The Making of the ATC's.

Ok, so I've been intending to do a post about my ATC's and I thought it's about time I got around to it.
 The actual backgrounds were done with a slightly unusual technique I'd watched in a video by Andy Skinner.
 He calls it the Alcohol Ink Floating background, and this HERE is the link to his video, if you want to watch it.
 We've all seen the marbling technique done with shaving foam, but this one uses just plain water and alcohol inks. You will need a tub for the water, and it needs to be deep enough to dip your sheet of card into, not lay it on top.
So, you need to cut your card accordingly, and I cut most of mine down to A5 & A6. I found the tub that washing capsules come in was a great size for this, but Ice Cream containers and similar would work just as well. What you do is pretty much fill your container with water, then drip some Alcohol inks onto the surface. You can swirl it a little if you want. Then take your card and dip it fully down into the water, then lift out. You will need a surface with paper towels/ handtowels on to absorb the water.

 You can see I cut my pieces down to ATC size, then backed them onto ready cut ATC cards, as there is often a little curling in the wet cards, which you can get rid of most of by weighing them down when dry.You will get totally unrepeatable sheets of marbled card- and the best bit is that there is colour on both sides, so whilst one side may be poor, the other side can be amazing!






 First image to stamp was the heart, and this was a new purchase from Honey-Doo crafts, when I went to Port Sunlight. I stamped it at an angle, and partly off the card to give me room for everything else.

 Rather than doing each card entirely, I had a bit of a production line on the go- stamping each element on every card before going on to the next step.

 The inkpad I'm using is Archival, Cobalt Blue, by the way.



Next stamp was 'Laugh' and this was part of a set from WOW embossing powders, and also contains the two other words I used, 'Love' & 'Live'.

Now I've added the number 7, and that comes from a Tim Holtz set, called Mini Worn Text, which has letters, numbers & punctuation.

Here I've added the WOYWW letters around the edge of the heart, and also drawn an outline around the heart, this time using a Distress Marker, in  Faded Jeans.

I used a fine tipped black pen to draw a box around the words, and to colour in the first 'W'.

Now I added a white line around them too, as a highlight.
 I'm showing you a different ATC each time, so you can see the amazing range of colours you can get with this technique.

I've added some highlight to the '7'.

Adding some Faded Jeans around the edges with the round blending tool.

 A final touch up with the white gel pen, as I thought it had faded too much.

Filling in the backs, having used a stamp from Lost Coast Designs.

WOYWW #365

So, starting off this weeks desk tour with a message for our much loved Head Desker, Julia, who had her surgery yesterday. Sending you lots of love, and loads of hugs, along with lots of healing wishes. And sending lots of love to to Julia's Hubby, who I know will be needing our wishes too.So this next few weeks our linking is done at the equally wonderful LLJ, who will be trying to keep us in order!

 A bit of desk to start with then, and a shot of the ATC's I sent out this year.
I will do a post on the 'how to' later in the week, but here is a small selection.












And next up is a pic of the ones I've received so far, along with their makers.

You can see Lisca's included an amazingly decorated envelope, and a Flamenco Dancer postcard.Twiglet & Wipso's fabric ATC's came together,in a card with a photo of their surrounding countryside, and a brilliant verse inside the card too.A Crazy Bird and a Crazy Cat, some very clever masking by Morti, LLJ and I both went with the heart theme- what a coincidence- Diana's textural ATC is inspired and inspiring,Cindy's bee and it's background is ace, and Debbies is another with so much texture, it's lovely. Thank you all for your ATC's- and I'm sure there will still be a few more to arrive.
I'm still working my way through the unmounting of stamps, and I think I'm about 3/4 of the way through now.
 Lovely weather this bank holiday, and much of that was spent out in the garden, building a framework for our decking.

There is quite a drop from the level of our house, to the level of the garden. Probably about 8 foot. It used to have some steps down, but they were ancient, and dangerous. Even after the steps, the garden was still on a slope, which is not really very user friendly. So a wall was built across the garden, about 15' from the house. It then got filled with all the bricks and rubble from the old wall & steps.

This was done a few years ago, probably 10 or more, and this decking had started to rot in places, so it was all ripped out, and Dougs been busy relaying a frame. It has 3 levels, in effect, a smaller top area, a step down to a smaller area, for pots and planters, probably, then a final step down to a larger  decked area. So this coming weekend will see the decking itself being laid, so more photos next week!
 But, one brilliant thing, There was not a lot I could really do to help, as I'm not allowed to lift (!), but I thought I should be able to manage the painting. Although it used pressure treated wood, Doug wanted to give it a coat of preservative, to make it last longer. And the good news is that I managed quite a bit of clambering over the frame, AND I actually managed to crouch down and then stand up, something I haven't been able to manage since my surgery. I could crouch down, but could not get myself back up- I had to call Doug to help me! So it does show that the physio is working, and it definitely helps.

WOYWW #364- The Birthday Edition.

It's here at last, our incredible 7th birthday, and I'm betting our beloved Julia had no idea what she was starting, all those years ago. Today, of course, we're linking up at the home of LLJ, whilst Julia enjoys her pre surgery break.We're all thinking of you Julia, and sending loads of love and healing thoughts your way, and to Hubby too, a few of us knowing only too well how hard this is on the partners. And, should you have been living on a desert island for the last few years, and wonder what this is all about, it's the biggest, greatest blog hop of crafters from all over the world, sharing all sorts of wonderful crafts, and some of the messiest desks its ever been your misfortune to stumble over. So, a crafty peek at whats been on my desk for the last few days- yes, I did leave it that late!

A number of ATC's enveloped up ready to post, and a few leftovers. All the people I've already arranged a swap with are done, I have one set aside for my swap in the list, and I have 4 left, so if anyone else would like to swap, let me know in the comments.

So what else has been happening? Well, our garden finally has 6ft fencing the whole length- thats 150 foot of it! It's taken forever, a lot of the time we've been here, it's either been wire fencing for the first few years, then trellis fencing, and due to having the neighbour from hell, it's taken a while to get it done.  I do have photos, I will do a post maybe next week sometime. Now we just have to re-do the decking- when you see the photo's you will realise the scale of the job. It is a long garden, and on quite a slope, which has meant a fair bit of terracing needed to be done.
 Last Saturday I paid a short visit to what was formerly Pink Tulip Crafts, in Studley. The owners had had to give up, as it was becoming impossible for them to manage, but at the last minute a couple who run a business called Crafty Ideas stepped in and bought the store, so they had a grand opening/sale day.  Judgement is being withheld at the moment, I shall go back in a few weeks and see how it is then, but I was very disappointed with the contents of the shop on Saturday. A couple of Lavinia Stamps, and a few heavily discounted Christmas Stamp sets were all I bought- and when looking online for images of the stamp sets for my catalogue, it seems they are a few years old and long discontinued! I've also noticed now, having looked at the stamps since I got home, they are clear stamps, but are quite yellowed, so were obviously stored badly. If I'd looked at them in the store, rather than just at the pictures on the package, I wouldn't have bought them, but I wouldn't have expected a craft shop to have stored them in sunlight, which is clearly what's been done. Anyway, thats all my news for today, and everyone has lots of visiting to do, so I'll see you later.