Mixed Media Tutorial / Artist Trading Card / Pink Persimmon

Artist Trading Card 2.5" x 3'5"

My weekend begins tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. I was able to get off tomorrow and will be going to the community "Scrapsisters" get together tomorrow, and then 3 of my very good friends, Deb, Robin, and Melayne are joining me to stamp away the morning Saturday. And then, to top it all off, my sweet girl is flying in from Florida!!! I know we will be sharing some crafty time together as well!    I hope all of you are blessed to be surrounded by crafty friends as well!

 I am also excited about Pink Persimmon's newest release!  I enjoy creating ATC's and this set is PERFECT for those.  And of course they can be used for other projects as well.  So today I want to share an ATC that I created using background stamps from 2 of the sets, "Fairy Tale Patterns" and "Spring Time Patterns" and the girl from "Hello Vintage Girl".  

I don't participate in gossip, but I couldn't resist the phrase, "No! She didn't".  I imagined her on the phone with one of her crafty friends, and the friend is telling her something VERY important, like, "You will never believe what Susan did the other night at the crop.  She used  a hammer instead of a Crop-a-dile", teehee.   Women can be so funny! 

I also have a card to share using another set, "School Uniform".   I am also sharing a step by step tutorial on how to create the background and the paper pieced girl.  

For beginners, let me explain that Artist Trading Cards are little 2.5" x 3" pieces of art that you can swap with friends or collect for yourself.  If you are not familiar with Artist Trading Cards then you may want to take a moment to check out this post HERE.

Are you ready to get messy???  I hope you didn't just get your nails done.   Let's get started!

1.  Begin with a piece of watercolor paper.  I used Canson 140lb.  Trim to 2.5" x 3.5".  Spray with Glimmer Mist Black Cherry.   Dry with your heat gun.  I'm hoping this step will help to heat set the spray ink, so it doesn't bleed so much later.

2. After it is dried, stamp with the polka dot pattern from "Spring Time Patterns" and VersaMark Ink. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat emboss.

3. Coat with white acrylic paint. I used a soft bodied paint by Liquitex. It's thicker than cheaper paint. But by all means use the cheaper brands. You just may have to apply several coats. After dry, use a lightly damp paper towel and begin wiping it across the card. Most of the paint should come off of the polka dots because the embossing powder resist the paint. Some of the paint on the background may come off as well. All to dry and repeat process as many times as needed to get the distressed look below (I did it twice).

4. Use the script background from "Fairy Tale Patterns" with black Staz-on ink. Staz-on is an ink that adhere's to non-pourous surfaces like the embossed polka dots. It may be possible to use another type ink.  I didn't experiment. You are going for a distressed look, so practice on a piece of paper first to figure out where you want to apply pressure so that the whole image does not get stamped.

All the mess is over with.  Now we are going to paper piece our "Hello Vintage Girl image" .  It's time to get out those cuticle scissors or some other type percission scissors that allow you to cut details.

5. Stamp your Vintage Girl 3 times as shown below.

6. Color the area's shown below. Notice I didn't worry about being super neat because I knew I was going to cut her out.

7. Trim all the pieces as shown below. 

8. Stamp Vintage Girl on the card front with Staz-on ink. This serves as a template for where to put your pieces as well as add the area's you are not piecing, the phone cord.

9. Adhere her blouse and skirt as shown below. I use Aleene's Tacky Glue ($1.47 at Walmart). This is my favorite adhesive and I use it 95% of the time. I like the control I have and that I'm able to fully adhere my pieces. Here's a tip : It's thick so I like it ready to go. I store it upside down in a peanut butter jar that has a little dimple in the bottom. It's a wet glue, so it can warp your paper if you use too much and if the paper is supper thin.  A dab will do.

10. Adhere the rest of the peices as shown below.

11.  Trim the card down a little so that it will still be 2.5" x 3.5" after you add the deckled background (3/16").  Adhere to black cardstock and trim with deckled scissors.  Create words on computer, trim and adhere.

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!

big hugs,

Melisa

Check out Pink Persimmon stamps HERE.

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

See all my MIXED MEDIA TUTORIALS HERE

See all my MIXED MEDIA / COLLAGE PROJECTS HERE

See all my ART JOURNAL PROJECTS HERE

This card uses "Scottie Dogs",  "Vintage Greetings", one of the backgrounds from the "School Uniform".  The background die is by Spellbinders, "Labels 21"