Stamps Ahead

I have just returned from a 4 day/3-night cruise to Eden on the South Coast of New South Wales. One of the fun things we can participate in is to create Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) to swap on the cruise.  Firstly, I used a collection of spray inks to create backgrounds, then I cut them up into 3" x 4" cards.  This size is smaller than regular ATC's for ease of displaying in our scrapbooks. I then applied strips of black cardstock to left side. I wanted some more texture on the ATC's so I used the spray inks on white cheesecloth, allowed it to dry and then cut and distressed the cloth.  These I placed behind the focal points and greeting on each card.  I used Tim Holtz idea-ology Paper Ladies and Chit Chat stickers on my cards.   If you look closely, you may be able see that I have displayed them on a very old metal travelling box that belonged to my grandparents.  Here are some close up. I loved the last image - ready to embark on her voyage of discov...

 This is a small 2" x 3" (5.3cm x 7.8cm approx.) journal I have made this past week: Inside and back pages, using stamps, doodling, acrylic paint pens, punched circles, fussy cut images. They are a work in progress that I can come back to at any time and play more. Why so tiny? Sometimes when creating opportunities arise and you change course. I started with a 12" (30cm) of 350gsm white cardstock (CS) and an A4 sheet of white CS - that I sprayed with 4 spray inks in my stash. Allow to dry completely - I left overnight to dry.  Then in the morning I cut, the larger sheet into 6" x 4" pieces. These were than to be folded in half.  All good so far, for the first 6 pages and then for some reason I cut the remaining 6 pieces in half ending up with 12 pages that are sized 2" x 3" - no worries I love mini journals. A couple of photos Spray inks on the A4 sheet - of course, by this time the green spray decided to run out!  The other 2 journals I created - now...

Over the past couple of days I have been playing around with texture.  Here are a just some of the note cards I have made: To create these cards I applied craft glue to my card and then used a 3 ply paper napkin that I had separated into individual sheets (this is an alternative to using tissue paper) over the glued area creating texture as I did it. Excess paper was trimmed away.  I then allowed them tp dry. Then, I sprayed the cards with the some of spray inks (various brands used) I had in my stash - I only used 2 colours on each card.   To finish the cards I used a Crafters Companions die and Kaszazz stamps. The cards (of which these are but a few) I am posting to the ladies who attend my community card class just to say thinking of you during this time. My thanks go to my Kaszazz upline, Lucy, who posted a video that she made demonstrating techniques using gesso - I did not use gesso and I was inspired by a background she created using tissue paper tech...