New ATC Technique Book Classes

I've been teaching at Scraptivate for over 2 years now so I figured it was time to recap some of the earlier techniques that I did in my atc classes. I always said I wouldn't do instruction sheets for my atc techniques but now I'm going to as we're going to build up a great technique book full of the atc samples that are made in class. Also, not everyone has a wonderful memory for techniques, (especially if they don't use them for 6 months or more...the techniques, not the brain!!!) so I thought I'd help out by doing instructions so they can refer back to them at a later date. Being my usual wordy self, I tend to "over-instruct" rather than give only sketchy details so I'm hoping the girls are happy to revisit the techniques months after they've been taught.


This is also linked to my goal for 2009. I'm not usually a goal-setter but this year I intend to put together a book with my techniques in it. I'm thinking along the lines of an e-book, mainly because I don't have a spare $10,000 to invest in a professionally made book and also the e-books are instant. I also have more control over how much detail I can go into as well as what pictures I want to include. I may end up making some hard-copies that will be for sale as well, these would be professionally bound and printed on decent paper but still cheaper than doing the whole type-setting thing. Comments??? Suggestions??? Thoughts???


So the first technique we are starting with is Texture Paste (Jo Sonja), also called Molding Paste (Golden) as well as Modelling Paste (Mont Marte) - they are all the same thing, they give texture and are fairly flexible still when dry. We are making the cover of our ATC Technique Book with Texture Paste and the picture below is my front cover of the book. It scans horribly, the colours are all out of whack so I may have to take a picture of it to try to get the true colour. I used Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold as a wash, then a wash of Paynes Gray, then dry-brushed with Interference Oxide Green (Blue Shade). It was this last addition of the interference paint that frightened the scanner.....it made the whole thing look like I'd also dry-brushed it with white paint, the reflective properties of the interference was that bad!!!

Inside the book will go either 2 or 3 atc samples that the girls make in each class and over a year, they should have a wonderful reference book full of their own work to look back on.

This first atc sample is made by using the texture paste with a cuttlebug waste piece as a stencil. I do love this scroll die-cut by Cuttlebug, it's my absolute favourite of all the die-cuts!

"Fable"...

For this next one I lightly scraped the texture paste on and used a foam stamp to get the texture, then spritzed it with glimmer mist when the texture paste had dried. Usually I paint over the texture paste but wanted to try the glimmer mist - perfect!!!

"Memory"...

Lastly, I used the black texture paste (Jo Sonja) that comes in a tube. This is a little difficult to get, but if you can get some, do! It's wonderful stuff! It has a nozzle so you just pipe it out. This is how I did the tree below. Piped the tree out, let it dry overnight, then did a wash of Nickel Azo Gold, dried it, another wash of Paynes Gray, dried it again, then dabbed on some Quinacridone Crimson in places, dried it again and finally a light wash of Titan Buff and dabbed some of this off with a paper towel. Rub'n'buff in gold rubbed lightly in certain places finished it off. Love my Golden Paints!!!

"Tangled Branches"...

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. It was a first for me without my Dad and Joan but it was very busy socially with birthday parties as well as the usual Christmas lunch and New Years Eve party. A fine time was had by all and we remembered our loved ones who weren't with us, but tried not to feel too sad as they wouldn't have been happy about that!