Paint, Ink, Beeswax & Images~ ATC's

I unearthed the high grade printmaking paper that I had left over from a printmaking class I took in the early 90's. I decided to play with some of the acrylic paints in bottles that I had bought and experiment some more with my inks blending and brushing colors and dropping ink drops onto the paint. Since the application was thick and saturated I would blot the paper with another paper doubling my decorated surfaces. I cut these up into ATC-sized pieces 2.5 X 3.5 inches to use later.

Later on I stamped designs on some and added my images and text. I had just decoupaged some boxes with vintage Bingo cards (that I received in a giveaway from Amy at Mittens) and had a few snippets of text left from them which I used.

I had picked up some beeswax to use in some encaustic work but haven't yet gotten the damar resin that's needed to harden it properly. I haven't been schooled in the process yet so I was winging it by just using melted beeswax on it's own. I had some printed images on muslin that I thought would become more translucent with the application of wax but it just seemed to coat it rather than enhance except for some really gauzy worn fabric.

After scraping and distressing the wax I was left with some nondescript textural pieces. I had some mini scrapbooking rivets to play with too. Here's what I came up with~

Which one speaks to you?

"Strings"

waxed, stitched inked and riveted muslin

"Capture a Spiral and Turn it to Gold"

waxed teabag, gold coil, stamped and waxed background

"Somebody Stop Him!"

text and image from vintage children's book

"Postage Due"

printed muslin and ephemera catalog image

"Vertically & Horizontally"

moon piece cut form old printmaking project, Bingo text

"Modern Glyph"

Vintage dressmaking book, stampings

"Be-Bi-Bo-Bu"

waxed fabric, vintage sheet music, stamping on inked, painted and blotted paper

"Music with a Flourish"

stamping, vintage sheet music, waxed fabric, stitching

"Diagonally"

Image from vintage Japanese dressmaking school book, Bingo text

"12 Different Ways"

Bingo text, vintage company stamp

"Vertically or Diagonally"

Bingo text , harnessing diagram and waxed muslin

"Japanese Stitchery"

stitched, painted and stamped muslin, image from vintage dressmaking school book

"It makes you think"

Dolly Dingle paper doll, game image

"Balancing Act"

Chinese text from travel pamphlet and stamping

"Five"

Bingo text, stitching, ink

"Free"

bottle cap (from Artymess), charm and stampings

ATC's From Some Rainy Daze

"Make Happy Happy"

It has a good beat.

"School Girls"

Old etching, target practice, vintage storybook image and paper doll head

vintage science book images, inks and paint.

"Does this make my antlers look fat?"

"Budding Artist"

I had been saving this snippet of text for something... and then I saw the brushes!

digitally altered Buddha head from one of my Burma pics along with a diagram from an old craft book.

"Tea on the Dock"

"The Awe of it All"

photoshop Buddha and vintage girl

"Treasure"

Rainy days sent me up to the studio to play with paper. I cut up old prints and paper from a printmaking class from the 90's that I took. I also messed around with some leftover paint with faux glazing medium from a cupboard painting project.

Then using mostly vintage images and other papers from a swap, I created a few whimsical and decorative ATC's, the meanings of which may be elusive and enigmatic or perhaps up to the viewer to glean.

Today's ATC's

Ready to Travel

Pensive

Float

It was time to dive in and make some more ATC/ACEO's. It's been awhile. Last month I had cut up some monoprints that I had made back in '91 when I took a printmaking class at UAF with Todd Sherman. They weren't anything spectacular, more like line and color studies, experiments really. I thought that they'd make nice backgrounds for artist trading cards. I've been collecting images from the thrift store and antiques stores lately so these are the culmination of the two.

Monday's ACEO's