"The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit,
the greater your capacity to create."
~Dieter F. Uchtdorf
I recently hosted a Mardi Gras themed ATC swap in our
Paper Traders group. I made my backgrounds by using blue and purple alcohol inks on aluminum foil, then overlaying that with a piece of iridescent punchinella. They're really much more colorful and shiny than the scan shows.
I am so excited (and spoiled!) because I received a new
Silhouette Cameo as a gift this past week! I've barely had a chance to use it but I think it's amazing. This is my first electronic cutter and now I can see why it seems everyone is obsessed with these things. I have only cut out a few test items - a gift bag with scrolling heart handles and a Peter Rabbit print-and-cut... both of which I neglected to photograph before giving them away. And the third thing I cut were these amazing chinese dragons! These ATCs are for another swap on our Paper Traders group. Look at the intricate details in the cutting! I love it.
The backgrounds on these cards were inspired by
Dina Wakely's "warm ups" which she talked about in
Nathalie's Creative JumpStart Summit this month. I dipped vintage asian text into black & red alcohol inks and then spread on some gold acrylic paint using a palette knife. So simple and I love the look.
As an added bonus, these cards fit the theme of the current
Paper Traders Blog Challenge as well. Anyone can join the blog challenge and you might be recognized as the "Trader Treasure" of the month!
Unfortunately, these did not scan very well but they're really quite pretty. I made these background papers for another swap in our
Paper Traders group. We stamped images onto black cardstock using bleach, then added color back in using various inks, and touching it all off with some metallic stamping - a really easy and fun technique! You'll have to test your paper before you get started as not all cardstocks will yield good results. I tried several (some of which didn't bleach out at all) and finally bought a few pages of Bazzill paper, which worked well.
The
Paper Traders blog challenge this time is "
Vintage School Memories" and I think it's such a fun theme! I made this canvas by starting with some pretty scrapbook paper, which I scratched and sanded before rubbing with
Distress Inks. Then I layered a transparency over a page from an actual student reader printed in the 1800's... and added a few school-themed elements to finish it off.
These blog challenges are a lot of fun and open to everyone. So hop on over to the
Paper Traders blog and show us your stuff!
