Credit Card Technique Backgrounds

I think Credit Card Technique backgrounds would have to be the easiest and most spectacular of all the different backgrounds that can be made! A big statement I know...but if you haven't tried it grab yourself a piece of sketch paper or cartridge paper, some paint, a water spritz bottle and a credit card - take a tip...don't use your current Visa card, swipe machines don't like paint gumming up their works! lol

Here's my samples for next week's atc class, including what colours I used to make each one. The colours are listed in order of application, one over the other. Water spritzing is done right at the end and no, you don't wait until it's all dry, just keep working constantly. No atc samples yet, just the backgrounds - these are all A4 size (approx 8-1/2" x 11").

First, my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE!!! Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold & Dioxazine Purple (both Golden Paints)...

next...Trans Magenta & Prussian Blue (both Jo Sonja)

next...Jo Sonja Aqua, Micaceous Iron Oxide (Golden), Jo Sonja Warm White

next...Monte Marte (brand) Veridian Green, Folk Art Metallic Antique Copper...

next... Jo Sonja Carbon Black, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (Golden), Jo Sonja Warm White...

next... Sapphire & Burnt Umber, both Jo Sonja...

next... Cobalt Teal, then Cadmium Red Light, then Iridescent Silver Fine - all Golden...

....are you sick of them yet????.....

next... Paynes Grey (Golden) then Jo Sonja Warm White...

last one....Jenkins Green, Iridescent Copper Fine (Golden)...

I think I forgot to mention how much I love this technique....as you can tell by the samples here!!! This is one to give it a go, great for covers of altered books and chunkies as well as backgrounds for cards or atc's.

Simple instructions:

1 A4 piece of cartridge/sketch paper (a little thicker than ordinary copy paper)

paints - your choice of colours

water spritz bottle

old credit card

1. Squeeze on a line of paint up the top of the A4 (Quarto sized) piece of paper.

2. Using the credit card at a 45 degree angle drag it down the paper from top to bottom, scraping the paint along as you go....make it thin - you want coverage of the paper but not big clumps of paint.

3. Do the same thing with your second colour, thin line of paint up the top, drag it down...don't wait for any of it to dry, just keep working.

4. Take your spritz bottle and spray about 5 or 6 pumps over the page, trying for some larger splotches of water by putting your top "pump" finger over the hole a bit so it sprays out unevenly.

5. Count to 10, then take your credit card again and drag it down the paper, wiping the excess water and paint off.

6. Marvel at your creation!!!

CREDIT CARD TECHNIQUE REVISITED

My absolute favourite background is credit card technique.  Over the years this has proven itself to be one of the easiest and most spectacular backgrounds that you can do with such simple supplies.... drawing paper (or cartridge or sketch paper), an old credit card, cheap acrylic paints and a water spritz bottle.  For the uninitiated, apply a thin line of one colour of acrylic paint across the top of an A4 piece of the drawing paper, immediately swipe it down the page with the credit card held at a 45 degree angle so you are scraping a very thin coat of paint onto the paper.  Wipe off excess paint, immediately do the same with a 2nd colour of acrylic paint applying another thin coat.  Then immediately spritz some water on all over the paper on top of the paint, making sure you have some big droplets not just a fine spray.  Count to 20-30 seconds, wipe again with the credit card removing the water and it will reveal beautiful backgrounds that are almost instantly dry as you've used a very thin layer of paint.  Experiment with colours and final top coats of metallics.  Just gorgeous!

"In the heart"...

"Plant a garden"...

"Malice in Wonderland"...

"Pixie Dust"...

Below are some of the samples of 

this background technique.

This atc below is the final one from last fortnight's alcohol ink smoosh class.  

"Dirt"...

Credit Card Technique Book Cover #6

So begins another ATC Technique Book....#6 which will have a dozen different techniques in it. The cover for this one is one of my old favourites, Credit Card Technique. Wonderful way to use paint to create an awesome background. I've kept this fairly simple to showcase the technique, just a few chipboard numbers that have been painted with black and then rubbed with Treasure Gold, a little flyscreen and some washers.

"Cover"... (8" x 6" in size)

Some atc's with credit card technique as the background.

"Ransacked"...

"Male"...

"Perfect Person"...

"Portrait"...

Credit Card Background Technique

This fortnight's technique for my atc classes is an old favourite...Credit Card Technique! It's one of a very few techniques that when demonstrated, draws ooohs and aaaahs from those seeing it for the first time (Soot technique is another responsible for this phenomenon!). If you haven't tried this technique before, grab some paper, some paint, a little water spritz bottle and an old credit card and give it a go! It's one quick way of turning out some awesome backgrounds for use at a later date....or now, as the case may be! For instructions scroll down to my "labels" section on the right hand side and click on "credit card" and all will be explained. No, not you girls...(my students!) you have to wait until the class.....I'll KNOW if you read it!!! lol

"668" (LOVE this quote!!! Background stamp is Stampers Anonymous gate, face is by Zetti, little flourish surrounding the face on the shrink plastic is by "I can't remember". ;-).... )



"Portrait" (The colours used for this background are Jo Sonja Aqua and Plaid Folk Art Metallic Antique Copper - amazing colour!!! Ironworks stamp is another one I'm not sure of...sorry, but I did use my Copper Dreams mix of embossing powder - for the recipe click in "labels" on embossing powder recipes and you'll get about 6 of my recipes for my own embossing powder mixes.)


"Darkness" (Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous tree stamp with Antique Pewter embossing powder mix)

"The Raven" (Bird, branch and wire stamp are all from Michelle Ward's clear stamp set Bird Sanctuary. Yes, that's texture paste around Mr Poe!)

"Sleep"(Angel wing stamp and drippy stamp up the top, both from Michelle Ward's In Vogue set, click here. Quote by Edgar Allen Poe)

In my last post I hinted at some exciting (for me anyway!!!) news....this weekend I'll be able to reveal all!

CREDIT CARD TECHNIQUE..... TAKE 2

Credit Card Technique is the class we're doing for this fortnight's ATC Technique lessons.  The last time I did this class was 3 years ago and some of the newer girls haven't done this amazingly easy, but beautiful background technique.  Because I have girls who have been with me from the very beginning (about 7 years now!!!), they will have done this technique before, so I like to play around with the technique so they will learn something new.  I am using both water and rubbing alcohol spritz this time and also doing the technique over printed book pages!  Amazing what a little difference a shake-up can make.  Hope the girls enjoy the changes.  At the bottom are the full size backgrounds so you can see what they look like before they are cut up into atc sized pieces.

 

"Fly Away"... (pale blue & silver from above)

 

 "Snow White"...



"Own Wings"...



 

All these sample pieces below are A5 in size so you can get about 3 or 4 atc's from each sheet.

 

Rubbing Alcohol & Water Spritz with a gold shimmer that you can't see.

 

Water spritz only on book paper background.  You need to click on this one to see the words that peek through the water spots.  Love how this turned out!

 

A very pale blue paint with silver metallic paint over the top and rubbing alcohol droplets.  Unfortunately metallic just doesn't show up well on the computer screen.  You'll just have to try it for yourself to see how wonderful it looks in real life.  Two of the atc's above have this as their background.





 

More samples to follow.  

Faux Tin Type ATC & Final Credit Card Technique ATC

I belong to several Yahoo groups online and my favourite one would have to be the Paperarts Group! The girls come up with an amazing array of swaps each month, both atc's and mixed media though because of my work commitments I don't get much of a chance to participate. But I'm always interested in what the other girls are doing and like to support this group when I can. June's ATC swap is the Poe inspired "The Raven" and I couldn't pass this one up! So here is my Faux Tin Type technique ATC based on The Raven poem by Edgar Allen Poe.


"Nevermore"... This is a shocking scan but Faux Tin Type does not photograph or scan well, it's a must-see-in-the-flesh type of technique. I'm hoping the girls that receive these will be impressed by how much better it can look irl!

My next set of ATC classes is based on the Faux Leather technique using masking tape. I have yet to work up the samples for this class so they'll be in my next post, but here is the final Credit Card Technique atc from the last class on Thursday. This was won by a new lady attending my classes....I want to say "Deb" is her name and I'm hoping I have it right?

"Extremes"... (Non Sequitur circular stamp, CCT colours used were Burnt Umber, Fawn & Opal - all Jo Sonja paints)

I've added a link up the top right of my blog to the Creative Soul Retreat 2010 that I'm teaching a class at. So if you're interested in checking out what should be an awesome 4 days of classes, just click on the Vintage Technique Twinchie picture that will be part of my class and it'll take you to the CSR2010 website.

Tonight is the big party for my equally as big birthday! Turning 50 is no biggie, just another number and I'm really looking forward to my 80+ guests having a great time tonight.....even though we are forecast to have increasing rain and the possibility of a thunderstorm by this evening! The only thing I don't want to happen is to have a power failure....have I jinxed it by mentioning this??? lol I've even made name tags for everyone as I have such a large family that I'd like my friends and workmates to know WHO they are talking to.....like "Kellie - Kelsey's Cousin", "Brady - Kelsey's Brother", or "Michael - Kelsey's Boss's Fiance"...thought it might help to break the ice a bit. ;-) Photo's to follow.....

Credit Card Technique ATC samples & Faux Metal

Thought it was time for a new banner. Thanks again Dawn for making these....you're a legend!

The people who came into the shop and saw the credit card technique pages from my last post couldn't believe how different they look in the flesh, so if you've put off trying this technique, don't wait any longer. You'll be amazed at how quickly you can turn out a fabulous background in such a short amount of time....very soon you'll have a great collection of background papers in all sorts of colours, this is the great thing, you'll come up with some unique colour combinations. My only advice is to remember to write the colours down for each page on the back of the paper as you do it, your brain might go into "excitement overload" and you may forget what colours you've used! lol

First atc sample using my favourite Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold & Dioxazine Purple.

"Classic Mona"...

"Beautiful"...

"Temple".... In my atc classes I ask the girls to try to tell a story with their atc, rather than simply putting images down that have no relationship to one another. It makes it a lot easier to find what you are looking for if you know what direction you are going with something. This of course applies to collage, canvases, altered books, in fact anything really. So this particular atc is a little more of a taste of my dark side....take note of the drippy blood up the top, and the little shrink plastic hearts...make of this one what you will. ;-) or should that be :-/

Here's the last one, the raffle atc for today's class. "Radiant"...

The faux metal part of today's class is using the foil tape (with adhesive on the back), mounted to chipboard, then distressed with either an awl (paper piercer) or Tim's cool wire brush thing, then rub paint into it and immediately wipe the paint off. Looks like little bits of distressed metal. These are on the corners of my "Temple" atc above.

I was going to show them how to make faux metal out of credit cards, but having another play with it this morning, I think I'm going to make that a class in itself...would rather them concentrate on their backgrounds and little metal-foil embellishments today.

Backgrounds & more Sheer Heaven atc's

Tonight I'm teaching another atc technique class at Scraptivate, credit card technique....and no, it's not how to magically make it into one that has unlimited credit that someone else pays for....I WISH! Good ol' basic techniques are something that you can always fall back on when you're in a slump or you just can't be bothered thinking! Do a few pages of backgrounds on A4 paper and each sheet has enough for 9 atc backgrounds....try colours that you wouldn't normally use together....for a fantastic copper look try Aqua (Jo Sonja) first, followed by FolkArt Antique Metallic Copper....this is what it looks like...

..........gorgeous huh!

Another nice one is Hooker's Green (Jo Sonja) and then FolkArt Metallic Copper (not the antique one) and lastly Celadon (Jo Sonja) - all credit card technique. I used this colour combo for the cover of my altered book some time ago. This is a little sample of it...

Anyway, as I'm working tonight I don't start until 1pm this afternoon so I've had a little time to play this morning. Finished off a couple of atc's from the Sheer Heaven transfer episode last Friday night as well as worked on a new atc that's not my colour at all....pink! I still decided to complete it though as I really liked the ghostly image that was a mistake, sorry, not a mistake... a serendipitious moment!!! No such thing as mistakes...you just make them differently than you thought is all! I had pressed a little hard on the acrylic block with the stamp on it and it slipped, leaving me with a slight double-image, as it was Stazon I grabbed a baby-wipe with some cleaner on it and wiped it over....of course, being Stazon, it didn't all come off but it left a much paler version on the paler pink background...very nice effect! Here she is...

These other 2 are Sheer Heaven transfers again...still have a couple more to do but they're a little stuck on what they need at this point, they'll get over it!!! lol

One more.....love my new stamp!!! Go Lina!!!