Last of Summer for AALL & Create

Hello Friends

As we roll into Autumn, I thought I would celebrate those last few days of Summer by creating some summery ATCs as my GDT post for AALL & Create.

I used Tracy Evans' Butterfly and Dragonfly Stamp Set #45 along with Autour de Mwa's Lotza Dotz Stencil #39.

I started off by brayering two colours of Paper Artsy paints onto my chipboard ATC bases.  I used Aqua Duck Egg and Cherry Blossom.

I added some Distress Oxide Re-inker in Broken China to colour some embossing paste and applied it through the Lotza Dotz stencil.  It leaked a little on the left hand side ATC but I wasn't worried as this would be covered up.

I stamped out my images (the butterfly is not shown here) and coloured them with Distress Inks.

I added a pen nib to the butterfly and stamped and applied two of the sentiments from the stamp set.

This is the stamp set and stencil I used.  You can find a full list of worldwide stockists HERE.  You can of course, purchase them direct using the same link but you are encouraged to support your local stockist wherever possible.

Thanks so much for your visit, it is much appreciated.  I hope to see you again soon.

Hugs, Anne xx

A Vintage Journey - ATCs - a little touch of Tim

It is the wonderfully talented Alison's turn to host A Vintage Journey and Alison has chosen 'ATCs - A little touch of Tim' as her challenge.

Should you decide to join in, it must be a normal sized ATC (3.5" x 2.5"), no chunkies and no ATBs (Artist Trading Blocks) are allowed.  You can create one or more ATCs and they must be in the style of, or be influenced by Tim Holtz.   You will find the rules of our challenges HERE.

Our wonderful sponsor is Country View Crafts who are offering a £10 voucher to spend in their store.  They have a huge selection of Tim Holtz (and many other) goodies for sale, their service is first class and there is free P&P on all UK purchases.

I have been wanting to use the Phrenology head from my new Classics #11 set of stamps.  I recently had an eye test (a very expensive visit too) and I was reminded that I had not inked up the optometrist glasses from the Countdown set of stamps for ages and so my two ATCs came together.

I placed the blank ATCs side by side and stamped the Phrenology head across both ATCs in black archival ink.  I stamped the head again onto a post-it note, cut round it and used this to mask off the head so I could stamp my backgrounds.

For the first ATC I stamped the background, again using a stamp from the Classics #11 set and black archival ink.  Once dry I lightly coloured the letters with a Tumbled Glass Distress Marker.  The eye and lips were coloured with DMs too and the face had a hint of Antique Linen Distress Ink applied with a water brush.  I used a black watercolour pencil to outline the head and a Black Soot DM to go around the edge of the ATC.  The whole of the ATC was covered with clear embossing ink, then clear embossing powder and heat set.

To finish off I added the Idea-ology arrow so that I could hang the monocle from it and I added the words using Tim's chit chat words.

The background stamp for this ATC is from one of Tim's Visual Artistry clear sets and is just the perfect size for an ATC.  I used Tea Dye Distress Ink and a blending tool to add colour to the background.  The glasses are from The Countdown set of stamps (one of my first purchases).  I stamped them onto white card and painstakingly cut them out with a craft knife, inked around the edges with a Black Soot DM and attached them with silicone glue to 'lift' them from the face.  I completed my sentiment with chit chat stickers.

I hope you will join us over at A Vintage Journey, I for one cannot wait to see your pocket sized pieces of art!  See you again next week with my CC3C entry and my August Tim Tag.  Hugs, Anne xx