Playing with background techniques

I have signed up for a swap to exchange backgrounds, and was playing with some last night. These first two are monoprinting with dye inks and a smidgen of Brilliance ink.

The second batch are done on watercolour paper with Milk Paint and acrylics.

Paper Weaving

CC Swaps has a swap in progress for paper weaving. I have not signed up for this, but thought I would give it a try.

This one is a vintage Ad, and it is a little bit "off" as I mistakenly printed one of the pieces in the wrong size. A good learning experience!















This is one of my paint scraping backgrounds entwined with some cardstock scraps, with a stamped butterfly attached.

Distressed Scraps

This is the latest Background Noise Challenge. You can find the instructions at http://trishbee.co.uk/?p=404.

I started off by glueing the scraps on the paper and left them to dry. I then covered them with various mediums; top left Memory Mists, right Aquamarine Fluid Chalks, Bottom Right Distress ink Fire Red and Bottom Vivids Butterscotch.



Well now, I do not use glue much in my projects and made the mistake of using a "liquid" type glue, and did not realize that I had left bits of glue on the paper, which resulted in a resist where there were big glaring white spots. So, not being one to always follow the rules, I had to fix it. On one of them I just added extra paper, (this time with a glue stick) and covered it again with the colouring medium.


On the top left, I embossed the white areas with an embossing pen, and sprinkled Verdi Gris embossing powder and heated it. Bottom left, I did the same with copper embossing powder. The top right I sprinkled some embossing powder over and heat embossed.



Not the correct procedure per the instructions, but at least I can still use them.

Little Beauties

I am participating in another instant art swap; this time it is "Little Beauties". These are a great way to use up all the little scraps of paper that I would ordinarily have saved and used for a few items. They have become addictive and I ended up making 50 of them.

OOps! Just realized that one of the images on the first set was upside down so have added it at the bottom right-side up.

Another Background Noise Challenge

The challenge for this round was paint scraping, which is a technique I have done before, and really enjoyed. This time I am not entirely happy with my finished products, but will share them anyway. I used every kind of paint I had acrylics, pearlized, fabric and even used glass paint on one.

The last Rainbow one I hated so I sprayed it with Adirondack colorwash.

The final one is the printer paper that I had laid my cardstock on while doing the other techniques. I just smooshed it together, then ran the scraper over it to remove the excess paint.

ATC (Artist Trading Card) Holders

I am participating in a swap where we make some type of ATC Holder. I had two different ideas in mind and have completed both.


The first is the same idea as the book I made for my sister at Christmas time. I just did not add the additional pieces of cardstock to divide the pages, as I thought it would add too much bulk. I have taken individual ATC sleeves and attached them to the pages. On the back inside cover I added an envelope, in case the person recieving it would like to add some additonal items in the book.

Below are the front cover, inside front cover page, first page with some ATC's inside to show how it works, and the back inside cover.














ATC Holder #2




The front and back cover of this holder are made with acrylic. I coloured them with Alchohol Inks, then stamped with Stazon black. To make them stand out a bit more, I cut a couple of pieces of white cardstock and added them in the book to accent each cover. On the backside of the pieces of white cs I coloured and stamped and added an image (courtesy of Trish B.), on the other, instead of adding an image I glued a handmade ATC envelope (received from my friend Deanna), which can hold an ATC or other items.


I used heavy weight badge holders for the ATC holders, (2nd picture above shows how the ATC is inserted) and bound it together with book rings.

More Tip-ins

I recently participated in another tip-in page, the theme being Paris, this was what I sent to my partner.

I also thought I would get a head start on the next tip-in and completed my Birds theme.