one of the techniques from Craft Stamper during 2014.

Since reading one of the issues from this year, I had been meaning to try and make some backgrounds with scraps of cardboard and acrylic paint.  So, my inspiration is from; Masterclass: Stamping with Corrugated Card by Claudia Neubacher, September 2014 issue.

I started by making the corrugated card printing blocks and sealed them with three coats of matt varnish.

Using a brayer, acrylic paint (PaperArtsy Fresco Finish) was applied to the card and printed on my favourite sized giant tags made from the super versatile white card from papermilldirect.co.uk.

Different colours were applied using the corrugated card to five tags.  The teal coloured paint was also applied to the edges of the tags with a dry brush.

Using a mixture of stamps with a scientific theme, some stamped directly onto the tag and some onto white card then cut out, each tag was decorated before the tag book was put together.

Red 'splats' and black 'scratchy edges' were stamped on each tag (Versafine, Crimson Red and StazOn, Black).

A single colour was added to some of the decoupaged stamped images using stormy sky Distress Ink pen and a watercolour brush.  Some of these elements were mounted flat to the tag with PVA, others were added with dimensional gel glue.

Once all the glue was dry, the tags were joined together with tabs and co-ordinating ribbon added.

I will definitely be using this technique again, I love the final result.

Here's all the stamps used for the project;
Stampers Anonymous - Bitty Grunge CMS089
Stampers Anonymous - Laboratoire CMS173
Stampers Anonymous - Poisonous CMS171
Stampers Anonymous - The Chemist CMS172
IndigoBlu - Sarah's Choice
Stamping All Day - Top Secret
Crafty Individuals - CI-360 Poison and Danger
Hero Arts - AC026 Brush Strokes
Trodat Printy 4846

PaperArtsy Challenge: Hanging Board

The latest PaperArtsy challenge was to make something inspired by guest designer Liesbeth Fidder. 

Looking through some of  Liesbeth's designs on the challenge blog were some tags with lovely backgrounds made using powdered paint called Bister.  I have used something similar called Brusho to get some interesting effects, but haven't used it for a while, so I have been inspired to get them out of the cupboard and get messy!  One of Liesbeth's designs using PaperArtsy products was a Hanging board and I also took inspiration from this, making something similar.

The rubberstamps used on the project were all Ink and the Dog stamp collection from PaperArtsy.

My board was made with artists craft board, roughly cut into three pieces with heavy duty scissors. The edges were inked with bright green Distress Ink with a foam applicator.  A few layers of gesso were painted on all the pieces roughly.  Each layer was allowed to dry before the next.

Some 300gsm white card and the prepared craft board were spritzed with water from a spray bottle, then the Brusho powdered paint was sprinkled on the surface of the water.

Drying the surfaces with a heat gun, this was repeated a few times with the green and turquoise colour.

Once the board was completely dry, it was stamped with some of the images randomly (post mark, splats, ruler and dragonfly) in green Distress Ink or black or grey StazOn.  Stamping was dried with a heat gun then each of the pieces of board were inked around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, using foam.

All the other stamps were randomly stamped with black archival ink on the white card decorated with Brusho, some numerous times.  A number of butterflies were cut out, as was the man's head and shoulders.  Some of the colour was removed from the man's face with a wet paintbrush and blotting with kitchen roll. The man's face and words were stuck to the board with PVA glue, the butterfllies were added using dimensional glue gel.

Paperartsy Grunge Flower dies were used to cut the flower embellishments from the Brusho and stamped card. The backs were coloured with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the flower shaped by placing in the palm of the hand and running a large ball tool around the middle. Flowers were finished off, whether multi layer or single layer with a antique brass brad and some brown ink around the edges.

Holes were made in the board with a screw punch and the boards were connected with antique brass jump rings.  Matching chain was added to the top part of the board and the grunge flowers were added with dimensional glue.  To finish off, a little polymer clay face embellishment was added to one of the butterflies.

Fleur ATC

Another ATC that was made a while ago, but never made it to the blog.

This is a lovely stamp from IndigoBlu.  It was inked up with Distress Ink brush markers, applying the palest colours first, then the darker ones to the expanse of rubber, blending them into each other.  The image was stamped onto the pre-cut ATC size card and Weathered Wood Distress Ink was applied around the edges of the card with a foam applicator.

The image was repeatedly stamped in various colours on scrap card, which was then used to punch out a number of flower shapes.  These were glued together, layering them up and embellished with some self-adhesive half pearls.

A further embellishment; the word 'Fleur' stamped in a co-ordinating colour, mounted with foam pads along side a few more pearls.

Clarity Stamp Challenge: Anything Goes

For this Clarity Stamp Challenge, I decided to use one of my favourite stamps with along with one of my favourite techniques.

I've used Clarity's Windmill stamp in loads of projects and it usually ends up in a blue colour way, it is so reminiscent of the images on Delft pottery.  This time I went all-in with the Delft theme and made a tile.

The other stamps used for the tile was a clever corner stamp and a bloom from the windmill clear stamp kit. Archival ink in a royal blue colour was used for the stamping which was done directly onto a 10 x 10cm piece of mountboard.

The windmill was masked with sticky notes and blue dye ink (Adirondack, Denim) added using a stencil brush underneath the image.  A watercolour brush was used to add a little colour to the main image, again using the blue dye ink. 

A brush marker in a beige colour, was run around the edge of the mountboard. 

Once the stamping was complete and any added colour was dry, a thick layer of clear Distress Crackle Paint was applied and left to one side for a few hours.  

Once completely dry and crackled, clear embossing powder was triple embossed over the top.

Roses and Pearls ATC Swap

Some very simple ATCs for this month's swap, layered, stamped elements in a single colour.

While searching out rose stamps from of my collection, I thought this might be the opportunity to try out some pearlised card recently ordered from papermilldirect.co.uk.

It has a really subtle sheen and keeps it's true colour (some pearlised papers and card shine pink or green, which I didn't want for this project).  At 300gsm and smooth it is perfect for ATCs - I always think they should feel like 'card', not being too flimsy.

I also made use of my wonderful new Dahle trimmer, cutting the base cards to standard ATC size of 2.5 x 3.5 inches along with topper and backer cards slightly smaller at 2.25 x 3.25 inches.  Using a corner punch the corners of all the elements were rounded off. 

Being pearlised card, I like to use a permanent alcohol based ink pad to prevent any smudging of the ink once stamped,  I used Staz-On in Jet Black and it dries almost immediately on this card. 

A background, made up of flourishes and swirls, was stamped on four of the base cards. 

A different rose design was stamped on each of the topper cards. 

One of the roses was larger than the card - this was mounted a plain base card, the other toppers were mounted on the stamped base cards.

The toppers were mounted on the base cards with dimensional glue.

The figure embellishements were made using stamps with 'Fig.' and random numbers from various little stamps.  Stamping on the scraps of the pearlised card, specific areas of the stamp were inked up with a black Sharpie pen.  These were then cut out and mounted onto the topper with foam pads.

To finish off the front of the cards, self adhesive half pearls were applied.

As with most of my swaps, the card backs get some decoration too, a little collage of stamps. The backers were stamped with 'ATC', my name, blog, a 'limited edition' postmark and a rose.