ATC's

Hello, and welcome! We are having a new Saturday Showcase at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog today, and to change things up a bit, all of the Design Team members will be sharing their Anything Goes ATC's with you. I hope you will stop by for lots of inspiration!

I decided to go back to school and finally watched one of Tim Holtz videos. I don't use paint very much in my makes, so I thought it would be fun to watch his Q and A demo video covering Distress paints and challenge myself by trying a few of his techniques.  I don't have much in the way of step by step instructions or photos, but you will learn everything you need to know from the master of Distress if you watch his video. 

The first technique I tried is paint resist on the ATC pictured below. I cut a piece of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock to  the regulation size: 2.5 x 3.5 inches and got to work. I have no step out photos at all for this one, because I just got involved in the process of making.

I didn't have enough Antique Linen paint left and I cannot for the life of me find the new bottle I thought I had purchased (which would have been my first choice), so I used Spun Sugar  paint for the roses, and Rustic Wilderness  paint for the foliage with the Roses  mini stencil. 

These are the Distress inks I used over the painted stencil work: Speckled Egg, Wild Honey, Rustic Wilderness, Vintage Photo, and Broken China. After inking, splashing with water and drying,  I added stamping with more Spun Sugar and part of a Baroque stamp at the bottom. I blended the corner with more Rustic Wilderness ink and added more stamping with an Entomology butterfly and script in a black permanent ink. Tim recommends using Ranger Archival, because it is not resisted by the paint, and sits on top, but both of my Jet Black pads were dry. The ink I used is resisted by the paint which is NOT what I was hoping for, but I proceeded.

I decided it needed a little something to add the depth I was looking for, but lacking in the stamping, so I got out my finest brush and my reading glasses and added Cracked Pistachio paint highlights to the butterfly and foliage. For some texture, I smooshed Crackle Paste through a stencil at the top and bottom corners and set it aside to dry, knowing it would take on the ink colors. Sadly, when it dried, it all flaked off and took some of the ink with it. Having a second try with a larger stencil yielded the same results, and really left a mess in the corners. Ugh! This is not going well...

In the end, I just smeared the paste in the corners with my finger and sprinkled with Rustic Wilderness and Walnut Stain Embossing Glazes. When the paste started to crack, I dried and melted the powder. Lastly, I smeared the paste/glaze corners with Rustic Wilderness and Walnut Stain Crayons to define the cracks. To add a frame, I swiped the edges with Cracked Pistachio paint and my finger and backed with a panel of scuffed copper Metallic Kraft Stock. I chose an appropriate Clippings sticker to finish and inked and heat embossed it with Tattered Rose Glaze and scuffed with steel wool to take the shine off. After a bad start, this turned out to be one of my favorites. But you know it's hard to choose favorites when they're your own.

The next ATC uses paint over ink with stencils. I've never done this technique before, and it took me several tries to get a half respectable ATC out of it. I started with a favorite panel of mop up inks/oxides/sprays I've been hoarding in my stash. The original panel was a fairly decent size, so after trashing my first attempt, I was able to salvage another ATC out of it and start anew.

You can learn all about this technique in the video, but the idea is to use Distress Resist Spray over the inky background, so you can apply paint over top of it and then remove some of the paint with a stencil and a slightly damp baby wipe. Tim says use a paper towel, because wipes are too wet, but I personally had better results with a wipe. But...again with the supplies...my second bottle of resist spray wouldn't spray. Yes, I know you need to flush it after use (learned after my first bottle clogged), but I guess I didn't do a good housekeeping job. So I removed the cap and spread it with an old paintbrush. I was happy to see the inks didn't move around like they would if you tried to use collage medium as a barrier. Perhaps that's because the inking wasn't fresh, or maybe it's the secret of Resist Spray???

 My first paint color is Chipped Sapphire, and I used a Flourish mini stencil for the technique. 

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 Then I used Seedless Preserves and mini Roses.

I used a soft brayer to apply Picket Fence paint to the butterfly stamp and made an impression. After drying, I stamped the butterfly again, this time in the same permanent black ink used on the prior ATC, purposefully offsetting from the painted one. I also stamped another portion of a Baroque stamp along the side.

The highlights on the butterfly were done with Cracked Pistachio, Kitsch Flamingo and Picket Fence paints. I masked the stamping and used my splatter brush and Cracked Pistachio paint for some delicate splatters. The sentiment is an old Remnant Rub, and I added Hydrangea Liquid Pearls for texture and balance. Finally, I backed with handmade paper (not by my hands) and another panel of heavy watercolor paper for added stability and heft.

OK, so now we move into my grungy comfort zone, and these next two ATC's came together quite quickly. I thought that I could use some more practice with the paint over ink technique and wanted try my hand at using the crackle paste through a stencil again. This time I had more of an idea in mind, and it involved a stencil with more open area.

Again, I started with a mop up panel from my stash and painted my chosen section of it with Resist Spray. I cut an ATC using an old Bigz die and use the waste as a template to help me choose the right area, pictured below. I used Black Soot and Speckled Egg paint colors along with Stone and Mosaic mini stencils . I also used those same colors and sponged them through mini Halftone stencil on the left side and Speckled Egg and Digits mini stencil at the bottom. Using a Blending Brush allowed me to get a crisper image. I later added  shadows with a Micron pen to help the digits stand out more.

I used the Slate mini stencil, crackle paste and Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood Glazes in opposing corners smudged later with Hickory Smoke Crayon, and this time it worked according to plan.

I die cut a butterfly with Entomology Thinlits dies, reinserted the die cut back into the water color paper from which it was cut and stamped with Distress Black Soot Archival ink. This holds the butterfly in place allowing more accurate stamping in the Stamp Platform. The photo above shows Ground Espresso for the butterfly (used on the next ATC) and Black Soot for the ant (not used). The butterfly is blended with Walnut Stain ink and embossed using a Distress Embossing Pen and Speckled Egg and Walnut Stain glazes. (Process photo shown further below for next ATC.) Scuff the embossed butterfly with steel wool to remove the shine.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo above, but when drying the glaze powder, some of the clear bits hardens to the paint and adds even more texture. Delightful! A ticket (Tim Holtz Ticketbooth: stamps, Thinlits dies) leftover on my worktop, torn and inked, gives contrast to the off the edge butterfly and completes the message I wanted to convey by my Remnant Rub and Clipping stickers words. The Clippings sticker is inked and heat embossed with Antique Linen Glaze. To finish this ATC off, I layered it on a panel of scuffed metallic kraft stock.

While I have done the Eroded Metal technique a LONG time ago (back before I had some of these wonderful background paint colors), I thought I need to brush up. Here's my ATC using this (favorite) Distress paint technique. Fortunately, my first attempt turned out respectably. 

 I used Heavy Stock as my base, and the paints used on the background are shown in the photo.  

Dry and paint with one good coat of metallic paint over the entire panel. Spray with water while still the paint is still wet, dry partially with a heat tool. Immediately lay an absorbent paper towel over the mostly wet paint, smooth with your hand and immediately pull it off, leaving that great eroded surface. 

 The next step is to apply ink directly to the dried surface with the ink pad and then blend with your blending tool. I gave it a little splash of water drops to reveal some lighter areas. Again, you can find all the details of this technique on Tim's video. Using my template, I'm able to find the perfect portion to cut for my ATC.

 The gears die cuts are old Tim Holtz (Gearhead) and were in my stash already colored. To make them work for my project, I painted them with Ground Espresso, then tapped with Rusty Hinge paint and sprinkled with Rusty Hinge glaze powder. I heated to melt, scuffed with steel wool, then added highlights of Cracked Pistachio paint.

I stamped a portion of a Glitch 1 stamp in permanent black ink. The other portion of the ticket from the last ATC, a glazed butterfly and Clippings sticker and old Remnant Rub finish the ATC. This time I used a mixture of Speckled Egg and Cracked Pistachio glazes on the butterfly's wings. I backed the ATC with a metallic kraft stock panel which was sanded and painted with watery Black Soot paint.

As a recap, here are my ATC's gathered together for one last look. 

I hope you found some inspiration from today's post. Remember to visit The Funkie Junkie Challenge blog for even more ATC inspiration from my very talented teammates. Enjoy your weekend! Sara Emily

Challenge Shares

Sandee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges: March/April 2021 Just my steampunk ATC's.

 These products were used on my ATC's and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Entomology

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set - Baroque

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Mixed Media Heavystock

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Jewels Kraft Stock

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic 2 Kraft Stock - Rose Gold & Copper

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Stencils - Sets # 10, #25,#28, #48

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paint  - Spun Sugar, Cracked Pistachio, Rustic Wilderness, Picket Fence, Black Soot, Speckled Egg, Ground Expresso, Rusty Hinge, chipped sapphire, seedless preserves, Mermaid Lagoon, Evergreen Bough, Fossilized Amber, antiqued Bronze, Kitsch Flamingo

Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Hickory Smoke, Rustic Wilderness, Walnut Stain 

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads - Speckled Egg, Wild Honey, Rustic Wilderness, Vintage Photo, Broken China, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Archival Mini Ink Pads - Black Soot, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze - Antique Linen, Walnut Stain, Cracked Pistachio, Rustic Wilderness, Speckled Egg, Rusty Hinge, Weathered Wood, Tattered Rose

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Remnant Rubs

Tim Holtz Resist Spray

Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture Paste

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Pen 2pk

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Brayer