Grungy Monday 33! Explore ATC

Hi there Peeps

I don't know about you guys, but the weather here sure is windy today.  Just the right sort of day to shut yourself into your craft room, den, bedroom, kitchen table or anywhere you wish to do crafting. 

After doing a little housework I have decided to come up to my Craft Room to have a little play on the Grungy Monday Challenge today over on Linda's Blog. 

Linda asked us to go HERE to Tim's Blog to see the technique of covering your fragment with alcohol ink and then stamping a design onto it and wiping it off to give a clear image of your stamp. Not quite sure what that technique is in shortened form. 

So here is mine.......

I have ventured away a little from my usual tagmaking and decided instead to make an ATC.  Having only made one as a make and take at a craft fair some 2/3 years ago, I consider myself to be a bit of a virgin when it comes to ATCs and have long admired those people who make them and make them well. 

The base is a canvas board to which I adhered, using gel medium, a page of a flora book.  I then covered the page again with gel medium.  Once that dried I stamped the whole piece using the stamp which I was using on the fragments (Inkadinkado - an old favourite) and coffee Archival ink.  Whilst that was drying I set to work on the fragments.  Three fragments, all different colours (9 alcohol inks altogether, Clover, Wild plum. espresso, pitch black, watermelon, denim, red pepper, sail boat blue and cranberry).  I inked several layers on each fragment and left to dry for a bit.  Made a cuppa!

Then I inked up sections of the main stamp with Archival ink and stamped the fragments one by one and wiped the ink away.  I adhered them to glossy cardstock and went back to the background piece.

I applied vaseline pretty liberally to the centre of the ATC and then painted acrylic paint over the vaseline.  Being an impatient kinda gal, I could not wait to let this dry on it's own and just had to use the heat gun.  So cool watching the whole piece bubble! I then wiped the paint off, stamped the corners with a Tim Holtz stamp, edged round the edges and applied the pieces, after having first alcohol inked a key and stamped the word "explore".   Don't forget to pop to Tim Holtz's blog HERE to see more wonderful ideas as to what can be done with a few stamps and imagination.

Having now stepped into the world of ATCs I think I shall venture to do more and am already thinking about my next piece ready for the Mojo Monthly Challenge for this month (click on the link in my sidebar if you fancy joining in).

Now I just have to figure out how I am going to get this alcohol ink off my hands as tonight is the Dinner and Dance for Burn's Night.  I am also dancing two solo pieces of Highland and National Dancing tonight and I am not sure if 88+ people will appreciate or understand why I have multicoloured hands despite putting handcream on before I started!  Woops!

I am also hoping that Hubby will let me borrow his saw tomorrow as I would really like to make a frame for this piece.  He bought me the wood, the pins and a mitre block but so far has not come up with the saw for me!

Have a great and creative weekend all.

Hettie