F is for........... Techniques

While photographing my ATCs this month, I realised how many different techniques I had used and thought it would be an ideal blog.

The theme this month was 'F is for.....'  Initially I decided to do some needle felting but after three attempts was not very happy with them.   I certainly wouldn't be sending them off for swaps, or posting them on here!  So I reverted to a medium I am much more happy with - Paper (and Stamps of course).

Distress Ink Techniques
All of the cards and 'F's had Distress ink applied, in various colours, mostly blended with a foam applicator.  Some of the applied ink has been spritzed with water, along with 'faux bleaching' in some of the flowers in the 'Fs'.  This is simply where ink is removed by painting the desired areas with a wet paint brush and soaking up the water and ink with kitchen paper.  All of the cards were distressed further, around the edges of the cards and the 'F's with a dark brown ink to create an aged look.

Heat Embossing
Making embellishments by heat embossing stamped images is a really easy way to get matching and co-ordinated elements for ATCs and cards.  For a vintage look, bronze or aged gold are the perfect colour embossing powders.  The 'F's were prepared with bronze powder.  The image is stamped with an embossing ink, the powder is sprinked over the image, tipping the excess away, before heating with a  heat tool to melt the powder.

Altered Papers

For the Koi and swirl of water around the fish I altered some papers.  Using some thin patterned paper in yellow tones, Distress Ink in yellows, oranges and reds, were applied, blending together with a foam applicator.  Once dry, on the paler piece of paper a thin wash of Twinkling H20 paint in a neutral colour was applied, creating a co-ordinated (and cheap) pearlised paper.

Bottom - original paper
Middle - altered with yellow and orange ink, beige pearlised paint
Top - altered with orange and red ink

Masking
Although a little time consuming you can get some pleasing results with masking techniques.

I favour using Eclipse tape which is paper on a roll with repositionable glue on it's reverse, but post-its work very well too.  I made two masks for the Flowery Fan ATC by stamping onto Eclipse tape and cutting them out (these can be saved on an acetate sheet for re-use). 

To create a trio of images, the first and prominent image was stamped on the card.  When dry, the mask was placed over the top and the next image stamped.  This was masked then the final image was stamped.  The  masks were peeled off to reveal the final collection of images.

Repeat Stamping
This is a brilliant technique for beginners as you can't really go wrong.  It is also one of my favourite techniques for creating my own papers.  I have used this on most of the cards for this swap, using ferns, fleur de lys, swirls, flowers and flourishes and involves stamping a single image around the card over and over again.  It often involves stamping over the top of previously stamped images changing the orientation of the image, which can end up creating dimension even on a one-dimensional project.

Stamping off/Second impression
By inking up your stamp and stamping onto scrap paper before your actually image you can create a lighter ink colour or more subtle image.  I used this on the Forest of Ferns ATC, I don't think any two ferns ended up the same colour.  This technique often gets used for flowers when a tone-on-tone effect is required - it's a lot easier than trying to match up loads of different colour inkpads.

Paper Piecing
Paper piecing is a good way to highlight areas of a stamped image or quickly decorate an image, rather than colouring it in.  The Koi image was stamped using grey and then red on the altered papers.

The fish and the large swirl at the forefront of the image was cut out then stuck over the original stamped image on the trading card.