PVA and newsprint

I applied a layer of PVA to the playing card, and then used a brayer to make sure there was good contact between the card and the newsprint. The Tai Chi card only has glue on the back of the layers, but the Anarchista has another layer of PVA over the background, and I then placed the wordstrips onto this, and gave the whole thing a third, thicker layer of PVA, leaving the surface with a texture.

You learn something new every day...

So now I know that when I upload pictures to the Blog, they appear in reverse order when published, even if they appear to be alongside the correct text in the draft version. So after three goes, I now have the correct text alongside the correct cards, but in reverse order chronilogically...Oh what the heck! This means that when I add more pictures, either I have to remember to put the relevent text at the top, or put them in a new post entirely. I was hoping this would be easy...

Traded or swapped ATCs

Tonight I thought I would make a record of work I have remembered to scan before sending off to its new owner, in the hope that it will remind me to do this with all my work! Some hopes! I shall probably have to rely on the recipients' willingness to upload scans!

The first two were made for a 2-4-2 swap with "Purple" as the theme.

Moonlit Garden is oneof a series made from layered tissue paper with stamping.

Sweet Pea has two layers of stamped background paper, and the palest lilac paper is home made.

The next are the first two I swapped on a 2-4-2, any theme.

The shirt is an origami type fold, the tie is a section of a teabag paper and the chain is made from staples.

The other is self explanatory, except for the playing card which has D instead of Q because it came from Belgium.

The Lake revisited

It suddenly dawned on me what was wrong with the watercolour of the Swiss Lake: No reflections in the water! I have corrected this, and now I am much happier with this one. Maybe inspiration will strike again at some point, and I shall be able to improve the other one.

Home made paper as a base

The paper has the feel of blotting paper, and reacts to paint and water in the same way. The colours are very diffused, so I used stronger colours and glitter gel pens on the punched dragonflies, and used pressed leaves to add something with a strong silhouette

Watercolour and Stamping

These have been stamped using ordinary felt tip pens, then the colours blended with a water brush.

These are watercolours using aquarelle pencils and a waterbrush. They were done when I was on holiday in Switzerland last month. I am new to this technique, and I haven't got the sense of depth I wanted. I don't now if they need to have a change in the strength of the colour, or if it is a change in the shade of the colours.

My first attempts.

I have made the decision to try not to use paper collage alone in my ATCs, but to include some original art work of one form or another. I shall consider painting, stamping, sewing and embossing to be "original", as no one else will do it exactly the same way.