Textures Swap on ATCards

I recently joined in my first swap on ATCards Forum and sent off my ATCs to the USA and have recieved these in return.




The top one is pieces of material collaged onto card.

The middle one is by the swap host

And the bottom one is made out of threads on the card then machined - three totally different styles.

I am looking forward to the ones I should be getting from Australia in return for swap I entered my Aussie themed cards.

Bollywood?

A friend Kath, kindly send the me stamped image on this set of four ATC's (I have yet to cut it up).

It immediately made me think of Bollywood and the beautiful Saris and gorgeous colours.

I used alchohol inks - three colours - for the background on glossy photo paper, then added metallic gold ink to give it a lovely warm sheen - hard to see in this scan, so I took a photo which shows it up slightly better.

I used gold mulberry paper torn up to make the framework, and gold and pink gems to pick up the colours. Once again - it looks better 'in the flesh'.

I can't decide if I will do any more to it. I am going to see how it looks in the morning. Then I have to cut it up - on not!




This is a photo and it shows up the gilding a little better - but not all over!

Architecture Swap - For Mandy

This one was made on white card, with a rich cream backing paper which I stamped with Latin text. I carefully inked around the edges to try to give it an 'aged' look with the addition of distressed embossing powder. This I carried across to the architecture to link it all together - and to give the feel and impression of stonework. I gilded the fairy wings to give a focal point.




Black and white study on a black card which has been embossed with a black shiny powder to give the effect of pebble dashing. There is embossing on the building which highlights the fancy brickwork,arch and door.



A black and white work, with a soft white stamped background, the silver on the foreground images looks smooth and dull silver to the naked eye.



I am delighted that Mandy chosen this one as her hostess gift. For some reason you can not see the colouring.

Black card stamped with latin writing, the house I coloured with water colour pencils a pale shade of grey, the glass in the windows a soft pale yellow so that it looks like the lights are on in the house and gives it depth.

The Venus De Milo is coloured pale cream with water colour pencils and the foreground flowers are coloured yellow to mirror the windows - but slightly darker.

I had a real struggle with this theme, but am so glad that it stretched my imagination to think of ways to interpret it. And of course I had a very happy three hours or so 'playing' in my studio making them.

Bathing beauties - ATCs for an organised swap

I have been spending far to much time doing manual labour - and other things - and not spent enough time for 'myself' relaxing - so this afternoon as it was raining, I remedied the fact and spent four wonderful hours making these.

These were all monochrome photos to start with!


Having been posed in a Victorian studio, I wanted to 'blur' the fact so have altered this photo and the others, for a 'Vintage Bathing Beauty Swap' but I am not sure that they will be right for it.

The seal I stamped on - to add a bit of fun - it came from USA, I quite like the way that the the foaming sea in the background gives a nice natural seal-like texture to its back.



This one is another 'posed' photograph. I have added layers and layers of mulberry paper to give it texture and to represent a foaming sea. I spent a lot of time colouring and shading these photos - and especially the mulberry paper otherwise it would have looked flat. The stamp I used came from America.


Here is the last one - I hope they are not too 'arty farty' for the swap.



Another Victorian photo which I have 'messed about with' to make it look all wishy washy to give the feel of the seaside.

It was originally a studio shot with a plain background and she was sitting on a chair - the shoes are a giveaway clue!

Experimenting with silver, paint, and ink.

A friend Kath sent me some stamped hands - so I am trying out different ways of using them.

I painted some backing paper, and added some silver

Then I inked over the silver to dull it down a bit and to make a mottled effect with the colour combinations


After which I stamped on the ferns then collaged the hands.

The flash on the camera makes the silver look bright and shiny - but in natural light it is dull, and just adds a subtle shimmer behind the soft colours to give it a bit of depth - sometimes I find stamped image ATCs look a bit 'flat',so am trying out ideas to solve that.

Fairy Diane

The enlarged scan of the ATC




The photo of the ATC - again much enlarged

This took all morning to make - a lot of intricate work involved but hard to see on the images.

The backing paper was stamped all over with an 'Imagine' quote. Then, with a pen, I dabbed tiny golden dots all over the paper. Then embossed it.

The fairy is made up of different pictures which I have coloured with luminous pens. The fairy's body is covered in gold - and doesn't looked lined as it does in the images.

The hand she is resting on is a stamped image from Kath - thank you for those - which I have coloured and manicured!

The whole ATC has had a couple of layers of embossing put onto it, to give it a dimpled and textured effect.

For the 'Orange' themed swap

This has been photographed - both these images are very much bigger than the ATC!


And this is the scanned image.

Neither shows how it looks in 'real life' - much better.

It is softer looking - and is embossed which gives it a lovely texture.

The 'lady' started off as a nude fairy with long flowing hair - and rather volumptous!

I did some drastic 'plastic surgery' with my knife, and she ended up with having a helmet put on her head, some clothes, and I drew in a spear!

The theme for this month's swap is the colour orange

The painted background paper is a blend of orange colours and looks soft and muted - not almost luminous as the scan shows!

The Imagine quotes are stamped randomly and darker at the top then lighter further down, to enable me to stamp on a face - again at a random angle in a soft brown.

The edging is painted with water colours - and gives more of a soft blended look than the scan shows.

More experiments by me

ATCs made for an Orange Theme Swap

You will have to take my word that this looks so much better in reality.

A painted background which is a softer muted orange than this shows. Ditto the stamped wording which has been aged and distressed with chalks and inks - so looks much more subtle and muted too.

The stamped image is also softer - the darker orange has been painted and embossed to give a nice and dimpled and shiny texture to it

Again, it looks so much softer in 'real life'

ATCs made for an Orange Theme Swap

Something completely different for me.

I painted the backing paper - took ages doing several layers. A stamped fairy which I altered, and water coloured. Stamped 'Imagine' quotes which were embossed with distressed embossing powders - and then randon embossing to the ATC - shiny wings, and lettering etc.

The scan doesn't really show up the true colours.