Technique obsession time....

Have just spent a pleasant hour updating my gallery and sorting out 'available to trades' etc - amazing how quickly everything gets out of date when you start doing a few trades!! However, what I have mainly been doing tis week is preparing two sets of four ATCs for a Technique swap over on Flickr - only three of us signed up in the end so we are doing straight 4:4 trade with both of the other partners. So the challenge was four different techniques...

RESIST EMBOSSING...
is a favourite technique of mine for backgrounds. With the right paper, you can sometimes almost get a batik type effect. So these two are both made using RE backgrounds with a little bit of collage for good measure.





IMAGE TRANSFER
I also really like doing image transfers using gel medium, but I find it harder to marry them up with appropriate backgrounds. When finished I like to cover them with several layers of dilute PVA - they seem to end up almost like paintings.






RUBBER STAMPING AND MASKING

Well thought that rather than just stamp I would use masks to make these a little more interesting. For this first one I used the same stamp three times to get a little cluster of fish. I finished this one off with a single 'lumpy' layer of EP to give it a 'watery' look.



For this second one I used masks to enable me to create this collage using 7 different stamps. By leaving the masks in situ I was then able to build up the colour in the background using ink pads and foam.



WATER COLOUR STAMPING...
I was struggling a bit for the last technique, I had suggested beading or sewing but was reluctant to get out my ancient sewing m/c (bobbin winder has broken making that very tedious - winding them by hand is a pain!!) but I had seen this technique on Tim Holtz' blog. I had tried quickly before without success but read through the instructions properly this time and was very pleased with results. Tim explains it much better then me so if you want to look at it go here. It's a bit trial and error - I think the success depends largely on choosing the right stamp, something that is going to be recognisable when 'blurred'. Anyhoo ended up making quite a few (a bit limited in colour combos as I only had a few of the right type of ink pads lol) but these are the two I will be snding to the swap.





AND BECAUSE I CAN'T HELP MYSELF....

It was the big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Ally Pally last week and I had a mad idea about making a bag to display all my trades in.....



I don't expect it will last very long but it's just a bit of fun - I shall just keep it for craft shows. I got quite a few comments but unfortunately didn't remember to get to any of the public trades - too busy shopping!!