I have been having great fun making backgrounds for atc's, it all started when I came across a blog that I had not seen before, it's called Art in the Garage, ( just click on it in my favorite blogs section to go straight there) Karen has a tutorial called Complex Backgrounds, it is fully explained and with lots of step by step pictures, you only require a cereal box, paints, text papers and a couple of rubber stamps and ink, plus your normal glue's etc. Below are the pictures of the covered box and the cut atc backgrounds, all ready to be worked on, images words etc, This was just so easy to make, Thank You Karen for this tutorial.I got 25 background atc's, from just one box, but of course you can cut them to any size that you want, keeping any left over strips for inches, twinches, moo's etc, later today I will be making some more in different colours, I knew that all my paints would come in handy one day !!!!!!!
I made this 4 x 4 page for a swap in a yahoo group that I belong to, we have just started this Alphabet trade so there is a long long way to go, as you can see I did "A is for Ancestors".The back ground is mount board which is coloured with 4 different shades of brown inks, 3 acrylic paints over sequin waste for the dots, torn papers, stamped words, the letter A is also painted and then sprayed with a gold glitter spray, the man and lady image are stamped onto card before being coloured and fixed into place with staples, the word ancestors is done with gold peel offs that have been inked to tone them down, I just hate that bright gold colour but as I have hundreds of them thought that I best start using some of them everything is edged in black to finish off.
A few images from a local church yard, free for you to use in your art work, I love the arched door way, am going to Norfolk later this week so hope to get a lot more pictures.
Today's theme on gothic arches is Mother and Child, I made my arch on black canvas, I used a cracked ice effect rubber stamp and embossed in bronze for the back ground, the faces of mother and child are stamped onto cream card and raised with foam squares, the word love is cutout separately from a larger stamp, other printed words are from a dictionary, everything is edged in copper ink, I used links and chain to bind mother and child together, metal photo corners to finish it off.
Here are some other Atc's made recently, as you can see the top 2 are made with the same stamped and cutout image, the brown is done on 2 background papers and torn mulberry paper, the word dream is inked chipboard letters, they are very thick so I cut through the layers to make them thinner, they come apart very easily, the blue one is on a collage stamped background, I used ink pads to colour this, both have inked edges to finish.
Making the one called love was a first for me as I used a thin black card to go over the base , the stamp used is a collage of words, flowers and a heart, I stamped it with a watermark ink (clear ) then embossed it in white, then coloured over the top with pearl powders, cut the heart shape out and added the picture to the back, very pleased with the way this came out.
The other 3 were great fun to make, I love these fun stamps, am waiting for some more to arrive, the ink pot lady is on a collage of papers, the pen,nib and letters are all from a different stamp,Postage man is on a collage stamp background, coloured straight from the ink pads, he was coloured with marvy pens before being cutout, the 3rd one does not come with these legs so I used some from another stamp, the background is inked and stamped with a cracked ice effect, Great Fun !!!!!!!!
Some atc's that I made recently, I have traded these in some of my yahoo groups, really do need to cut back on some of these groups I belong to so many I can't keep up !
I have been having a play at altering a cd, I am pleased with the way it is, but think that maybe I should have done more to it ? although I am not sure what !The cd is covered with canvas then layered with lots of different torn papers ,a couple of old tickets and postage stamps, I had inked the edges of these in shades of brown, when this was all done I decided that it was to much so I painted a thin layer of white gesso over the top to tone it down, added stamped cutout images of the lady and crow, stamped dragonflies, a piece of mesh, chipboard letters, toiled butterflies and some reddish brown chipping, not sure what these are they look like glass but are not sharp, inked around the edge of the cd to finish, Loved doing this and am ready to start another one,.
The theme on Gothic Arches this week is pink and brown, anything goes as long as you use these two colours, so here is my arch, it is canvas on card, painted with a pink base, I used a sea sponge to dab on a darker pink , both acrylic paints, also used a piece of a torn letter, a scroll with flowers in brown ink, 3 cancelled pink and brown postage stamps, lady image, the roses are a water slide decal that are used on plates cups etc, I cut it out and left it to dry then added it to my arch, brown inked edges to finish.I am off on holiday today so will look at all of the arches when I get back next Saturday,
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