The colours of autumn

Hello all!  We're back in the colours of autumn here today with a trio of ATCs.  (For those not in the know, ATC stands for Artist Trading Card - a piece of art 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size.)  It's been a busy old week one way or another, so I'm going to try to keep this post relatively low on the wordcount and mostly share some pretty pictures!

There were a couple of twists and changes of direction as I went along, and one blinding moment of inspiration which shifted me from being fairly "meh" about these ATCs into loving what was happening.  It's a small thing, and almost invisible in this main picture, but it made all the difference to me!

I started with some paper cut from Tim Holtz's Abandoned Paper Stash (with thanks - or not! - to Anna-Karin's recent gorgeous creations with it for this impulsive purchase).  I added some scraps of torn handmade paper and some punched leaves, but it wasn't quite doing it for me.













It was time to play with the Paper Dolls, and that made things a little better, but the really key moment was when I decided to add some cobweb stamping in my favourite Liquid Platinum embossing powder.














Suddenly I got excited.  The papers are gorgeous, but it was that tiny touch of added light-capturing detail which really got my ATCs motoring.

From there on, it was all much more fun.  I started to really enjoy fiddling around to get the layouts just right.
















The torn book page scraps help the Paper Dolls to stand out from the background.















And the individual characters of the three boys started to come through.















Each of the boys found their "right" place in relation to the torn book page fragments...














... and each of them has a little bit of tissue tape to either sit or stand on (including the dog of course).









The leaves are punched from some of the same tags I was playing with the other day for my October Acorns.  And yes, I know you haven't yet seen the large leaves die-cut from one of those tags that I promised you...

Patience, patience!  They are coming, but you'll just have to wait until almost the end of the month for their special appearance.  But there are some touches of that golden shimmer on these tiny ones to keep you going until then. 

And speaking of shimmer, I'm just in love with those gleaming cobwebs hovering amidst the autumnal colours.  (You know by now that you can click on these little photos for a closer look.)

It's like they're glistening with morning dew, but then at other angles, you hardly notice their presence (which is exactly what the spiders want to happen if you're a fly!).







Some metallic cogs in autumnal copper add a bit of extra interest.















Each boy has his own particular cog.
















And I think each cog has ended up in the right place on the ATC to keep the eye moving.















And then of course there are the words...
















... some Small Talk stickers from one of the seasonal sets...














... but apart from this one, the ones I've chosen are flexible enough to use at other times too.















I used the blade of my scissors to roughen the edges of the paper...














... before mounting the ATCs onto some off-white card and scissor-blading that too.
















The word stickers are positioned so that when you look at the set as a whole, the eye again has to keep moving around... 

















... different heights, different sides of the ATCs.  Same thing with the book page fragments and Paper Dolls...

















... they shift from left to middle to centre to create a pleasing triptych grouping.  I do like working in threes.  (Shhh... don't tell the other two, but this one is probably my favourite!)










I worked on the trio this way round, with the boys at the outer edges, but it also works as a triptych if you flip the outer pair over, as I had them for the first picture in the post, which brings the boys closer together in the centre... you take your pick, but the middle chap has to stay in the middle!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I know I haven't managed much visiting in the last few days, but I'll try to do better in the coming week.  For now, happy Sunday everyone!

There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.
Christopher Morley

Three things in human life are important.  The first is to be kind.  The second is to be kind.  And the third is to be kind.
Henry James

I'd like to enter this trio at ATCs Mit Herz where the theme this month is Herbst/Autumn
At Let's Craft and Create the challenge is Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Colours of Fall
Moo Mania & More are playing with Die-Cuts and Punches - lots of punched leaves here
At the More Mixed Media Challenge this month Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Orange
Anything Mixed Media Goes over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog
And at the Bleeding Art Challenge it's also the usual Anything Mixed Media Goes too
I'm just in time to join in with the Favourite Colour "Autumn" theme at PaperMinutes