Artist Trading Cards with Carnival Girl

Created by: Karen McAlpine, Design Team Member Description: Artist Trading Cards made with Archival ink, spray inks, and dye inks. Stamp Set Used: Carnival Girl from Blockheads. For step by step instructions for this card, visit my full blog post on Dreaming and Creating.

Blockheads Stamps Re-Deux

Created by: Karen McAlpine, Design Team Member Description: I am in the process of re-doing my studio and simply cannot get in there and make anything!  I hope you will enjoy taking a second look at some of my favorite past projects. For step by step instructions for this card, visit my full blog post on Dreaming and Creating.

Easter ATCs in progress

(Easter ATCs in progress:  click on the pic to enlarge)

I've been working on some Easter themed atcs for a swap--but these still need a little something, such as a Happy Easter on the front! These are standard size atcs with a little bit of an arch and a cut frame.  The backgrounds on the large part of the atcs are Gelli Plate prints, while the framed section uses Perfect Pearl Mist shimmery backgrounds.  Stamp Sets Used: Grunge Collages, Grunge It Up,  Vintage Birds, and Years Ago For more info on these atcs, visit my full blog post at easily amused, hard to offend. Have a great Sunday! :)trisha

Alice in Wonderland Coasters & ATCs

Alice in Wonderland Coasters made with Lost Coast Designs stamps
and scanned pages from the book.

Pages from the Alice in Wonderland book make such a fun background for these Lost Coast Designs stamps.  I didn't want to tear pages from the book so I scanned pages, printed them on copy paper.  I used a laser printer.  If you want to try this but only have an ink jet printer you should photocopy the page that prints because the ink will run during some of the steps of this process.

To make these coasters I aged the printed scans with walnut ink diluted with water to about 1/5th the strength of Tsukineko Walnut Ink spray.  I simply poured a little into an empty spritz bottle and added water.  I find I prefer it pretty week because I can always spray again if I want it darker. 

I used a pulpboard coaster as my base but since these will be covered, chipboard works just as well.  I then applied Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA) to the face of the coaster and spread it with my finger and pressed it onto the back of the printed, aged paper and trimmed around the coaster leaving about 1/2".

To wrap the paper I made 3-4 cuts in each corner and pulled the pieces of the corner in to glue them with PPA and then wrapped the edges around and glued them the same way.  The back will get covered so it doesn't matter how it looks on the back.

After the PPA dried I stamped and decorated the coasters the way I wanted, making sure I used permanent ink that wouldn't bleed in the final step.  I also made sure I kept them non-dimensional so they could be used as coasters.  Finally, I covered the tops with PPA.  PPA dries flexible and clear and is water-resistant.  The backs can be covered with felt cork or craft foam.

The faux book pages also make fun ATCs as well.  I just printed smaller versions of the pages on card stock and cut them to ATC size.

Downloadable Book Pages to Print on Copy Paper or Cardstock
Mad Tea Party
Who Stole the Tarts?
Down the Rabbit Hole
Mock Turtle

We also created some printable quotes from Alice in Wonderland that would be fun to embellish collage art or cards with
Alice in Wonderland Quotes

Supplies
Lost Coast Alice in Wonderland Stamps
Walnut Ink
Pulpboard Coasters (chipboard can be used as well)
Perfect Paper Adhesive
Lost Coast Long Swirl
Luni Stamps Mini stamps
Various Memento Ink Pads
Various VersaMagic Ink Pads
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Fun foam, felt or cork for backing