Altered Playing Cards

Happy Friday...and if you are in Canada, Happy Canada Day weekend. We celebrate Canada Day on July 1 with big celebrations, fireworks, and lots of red and white. Lately, I have been slightly (!!) obsessed with altering playing cards because of an online class I am taking from Mary Jane Chadbourne called The Spoken Soul. Today I thought I would share three of my completed cards on the eclectic Paperie blog. I am a huge fan of ATCs...just love the size of these little canvases and they are a fabulous place to test drive some mixed media techniques and products.

All of the playing cards were sanded and coated with clear gesso before applying colour in the form of Inktense blocks or Neocolor II watercolour crayons. Then I intensified the colour with Faber-Castell Gelatos, Big Brush pens, Distress inks and stains. All stamping was done with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink using a variety of Tim Holtz stamps. Watered down white gesso was applied in rings with a bottle top or brayered lightly across the background. The white dots were made with Signo Uniball pen. The papers were scraps from my box and the images came from various downloaded collage sheets. I used saved up bits of embossed card which I highlighted with Metallic Distress paint and even a piece of cheesecloth for texture.

Each image piece was lined around the edges with the Faber-Castell Black Big Brush pen. I use that pen all the time because it gets rid of the white edges left from fussy cutting and will give you a fine black outline or a thicker one if you tip the pen toward the image. Shading on the backgrounds was done with a sketch and wash pencil and spread with a waterbrush. The sentiments were computer generated , inked with Black Soot  and/or Vintage Photo Distress inks, and matted with black cardstock.

The final details are the part of the process that feels like icing on the cake. You'll see brads, flat pearls, charms, Icicle Stickles, anything and everything from my stash that suits the card. Each card was edged with Black Big Brush pen to finish the edges. Well, that's it for me today. I hope you have been a little tempted to play mixed media on this ATC size (2.5" x 3.5") background. What a wonderful way to dip your toe into mixed media, to try out new ideas if you are already a mixed media fan, and just to play with composition and "stuff" I love my stuff :)

Thanks for visiting. There are links below to some of the products I have used which can be found in the eclectic Paperie shop.

Bonnie

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Green	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Red	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell Gelatos - Red Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Green Colors	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen	Speedball 4" Pop-In Rubber Brayer	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad

.....An ATC!

....THEN WHAT??!??!

Howdy Peeps.....

Lynne Forsythe here for another Guest Design Team post!

I have quite the affection for ATC's.

Such a little tiny space...

to stretch the design skills....

Here is my latest ATC I've create.....

How much goodness
can you pack onto a 2.5" x 3.5" surface??!??!

I collaged on some of Christy Tomlinson's
Coffee Filter Paper using
Multi Medium ~ Matte.

Then I colored on the collaged paper
with 50's Diner Gelatos.
With a wet paint brush I blended the colors.

Using The Crafter's Workshop template,
I applied some Gesso over the collage
and then applied "Blood Orange" Gelato
over the gesso!

Whipped up a little banner....
from the "Unforgettable" collection by MME,
stapled it to the ATC with
my Tiny Attacher.

Of course I had to stick on a flower cluster.
I colored the flowers with the
same "50's Diner" gelatos.

Now....my question always was/is...
What do you do with the little ditties after
you've had sooo much fun making them?!??!

Adorn the face of a card....
and send it to a friend!!

Hope I've inspired you to try one out...
if you never have before!!

A little bit of inspiration

Hello all, Alison here... Very happy to be back at eclectic Paperie to share another project with you.

This one is a very simple little ATC book (I seem to have a thing about handmade books), with lots of little pockets - brilliant for using up paper scraps when you really want to make the most of every last little bit of your favourite papers!

It's a tiny book of uplifting and thought-provoking words and phrases, so that you can turn to it for a little bit of inspiration when in need.  And of course you can add more phrases, or other memorabilia, pictures and ephemera as time goes on... plenty of room in those pockets.

I started with six of the Inkssentials natural canvas ATCs.  One of the great things about these is that they are sticky-backed, so you get all the great canvas texture and you can apply it really easily to cardstock or chipboard to create a really sturdy, dimensional ATC.

I adhered my six ATCs to some kraft cardstock, and then started juggling with my papers.  These are from the Basic Grey Serenade set.  I worked out I had enough to do a couple of ATC-sized pages and a couple of "pockets" out of each of my selected papers.

I wanted to leave plenty of the canvas on display, and also to keep things pretty minimalist, so I kept my pockets nice and simple: a plain rectangle, alternating (mostly) between vertical and horizontal positioning.

And I gave the canvas a good going over with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink to really highlight all that lovely texture.

I thought about doing some stamping on the canvas, which I always love the look of, but I was quite enjoying the clean lines of the whole thing (couldn't bear to leave out the distressing though!)... it's probably the nearest I'll ever get to a CAS project!

All the sentiments - from the fabulous Donna Downey sets, Empowered Words and Art and Possibility - are also stamped onto paper scraps, so they look pretty cute either way up, and they've also had a touch of the Vintage Photo DI of course.

On each facing page, the design paper side, I've added one of the larger sentiments, stamped on plain white cardstock and inked to tone in with the rest of the look.

I particularly love this Picasso quote... and I've tried to match the quotes in the pockets with my "main" quotes each time - I've tried to create satisfying groupings that "speak" to each other.

Another sentiment stamp serves as the title on the front cover (in the picture at the top of the post), and I've stamped some of the Hero Arts Serenade Music Background to surround the title, and all over the back cover.  This stamp is designed to coordinate with the Serenade music paper that I've used on the inside, so it fits in with the overall look beautifully.  (Sorry, I think it may now be sold out at eP!)

Finally I added the little corner pieces cut with the ATC and Corners die by Tim Holtz onto the front and back covers.  I love the "finished" look it gives.

The binding is incredibly simple too (seriously, you can knock up a whole little album in well under an hour) - just some crinkle ribbon dyed with Vintage Photo Distress Stain, and tied through the punched holes to give a pretty bow at the front.

I had to do a little bit of retying to get the tension right, so that the pages would turn easily without the whole thing flopping about uncontrollably, but that was about the hardest thing in the whole project - and, really, what's so hard about tying a bow a couple of times!?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I do hope my ATC inspiration album has given you a little bit of inspiration to go off and create something yourself.  See you again soon...

Alison xx
Words and Pictures

Ingredients (click on the link to go straight to the product):

Inkssentials� Surfaces Natural Sticky-Back Canvas ATCs	Basic Grey - Serenade 6x6 Paper Pad	Hero Arts - Serenade Music Background	Unity Stamp Company - Empowered Words (Donna Downey)
Unity Stamp Company - Art & Possibility (Donna Downey)	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Crinkle Ribbon 10 Yards	Distress Stain - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Archival #0 Pad - Coffee	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool