Pretty ATCs

I spent part of Sunday making some ATCs. Why not? I had been trying to make some cards with just Stampin' Up stuff (that's good business, that is) but I was frustrated. Then I realised there is NO requirement to do any such thing. Sure, if I'm making a card I intend to use as a sample, or in some way to represent Stampin' Up, it needs to be constructed of all SU products, but when it's just me playing, hey, I can use anything.

Since I stamp mainly for mental health, that's a useful thing to realise.

So I went to an old favourite starter technique - cover some card with pretty paper (in this case, wrapping paper), add a strip of text paper (my good old dictionary), then gesso thinly over the whole thing. That's the background. The gesso pales out the background papers, allowing a foreground image to show through. It also provides useful "tooth" for colouring media attach to. That is, you can draw or paint on it. Or stamp. Don't worry about trimming the ends off until later.






Here's an ATC I made in that session - I stamped and coloured onto the OTHER side of a piece of yellow vellum, tore it out and attached it with eyelets. Then I stamped the same stamp in SU Old Olive onto the card, and sponged the edges. That stamp is from the SU Fifth Avenue Floral set, a real favourite these days.














Same technique, different stamp (but it is from the same set!).

I'm still using that "cut out one word from the dictionary" technique, as you can see. Still not over it!