I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Birthday Bloghop

Hello all... So glad you could drop in today!  We're celebrating Fun With ATCs's third birthday with a bloghop.  There are prizes and inspiration galore, so you make sure you visit all my fellow team members, leaving comments wherever you go, and enter our challenge for a chance to win.  We have some wonderful sponsors: Tando Creative, Visible Image and 100 Proof Press.  

You should have arrived here from Uta's lovely blog, Streifenhörnchen's Stamp World, and your next stop is with the amazing Caro, whom some of you will know as cbee, and who has organised this whole thing, so she deserves a lot of love!  If you're not already hopping, the best place to start is here, where you will find all the details...

Appropriately, our theme for the challenge this fortnight is Birthday/Celebration.  Show us your party ATCs...  And I'm offering up two samples for inspiration - the extra one happened by accident as I was making the other!

Regular followers will see I'm still on my turquoise kick, and it's a double whammy today, so let's start with the one I intended to make...



I started with some leftover Christmas cracker paper, which seemed appropriate for a Celebration ATC.  We had those musical crackers with little pipes inside - everyone ends up with a numbered pipe or two and a "conductor" points at the numbers in turn to build up a tune.  We did pretty well, even with a nine-year-old and a four-year-old in the "orchestra".

Brilliantly, from my perspective, the wrappings were music manuscript paper, and the hats were made of music tissue paper - perfect for crafting, so you'll be seeing more of it.  




I did have to share it with my sister-in-law, mind you, Laura of Laurart... so don't be surprised if you see some popping up over there too.


I cut a thick piece of chipboard to ATC size (2.5 x 3.5 inches) and covered it with the cracker paper.  

Then I used my Tando mask, Distorted Hive (which I won on one of their hops!), to blend some Peacock Feathers DI onto the surface.


I wanted to use my Tim Holtz Alphaparts to "write" the word Celebrate, but I had to check it would fit.  Rather than put the sticky-backed letters down on my newly inked surface, I tried them on a spare bit of card, cut to size.  


Once I'd higgledy-piggled them into place, I started to alter them - they start out as black plastic - and here's where the accidental ATC started to kick in.  Since they were gently stuck to the card, I left them there.  

It was much easier to paint them held in place.  I started with a coat of Mermaid Fresco paint, and then added a wash of Beach Hut and one of (shock, horror) some not-Fresco but DecoArt paint in Blue Green Light.   The final touch was a smearing of Treasure Gold wax in White Fire.



While they were drying, I used another Tando mask, Sequin Waste, to add some texture paste to the corners of my ATC.  By looking at my spare, I could see where they wouldn't interfere with the lettering.  

Once the paste was dry, I used embossing ink with some Ranger Verdigris embossing powder to give the dots a distressed coppery look.  (I think the brilliant Claudia, die amelie - who you'll have already met on the hop - and I must have discovered this stuff at exactly the same time!)  They also got a little touch of Treasure Gold to highlight the texture.  


Then I went to peel the dried lettering off my spare card, and found that they'd left behind a stencilled version of themselves... beautifully highlighted by the layers of paint around it.  For a while, I left it alone, but it kept calling me and so I started to play with it. 

Now that I'd fulfilled my duty with one ATC, I was free to really mess about with this one - and here's where it got me:


For once, the sunshine has failed me at the point when I need it, so it's hard to show you this one in its full glossy glory!  The painty background is pretty much exactly as it was after painting the letters.



I toyed with leaving the letters in pale cream (the colour of the card), but yielded to the temptation of trying out the metallic turquoise Viva paint - possibly the most beautiful iridescent paint I've ever seen.  

And perhaps I should have left it at that, but I also added some Glossy Accents to the letters for dimensionality - definitely fun and funky - but not easy to get a good picture of!




At some point last year, I got some very cheap metal embellishments from ebay... flat, aluminium shapes which I thought I could zhuzh up a bit.  

You can see two of them here... embossed with a tiny Vintaj embossing folder and given some Bottle and Denim alcohol ink treatment.



Once there were cogs on my metal stars, it was a short step to adding some stamped cogs to the ATC itself.  These are from the Chronology range by Papermania, stamped in Cobalt Archival.

And hey, we're only messing around, so let's see what happens if we take a border punch to the edges of the whole thing, eh?!





So those are my dimensional double party celebrations - happy 3rd birthday to Fun With ATCs! - and we really hope that, as well as enjoying today's bloghop, you'll be able to play along with our Birthday/Celebration challenge this fortnight.  

Can't wait to see what you come up with...

Thanks so much for visiting me on my first ever bloghop - I'm more grateful than I can say for your continued support.  Next stop, Caro - have fun!

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Oprah Winfrey

Oh, and if you've time to kill... I've also got a new project over at Artistic Outpost today (but you will get to catch up with it here soon).

40 comments:

Yvonne said...

I'm lovin all the turquoise, Alison!

Debi said...

I for one am lovin your turquoise phase, this is a great atc to celebrate the blogs birthday, debi x

Inkypinkycraft said...

Great colours in your atcs , they look wonderul..great textures too trace x

Claudia N. said...

Love both of them, Alison!

And yes - Ranger's "Verdigris" embossing enamel is some really good stuff. That I detected only recently. :))

Love the colours you used- not only because of their poetic names. *giggle

Hugs,

Claudia x

Laurart said...

I love them both too! I love it when craft work delivers a nice surprise like that - You'll be doing that now as one of your new found craft techniques ;o) I must enter the ATC challenge again though my mind is blank at the moment for ideas - I am struggling with my latest project! LOL....I'll get there eventually! Oh and can't refuse a blog hop. P.S Am loving the turquoise too! xxxx

Rika said...

Fabulous artwork, wonderful ATCs
love the colour!

froebelsternchen said...

what adorable pieces! What great eventt!

wonderful!

xxx Susi
ART-JOURNAL-JOURNEY
MOO-MANIA-CHALLENGE

Alexa said...

What great projects! I love the fact you started with what others would have thrown away and then found an additional project as well! They look fab and I am sure, even better in real life as I know how hard it can be to really capture all the details! x

Paper Profusion said...

Sumptuous colours Alison and terrific depth. Gorgeous work. Nicola x

Hettie said...

Great ATCs and love the colours, as you do!
I like the "accident" one too!
xx

Ellie Knol said...

Another beauty, LOVE the hop!

Gerrie Johnnic said...

You can stay on this color forever, it's my fav too! These both turned out great, love the ideas and the happy feeling they give me.

Nan G said...

Oh my! Both are fab! The first celebrate is so bright and vibrant! Love the grungy/shiny feel to the second one!

Bonnie Irvine said...

These are gorgeous in all their turquoise glory. Love the music background and the dimension you have achieved on both. Those metal stars and punched corner are so cool on the second one. The altered letters on the first one look amazing. How fun that they are similar in some ways and yet so different in so many others.

Unknown said...

Turquoise is your friend. :) Your ATC's are miniature works of art and I always enjoy your posts full of words & pictures. You work so hard to provide all of us with incredible inspiration Alison. Thank You!

Brenda Brown said...

Both beautiful Alison, loving your turquoise kick and these with the cracker papers, well that raised a smile. It's always a pleasure to see what you have been doing, so let's celebrate your art too.
hugs {brenda} x0x

Krisha said...

Wonderful ATCs Turquoise is always a favorite of mine. Such detail you achieved on such a small surface. Great job!!

Redanne said...

I am really enjoying your turquoise phase Alison - your ATCs are both beautiful, love the dimension on both and that cracker paper is a lovely touch. Hugs, Anne x

Kate Yetter said...

Lovely canvas! I adore turquoise!!!

Sarah said...

Pretty, pretty colors!

Alie Hoogenboezem-de Vries said...

Great use of the colours on this creations Alison, the layered letters are great as well as the backgrounds.

greetings, Alie :-)

Jenny Marples said...

What a triumphant pair! Seriously, love how you have really played with textures here. That's one heck of a way to celebrate. Hugs, Jenny x

May said...

Gorgeous creations Alison... adore the colour, Great designs.. Amazing textures.. lOVE them both!! Hugs May x x x

Julia S-W said...

I've got a thing about letters being altered and those on your first ATC are just gorgeous - particularly with the touch of gold. Great papers from the crackers too! The second ATC has such a free flowing style and this is something I find hard to achieve - too precise for my own good which I find really restricting at times. I must take a good look at this and have a go at 'going with the flow' as Alie would say!
Julia xxx
Forgot to say: the colours are just yummy!!

Chaosmaus said...

Lovely Art Pieces.

Marjie Kemper said...

What fun celebratory pieces! Love your colors and all the raised gears.

maj. said...

This is awesome ATC - truly beautiful!!!!

Silvia(Barnie) said...

Wonderful design and colors.

Ali said...

These are fabulous! I love them both, but especially the first one. Awesome idea to use the stencilled "waste" from your creative process to create something new. :)

Oh and those musical crackers sound awesome! I may have to look for something like that for next year. :D

Ali

CarlaKH said...

wow- how fabulous are these! I love all the texture and dimension and colors! Stunning!

Claudia said...

I am loving your art! Wonderful!
Claudia

Margaret said...

Both of these are wonderful and I loved seeing how the second evolved from a guide to it's own creation.
I, personally, am loving your turquoise kick! Especially when it produces this gorgeous verdigris patina!!
The Christmas cracker pipes sound like so much fun and the wrapping is fabulous!!

Amy said...

I LOVE the letter's..so fab in dimension.

Here is mine
http://heartnsoul-amy.blogspot.com/2013/01/celebrate-fun-with-atcs-blog-hop.html

Willy said...

Great ATC, love the texture!!

Gráinne said...

Both of them are gorgeou, Alison. I love this turqoise. Great color.
Suzanne

fatmonica said...

I really love these ATCs. I want to hold them and stroke them because the texture looks so good!Loving the blog hop!

Francesca said...

Hi Alison, thanks forthe heads up. So to your tag , great colours I do like the blue. Gruesse von Francesca

Kati said...

Wow - what fantastic ATCs. I love the colors.
hugs
mamapia

ionabunny said...

Wow, these are incredible. Love then colours and all the bits. I have just posted my first ever ATC at Fun with ATC's and the size was a bit of a challenge for me but you have crammed these with so much. Thanks for the ideas for those aluminium tags. I have some of those from somewhere and was looking at them the other day thinking ???? I also have some new alcohol inks so maybe...... Congrats on your wins recently. I have seen Butterfly a few places. Well done and well deserved

Crafting Vicky said...

wow this is soooo cool. Loved reading the creative process ;) And just love how you have reused the paper from the firecrackers! I'm not sure that I would have thought that much outside the box but that was a brilliant idea!