GEL PLATE DROPLETS

 Gel plates are such a versatile tool and by using ink pads instead of acrylic paint, you can make fast and straightforward backgrounds just with a bit of water and an ink pad. I had previously tried flicking Distress Spray Stains and Oxide Sprays onto a gel plate after inking but found that using just water instead of the sprays worked so much better. My choice of ink pad was Distress Oxide ink pads and you need very little water to get this effect.
If you want to see more detail in these pics, click on the first one and scroll through as I've taken the photos in fairly high resolution. Even though these are small, the little details on atc's matter. 

"Best day ever"

This shows the size of the print that is made
before cutting it down for an atc. As you can
see, you can spread the droplets out or have
them close together. I use a 5"x7" Gelli Plate.


"Two weevils"

"Let it go"

"Escape"

"The big picture"

"Go with the flow"
(The sand texture down the bottom of this atc
is Liquitex Glass Bead Gel mixed with a drop
of Antique Linen distress re-inker and then a
little silver wax rubbed lightly over the top
when dry.)

DIY SHIMMER PASTES

 Modelling pastes and similar products have been around for a while and since Lunar Pastes were introduced, they've seen a resurgence in popularity. I personally have a few Lunar Pastes but have also seen others making their own shimmer pastes by using a gloss heavy body gel medium and adding mica powder for that extra shimmer. You can also add a tiny amount of Distress Re-inker to colour your gel medium and then add the mica powder for the shine. You need to use gloss gel medium as this will allow the mica powder to shine. If you use matte gel medium, you can still colour this with the distress re-inkers but I wouldn't use the mica powders as the matte gel medium won't allow the mica to shimmer. For this same reason, I wouldn't use Distress Oxide re-inkers with the gloss gel medium as they have a more matte appearance than the straight Distress re-inkers. There are so many videos around of how you can use the pastes and if you make your own, you only need to mix up as much as you need for your one specific project. I have a great set of 24 different colours of mica powder so that gives me many different options to choose from.
Note: A couple of my samples have also been made by mixing glass bead gel (gloss gel medium mixed with clear reflective glass beads) with the mica powder. Another great combination of products!

"Focus"
(The sunflower was stencilled using black and 
gold DIY shimmer pastes. A little orange mica
spray was splattered over when dry. The
dragonfly is from the transparent wings set
from Idea-ology, Tim Holtz.)


"Gears"
(3 colours - gold, silver & orange, of Lunar Pastes
were scraped over a piece of plain black card
to create a quick-drying background which was
then embossed with an embossing folder.)


"Enjoy the flight"
(Black mica powder mixed with glass bead gel
to create the rocky foreground.)


"Fake people"
(DIY shimmer pastes through a stencil and
when dry, gold metallic wax was rubbed
over portions to give extra shine.)

"Adventure awaits"
(The mountain was created with the black mica
powder mixed with glass bead gel so it not only
has gorgeous shimmer, it is also very textured
with the little glass beads feeling very bumpy
when you run your fingers over it.)

"Wander"
(3 colours of DIY shimmer pastes through
a stencil for the background.)

This is a card that I made using mica powder mixed with
glass bead gel to create the base of the leaf stem as well
as the little dots on the end of the spikes. This card
really shimmers as the leaves have been painted with
the gorgeous Lisilinka paints.

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.

FILM STRIPS

 This class is about using film strips as the focal piece on an atc. I have used a couple of film strip dies that I've had for a while and a film strip made from acetate coloured with alcohol inks, then the edges have been given the typical edges using my Cinch Book Binding Machine. The beauty of using the Cinch Machine and acetate is you can make these strips as wide as you like, remembering to keep the scale of your piece in relation to the square holes that are punched along the edges. Alcohol inks make it easy to add your colouring to the acetate and if you make it too dark, a little isopropyl alcohol will remove some of the colour. 

"A mirror with a memory"
(Acetate/alcohol ink overlay)

"Pause button of life"
(The background is from a previous class
where we used watercolour paint to create
stacking shapes.)

"Before"
(An embossed background with the same film strip
die that was used above but with embossing powder
to add the gold texture to it.)

"Life is like a photograph"

"I'm gonna snap
(Acetate overlay with alcohol inks)

"I shoot people"

Finally, a card using the film strip die cut from book paper.

BLACK & WHITE ACRYLIC ACCENTS

 Several months ago, I read about using fluid acrylic paint in a small needle-nose bottle to apply decorative accents to artwork backgrounds. I had some Golden Fluid Acrylic paint and decided to decant some into my tiny 10ml needle-nose bottles to see how it worked. It was wonderful! I have since decanted black fluid acrylic paint as well and the bonus is I haven't had an issue with the tips clogging at all. I have since decanted some of the Liquitex Basics black and white fluid acrylics as well but as these were a matte finish, I added about 30% gloss fluid medium to give it a shine. But if you like the matte look, you could go without doing this step.  I store my bottles upright and always test first on a scrap of paper to make sure it is coming out the nozzle ok, but so far, so good. The beauty of these little bottles and the fluid acrylic is the needle-nose tip is so very small and you can do a tiny dot or line very easily that I can't see you getting from any other method. The slower you go, the thicker and wider the line. You just need to have the patience to let it dry and not try to speed it up by drying it with a heat gun.

"Life is better"

"Let life surprise you"


"Now"

"Seize the day"

Close-up to show the shine of the
black fluid acrylic.

"Find joy"

Close-up to show the dimension and
shine of the white fluid acrylic.

"Stay wild"

Another close-up of the tiny dots
that can be achieved with fluid acrylics.

ACRYLIC PAINT SCRAPE

 This is a fast and easy way to build up your supply of background papers and uses only acrylic paints and sturdy cardstock. Because the paint is applied so thinly, it dries almost instantly so you can keep creating them and stacking one on top of the other. I have used a white 200gsm(ish) card as my substrate and used a variety of paints - Born brand from Officeworks, Jo Sonja, Amsterdam paints (their metallics are gorgeous!) and even colour shift paints. Because this technique is done on plain cardstock, you can even emboss on them as the heat doesn't affect plain cardstock like it does with synthetic or photo paper. This would have to be my favourite go-to background which always looks impressive.

"Pollen"


"Just one life"

"A story of love"

"Dearly Departed"

"No"

"Bright Side"