Jane DT - Nature in ATC's

Hello!

It is my turn today on the Buzzy Goings on at Bee Crafty Blog and I thought that today I would share with you some ATC's that I made this week.

For anyone who does not know, ATC stands for Artist Trading Card and is a piece of art work created on a substrate measuring 3 1/2 " x 2 1/2 ".  The original idea was that they were a form of business card that artists could swap with each other, but they seem to be making a resurgence at the moment as mini pieces of art or craft.

I love making them as it is a great opportunity to try out products or techniques without needing to use anything too big, and I tend to use ATC's made of greyboard or other thicker substrates so that I can throw all sorts of mediums and layers at them!!

I am enjoying creating themed sets of ATC's at the moment so decided to begin a little series using Bee Crafty stamps and stencils with a nature theme.
The idea was to have a go at using some acrylic inks and alcohol that I acquired a while ago to create a background I had seen on the internet.  However my backgrounds didn't end up looking anything like I had planned but I still liked them so carried on creating with them.
Once the background had dried I used the honeycombe d'inkable to add some stencilling using acrylic paint.
To add more detail to the background I used the XL script stamp with sepia archival ink in patches across both cards.
I then stamped my main foliage feature on both using Versafine black then embossed over the top with clear powder (teasels and ground elder).
Then more stencilling was added, this time using sparkle paste to add some texture.
Finally I stamped out the butterfly twice in Versafine black again and chose parts of 2 different sentiments.  My original idea was to colour the butterflies to match the background, but once I saw them alongside the monochrome sentiments I left them plain as I felt they made a nice contrast to the backgrounds...

Here are the links to the products I used...

* D'nkables - Honeycombe
* D'inkables - Sunset
* D'inkables - Cracked Glass
* Beautanicals - Teasels
* Beautanicals - Ground Elder
* Art Stamps - Birds and Butterflies Set 1
* Wordage - Ticker Tape Sentiments Set 1
* Wordage - Dreams Come True (small)
* Backdrops - XL Script

I am definitely going to add some more to this collection using other Beautanical stamps and I hope this will inspire you to have a go at some mini art works too!

Happy crafting,

Jane xx