Another Silly Collage ATC

This was another silly one I did a while back.

I used printed papers, part of a sewing pattern, printed images, inks, acrylic paints, Promarkers, white gel pen and black art pen.

A Bit More Weirdness

These are some more collage ATCs I've done.  I definitely don't think I can do collage without getting either silly or just plain weird!

A Bit of Sillyness...

...because I just can't help myself.  I can't seem to do collaged ATCs without getting silly.  I did these last night:

This one has a text background covered with gesso and ink, acrylic paint stamped with bubble wrap and rubber stamping. Collage using printed images and rubber stamped across the head, a bit of white gel pen and colouring with Promarkers.

This one has a background made from a vintage dress pattern (a bit lost under the layers) painted using watercolours, rubber stamped, with a collaged layer on top using printed images, acrylic paint, more rubber stamping and more collaged bits, with a bit of pen around the edges.

...and some more

I've had lots of fun doing these.  I like anything a bit weird and I love bright colours.  They're so much harder to do than they look though!  I created all the background bits myself using Promarkers, acrylic paints and gel pens.

A BIt of Zetti

These are a couple of ATCs I've made for a Teesha Moore inspired swap on ATCs for All.  They're my first attemtps at anything like this, and I think maybe I've gone a bit OTT on the colour, but I had to put a bit of me in there too, and I do love colour!

...and Some More!

One day I'll lear n to take a straight photo!  These are some more Friendly Plastic ATCs I've made.  The top one has a background created from book text, inks and acrylic paints with a layer of crackle medium over the top and metallic rub-on over the top of that to pick up the cracks  I've used mica flakes on the corners and a heart gem.  The wings and the FP piece at the corner were made by dragging a needle tool through hot FP, and the face was done in a mould.

This next one was done with a collaged background using various printed papers, gesso, inks and acrylic paints.  The faux stiching around the edges was drawn on using white gel pen.  This is one of my first attempts at Liz Welch's lacework technique with Friendly Plastic.

The background on this one was done using inks and acrylic paint.  I've added a layer of sparkly mesh, (yep, I still love the mesh), and some red sand around the edges (very cheap from Ikea, but I'm sure it would be easy to make your own since the ingredients are listed as sand and acrylic paint).  I've cheated on this one and used stick on letters, but in retrospect I think it may have looked better with the word "hot" painted on.  The FP sun was done in a mould and I shaped the swirly bits by hand.

I'm very unsure about this last one as I think the FP flowers are competing for attention with the tree.  I might have to pull it apart and use the flowers on something else.  The flowers were made using a mould and the leaves are lacework again.  The background is inked and the tree is stamped and highlighted with a white gel pen.  I made this one when I was tired, and I think it shows!

Found Poetry

These are for a found poetry swap I've joined on the ATCs for All forum.  The idea of found poetry is that you take a page from a book/magazine/leaflet etc and take words from it to make poetry.

The top one uses words from an article about insititutionalised prisoners in the Legal Executive Journal.  (In my defence, I did read it before I cut it up!)  Matt says it could be about me.  I'm not sure quite what he's getting at, but if he wants to think I'm still 30, that's fine by me!

I used a page from an old children's encyclopaedia for the background which tells you how to renovate your stockings!  Why a child would want to know about that I really don't know.  I used Distress inks for the background and spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer spray (which doesn't show up in the picture.  I stamped over it and highlighted with a white pen then hand stitched around the edges. 

For the second one, I used alcohol inks on the background with a bit of gold mixative.  The background is a letter Sudoku puzzle.  Again I stamped and highlighted the background then added the image and words and stitched around the edges.  This one and the bottom one use words from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

The third one is an inked and stamped background with a bit of acrylic paint added over the top and then a layer of book text.  I added the image and words and then stitched around the edges.  For this one, I have used words from a nasty excuse for a book which was free with a women's magazine I bought years ago.

Umm... not sure how this pink one crept in!  This one has a collaged background which is inked and then acrylic painted.  I added the image and words and then stamped the swirl on some acetate, alcohol inked the other side and then stitched it over the top.  I've used black and white pens on all of these to highlight the images and words.

I've had a bit of a crazy week with one thing and another, so am trying to cram in as much arty stuff while I still have the time.  Both my boys are at school all day now and I am returning to work full time a week on Monday - aaargh!  I have a feeling I will be very tired for the next few weeks until I get used to full time work again, and unfortunately I fear I may have even less time for arty pursuits.  Sadly there are just not enough hours in the day.

I'm off to the HSNW Rubber Stamp Festival tomorrow and, sod's law, I have come down with a nasty cold today.  Fingers crossed I will feel a bit better in the morning.

Haunted Houses

Well, it's that time of year again, so here are some halloweeny house shaped ATCs. The backgrounds are done using emboss resist for the cobwebs and inking and stamping. I've also spritzed them with a bit of water for a grungy effect. I've added a bit of Stickles on some of the cobwebs to make them sparkle.

The rest of it is collage using a combination of printed images, stamping and a few hand drawn elements.

My youngest son is in school full time from next week, so I'm hoping to find the time to do something other than ATCs. I've also banned myself from joining any more swaps until I've got my journal pages done for those I still owe them to, so hopefully that will inspire me if nothing else does!

Eggs & Nests

These are some collaged ATCs I've made for a swap on ATCs for All.

Still none of my messy stuff as it's mostly still in boxes. :(

One Extreme to the Other

After all the dark and weird stuff I've been doing lately I thought it was time for a change, so here are a few pretty ones (but a bit grungy too - I CAN'T do proper pretty).

Smellis!

These are Smellis, named after their inventor Smellihelli (who needs to update her blog). They are made using a 10cm (4 inch) protractor as a template. These were done for a swap organised by Helli on the DoCrafts forum,

















with the idea being that each person in the group chooses a theme and everyone makes them a Smelli on that theme and sends it to them. These are my Smellis on the themes of oriental, garden quotes, travel and buildings.

Feeling Silly

I was in a bit of a silly mood last night and decided to make some ATCs. These are the results.

They're all rubber stamped and collaged.

Little Houses

I've made these for a mini house swap being hosted by Carol (who's just started a new blog), on the Docrafts forum. They are ATC sized, with the whole house (including the roof) fitting inside the size of an ATC.

For the top one, I stamped text on the background, added some texture using moulding paste which I then stamped into, gave it a coat of gesso and inked over it. Then I added the image, lace, buttons, fibres and paper flowers.

The second one has an inked and stamped background and I've created a collage using various printed images, lace, paper flowers and brads.

The next one was done in much the same way as the second, but using a different colour combination.

Finally I created my last house using pewter acrylic paint which I heated to create some texture then dry brushed it in copper. I stamped the images on tissue paper and stuck them on with Mod Podge. Then I freehand embossed some copper for the roof, painted it with black acrylic and sanded it to give it a distressed appearance, and finally added the copper chain and micro beads to finish it off.

Think Monday Think ATC - Ice Blue

This is my ATC for this week's Think Monday Think ATC, the theme of which is ice blue. I decided to use the colour but do a non-icy ATC, plus the shell stamps were sitting in my drawer unused, which wasn't right!

It's an inked and stamped background, with a bit of Cosmic Shimmer spray which doesn't show up too well in the photo. The rest of it is a collage made from various printed images.

Happy Birthday Cindy!

This is what I made for Cindy for her birthday. I know I'm a few days late saying happy birthday, but I didn't want to post a picture until I knew she'd seen it.

I won't go into full details of how I made it, but I've used rubber stamping, a gel medium image transfer, moulding paste which I've stamped into, acrylic paints, a plastic lizard, fabric, buttons, Liquid Pearls, paper roses, sticky ribbon, a watch face, wire and some micro beads (I think that's everything but there may be one or two other things that I've forgotten about).

Altered Playing Cards

I made these for a swap being hosted by Carol V on DoCrafts. The top one was made using two different types of image transfer. The background is book text which I coloured using distress inks. I then added the flowers using a Mod Podge image Transfer technique. The main image is a gel medium image transfer onto a piece of linen, and Iadded some cut out flowers at the corners. I actually changed this slightly after I took the photo by the addition of the words "little flower", but I'm far too lazy to take another photo (and it's too dark anyway), so you'll just have to imagine what it looks like.

I'm a bit disappointed because I ordered some new gel medium and some texturising and modelling pastes which I had hoped to play with today. I had an email telling me they were posted first class yesterday, so spent most of today looking out for the post office van because they never ring the doorbell. Well, it turned up eventually - during the half hour in which I was out picking up the boys from school! I have spent tonight practically begging Matt to go to the sorting office for me in the morning because I'm in work for the rest of the week and won't be able to go until Saturday.

Anyway, back to the ATCs. On the second one, I alcohol inked the corners of the card. (They're shiny cards and it was the only thing I could get to stick). I again added book text for the background and coloured it with distress inks. I cut out the circles and inked them in distress ink as well, then stuck them down and spritzed the whole thing with water so the ink woudl run a bit around the edges of the circles. I cut out the image of the little boy and stuck him on and then cut out the jester's hat from pieces of book text and inked it. Finally I stuck some more inked book text to the back of the metal star, added the works "little star" and attached it using a brad.

For the last one, I again used book text and distress ink for the background, and then layered on some paper that I created whilst experimenting with Mica powders a couple of days ago. It's done in the same way as the backgrounds on my mica powder ATCs below but using a light beige coloured paper. I then layered on the musical notes, the picture of the girl, the crown and the words and added a heart gem to finish it off.

Umm... I think I've caught prettyitis again. Pink and flowers in two ATCs in one day! Does anybody know a good cure?

Think Monday Think ATC: Angels

These are my ATCs for this week's challenge on TMTA.

This week's theme is Angels. I couldn't decide whether to do a stamped angel or whether to use a Victorian angel picture, so I decided to do one of each.

The stamped ATC has a background made using resist embossing, distress inks and water.

The Victorian angel ATC has an inked and stamped background, lace and printed images, and also a flourish stamped and embossed with sparkle embossing powder which doesn't show up very well in the scan.

Think Monday Think ATC - Staples

This is my ATC for this week's TMTA. The theme is staples. - some staples must be included somewhere on the ATC. I enjoyed this challenge as I've never used staples on an ATC before.

I created the background for this one using gesso and distress inks and stamped some text onto it. I layered on some text from a book page and some mesh (also coloured with distress inks), then stapled down the side. I distressed the staples, the brad and the metal heart using distress embossing powder and a Sharpie Pen to create the illusion of rust, then added the various elements.

(Sorry for the poor quality picture. I've scanned it so it's a bit blurry in places. I'll try and get a better one tomorrow when I've had time to read the instructions for my new camera!)