RIMMED TAG EMBELLISHMENTS

 The little round metal-rimmed tags have been around in the craft world for many years and like other things, they go in and out of favour. For atc's, the tags that are just over an inch in width are a great size to add your words or short quotes to, and they give the atc a little extra 3D embellishment. Of course, they will work the same way on cards and have been used many times in junk journals as well. I have included a picture of some of the tags as well. Having 2 sides gives you the option of decorating both.
Metallic thread, embroidery thread or coloured seam binding are threaded through the holes and I used my mini stapler (Tiny Attacher) to attach them to my atc's.

"Overthink"


The back of the tag.


"I sparkle"

"Hot mess"

Back of the tag.

"Make today count"

"She was bold"

Back of the tag.

"Everything has beauty"

Back of the tag. I added a little raised die-cut to
match the flowers on the front of the atc.

FLAT BRUSH WATERCOLOUR & SPECIALTY PENS

 I've been having a play with a small flat brush with my watercolour paints and I thought I'd combine a few different products to add a little extra something to my atc's. For the colouring, I used Paul Ruben watercolours, the black fine line drawing on some of these samples was a combination of a Uni-Ball Signo DX 0.28 extra fine gel pen and a Pilot G-Tec-C4 black gel pen. The Pilot G-Tec-C4  bleeds when wet so you get a smudged effect when drawn through wet watercolour. I also used my Lisilinka Watercolour Paints, which are so wonderfully sparkly and my new set of Pentel Hybrid Dual Metallic Gel Pens which are also full of sparkle, much more than any other glitter gel pen I've used. 
The technique to do these flowers can be found here on Youtube, by the very talented Maremi Simplecraft.

"Be-leaf"
(The background was created with a flat brush
while the leaves were done with a #4 round brush.)


"Fake people"


"Live in the moment"
(These stems were drawn with the Uni-Ball
Signo DX extra fine gel pen.)


"The hum of bees"

"The good stuff"
(This frond shape was also done using the
flat brush while the silver line drawing on
it was created with the Pentel Dual Hybrid gel pens.)


"Cat Lady"
(These stems were drawn with the Pilot G-Tec-C4
gel pen and you can see the bleeding where they were
drawn through the wet watercolour on the vase.)

This next one is a card I made using the same
technique to create the flower and Lisilinka
Watercolour paints to do the sparkly lines
radiating out from the centre. These watercolours
can't be appreciated unless you see them in person.
They are spectacular!

Another card using the same technique but I couldn't
resist adding extra bits to this one so it's much
more busy than the others.