Soot Technique ATC's

Soot technique is an old favourite of many stampers. It's quick, simple but gives spectacular results. The original technique simply used white gloss card stock but I wondered how they'd look with some colour put onto the gloss card first so I have coloured some of the gloss card with alcohol inks or glimmer mists. How to make a great technique even more wonderful.....add some colour first!

All of the following atc's have colour added to them. To find more on soot (including non-colour ones) on my blog, simply type in "soot" in the search box on the right. Handy little widget that one!!!

These first 2 are the samples in my atc technique book that the girls in my classes are making. Of course, they are doing their own style to put into their books.

"Black Bird Fly"... (stamps by Cherry Pie and yes, that's a bit of flyscreen down the bottom!)

"Fragile"... (Tim Holtz tree stamp, Green Pepper Press fragile stamp. Fragile stamp embossed with Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder, a beautiful colour.)

Samples for the classes:

"Damaged"... (Zetti face stamp, circle stamps by ??? - an old cheapie I've had for years!)

"Line"... (Green Pepper Press building stamp)

"Fear Not"... (Zetti main stamp, splotch by ??? and Fear Not by Cherry Pie. Love the colour of the embossing powder too, it's Liquid Platinum by Ranger!)

"Odonata"... (Dragonfly stamp by Stampers Anonymous with some Antique Linen Distress Stickles down the left and Golden brand Bronze paint splattered over the surface)

I recently took part in a yahoo group atc swap using Twinkling H2O's so I made some bleach & H2O atc's and posted them off. As I had made one extra, I included this in a monthly WTA (Winner Takes All) on another yahoo group. This is about the most trading/swapping I've done for ages! The stamp is a discontinued Hero Arts Vintage Map stamp, pity they don't make this any more....I could've sold heaps of them!!!

"Traverse"...

I do have more soot ones in various stages of production in my studio and will post them when they are done.

Faux Metal Book Cover & Industria!

I'm a bit slow in posting these pics of the cover of the ATC Technique Book #2 that the girls in my atc classes at Scraptivate have just started....but here they are now. I decided to give them an extra by including 2 techniques for this class. It was a push but I think the girls who have done the class already have enjoyed how they turned out. The 2 hours really flies when you are eyes down immersed in your work and I love that they all get into the spirit of creating and the class just hums along.


The basic background is a la Julie van Oosten's Industria style with a Faux Metal atc on the front cover. I also did up some credit card technique backgrounds for the atc for the girls with a wonderful colour combination of Burnt Umber, Fawn & Smoked Pearl (all Jo Sonja paints) as it went really well with the silver/brown of the Industria style. The book has "T 2" on it standing for Technique Book 2, some girls decided to change theirs around slightly by including other letters to spell out "Art Book" or just simply "Art". I love that they feel comfortable in doing this and know that I'm doing my job correctly by giving them the confidence in going their own way.


Cover of ATC Technique Book #2...

Some close-ups of the cover - I used Swiss Dots from Cuttlebug for the embossing on the T2 as well as using some wire that was attached with the ultra-fabulous Mini Fastener from Tim Holtz! I showed the girls how to colour their little staples with a sharpie before loading so they can colour co-ordinate the staples with their work. It's perfect for this book as the stapler works wonderfully through the thickness of the chipboard and has a really strong attachment capability. Love it!!!

I had a bit of fun with the image for this book cover, the T2 not only stands for Technique Book #2, but also I thought the image reminded me of Terminator #2....though I don't think Arnie ever looked this good....he was a bit over-blown for my taste, whereas this man is just PERFECT!!! lol

The raffle atc's for this series of classes were made in the Industria style.

"Family, 1 to 4" (click on the picture to see it enlarged)

Soot technique is coming up next fortnight and I know that the girls who haven't seen this particular technique are going to be blown away by it. Who doesn't love soot technique!

I must thank Audrey for bestowing on me a Friendly Blogger Award, it's much appreciated. ;-)

Last of Faux Leather...

The girls in my atc classes will be starting their ATC Technique Book #2 next week and Faux Leather was the final technique in Book #1. So I thought I'd better post these final atc's, 4 of which were raffle ones. Yes, I know they all look very similar but sometimes when I'm short on time I don't get to do one-off raffle atc's. This first one was for a friend over East as part of a swap I'm taking part in based on the poem by Poe called "The Raven". I usually send Barb an atc whenever I send stuff over to her and I thought it would be appropriate as it's still in the same theme.

"The Raven"... (stamps by Cherry Pie Art Stamps, except the moon which is just a little round stamp)



"Alternative, Bizarre and Weird 1 & 2"...(Stampotique girl stamps and word stamps by Paperartsy)

I'm working on the cover page for Book #2 at the moment and I've chosen to do Faux Metal for the cover. As it's such a dimensional technique it wouldn't fit into the book anywhere but is PERFECT for the front!!! As an added bonus, I'll also teach the girls how to get the "Industria" look ..... a la Julie van Oosten. This style really lends itself to the Faux Metal and I'm sure the girls are going to love how they go together. Who would've thought a credit card could be so handy in artwork.....even one that's expired no less!!! lol Pictures coming soon....

On another note, please tell me how one copes with going from a square 19" LCD monitor to a 22" widescreen monitor without feeling like you're sitting in the front-row at the movies??? I've already had to "up" the font size so I could read everything on the screen, but it seems that my head needs to actually move around so my eyes can take everything in! I guess I'll get used to it but it sure is weird!