Suzanne Czsoek #3 ... ATC Trio

"Hi everyone Suzz here! I decided to continue my exploration of Fresco Paints and try a few other effects! I really enjoy working on ATC's or Tags because of their size. It allows you the opportunity to play around with techniques on a smaller space and then build up the design. I love participating in ATC swaps"!

ATC 1: Ice Angel

1. Cut a piece of white Smoothy cardstock 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" and paint the surface with a mix of Pewter and Baltic Blue Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints. 

2. Cut another piece of white Smoothy Card measuring 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and paint with Fresco Pewter Paint. 

3. Once the cards are dry, you can go ahead and paint a layer of Fresco Crackle Glaze over the surfaces. Dry before applying a healthy layer of Pewter quickly on top of the Blue base, and Baltic Blue on top of the Silver. One coat ... then the magic happens before your very eyes! As the pewter dries, the cracks will begin to appear.

4. Stamp the "Angel", "Wings" and "Peace" sign using blue ink onto white Smoothy card, then trim to size.  

Winter Wonderland Plate 2 

5. Stamp "Snowflakes" over ATC blue background using Versamark Ink then heat emboss using silver embossing powder.

6. Drag the edges of the inked background across blue ink to provide blue surface.

7. Highlight wings and edges of peace sign using glue pen and sprinkle with silver glitter.

8.  Drag edges of ATC in Baltic Blue Fresco Paint, dry then assemble ATC. 

ATC 2: Peace

"My next ATC started from the excess paint on my craft mat, not wanting to waste the paint I decided to use it for my next background".

1. Wipe up (or apply) Haystack paint with a babywipe, dab onto white cardstock, repeat until you are happy with the background. 
2. Next wipe up the excess Inky Pool Fresco Paint from your craft mat, again repeating the step above until you are happy with the effect.

3. Paint the edge of the ATC with Inky Pool Fresco Paint. (below left) Next, pull the paint towards the middle using a dry paint brush, repeat all round the edges until it looks like this (below right)

4. Next up is stamping the image ....

Stamp "Peace Sign" from Ink and the Dog: Winter Wonderland Plate 2 using black ink onto the painted background. 

5. Punch out a "heart and key" then paint with the same colours as your background, stamp numbers over the heart image, attach to ATC. To make the images "pop" I added white gel pen around the edges.

6. Distress the edges of the backing card, attach to the background card which has been painted with Haystack and Snowflake. Add a touch of blue around the edges.

 

"Okay are you still with me as I go onto ATC #3 .... this ended up being my favourite because of the beautiful owl image and the wintery background". 

ATC 3: Owl

1. Paint Metal Card with Fresco Crackle Glaze Paint, then once dry, apply Inky Pool over the glaze. {"I wasn't happy with how the streaks of paint were appearing at this stage so I decided to smear Snowflake Fresco Paint over the surface. I loved how it turned out"}!

Leandra comments  (with technical explanation, LOL): Aren't happy accidents great! I'm just going to take a minute here to add some product info here so people undestand what happened and why. It may be helpful to file for later reference.

Metal card has a special coating, almost a tooth, that is designed to receive ink (StazOn is ideal, and specifically formulated for smooth shiny surfaces like metal). So you will notice metal card is easier to stamp up than regular metal - we thought its nice to make these things easier for stampers! 

The tooth on the metal also means that it is easy to paint directly onto metal as it easily clings to the tooth of the surface. However, by sealing the metal surface first with a glaze,even crackle, you kind of seal over that tooth. As Inky Pool is a translucent paint with LOW coverage and a dark shade, you will get a type of streak effect over a glazed surface.

I think in general, it's better to use opaque paints on top of crackle, as a translucent will allow the base coat to show through not just the cracks, but in the case of metal card it will shine through the painted areas too to a lesser extent. 

Another option to try is to mix a touch of an opaque in with the inky pool, so you could put some (just a dash, 5%) of Baltic blue, or black, to maintain the dark nature of that paint if you added white you would get a pastel version of Inky Pool

...back to Suzz....

  

2. Stamp "owl" from Vintage Ink and the Dog Collection: Plate 2, using Archival Ink (Jet Black) onto white smoothy card. Heat emboss using black fine detail embossing powder, or for a sharper stamp detail on some stamps, clear powder over black ink is a nice option. 

 ID02 

3. Paint the owl background using a combination of blue ink and Snowflake Fresco Paint. Highlight with white gel pen, cut out. 

HP1005

4. Stamp grass tips with the birds onto the background using archival jet black ink, again, emboss. 

 HP1011

5. Stamp 'wise owl' quote. Distress the edges of the ATC and attach to white card edged with Archival Ink (Jet Black)!

I hope you have enjoyed this mini ATC series, that's it for me this month but do pop back and see me again the last week in February!

Happy Stamping!

Suzz!

Leandra Says: Thanks Suzz, I haven't made an ATC for years. I used to be involved in loads of swaps. Our original Ink and the Dog Collection of stamps was designed for ATC's so those images are, on the whole, sized just for that format. Its amazing what you can do with such a small space.

Gillian Says: What better way to use up the leftover paints Suzz .... ATC's are such a quick and fun way to get paints, stamps and ink down onto card! Wise Owl is my fav too such a beautiful image.

If you would like to join this week's challenge and play along with us via inLinkz, please take a moment to share how you have been inspired by Suzz's creativity with PaperArtsy products. Use some/all of the following: PaperArtsy Stamps, Fresco Paints, Metal Card (or metal) and you will be in with a chance to win stamps of your choice {either 1 x A5 set or 2 x A6 sets or 3 minis} . Click HERE to be in with a chance of winning!

Suzanne Czosek #2 .... Ice Angel Part Two

 "I learned so many things on my last project I decided to flip my Wood Icon Triple over and do a second version of the Ice Angel on the other side". 

I wanted a second try using the Crackle Paint onto the metal.  I decided to cut panels for the back of my wood icon to create a second surface to play on. 

Trace center arch onto Metal Card.  

Cut 1/8” from right and left side and along the bottom.  Cut two pieces from Metal Card for sides of the arch.  Measure side panels and cut piece from Metal Card subtracting ¼ from the measurement on the side and top. 

Paint surface of Wooden Icon Triple using Limelight Fresco Paint. Next paint edges with Inky Pool by squirting a little paint onto your craft mat, using a dry paint brush to drag along the edges towards the centre. Let dry. 

Apply a thin layer of Crackle Glaze over the Metal Card. Let dry. {"the metal would get really hot if you used a heat gun to dry the crackle glaze, and it would be more likely to blister, so drying it naturally is probably safer on this surface".}

Paint over crackle glaze surface with a coat of Limelight (remember a thick coat gives big cracks, and a sponged thinner coat gives fine cracks), I have applied with with short strokes, don't go back over areas you have already painted, the crackle process happens before your very eyes. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect, once it dries it will.

Drag black ink around edges of panels and Wood Icon frame.  

Stamp "brick wall image" from Architecture Plate 3 across bottom of panels using black ink. Repeat until covered with the brick pattern. 

Stamp "Ice Angel" Ink and the Dog Collection using black ink above brick wall ... "You can see in the image I didn't get a complete stamp. I have a few black pigment ink pens available and use them to fix my mistakes when pressing down the images. I filled in my angel’s wing with a pen to fix the area where I didn't press enough. I also used it on my words".  

{Leandra says: this is a great tip using a pigment ink pen to fill missing areas. Another tip is the ideal combination presented when you use EZ mounted stamps and PaperArtsy flexi blocks. Flexi blocks are thin acrylic blocks which allow you to get the 'squish' factor from the EZ mount foam to transfer the ink through to the receiving surface. Also inks with oil (versafine and archival for example) have a thickish consistency, and are well suited to use on top of paint}

I added a touch of watercolor pencil over the dress and used a waterbrush to soften the effect.

 

Stamp "snowflakes" using teal ink across the panels. Heat emboss with sparkly clear embossing powder, then stamp words using black ink onto all three panels. Next stamp the script image using StazOn ink.  

Finally attach panels to wood icon using tape.

I hope you have enjoyed this project! I have one more post this week where I will share a series of ATCs. Happy Stamping!

Suzz!

Gillian Says: A great informative post from start to finish Suzz, the contrast paint colours and layered stamping background look brill!

What have you been inspired to create this week, click HERE to share your project and be in with a chance of winning some PaperArtsy rubber!