Encourage Inspiration ATCs by Astrid

Hello everyone and lovely to have you drop by here! I have been having loads of fun altering playing cards recently and that got me in the mood for playing with a smaller format, so today I would like to share 3 mixed media ATCs with you....

I used just two stamp sets for this project, Katie Fox Numerical and Journaling Words 3
This is how I went about it:
I cut 3 bits of card to ATC size (2.5 x 3.5") and covered them with Tissue Wrap, wrinkling it up a bit to get some texture.

Next I added some Distress Paints, Picket Fence and Frayed Burlap

This was followed by some messy background stamping with various stamps from the Numerical plate, mostly with Jet Black Archival, but on one of them also with Red Geranium.
I'll show you some close ups and talk you through some of the details:

I have a thing about hearts at the moment, all three ATCs have a heart on them, these were created with the help of one of the new Crafters Workshop Stencils, the Gothic Romance one. It has hearts in two sizes and some really cool other patterns, I just love these new stencils!! You can see one of the patterns done rather messily in Picket Fence Distress Paint. The heart itself and all the other colours were done with Distress Markers.
I used a really cool technique for this: After you have finished your stamping, cover the whole surface with a thin layer of Glue N Seal. I used Matte. Once it has dried, scribble your Distress markers where ever you want some colour and just blend with your finger. You get a lovely translucent layer of colour. On this one I used Fired Brick, Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany, Broken China, Black Soot and Walnut Stain.

For this one I used a larger heart on the same stencil, more of the Numerical stamps, both in Black and Red Geranium. I also stamped a bit with a bottle cap and some more Picket Fence Distress Paint. Colour was added in the same way, similar colours but also Faded Jeans.

And here is the last one, more of the same. I over stamped the heart with some Picket Fence DP, I also added some marks with an old credit card. I wanted these ATCs in a messy mixed media journaling style, with lots of layers.

The Final part was to stamp the word Inspiration from the Journaling 3 plate onto old book paper.

I added it to the side of my hanger and finished it all off with some Chit chat stickers and Label Letters.

Well, there you have it, - not quite my usual style, but I had fun playing and I hope you like it.

Thanks so much for visiting, and if you are interested in becoming part of our Design Team, check out Jennie's DT call!!