An Altered Microscope Slide, Alcohol Inks and Stamping into UTEE

First flowers, now pink! I'm not sure what's going on here. Anyway, to make this one, I made an alcohol inked background and stuck it onto mountboard. I then stamped the image onto a microscope slide, alcohol inked the back of it and wrapped it in aluminium mesh. I added three layers of UTEE over the alcohol inked background, dropped the mesh-wrapped slide into it and then stamped the writing at the side into the UTEE. The writing has a slightly faded appearance because I used Stazon ink and had to ink up the stamp before I heated the UTEE due to the time constraints of having to drop the slide into the UTEE AND stamp into it before it cooled. I was originally planning to drop the accent beads into the UTEE as well, but didn't have time to do this before it cooled (and my stamp was in the way), and I didn't want to risk reheating before I stamped in case I cracked the slide (although in retrospect that might have given a nice effect in itself). I added the accent beads when it had cooled using PVA glue and then added the paper flowers (yes, I'm still at it), and attached them with brads. This is another possible contender for the mesh swap.

Friendly Plastic, More Mesh and Shaving Foam

This one's another possible contender for my mesh swap, but I haven't decided yet. It's Friendly Plastic oozed through sinamay mesh and layered onto more FP and some sparkly mesh. I made the background a while ago using shaving foam marbling.

Another ATC for my Mesh Swap

This is one I finished tonight and managed to get a picture of before it got too dark. I've called it Alien Ant. The body is made from Friendly Plastic oozed through aluminium mesh, with FP legs and wire antennae with seed beads on the ends. The background is made from aluminium mesh and decorative granules stuck on with PVA then painted over with black acrylic and metallic rub-ons over the top. The photo doesn't show up the background colours well, but I've used rub-ons in pewter, pink and gold.

Gothic Beauty ATC

This one's for my mesh swap. I started with a piece of ATC sized aluminium mesh which I edged with aluminium duct tape. I then coloured a piece of acetate using alcohol inks and stamped the image on the opposite side. I was going to leave it with with just the mesh and acetate but the colour didn't show up very well, so I layered the acetate and mesh onto a piece of white card and fastened the layers together with silver brads.

Think Monday Think ATC - Hands

This week's challenge on Think Monday Think ATC is Hands. The hand is a stamped image and I've masked it and inked and stamped around it, then coloured some of the details on the hand using ink from the same inkpads and stuck on some tiny gems and the words down the side.

Dans Ma Maison Il y a du Soleil

In my house there is the sun. This is my effort for this week's challenge on the Dans Ma Maison challenge blog. It's not turned out quite how I'd envisaged, and I can't decide whether I like it or not, so it might get painted over at a later date!

Some More Silly Ones

OK, I have a bit of a problem. I recently discovered the Prima Bitty Bags, full of lots of different types of small flowers, and consequently I seem to have developed a bit of an addiction to them. I LOVE them! You're probably now wondering what the problem is. Well, the problem is that I don't DO pretty. Don't get me wrong, I do like pretty, when it's done well, but I like it when other people do it. It's just not my thing.
Anyway, I'm guessing that's why these two ATCs ended up being a bit silly. I just seem to rebel against anything that may be considered too girly! (Maybe it's time I grew up, but that's so boring).

Father's Day

This is a photo frame and a card I've made for my dad for father's day. I don't make many cards any more, so this is the first one I've done in a while. The photo frame is made from mountboard which I've stuck bits of paper on, painted with gesso and coloured using distress inks. The letters are cut from mountboard, inked, stamped and covered with two layers of UTEE, and the photo is of my two little boys.

Think Monday Think ATC - Round

This week's theme on Think Monday Think ATC is round - there must be something round on the ATC, so I've decided

to make an ATC for a swap I'm hosting on the theme of holes, where the idea is that there must be at least one hole all the way through the ATC which is incorporated into the design. I've named him Junkyard Jim and have made all of him apart from his head from bits of scrap metal that I've found in the street. (Yes, I'm that strange woman you see that walks down the street picking up bits of other people's rubbish!) His body is made from what I think might be an old pipe joint and I've cut a hole behind it so you can see right through him. I've photographed him on my keyboard so you can see the effect but I had to use the flash and there was a lot of glare so I've also taken a separate photo on white paper with better light.

Black and White

I made these ATCs this afternoon for a black and white themed swap I've joined. I love working with black and white because I think it's something that very few people (myself included) do really well and I enjoy the challenge.
The two top ones are simply stamped and collaged, with stamped baclgrounds and images.

The bottom ATC was originally intended to be stamped into UTEE but didn't turn out very well. I was looking for a stamp that I thought would work well with half black on white and half white on black. It does as you can see,
but what I failed to take into account was how well it would work (or not work) with the UTEE, and the stamp was far too detailed to work well with the UTEE. I'm not one to throw anything away if I can help it, so I ended up with a stamped image on a UTEE background, embellished with some more of my new flowers.

Men ATCs and Some Experiments with Stamping and Layers

I've joined a men themed ATC swap so decided to experiment with some stamping and layers, as I think some of my stamping looks a bit boring. The top one was the most complicated. I started by stamping the text background in blue and then added some torn pieces of book pages over the top. Next I painted a thin layer of gesso over the top of that as I didn't want the text to show too much through the main image. I then inked over the top using blue and brown inks and stamped the main image in brown. To give it a bit more interest, I then stamped the image again in blue on light blue papers, tore bits off and stuck them over the brown image, adding a bit of blue and brown ink to blend them in a bit more. Finally I added the flower at the top because nobody uses flowers with men and I like to be different (well, that and I got some new paper flowers).

For the second one, I started by inking the background in olive green, gradually getting lighter towards the middle. I then masked off a section in the middle and inked around the edges in brown. I stamped the background over that in olive green and then stamped the main image in black. Then I stamped the main image on a separate piece of card in olive green, coloured it olive green to match the main background, cut out the butterfly and stuck it on. Finally I added a couple of flowers to this one too.

Experiments with UTEE

I've found with my new heat gun that UTEE is much easier to work with (and there's a lot less waste and mess too, i.e. it doesn't blow away and end up all over the house, in my coffee, down my top and everywhere else), so it's opened up a whole lot of new opportunities. (It looks more shiny too as I don't have to keep addiong more Versamark between the layers to keep it stuck down). Anyway, I've been experimenting the last couple of days and these are some ATCs I came up with. For the top one I've started with a stamped image on an alcohol inked background , then added a mountboard frame which I've painted and added some metallic rub-on to. I then added a single layer of UTEE over the frame and sponged a bit of brown stazon ink around the edges. I've found that the new heat gun has so little blow to it that I can actually leave the UTEE loose and heat it without it blowing away, so I then sprinkled some UTEE inside the frame to cover the stamped image and heated it. There were a few little gaps so I just filled these in with a bit more UTEE adn heated it again. As I'd hoped, the Stazon I'd added on the frame bled into the UTEE to give the frame a distressed appearance, and my picture looks like it has a layer of glass over it.
With the seahorse the mesh is actually inside the UTEE. I started with a black mountboard background which I coloured using Radiant Rain Sprays, (again, the colours are a bit brighter than they appear in the picture as the light was fading a bit when I took it. I haven't yet mastered the art of photographing UTEE with the flash, and am not sure I ever will, LOL). I also coloured the mesh with the Radiant Rain sprays and then stuck it onto the background, quick-dried it with the heat gun because I'm impatient, and added three layers of UTEE over the top, then stamped the image into it with black Stazon.

Another Stampbord Pendant

This is a stamped image on Stampbord with an inked background. I've scratched bits away to create highlights but unfortunately the photo was taken in bad light so it doesn't show up too well, and also the colours are brighter than they look. I've added a couple of layers of UTEE over the top to portect the image.

More Mesh!

This is one I made on Saturday. I can't tell you how I did the background because it's not my idea (I'm not copying it, it was suggested to me), so it will have to remain a secret for the time being at least. I've used sinamay mesh which I've painted gold and a head made from Makins Clay and covered with gold embossing powder. The wings and the starts along the bottom are Paperartsy German Scrap.

More Mesh!

This is another ATC I've made using mesh. As I'm so obsessed with putting various types of mesh all over everything at the moment I'm hosting a swap on the theme of mesh in the hope of getting it out of my system! I wonder if it will work?

Anyway, this ATC is probably going to be one of my ATCs for the swap. I've used sinamay mesh (thank you Mandy!) and sequin waste on the background, and some copper mesh around the face. The tape at the top and bottom is actually copper, although it looks more of a gold colour in the picture.

Pencil Drawing

I blame Paula for this, er... I mean thank you you Paula for inspiring me to do some pencil drawing for the first time in years! (Seriously, I did enjoy doing it very much). This is pretty much the first pencil drawing I've done since leaving school lots of years ago, so I'm a bit rusty, but I don't think it's too bad. It's ATC size as I'm hoping to swap it with Paula (LOL).

I've drawn it from a photo of a Roman statue of Apollo, but my picture looks much less angelic and more manly than the statue. I think it looks more like David Hasselhoff in his Baywatch days, yeek! Ah well, never mind. At least it looks like a man.

Vintage Flowers ATCs

These were made using stamped images and backgrounds and distress inks.

Dans Ma Maison Il y a Du Métal

In my house there is metal.

I've been dying to make one of these little houses ever since I first saw them, so when I came across the Dans Ma Maison challenge blog I decided to give it a go. This week's challenge is to include metal.

I did the embossing for this first. The metal I've used is from the bottom of a disposable aluminium tray and has a slightly embossed pattern. The main image was done using a Paperartsy stamp which I embossed, folded over the edges and then painted with black acrylic paint and wiped off with a sponge to create the tarnished look. I did the same thing with the chimney and the strip underneath the roof. For the strip under the roof I also embossed it to look like it was riveted. My house is made from mountboard. I did the background using Cosmic Shimmer Powders in various metallic shades, (unfortunately the shimmer doesn't show up very well in the photo), and them stamped over it. I added some silver embossing powder around the edges and then added my metal bits and some aluminium mesh on the roof (which I also added some acrylic paint to to make it look old).

I'm quite pleased with how my embossed image has turned out - it's probably my best so far - but I still have a lot to learn!