Trying something new for me - ATC Swapping

Hello there. I thought I would write a quick blog post to share with you my latest crafty makes,  ATC's (Artist Trading Cards).  

The Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art group on Face Book runs one each month and now that my partner has received her cards I can share them with you.

Although I have seen these type of cards before I haven't made or swapped them before and I have found them to be a lot of fun to make.

. You work on quite a small size card 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" so its not as daunting as working on a larger blank surface.

The theme was the letter E and you could use any products you like to create your card.  

I choose to make 3 to start off with, but some people in the group can make up to 6. 

I thought I would make 3 completely different cards but I know some people like to make up a Master board (of A4 / A3 size card) of paint and stamped images then cut it up as the  base for the ATC and use slightly different embellishments or stamped images to decorate.

 Here are my  ATC's for the letter 'E'

 Top ATC- I was just going to do a mini Envelope but then thought why not make it an Easel ATC as well.Then 'E' for Elixir and 'E' for Engagement. I even made a little pink diamond ring.

Here are some close up of the ATC's.

For this one I had used Rice paper decorated with inks and stamped images. On top of that layer I stuck down some stamps and stamped images over them. I made a tiny envelope out of vellum and ran it through an embossing folder. As I had made this into an Easel ATC so I stamped and punched out flowers to make a Stop for the card.

I first of all decorated the base card with embossing paste and dripped pink and silver paint over the card. Once dry I added some ribbon to the bottom half then stamped out an image of a couple and sentiment. White and silver thread was wrapped around the image and tiny painted punched out hearts were placed down the side. The engagement ring was made out of a  jump ring and a glass bead.

Coloured blocks of inks decorated the first layer on this ATC. I then built up further layers using some G45 papers, cut out and coloured two bottles then made the middle bottle out of acetate which I coloured and added glitters on the inside of the bottle. I found a label with the word 'Elixir' and attached it to the bottle.

I hope you have enjoyed taking a look at my latest makes. Thank you for popping by and if you have enjoyed seeing my crafts please subscribe to my blog so that you get updates of when I post.

Have a great week,

Happy Crafting, Sue xx

'Explore your Creativity'

Hello to you. 

Today I would like to share a tag with you. Its one I created for a Facebook group I am part of Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art. 

We have a Fortnightly challenge called 'Explore our Creativity' and the criteria is A TECHNIQUE,  A PRODUCT  and A COLOUR. 

So for this challenge running until 22nd January the Technique is – Layering, the Product is -making your own Washi tape and the Colour is -Monochrome (Varying tones of one colour) your choice of colour and its to be done on a TAG.

Supplies used for this challenge

IndigoBlu Stamp set  - 'Mindfulness #2

IndigoBlu Paints - White Gee-Soo good & Wimberry Pie

IndigoBlu Stencil - Bubbles

IndigoBlu - Modelling Fine Paste

Tando Creative - Tag

Sharpie white Paint extra fine point pen

White Cotton Ribbon

Cheap medical paper tape (or masking tape. Don't use the low tack though)

Paintbrush

Water & spray bottle

Now onto how I put the tag together

The first thing I did was to give the tag and the tape couple of coats of Gee-S00-good to seal them and create a good base for the paints to adhere to.

I then mixed up some of the Wimberry Pie Paint with the Gee-Soo-good to get three tones of the paint to decorate the tape

 Part of the tag was painted with the Wimberry Pie paint then I used the Bubble stencil across the middle of the tag to create the next layer.

 Whilst waiting for the paste to dry I created a background paper using a wash of colour for the background then stamped images with the paint in different tones to create another layer for the tag.

 Using watered down tones of colour I let them drip down the tag then sprayed it with water to soften the colour and run between the bubbles

 The handmade Washi Tape and paper was ripped up ready to be stuck in place creating further layers.

 The odd bits of Washi tape left over were stuck onto a piece of paper which I then used to punch out a flower shape.

 The flower was built up in layers and the white pen used to add a little detail

Watered down paint was used to colour the ribbon keeping to the Monochrome theme.

 So looking at the finished tag I would say there were at least four layers, Paint, Stencilled bubbles, background paper, handmade washi tape, but of course some of these were layered up again as in the flower.

I will put on a sentiment when I know who I am going to give this to and maybe add a little bling.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and have a go for yourself.
Happy Crafting and take care.
Sue xx