2018 #1 ATC's with EAB Sneak Peek {by Jennie Atkinson}

2018 Topic 1: ATC's

We are kicking off 2018 jumping in boots and all with a new Topic: ATC's (Artist Trading Cards), but our bloggers are also sharing sneak peeks of new stamps that you will be able to lay your crafty paws on towards the end of the month! So yes, we deliberately chose small format substrates so you only get to see tiny bits of stamps. Mwahahaha.

Tonight Jennie is using a few brand new Alison Bomber stamps...but she's not telling you what comes exactly from where...yet!!

~ Leandra 

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) here with you today, the very first day of 2018! We may be in the depth of winter but I am sharing with you tonight some ATCs which have a glimmer of spring and more importantly give you a sneak peek of some new quotes from our fabulous designer Alison Bomber.  

I love ATCs for lots of reasons. Although they are great for swapping and make a lovely miniature front for a card, most importantly I find they are perfectly sized to enable me to experiment with different mediums and techniques both in terms of backgrounds and little collages.

This wonderful spring quote put me in mind of April skies which don't really have the deep blue of summer, but tend to be a more violet hue between showers.

In order to get a watery sky background I experimented with a palette of Violet Storms Infusions Dye Stain on a Chalk Fresco Chalk Paint background. Painting the Smoothy Heavyweight Card first provides a base for the dye to sit on and I like the resulting brighter colours. I mixed my dye and water on the craft mat and lay the card into it, before drying with a heat gun. Different pressures and amount of water will give different results. The last of the dye was mopped up with my ribbon and I added some colours to the text paper too.

I layered the quote over a little collage using one of my favourite PaperArtsy labels from Ephemera Plate 2  and used this glorious butterfly from Eclectica Scrapcosy 04. Initially I had stamped everything in a Vintage Brown, but this just didn't work well with the cool tones of the background (I should have been thinking of the colour wheel !) but did find that Watering Can Ranger Archival Ink toned in perfectly.

This background was more watery and more reminiscent of April skies so I tried not to hide the background too much - stamping lightly with the text stamp from Travel Plate 2. Being lighter I thought the ATC needed a little background edging so used cardstock which I had painted with the dye to get its fullest colour. I very lightly coloured the rose with the dye as well as I always try to use the same hues throughout a project in order to create a feeling of calmness. 

I decided to do some experiments mixing the Violet Storm Infusions dye with Fresco Chalk Paint. This is not something I have done before, but I absolutely adore the affect.

The cardstock was primed with Chalk Fresco Chalk Paint as before and I mixed Spanish Mulberry and Chalk Fresco Chalk Paint on my craft mat and shaking in the dye. I kept it as light as possible with plenty of water and mopping with kitchen towel whilst drying with the heat. gun. 

On these two I put more emphasis on the dye than the paint, but still love the effect.

Normally I use a lot of texture on my backgrounds but a good stamping surface was most important for this ATC. I used the lighter part of the background to stamp the quote directly onto the ATC. I also love being able to isolate individual words and Alison's quotes are just perfect for this.

As soon as I saw this wonderful quote I knew it would work with the lovely Roma lady from Travel 4. I just love the way the colours work so wonderfully on this background.

What I love about Alison's quotes is that they can be used for so many projects. I have chosen to keep this ATC feminine to match the others, but by exchanging the flower and lace for some hessian and string would make a front for a masculine card. 

It is also easy to isolate parts of the quote with dies as I have done here making two tags from the single quote to create a little cluster of tags.

I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek of these wonderful new stamps from Alison as much as I have enjoyed using them. I hope too that our ATC challenge will prompt you to try out new techniques and experiment with paints and dyes - I was delighted with the different backgrounds I managed to achieve and in a very short time had loads of backgrounds to play with (and plenty more left for another day!).

As always thank you for joining me and may I wish  you all a very Happy and Creative 2018.

Jennie x

Blog: Live the Dream
Facebook: jennie.atkinson
Instagram: atkinsonjennie
Pinterest: jennieatk

Note: New PaperArtsy stamp releases officially start here on the PA blog, Jan 18th

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

You must complete step 1 AND 2 to be entered into the draw for an apron. 

To join our challenge:
1. Leave a comment on the Topic Introduction Post and go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy Apron. 
2. Make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 1: ATC's will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 4th February 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. (Please note the challenge is 1 month long due to significant new Product news during January)

All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy creative apron. Please make sure we can contact you as a prize winner - it helps if you share your contact info from the platform you opt to use.

Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!