3D EMBOSSED FLORALS

 There are numerous 3D Embossing Folders available these days, and the variety of florals among them is impressive. I have used watercolour paints (Daniel Smith) to colour my florals that I dry-embossed on 300gsm watercolour Baohong watercolour paper. This is a simple technique that takes advantage of the ability of watercolour paints to become active again with water after they are dry. This creates a very soft-looking background and embossed image and works best with embossing folders that have some open space on them to allow the colour to blend and bleed.

"Leave a little sparkle"


Close-up showing Lisilinka silver accents.

"Shine brightly"

"Possibilities"

"No rain"

"Just breathe

"Cultivate kindness"


"Dream"

(This is a full-size C6 card using the Botanical
3D embossing folder.)

STITCHED WATERCOLOUR

 In my previous life as a costume designer/maker, I had a collection of specialty metallic threads that were used on the costumes. So when I saw someone had used metallic thread as an added accent to a watercolour painting, I just had to give this a go on my ATCs. I love the simple style of the painting that is elevated with the addition of the metallic thread, and as usual, these all look so much nicer in real life. I know this technique can be used with simple stamped designs, but I like that you can paint whatever you want and then embellish it with metallic thread. The thread is doubled, so it shows up more as it is quite thin, and you simply attach it to the back with a little double-sided tape. I used Daniel Smith watercolour paints for all of the painting. I think the amount of white background space also helps to enhance this particular style.
If you click on the picture, you will get a better idea of how the stitching looks.

"Grow with the flow"
(Silver metallic thread)

"Bloom"
(Gold metallic thread)


"I paint flowers"
(Gold & orange metallic thread)

"Life's a painting"
(Gold metallic thread)

"Lookin' sharp"
(Gold metallic thread)

"Be-leaf"
(Gold metallic thread)


I saw some cards on Pinterest and made a couple following the same style. They inspired me to try this technique on ATCs. I did my own stitch designs and the possibilities are endless.

"Possible"

"Ordinary"

MARBLE PAINTING WITH ACRYLIC INKS

The last time we used a marble with inks for a background was in 2014, so I thought it was time to revisit it. It's an easy technique and lends itself to the bigger size as well as ATC size, so it's a good opportunity to create a cover using this technique. I used black acrylic ink for the marble rolling as this ink is permanent when dry, so when you do your watercolours over the top, it's not going to smudge or move. You can pick out individual shapes to colour or, as I've done on a couple of mine and the cover, colour the whole background in a few colours blended together.

"Fa-Cologne"

"Toot toot"


"Not a big fan"

"Dear Future"

"Art"

"Trust"


This is my cover for Technique Book #34. The size is 20cm x 15cm (or 8" x 6").
I've used a white gel pen to make dotted marks within some of the black lines.

RUSTY PATINA EMBOSS

 It's been a while since I've used my embossing folders, and the variety of 3D embossing folders these days is amazing. I have several that lend themselves to this rusty patina finish, and they can be created with just a few acrylic paints to give them a distinctive distressed look. These backgrounds are all made with the 3D embossing folders by Tim Holtz & Sizzix.

"A cleaved head"

"Dear autocorrect"

"Decay"


"Abra cadaver"

"Bugs"


"Motivation"

LINE DRAWN BOTANICALS

 It can be challenging working on the smaller size of ATCs, which are 2.5"x 3.5" (or 63.5mm x 90mm). Some techniques transfer well to the miniature size, but others do not. This technique works really well as you are only working with a hand-drawn image and then filling in the negative space with a single watercolour. By using only one colour for the negative space in the background, your eye is immediately drawn to the image, and you can keep this drawing quite simple but still have it look very effective. 

"Potential side effects"


"Keep life simple"


"... and breathe"


"Nature"

"Focus on the good"

"Bloom and grow"


These are what made me try out this particular technique on
ATCs, but I can no longer find the video I saw. I first
created these on this larger size, which I believe would work
really well on a card. 
I knew I should have saved the video so I could link it here.
Apologies to the creator for not linking it, I do love your technique!

EMBOSSING GLAZE STENCILS

 This is more of a mixed-media style of technique than I've created in quite a while. It combines gesso, heat embossing, stencils with texture paste, Ranger Distress Glaze embossing powders, ink colours and die-cuts as the focal point. You can leave out certain parts or add other elements to change up the look, but I love the multi-layered effect when you combine everything together. The Distress embossing glazes have also been used to colour the layered insect dies. This works so well because of the translucent nature of the glazes, which means you can layer as well as be more precise if you want specific colours in a certain area. 

"Tiny perhaps"


"Passion"

"From the soul"

"Exist to be happy"

"Curious"

"Brave wings"

(the wording has been stamped on acetate

and then heated slightly to warp it, yes,

it's supposed to look like that. 😏 )



Finally, a 5.5"x 4.5" card I made using the same technique

for the front panel but this time using black texture paste
instead of the white one I've used in the above samples.

ACRYLIC INK TECHNIQUES

 I have a sizeable collection of acrylic inks and have done a few techniques with them, but there are so many different ways to use them so thought I'd try out a few more. These ATCs are all very different from each other which shows just how versatile a product that acrylic inks can be. My favourite thing about them is the fact they are permanent when dry so you can easily do an underpainting, let it dry, then use other acrylic inks or watercolours or acrylic markers over the top and the bottom colours won't shift.

"The roots are memory"


"Thoughts you can see"

"The wrong day"

"Nature"
(I've used some granulating medium with
the brown ink in this one, this shows up as little
speckles in the top right area of the ink on
this atc.)

"Live your dream"

"Bloom with grace"

MASKING FLUID & WATERCOLOURS

 Masking fluid is a great way to retain white areas on your watercolour paper background before painting it, whether it's a whole background wash or a more detailed scenery painting. ATCs are small, so it's easier to do simplified paintings. So I have chosen to do mainly washes for the background, then fill in some more details with paints after the masking fluid has dried, the painting has been done, and then the masking fluid removed. It's a process of waiting for this technique, as you can't use a heat gun to hurry any of the process up, you must wait for the masking fluid to dry before painting, then wait for the painting to dry before removing the masking fluid. I used several tools to apply the masking fluid and found that diluting it with a little distilled water made the masking fluid easier to spread as it wasn't so thick.

"Dearly departed"
(A paintbrush was used to paint
the ghosts and houses.)

"Simplicity"

(I used a draftsman's ruling pen to

draw the bamboo and grasses in
masking fluid.)

"See beauty"
(A paintbrush was used to paint the
tree, rocks and grass on this atc)

"Saltwater"
(A paintbrush was used again to
paint the seafoam.)

"Live your story"
(A dip nib pen was used to draw this
small bush and grass, so the lines
are very fine. In fact, when I was
doing this, I could barely see
the masking fluid and hoped I
had it in the right place.)

"Choose to shine"
(I used a paintbrush for the dragonfly
shapes and the ruling pen for the
grass.)