I’ve been working on a lot of ATC’s lately, as I’m trying to finish a project for my little sister before she starts high school.  I think I only have a few days left, so I’m running a little behind, but I wanted to take a break and work on some ATC’s that I could just go to town on, without worrying about whether or not they would fit in the case I had made.  These india ink ATC’s  were the result.

One thing I’ve been practicing is layering- I tend to add a couple layers and move on from the background to the main elements of the piece I’m working on.  I really made an effort with these to keep layering, even when I felt I was done with the background.  There are times I listen to my inner instinct and times I ignore it to try and push myself into new territory.

You can watch the video to follow my process, but here is a more in depth run-down.

• I began by spritzing my ATC’s with water, then splattering them with India ink, each card a different color- Teal, Magenta, and Violet.  I add more water to spread the ink when necessary.
• Once dry, I used a script stencil and some of Ranger’s transparent texture paste (in matte) to add some depth and to act as a resist.
• I used the india ink to cover the card, making sure to keep the corners a little darker in color.  For this step, I used a different color from the original splatters, and I lovehow the colors still show through.
• Some white acrylic paint was perfect to lighten some areas on each card.
• I grabbed one of my new Prima marketing stencils, and used walnut ink and black india ink to darken the card around it, leaving the area underneath bright with theoriginal colors.
• Since I have to have text in pretty much all of my projects, I used some scrap pieces of Tim Holtz tissue wrap and added them to my cards with gel medium.
• Randomly cut pieces of cheesecloth came next.  I sprayed each piece with walnut ink and tattered angels spray ink, then let them dry a bit before I added them to the cards.
• I stamped some images before I added UmWow Studio chipboard pieces.  Each piece was painted white before I added ink to ink, to make sure the colors stayed bright.
• I added the puzzle pieces to my cards, then used some Ranger texture paste in random places, to ramp up the grungy look and add another layer.
• Finnabair has a tiny script stamp that I love to use over the top of larger elements.
• Some glass microbeads in pink and purple add even more pops of color in different places.
• I touched up each card with a bit more india ink, especially over the cheesecloth, and then added some small flowers.
• I colored the flowers with india ink, and then splattered ink over each card.  Adding pearl beads to the center of each flower was the final touch.
• Yay!  They’re done!!