Encore - Trailing Ivy

I'm squeezing in a quick Encore post (see the end of the post if you've not encountered these before) between all the leafy watercolouring.  Apart from those leaf studies, there's not a great deal going on at the craft table, and even less now that I'm getting ready to travel across Europe to the Czech Republic to check (czech?!) on the building work).  Yes, it's time to pack the travelling stash again.

In the meantime, here's an ATC I absolutely love, made back in January 2018 for A Vintage Journey.  (It seemed appropriate to post a Destination Inspiration travel bag given what I'm about to do!)  Here's what I wrote back then...

_________________________________________

Hello all, Alison here, arriving at Destination Inspiration with a travel bag of goodies to play with.  Let's take a look inside and see what we have:

Product: Sprays

Technique: Stamping

Colour: Blue & Brown

Substrate: Wood or Chipboard

It's a bag I might have packed all by myself!  And here's what I've created with some of my favourite things...

It was a lucky travel bag for me!

I hope I'll be allowed my slight variation on the substrate - it's actually an MDF ATC from Calico Craft Parts - so it's somewhere between Wood and Chipboard, I suppose.

I stuck down some book pages scraps and an ivy die-cut, added some DecoArt One-Step Crackle and lightly gesso'd over it all once the crackle was dry.  I then added a few spritzes of Distress Stain Sprays in blues and browns and sprayed with water to soften them.  Next, I took the spray nozzle out of the bottle and added some inky spray directly to the edges, softening again with water; and then flicked a few droplets of Ground Espresso from the end of the tube onto the ATC.

So that all that would stay in place as I added more layers, I covered it with a layer of DecoArt Ultra Matte Varnish before going any further.  The next step was a layer of Antiquing Cream in White, knocked back to give this lovely misty effect.

Of course it stays in the cracks though, which I love.

For my stamping, I used some tiny brambly branches - I think they may be by Penny Black - stamped in either Coffee or Potting Soil Archival.

(It's a long time since I made this, I'm afraid, so I'm not quite sure any longer.)

I wanted to make the ivy leaves stand out a little more so I gave them a coat of DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze.  I love the subtle gleam when it catches the light.

Some Clippings stickers provide the words...

... a good New Year thought to take me through the year ahead.

And of course there's plenty of white spatter...

It may be a tiny ATC, but I think it packs a punch.  I love all the layers, and the soft, smoky blues and browns.

_______________________________________

So here we are back in the present day.  This ATC really was a tiny experimental laboratory.  Lots of the techniques I used here have appeared in all sorts of projects since.  When it's an ATC, there's really no pressure.  You can try things out because, well, if things go wrong, it's a tiny thing to give up on.  I hope you enjoyed seeing this again.  And I'll be back again soon (probably with some more of this month's watercolouring).  Stay safe, stay well and happy crafting all.

Like ivy, we grow where there is room for us.
Miranda July

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!