Encore Post - Merry Berries

Encore Posts

Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook while I'm busy.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

I'm so happy you enjoyed the Rusty Alcohol tag as much as I did! I'm on another working jaunt at present so it's an Encore ATC today.  I thought, given the recent snowy weather (and maybe more today, I hear), it would be good to share it now, and also it's linked to the Snowflake ATC from last week.  Remember those two little birds?  Well, this is where they born.  This ATC was made for Destination Inspiration at A Vintage Journey back in December 2015, and here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures.  I hope you've all been enjoying a peaceful and prosperous festive season.  This is my favourite time, I think - the quiet period once the major work is done, and you have the 12 Days until 6th January to rest, read, recuperate and enjoy peace and candlelight.  Not too much rest though... there's always inspiration to play, and I've arrived at Terminal 4 of Destination Inspiration this week.

I've unpacked my travel bag to see what I could make with what's inside.  Here's a reminder of just what was in there:
Substrate - ATC

Colour - Festive Berries

Technique - Extreme Masking (Compendium of Curiosities I, p.61)

Product - Remnant Rubs

I have to confess I was panicking slightly at the notion of Festive Berries - those who know me will know that red is not a shade which appears very often round my way.  But once I'd come up with the notion that I could use the Festive Berries for actual festive berries, I felt a bit better!

So here's what arrived on the craft table.

I love working with ATCs, and I suddenly had the brainwave of trying to work with one of Tim's punches as my mask.  I figured the little bird would be the right sort of size to work with for an ATC.

I punched a couple of them, so that they could have a little conversation.  It wasn't the easiest thing in the world holding them down to ink around them, but it was do-able.  It's Ground Espresso at the bottom, and the sky shades from Stormy Sky up to Chipped Sapphire at the top.  (I was working on a plain manila tag at this point, but always thinking of the size the ATC would end up.)

Same tricky process for the stamping - those birds are small and, because I'd punched them out of book pages (first thing to hand, not really thinking ahead), a little fragile too.  But not so fragile that I wasn't able to save the masks to use on another project (as those of you who've seen my Snowflake ATC will know!).

I stamped the starry snowflakes from Tim's Christmas Magic set in Picket Fence Distress Stain, and I love that one of the birds has ended up accidentally wearing a little starry crown!

I then used the gorgeous pine needles from his Winter Sketchbook to create some plant texture below and around the birds.  The pine needles are stamped in Ground Espresso, and you can see where the Distress Paint snowflakes have resisted the Distress Ink needles.

For the reverse masking, I thought the birds really ought to be musical, so I stamped some tiny music notation in Pumice Stone, before deciding that as well as berries, I could probably deal with using Festive Berries to create a couple of Robin Redbreasts too.  I applied the Festive Berries with a water brush, trying to get quite a loose, painterly look.  (In the long run, I decided the ink wasn't quite holding its own against the bold colour of the berries, so I added some paint over the top too.)

Ah yes, the berries... they're on one of the fabulous Calico Craft Parts - a spray of holly which I've painted with Ground Espresso Distress Paint so that it would tie in tonally.  Then it was time for the vivid berries.  Although I have the ink, I don't have Festive Berries Distress Paint, but I found that the PaperArtsy Fresco paint in Cherry is an almost dead ringer in terms of colour, so I used that, applied quite thickly to get nice rounded berries.  And that's the paint I used to brighten the robins too.

I almost forgot the final requirement - my Remnant Rubs were hidden at the bottom of the bag! - but just in time I realised I needed to add a little transfer somewhere.  The gorgeous white December text seemed perfect for my wintry little ATC.

As you can see, I mounted it on one of the nice thick Calico Craft Parts ATC blanks - love how this gives it substance.

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I've got another journal page ready to share, but I've not had time to write the post yet, so I'll be back as soon as that's done.  And pretty soon I'm going to have to think about packing my bags again for another working trip to New York.  It's always fun trying to decide which crafting materials make it into the travelling stash (usually augmented by some purchases while I'm over there!).  I hope you're having a good week... happy crafting all!

Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it.

From The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett