ATC 'Life'

I took this photo last night - maybe I should have waited for daylight.

Another ATC inspired by our walk by the sea yesterday.



On mountboard again, sponged blended colour background. Starting with pale blue, then yellow, then graduating down with dark and darker blues, yellow and then brown over that for the sand - and yes the sand was that colour yesterday - wet from the waves.

If the click the photo it will enlarge it to see more detail. The boy is a Paper Artsy mini stamp, and I coloured him in several layers of watercolours, and used flesh colour oil pastels for his face, arms, legs and feet - although it doesn't see to show up in the photo.

I use blogging to keep a visual record of what I have made - disasters and success - just to allowing me to see what worked, what didn't, and if I am improving or not.

ATC Sunshine

Whilst sorting out my stamps for storage, I discovered a Paper Artsy plate that I bought second hand last year.

As we had just got back from a walk in the sunshine on the coast, I thought I would have a go using it.



I cut an ATC out of mountboard and applied and blended shades of yellow red and orange inks, to create 'heat'.

I stamped on the Sun image plate, then painted the 'petals' with Ecoline gold ink.

Once dry I used a Krylon 18kt gold pen on top give extra emphasis on the 'leaves' around the eye. To not only suggest the gold of the sunshine, but also of 'eyelashes'.

I finished it off by outlining the ATC with Krylon gold pen. It looks rather vibrant in the sunlight and really gleams and glitters with the golds.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Fly me to the moon ATC

After sorting out some of my stamps, I tried out one of my 'new to me' second hand stamps and made this ATC. I haven't made any for ages. I am existing on just three hours sleep today, so didn't want to take on too big a task.

As usual, click photos to enlarge


As usual the photography leaves a lot to be desired, this is much brighter in daylight and the image has been embossed with clear embossing powder to make it 'leap' off the page.




I have used mountboard again - a great surface to work on, and have been practicing stippling and blending.

More inspiration from Craft Stamper Magazine.

In this month's issue, as well as lots of good ideas, and techniques, they had a very useful tip for storing stamps.

As I have bought some second hand ones very recently I thought I might have a go at their storage ideas.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually some of the things so didn't have to improvise.

I did these on Sunday morning before we went away for the night.

These are ATC sized stamps I bought from MADJAK.

The remainder of the MADJAK plates, and a dragon fly.

The above are some of the ones I just bought second hand.

It took ages to do, as I had to stamp them, if I didn't have an image of them, and then laminate the images, cut them up and put them into the pockets.

These are ones that came from Elusive images - in their sale a while back.


More second hand ones from various places


And yet more

I still have some I need to do, but think I will just tackle a page at a time.

But it is a great idea, and they take up much less room than having them in a box or video boxes, and by cutting up the plates and displaying them this way - you get to see all your stamps.

And guess what - I used a couple.

Another piece of work inspired by Jo.

As I had a bit of ink still in my misters, I decided to use it up on a couple of pieces of mount board.



I think these turned out better than yesterday's attempt. I gave them two coats of spray. One with the raffia on and one without - so they have more depth.

I think they look nice just as they are - and I wish I had left them that way, because I messed one up. The best one too! But that is all part of learning a technique and what works and what doesn't. And these are on free bits of mount board so cost nothing to make.


The colours on this side do look better in real life - as you can tell by the above close ups. I stamped this one first with a Morning Glory stamp as the colours reminded me of them.

I decided that this would be the back cover, as I thought the stamping needed to be darker - so using a different stamp, I inked it up and stamped in black - as per yesterday's little coaster book.

What a mistake that was! It was way too much of a contrast with the soft colours of lime and blue. I was so cross with myself.

But I reminded myself that I am using these notebooks to try out these techniques so it didn't matter. These chunky books are made using photocopy paper that was given to me by one of my sons, and is not really suitable for stamping on.

I did 'rescue' the other piece by covering it with a piece of coloured card, spraying what was left of the blue and green - you can see a shimmer of it in daylight close up but not in the photo.


I played safe and stamped tone on tone with blue.

In hindsight, I think that the first cover looks too fussy with the lettering background - which should have been a paler colour, and the morning glory stamped image should have been in a darker shade of blue - had I had one.

I think the reason that the black stamped image worked fine yesterday, was because it was on a smaller area - but on an area twice as long, with the stamp being twice as long too - it was just looked too harsh against the soft colours.

The chunky notebook has turned out well overall, and the recipient can choose which side they like the best as the pages are plain inside.

The pages are 8cm x 17cm which just happens to be the size the A4 paper cuts up nicely in the Dreamkutz machine. The mount board is 1cm larger all round.

Having a go at Jo Capper-Sandon's Technique - for Created by Hand challenge.

I spent all morning gardening, and was shattered, but thought I would have another look in the Craft Stamper Magazine to see if something would spark off my mojo and get me enthusiastic again.

There on the front page in the right hand corner something caught my eye. It is on page 54 and 55.

As per usual I have had to improvise - but it cheered me up doing so. The only thing I had on the list were beet mats - real ones - that my friend Kath has sent me to alter. I had already painted them with Gesso to hide the advertising, so I was up and running.

I won't go through all Jo's techniques etc - you can read those for yourselves - but here is my effort.


I didn't have those gorgeous stamps so used a couple which I did have.
I didn't have glimmer mists, so using Ecoline inks I made up a lime green and pretty blue in misters.

I did have raffia - from flower arranging - so used that to wrap around the beer mat.
I didn't have the printed acetate circles that Jo used - so made one myself which was perfect until I glued it onto the mat.

I placed a coffee mug on acetate and drew around it with a pen, then did the squiggly bit free hand. BUT when I glued it down using Tim Holtz clear glue (forgotten the name momentarily), it reacted to the ink and went all messy. In hindsight it would have been better to have the inked side of the circle uppermost!

As Jo was going for the 'grungey' look with hers, I figured the circle could be grungey too. Besides, it had taken so long to do the mat - which I was pleased with, I wasn't in the mood to start again.


I had another go at the next beer mat, and was pleased with how it turned out.
Outside the sky had turned black and the natural light was going, so instead of making four mats, I used these two to make a little shopping list book.
This book does look better in daylight - and the colours are richer than my rushed photos portray

I cut up some scrap photocopy paper I had, a bit more than I had intended, so the book is really chunky now. But I will be tearing pages out as I go.
So what's my verdict on Jo's article.

Well

It is a great technique, fun to do, and one I will definitely be doing again. If I had taken the time to prepare, think of a design, etc my attempt would have been a lot better. And if you have the 'proper' supplies listed - then it will be a doddle!

But - my motive today was just to do something as a distraction - and I am pleased with how it turned out - but I can do very much better if I tried.




Thanks for the inspiration Jo