ATC - Dolls

These two dolls (Purple Polly and Orange Olive) are on a smaller scale to the others I’ve made - so they can fit onto an ATC. Well that’s what's supposed to happen but due to a … design fault shall I call it … Polly’s legs can’t quite make it pass her skirt! Just as well really in view of the lack of any underwear!!

I found some wired ribbon in my stash and it’s ideal to use for skirts since it can be manipulated into folds without the need for any stitching! I did stitch Olive’s skirt at the top onto her body and her legs are free to move so she fits nicely onto the ATC. With Polly however, I glued her skirt at the sides so therefore restricting her movement. Oh well, I’ll know for the next time (if I remember that is!)

For the faces on these two I used only chalks and watercolour pencils for the features (no pens) and the effect is much more subtle - I think I prefer that - for now anyway.

Another Distressed Gesso Background

This ATC I made is for a Yahoo group I'm in (New Inspirations) and is for this month's lottery. I had to choose this month's theme as I was lucky enough to win last month's lottery ATCs (vintage children). I picked 'Musicals - past or present' as the theme and I decided to base my ATC around 'My Fair Lady' with the luvverly Eliza doolittle - one of my favourite musical films.

The background is torn pieces of musical score, then layers of gesso and inks. I like the grungy look of this in contrast to the clean cut image of Eliza - which I thought was quite fitting to the story of the film!

Distressed Gesso Background Technique

The current theme on the MAMMA group over on Flick is to make ATCs with a distressed background using Gesso and inks as described by Trish Bayley in her great tutorial.

The theme was 'Friends' but of course I overlooked that and was merrily making some ATCs using this technique using some rubber stamps with vintage adverts on them - doh! I made a couple more with a friendship theme too! My efforts are shown above.

ATCs - Babywipe Backgrounds

This week's challenge/swap on MAMMA was a technique rather than the usual theme. The technique being 'Watercolor on Baby Wipes' from Bernie Berlin's book called 'Artist Trading Card Workshop' We also had to use words on our ATCs.

This was such an easy technique - basically place a sheet of kitchen roll or scrap paper on your table, lay on top of it a clean baby wipe. Drop or brush on some watercolour paints or ink and watch the magic happen - the paint/ink spreads into the wet babywipe and the colours merge. Once the babywipe has dried it can be stuck onto an ATC base, or stitched even as it has a fabric like texture. The piece of kitchen roll, or paper you had underneath the babywipe can also be used too.

I used Brusho watercolour inks on my babywipes and loved their intensity of colour. Once the babywipes had dried they did fade a bit, but once the gel medium I used to stick them onto my ATC bases hit them, a lot of the colour returned.

My entries for the MAMMA swap were just a simple collage as I didn't want to cover too much of the lovely backgrounds up. I've since made a few more with a bit more detail to them. (They are all on my Flickr photostream individually for a better view of them)

I love this challenge and hope there will be more to come like it.

Easter at MAMMA's

This week's theme over at MAMMAs Flickr group is 'Easter' and the challenge is to make an ATC using the template drawn by another member of the group Tracey AKA Angellea whose own ATC can be seen here.

Once I'd figured out how to attach the top and bottom parts of the egg to the backing ATC (with ribbon sandwiched between card)I really enjoyed making my ATC - although it is rather plain compared with some of the others so far made on the group.

For the outside I painted the egg with MiniMezze paint (Pacific colour). This is a lovely paint as it has a gorgeous metallic sheen to it. I then rubber stamped in a light blue colour all over, then coated it with a crackle glaze. Once that had dried and been cracked, I rubbed some metallic rub on so some of it seeped into the cracks. The outside was then finished off with a lovely vintage image from another collage Flickr group.

Inside the image again came from the collage group. The egg was painted with Folk Art paint colour Taffy and lightly rubber stamped. The Happy Easter greeting at the bottom was rubber stamped in gold and embossed.

I'm thinking this template could be adapted to make other shapes - it's nice to make an ATC which holds a surprise for the receipient once opened up!

Art Freebies Challenge

This week's challenge on June's Art Freebie blog was to use an image of some papyrus. I knew papyrus was a type of old paper but I looked it up and discovered that it is 'thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant and first manufactured in Ancient Egypt'.

With this in mind I decided the use the image as a background to the Egyptian Pharaoh 'Amenhotep' (yes, I looked that up too - lol!). So it's a beeswax collage - the first layer is dark gold coloured tissue, then the image (after cutting parts of it away), then the Pharaoh and his name (covered again with some of the tissue to cover up the white paper) - all adhered with the beeswax and finally some gold ink around the edge to give a slight border.

It's turned out a bit green due to my printer ink running low - I quite like the effect though and it blends with the dark gold tissue.

Art Freebies

Art Freebies is a new blog created by June who each week is going to post a freebie image for us to use in a challenge - we can make anything and in her words "as long as you use this image in your work in some way. ATC'S, COLLAGE, CARDS,TAGS, ALTERED ART, DIGITAL, ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING"

The freebie image this week is of Lady Macbeth. I have made a simple ATC by first sticking on the image then making a 'peeling paint' effect background using petroleum jelly and acrylic paint (smear on the jelly, then paint straight over the top and once the paint is dry, wipe over with a dry cloth and the jelly acts as resist.) The quote 'what's done, is done' is from Macbeth (Act 3, Scene 2)and was said by Lady Macbeth to her husband who was distraught after having murdered King Duncan at her instigation. I thought the red peeling paint effect represented all the blood shed in the play.

A quick 'n' easy ATC

This week's MAMMA theme is 'Mona Lisa'. Using an unmounted stamp of the lady herself, pressed directly into a petal point ink pad a nice effect was created. I rubber stamped some text onto the base and coloured it with some grey pastel and edged it with the same petal point dye ink. The Mona image was then mounted onto the base with some foam pads and a dymo strip 'Smile' completed it.

An Indian themed week

This week's MAMMA ATC swap was 'India - An Asian Experience'. Here is my entry 'Indian Dancer' who is bedecked in some beautiful fabrics and wearing a very exotic head piece. This gave me an excuse to rifle through my little box of sumptious fabrics, mesh, glitter threads and the like. I must say thank you to Lubna though for the exquiste piece of fabric she once sent me, which I have used here as the dancer's sari.

ATCs from Famous Works of Art!

A new group has just been formed over on Flickr by Melody (AKA artsy fartsy queen) called Famous Works of Art ATCs . The idea is every Monday, Melody will challenge everyone to, and in her words 'recreate famous works of art on an ATC. Not an exact copy of it necessarily but your interpretation of the famous piece' For this first week's challenge the work of art she has chosen is Leonardo da Vinci - 'Lady with an Ermine in Cracow'.

Seeing as I'm a complete philistine I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of this piece before - so thank goodness for the internet - I could read all about it on Wikipedia.

So it appears the 'Lady' with the ermine may have been a young girl of about 16 called Cecilia Gallerani who was the mistress of Leonardo's employer Ludovico il Moro, the Duke of Milan. She is holding a pet ermine (thought to have been associated with aristocracy although it is also believed to have actually been a white ferret instead!)

I chose to give the image of the painting the Bernie Berlin treatment - using her technique for altering magazine images, by using gesso, acrylic paints and pens. I called my ATC 'A Present from Luddy' - as I thought maybe Cecilia had been given the pet by her lover Ludovico.

I'm glad I joined this new group now as not only is it fun to play around with the works of art (so to speak), but I can also learn a little bit about them (may come in useful in quizzes - told you I was a philistine!!)

More MAMMA challenges

Here are the three ATCs I made for the last three MAMMA challenges.

Theme: Birds - I decided to use the plain old pigeon and sit him on the steps of St Pauls Catherdral in London. I used a background print of St Pauls and overlaid some of the words of the song 'Feed The Birds' from the film Mary Poppins (one of my all time faves!) by packing tape transfer method. The old pigeon has been printed, cut out and glossy accented .... wonder if he got any food!

Theme: Triptych (the Cambridge dictionary defintion is "a piece of art made of three paintings connected to each other in a way that allows the two outer ones to fold in towards the larger central one" - saves me the trouble of trying to explain what one is! I called this one 'Wartime Waifs' and used some old corrugated cardboard which I tore random parts away from to create a distress look. On the central inside panel I also cut out a recess square which I was going to place a picture in, but that didn't work. I coloured the whole thing with some acrylic paint and distress inks and also used some distress embossing powder which gave a nice, rusty, aged effect. I attached some pictures of wartime children and added a couple of tags (again distressed by creasing and inking)with string.

Theme: Zettiology If you don't know what this is (and I didn't until recently it's... well... weird! There is a group on Flickr dedicated to this which may explain all. So my ATC which I've called 'Dressed To Impress' is my weird, but pretty zetti creation. It started off with a stripey heart shaped piece of handmade paper which I tweaked a bit with the scissors to create a curvy shape, then I decorated the base card with a lot of stripes and wavey shapes using some Sharpie pens. I stuck on the heart, painted a face and neck and drew in the facial details with the pens again (highlighted with bit of Stickles). The final touch with a hat (which was part of the heart I cut off from the body). Zetti is not really my thing, but I did enjoy making this one nonetheless.

Shrine to Sheba

I made this following a brilliant tutorial by Ange (AKA Agnes The Red) Altered Art Project which was to alter an ATC incorporating a window shrine. This sounded complicated but was actually very easy to do. More details may be also be found on Ange's SIS Flickr group.

As Ange's tutorial is very comprehensive I won't go into great detail on the construction here, but will say how I decorated it. I covered the whole thing in tissue paper (glued it on with PVA). Once dry I used acrylic paint dabbers in gold and silver all over. Inside the recess I smeared some Platinum Stickles (from Ranger). I used some lettering on small silver discs for Sheba's name and part of her collar as the red edging at the top and bottom of the ATC. The crown at the top is cut from Grungeboard and onto it is stuck a small acrylic crown. This was originally going to be pasted onto Sheba's head, but it would have obscured her little ears!

I printed off a picture of Sheba and added some wings (with a touch of sparkle). Into the recess I hung her name tag and little red bell so they will always be safe.

The shrine is a little over the top but a fitting tribute to our wonderful little dearly departed Sheba x

Maggie's Monday Musings - first swap of 2009

MAMMA's first theme of the new year is 'Man/Men' which she says "In honour of John, who has to put up with soooo much from all us ladies" John being the only man in the group has to put up with a lot of stick from some of the ..... 'ladies'.... in the group - lol. He is a very good sport though and it has to be said sometimes even encourages us!!!!

My ATC for the swap is called 'So Macho?' The background was made using the TypoGenrator site. For the man I've used the top half of another ATC doll pattern (he is legless - haha!!) I coloured his torso and arms with some pastels and he even has a bit of a six pack (although I'm not sure it shows up much in the photo) He is sporting a very fetching off the shoulder net vest and some fun fur underpants and matching arm bands). Is he macho? Well, I'll let you decide. As for John, well having never met him in person, I really wouldn't like to comment!!!

Image Transfer ATC

Inspired by image transfers done by other people, I thought I have a go myself onto fabric and I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

I used an image printed onto (non glossy) photo paper with my inkjet printer. I cut out the part of the image I wanted (the little Christmassy girl) and painted some gel medium over the top of the printed side. (I used Golden's Regular Gel Matte). I then placed the image face down onto the fabric and brayered over it several times to ensure the image was firmly stuck. I left it for several hours to dry, then wet the back of the image and rubbed away the paper. This took several goes at as the paper didn't all want to come away - and in fact there is still some left on the image - but this softens it a bit. The transfer worked really well and almost all of the image transferred. I wouldn't have minded if part of it had completely rubbed away though as it would have added to the distressed look.

I stitched the fabric (after fraying the edges a bit) onto a card base with some red shiny fibre. I printed out the same image only smaller and stuck it under a glass nugget which I think gives a lovely effect. Some tinsel, stickles and a little snowflake button finishes it off. I have entered this ATC in the MAMMA's Christmas swap but think I'll be making some more as CRAKS - that is IF I can get the image transfers to work out as well again!

African Themed ATC

This week's theme on Maggie's Mondays Musings(MAMMA) is 'Africa' and here is my offering - 'Afify The African'.
The base of the ATC is very thin balsa wood which I stained with some walnut ink. Afify's head is a wooden button which I bought from 'Button-It' at this year's Ally Pally show. The buttons are designed to be coloured with inks, paints or whatever, but I decided to leave this one as it was to fit in with the natural theme. Afify is wearing a hessian robe and some beads in his hair. The beads are from a rather large necklace I bought some time ago in a charity shop. There is another button also as I thought the colours on it were a good match.

There are some gorgeous entries in this week's challenge - I wonder whose I'll get back?

Another ATC Swap with a difference!

Sian is hosting a couple of unusual swaps at the moment which I couldn't resist having a play with.

This one is a 'See-Through' swap. The only rule being that at least one part of the ATC must either be transparent or translucent. Well, this is all new to me - never done anything like that before! So, I kept it fairly straight-forward and for each one used 2 pieces of card with a piece of acetate sandwiched between them.

For the first one I die cut out a little man in the card and put some old text in the middle. I also stamped a crown on some text and stuck that on his head. Lastly, I rubber stamped a face on the acetate (oh, and drew in his lttle gold tie).

The middle one I cut out a jigsaw shape (bit wonky as I did it free hand!) and alcohol inked the acetate. The background is coloured with some distress inks, and finally a real jigsaw piece was stuck over the top.

The last one I punched some squares out of the card and coloured with distress inks. The top piece of card I rubber stamped some swirls on using Versamark ink and then brushed some Cosmic Shimmer powder over the top. This gives a lovely effect. I alcohol inked the acetate again, and rubber stamped a face onto it.

I also did another two but haven't included them here. I'm looking forward to receiving some swaps back to see what other people have done.

Traffic Lights Swap

This is the second of two swaps Sian is currently hosting. We had to make three ATCs, one in each of the colours of traffic lights (red, amber and green) and each ATC also had to have on it some wire, some metal (in addition to the wire)and some plastic. How does she come up with these ideas!!!

The bases of each of my three ATCs were covered with some bright silver sticky tape which I then embossed (each in a different way) and then coloured with alcohol inks. The red and green wasn't a problem, but for the amber I used the Caramel ink and then went over with some amber metallic rub ons. The red and amber both have faces moulded from friendly plastic. This is the first time I'd used the plastic in a mould - I'm sure it should be easy but I think I need a bit more practice. The green one has a plastic button in the centre. The metal on each of them is - for red, the head-dress, for amber an old bottletop (the head is mounted in) and for green it is the metal corner pieces. The wire is for red, interlinked with the head-dress, for amber, the stem and leaves and for green it is attaching the button to the ATC.

Despite the gruesome looking face, I think my favourite of the three is the amber one. The petals are pieces of amber coloured acrylic mosaic. None of them have photographed very well unfortunately (well, I would say that wouldn't I!!)

Home Sweet Home

This week's theme on Maggies Monday Musings is 'Home Sweet Home' and here's my offering. I used a PaperArtsy mini stamp and some aluminium to emboss it into. The background is some scrapbook paper and the tree is another rubber stamped image. MAMMA gave me an award for this one (wooohoooo!!!), that's the second one in two weeks - so I must be doing something right! All down hill from now on then:( lol

All the other entries for this week's swap may be found in the Flickr group - the link is on the Maggies Monday Musings blog (link above).

Mannequin ATCs

I've joined another of the hosted swaps over on the DoCrafts forum. This one is a 'Mannequins' swap and is being hosted by Helen whose DoCraft's name is Smellihelli!
She said we could interpret the swap however we liked and I hope my interpretation is acceptable because I used a rubber stamped image of a dressmaker's form on a couple of the ATCs which I suppose isn't strictly the same as a mannequin as the dictionary defines it as a 'woman who models clothes'. Near enough I suppose - well I hope so anyway!
I couldn't resist using my favourite medium again - beeswax - I just love it! So all of the backgrounds have either dressmaking tissue paper or plain tissue paper beeswaxed onto them. The 'mannequins' are rubber stamped images onto Grungeboard (the pretty pink one and the yellow dressmaking one), the red one is rubber stamped onto metal which I then embossed and coloured with alcohol inks and finally, the one with the red button on is rubber stamped onto shrink plastic (that's why it's so tiny!)
Some lovely Mannequin ATCs have been appearing in the galleries and blogs of other participants and some absolutely stunning ones can be found in Sian's. I do hope that I'm lucky enough to get one of hers back in the swap. Wonder if Helen is taking bribes this time around - lol!!

Matrimony

This week's theme on Maggies Monday Musings is 'Matrimony'. I found an image of a happy couple, just married and decided to place them before a stained glass window.

I had some old plastic packaging which was quite rigid so I cut that into an arch shape and painted it with some Gallery Glass paint which I've had for over 10 years. When I took the top off the bottles I expected them to be dried up, but no they were still fluid! I could have used some strong, garish colours, but decided to keep them subtle to blend with the image. A fabric rose at the top finished it off.

Now I'm thinking about how else I can use the Gallery Glass paint - otherwise it may be another 10 years before I use it again!