Bright & Bold ATC

Thought I'd go really clean on this ATC and try using block colours and no texture. I'm really having fun using bright, bold hues. As I hang the current batch of ATCs on my wall here, I'm being greeted by a rainbow of cheerful colour to start each day. Puts me in a chirpy mood first thing. However, I feel I'm ATC'd out for the moment. I'm itching to try something else. But what?...

Last Naked Torso - I Promise!

You're all probably sick of seeing this naked torso again. I promise it's the last project (for now).

It's the final of the batch I made and this time I wanted to doodle over it with my Posca paint pens. Again it's part of a heap of experiments. The background, for instance, is my attempt at stamping into texture paste. And adding gold pearl drops, which did not do what I wanted. They ran and blobbed instead. Still, the effect is not too bad.

It certainly adds a bright and cheerful piece of colourful art to my shelf. It sets me up perfectly in the mood to sit down and create, even when the light outside my window looks grey.

Because Nerds love ATCs too

This is a scheduled post. That's because on the day I'm typing this out, the little beauty above has only just gone into the post. The recipient hasn't seen it yet. But he should have by the time you're reading this.

You see, I made this for the sweetest Nerd in all the world (thx Scritti), and mixed media guru, Mark Gould. What he can't do with a brush and a pot of crackle paint, ain't worth knowing. And when I call him a nerd, it's affectionate. Go see Nerd Fitness if you disagree.  Nerds rule. I'm a nerd.

I'm a horror nerd first and foremost. There's not much in the genre I don't know about. But I do love a superhero, a comic book, graphic novels, sci-fi, my Playstation (how many times can a guy watch Tomb Raider's Laura Croft die at his own inept hands?) and so on.

And Mark, as anyone who knows him or reads his blog, will know, confesses to having a nerdy streak. So when it came to swapping ATCs with him, I thought I'd go for the superhero vibe. Red and blue - well you know who's colours they are. And a green torso, with the word Smash. Seriously, do I need to explain any further? It's as subtle as a brick to the head.

The ATC is made from MDF by Calico Crafts. The base was inked up in blue colours and stamped in black with a Seth Apter texture stamp. Then I coated it in Triple Thick gloss (an idea I learnt from Mark). I added the Smash Label, added another layer of Triple Thick and squished the torso into it before it set. Same for the top frame. The torso was clay, painted green, and varnished. I stamped black archival ink onto white tissue paper and glued this over it. The frame I covered in texture gel by Reeves (love this stuff) and painted in acrylic red. And that's all it took.

Hope he likes.

Voodoo ATCs

Hello There Lovelies

I have a couple of cards to share today, made from ATCs I created from an online class I'm taking. It's called the Voodoo That You Do by Megan Suarez. It's been a different style of online class for me as the first lesson went up a month ago, lesson two a few days ago and lesson three to come at a further unknown date.

I'm an impatient so and so and in truth, how to draw the figures and colour in the faces has now been covered. I think I can figure out the rest, so I had a go at producing a couple of them and here are my results.

The only part I missed out was the splattered paint decoration. A step into messiness too far for my tastes. And though Megan teaches how to use a circular stencil to draw the figures, I did mine by hand which is why they look more, shall we say, organic? (and not rough lol).

I was tempted to coat them in triple gloss varnish as I've seen my friend Mark Gould do but opted instead to attach them to a couple of cards. I love how vibrant the backgrounds colours become when paired with the grey of the Voodoo guys.

Haunted House ATC Swap

I've recently taken part in an ATC swap over at The Haunted Design House. No theme was given but we were instructed to "keep it creepy spooky or just out wrong ;) NO CUTE". 

So hopefully I've correctly entered into the spirit of it. I didn't go with a ghoulish skulls and zombies style design. Instead, the minx in me fancied something more with a Hammer Horror feel. A lacy corset and bloodied handprints cheekily cupped where they shouldn't be. Is that "out wrong" enough?

Hope the recipient enjoys my contribution.

Until next time

h&k

Px

No Stopping Me Now

Nothing for ages and then, all of a sudden, two posts in one day. Well this was a rapid, rough and ready craft I knocked up pretty quickly.

I've decided to be inspired by a challenge. Having seen this post by Mark Gould, and noting he has joined the design team for Fun With ATCs, I thought I'd have a go myself. I think I could benefit from the motivation of creative challenges, to lift me out of my dry spell. I shall be scouting the net for a few more I think.

Anyway, back to this one. The theme is 'Fashion' and this is what I've come up with.

It doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. The card I used wasn't exactly the smoothest grade for applying ink to and shows up much worse when scanned, than it does in real life. But in my quest to embrace imperfections a bit more, I shall leave it as it is.

Though I've been crafting for donkey's years, I still find myself slap bang in the middle of a learning curve. But hey, that's half the fun.

Till next time

h&k

Pxx

You should see what beauties I swapped these for

Saturday I went to a local crop and boy did we chill, laugh and gossip with new faces and old (& I'm not going to say whos "old" etc haha). And with all the doughnuts and biscuits people brought with them to share, how can I possibly find the will to diet! I don't have anything to show from the day (except more weight) because I took my laptop for the day and designed 2 weeks worth of LOs for my holiday album. However, I can now show these three ATCs which I made for the very sweet and adorable Karen. In return, I'm now in possession of three gorgeous ATCs containing nude ladies. Like so many others, Karen knows exactly how my mind works. Anything, odd or edgy, I love it. And I've promised not to "dump them in a box" either :D

Oh and by the way thanks to a dear anonymous friend, I can now tie bows. It's taken forty odd years to find a fellow cack hander who could patiently take me through the steps. So if you start seeing bows appearing in my projects, you'll know why :)

Back in the swing of it all

I've just returned from a fantastic holiday in France where I ate every type of cheese available and indulged in sitting on craggy rocks, listening to the soothing sounds of the waves. I'm now thoroughly refreshed and life is returning to normal. Before I went away, I joined a couple of ATC swaps so although I'm a little rusty, I've made a few of these crafty miniatures in order to meet the deadlines. I've still got a few more to make but I thought I'd show these just to get the ball rolling.

More Dorothy

With the scraps I had left over from creating the pink mini book, I decided to assemble together a birthday card and an ATC. I already had the stamped image of the lady painted up whilst I was experimenting with cosmic shimmer watercolour paints (took me a while to work out that watercolour paint works best on watercolour paper). All it required was cutting out and attaching to a collage of Dorothy papers and attaching some ribbon for texture. Couldn't be simpler especially in the wee hours when I outght to have really gone to bed haha. The card is all Dorothy papers. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the black swirly felt embellishment just made it a tad dimensional.

BTW Thanks to Fabrizio for name checking my blog in the latest Lets Make Cards magazine :)

Glam Grunge ATC

I had four ATC cards sitting in my art room which were discarded as trash. They had a variety of background plays on them which I didn't like. So in a bid to rescue them from the waste basket, I covered them all in patterned paper and started again. I added distress ink and spritzed with a homemade glimmer spray before stamping some textural images. I then versamarked a swirl stamp design and embossed with a verdigris powder. The butterfly is a die cut and I stamped the word 'garden' in black Archival ink. Finally, to finish it off, I added more glam with a gold pen around the edges.

Can't seem to get enough

of making ATCs at the moment. Such a fantastic way to play with new ideas, techniques and materials. I shamefully showed friends that though I store my own ATCs in a smart Laura Ashley Ring Binder, I house those I receive in a small unassuming tin.

It's been a busy few weeks with lots of craft shows and get togethers. I've spent a small fortune on anything that's metallic or glimmers, not to mention the stamps I just had to have. All of them are being put to good use in these ATCs. Not that I'm any quicker at making these little tinkers. At a recent crafting meet up, it took me all day to make just two. That's three hours each haha.

Anyway, amongst the materials and techniques seen in these miniature pieces are UTEE (which has been stamped into), Velvet paper (embossed with cuttlebug & inked), Paperchase's Acrylic gems, Cosmic Shimmer mists, pearl powders and a hint of my favourite miri card, ruby slipper.

Wish ATC

Thought I didn't have enough ATCs for the UKS swap but I was in error. Told you I was dosy. So I've gone ahead and made an extra one. Won't be wasted as I'll keep it for the following month. In the meantime, I was also given two lovely ATCs at the recent Port Sunny event so will need to make something nice in return. For the above ATC I used up the remaining gold and black embossed card from a previous project and added some purple ribbon bought at the show. It looked oriental to me so I grabbed some coins I had stashed away and accented with some red velveteen paper squares and gold dew drops.

Been Shopping & Playing

Yesterday I had a great time at my first ever Port Sunlight Happy Stampers show. I shouldn't have bought anything but I couldn't help myself. Lots of lovely stamps all crying out to be used. I'm weak, very very weak haha. But it was great to meet up with friends, there were 27 of the Katys Corner Stamp Group there, Karen & Michele plus the extremely talented Neet Hickson who was demoing some beautiful clay crafts on Paddys store.

The above card was made from some of my purchases and I can't wait to use the other stamps. The ATC is the second required ATC for the UKS swap. The male torso? Well that's another purchase from the fantastic Craft Range shop in Burnley. I just couldn't pass it up now could I? It is sooooo very disgracefully me. Mind, I could have spent a small fortune in there. It was recommended by the lovely Kirsty on her blog. I had another surprise too. An old friend, June, just happened to be in there. The woman who started the whole addiction off for me. It was she who bullied me into attending a scrapbook class and I haven't looked back since :) It made my day seeing her again.

Fresh Air ATC

I've signed up for a swap on UKS. Two ATCs, on any theme. So here's the first. It's a collage made from scraps of paper plus some ribbon for texture. I've used gold embossing powder at the top to give it some glam. The butterflies are from a Spellbinders die which I think is fantastic and I'm sure will be used hundreds of times. You can't see it in the photo but there's a hint of lustre on the wings from swiping over the raised area with Brilliance inks.

Rich, Sumptuous &...........Pink!!!

Now here's something to surprise a few visitors to this little ol' blog of mine. I was reminded in some article or other I've been reading recently that you need to stretch your creative boundaries every now and then to keep it fresh and interesting. I agree wholeheartedly so decided I would let go of some of my pet hates and embrace them instead. So in an attempt to start small, I created this ATC. My self imposed rules were that it had to be pink and have at least one flower. And the above is the result. Actually, I'm finding myself drawn to the recent trend of hot pink and black flock, so it wasn't too difficult to produce a design I could be happy with. Not sure I'll always use pink but it's good to know I've added another string to my bow, colour to my palette, embellishment to my stash. Oh and don't worry, I still have pet design hates. I've moved the goal posts and new ones have replaced the old haha.

Bloomin' Royal Mail Grrr!!!

Having popped the three ATCs from the previous blog into the post, they have since been lost in Royal Mail's system. However, my swapee did send three lovely ATCs to me so I couldn't fail to return the kindness. Hence why I now have three more ATCs here on show. I just need to pop the details on the back of each and then I'll try again. Think I'll try a different postbox for these ones. Our local one has always been a bit off. Best if I go into town where the main post office is. Here's crossing fingers.

Kirsty Tag & ATCs for Julie

Last week I had a fantastic day mucking about with the beautiful and talented Kirsty. She very generously swapped stash goodies with me, so I was therefore inspired to use the items she handed over in an artsy crafty project. If you are a regular follower of her blog (as indeed I am), you'll know she has been getting inky anf grungy making altered tags. Since one of the items she passed my way was a bag of tags, it seemed appropriate to make one myself to remind me of the day. I distressed it to its limits, inked it, painted it and finally added the embellishments including a pink fluffy bobble trim which I dirtied up first.

The ATCs are for Julie, who made some very kind comments and asked if she could swap with me. There was no theme, so I was allowed to let my imagination flourish. I wanted them to be all different whilst keeping some elements similar. To this purpose, the backgrounds are all from the same wallpaper collection (though not the same wallpaper). I’ve also used trim and buttons repeatedly. I have to say it takes me ages to create just one ATC, I’ll never be a quick slap it together in minutes crafter even after all these years. Good job I enjoy it and it’s so worth it as I end up preferring something I spent time on rather than knocked out in five minutes.

April ATCs

Okay after this morning's bit of silliness, I've hurriedly scanned in four more ATCs which I made over the Easter break.

I felt a bit rusty at first but I'm getting into the swing of it. I'll try and keep the momentum up and make a few more if time allows. There's certainly a mindset you get into when making them. However it feels good to make something arty using mixed media. I think it's where I'm most at home creatively speaking.

Sailing & Sea ATCs

I have an urge to make ATCs at the moment, so I'm going with the flow. There's an ATC swap for which the theme is Sailing or the Sea. That's why these ATCs are mostly blue/aqua in colour. Not very original I know. On La Sylphide I used a paper casting, a stamp and a stencil and pretty much nothing else. I enjoyed keeping this one simple. The other, Rita & Charles, is more of a collaged hotch potch, where I've added layer after layer until happy. I like the 'L' shape that the eye follows starting at Rita through to the jigsaw piece. Thankfully, it doesn't detract from the focal point of the stamped image. I'm encouraged enough to try making a few more when I next hit the craft room.

"Aspire" ATC

I've been having a little play today with my light tent. I asked Shari when she was over here how she managed to make her photographs look so professional and she told me she used a light tent. So I googled instructions on how to set one up, which is really easy and now I just need to start using it. So although it doesn't show off the full potential of the tent, I have at least made a start.

And so first into the modified cardboard box went this ATC. The background is a paper cast from a trivet I bought in Habitat. I painted it black then daubed metallic paints over it. I then assembled ribbon, embellished jigsaw piece and stamped words onto the piece and finished off with three faux brads. Yes, I've finally blogged an arty piece. Been a while I know haha.