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.

Inches x 13 The theme: Flowers

I didn't know what I was taking on when I took up the challenge of creating little works of art 1" x 1" - I thought ATCs were hard enough at 3.5" x 2.5".

All except the dried flowers have been embossed so they look like little shiny tiles - but it does not show up in the scan very well.

And these are magnified far bigger than the size they actually are!


One of my favourite flowers - Pink Echinacea



Oriental Style


Gazania



Daisy


Fuschias


Red Dahlia - where the light patches are,is where there is no embossing - looks fine though - but funny in this scan


Marigold centre - again shiny and embossed



Yellow echinacea - embossed and shiny - the bee does not look so prominent in real life - these are only 1" x 1" so very much enlarged on here.


Daisy - embossed and shiny


Morning Glory - Embossed and shiny



Layers of cut up poppy leaves on painted paper.



Stained glass - stamped and coloured, the bits drawn on it, the embossed all over




This is a tiny stem of Alchemilla Mollis which I have coloured red with chalks, mounted it on 'angels hair' paper then painted over it in gold

Just for Fun

For the backing I made my own design using alcohol inks and metallics

The chicken I copied from part of a Victorian painting, and then painted it with watercolours, then cut it out and stuck it on.

I think I have made him look rather evil - inadvertantly - with that eye of his.

Lady in Red ATC

Lady in Red - once again - not photographed very straight is it?

The stamped backing paper I coloured with chalks. I then enhanced a Victorian print, using water colours for her and chalks for her background, and I stamped an outline in red of a heart and painted that.

A simple design but it took me two hours to make - just for fun

A Greek Style Artifact

This took me a very very long time to do - but I loved experimenting with it.

Oops I photographed this a bit wonky! It is the right size and shape really.



Firstly I aged some backing paper with chalks and kept coloring it until I got the shade I liked.

I stamped the face onto another sheet of paper, and using inks, coloured it in different shades of green.

Next I did the edging - using Tim Holtz distress embossing powders in different colours, and finally I did several layers of embossing on the face leaving some spaces to highlight. On the backing sheet and on the face I did a light gold rub to give the overall effect of a slab of an aged gold artifact. I finished it off with a gold eyelet and embroidery cotton in different soft shades.

I love textures and this one feels really nice to the touch - and looks better in daylight.