Altered Art Thursday

Hello everyone, I am trying to make my own sunshine, as it has been rainy and overcast here for the better part of about 10 days. there was , I think 1 sunny day in the middle somewhere. I really do not feel very SUNNY, but I am trying. Dreary days only serve to make depression worse. :(


I am still visiting blogs on the PRACTICAL MAGIC Party list, wowza, there sure are a lot of gals , who like me adore this movie (or book...I just got the book, can't wait to read it) If you haven't visited my post for the party, and you ARE a fan of the movie, Please read my post, play my games and take a chance and 1 giveaway (for each of 3 categories) and then a GRAND giveaway!

I was going to try and do some of WRECK THIS JOURNAL yesterday, but I couldn't motivate myself, quite frankly, and I have many swaps due by 10/15, priorities :)

I am saving the rest of my "Halloween" art for next week to tie in with the Halloween party hop, I'm participating in.

I want to share with you some ATCs I did almost 2 years ago now, They were in the "Style" of the Artist NICK BANTOCK, see some of his art here--->Nick's Gallery of ART for sale.

The gallery is part of his Official site, so there is much more to see including limited edition prints for sale, I recommend you look at the African collages, as that is what inspired my art, though I chose to do mine with Native Americans. They are in groups of 5 (as that is how many ATCs I made...4 for the swap and one for myself. I really was delighted in how they came out. They would be closer to his work if I had done some form of image transfer making the images of the Native Americans more transparent. this is a skill that I really have not learned yet other than the "Packing tape" method.

The Images go through in steps or layers if you will.

 Ok Here I have just started, with tea and coffee stained white card stock, that I crumpled while it was damp. When it was dry, I ran each piece through my Xyron 250 and adhered them to ATC sized chip board pieces. I used a postage stamp or a part of a postage stamp, some music staffs and a little acrylic paint, in just one coat.

 Now I've added some  book passages, par avion stickers and background stamps by Stampin' Up..."cheesecloth" in Orange ink and "Carte postale's" birds and flourishes(can't remember now the name of the actual stamp but it was part of that Collection) in Olive. Then I used Ranger's Distress ink in Walnut around the edges and of course it applied to the crumbled areas better.

 Now it is getting messy and fun! I have brushed across the cards ever so lightly with Ranger's Distress ink in Vintage Photo, then I brushed on Golden's gel medium with volcanic rock particles.

 Now I have glued on my Native American photos, and covered each card with Tsukineko's Versamark embossing ink and then applied a good coat of Suze Weinberg's Ultra Thick embossing enamel (UTEE) that I had mixed some gold embossing powder in with. I heated it til it was all thoroughly melted. (The scans really so not do these justice)

After the enamel was almost totally cool, I hit it with the Versamark again, and more UTEE (without gold this time) as it was melting I pressed a feather into hot liquid UTEE. When that was thoroughly dry and cooled I did once last layer of Versamark and UTEE to seal in the feather. because the paper is crumpled and lumpy, there are spots here and there where the feather is not 100% covered, just small areas, and I think it added to the character of these pieces.

The sole female is the card I kept for myself :)