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.

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