Arty Girlz Challenge - Backgrounds

Hello,

Over on the ArtyGirlz Challenge Blog the theme this week is Backgrounds. Another brilliant excuse to get my fingers all inky and messy!!

I have made two pieces for this challenge because basically, I made a tag and then decided I needed to use Alcohol Inks as well, so I made a Gothic Arch too!

TAG

I used a plain cream tag and using Cut & Dry foam I coloured it with Spiced Marmalade and Dusty Concord Distress Inks. I then sprayed water into my hand and flicked it over the tag. I dabbed up the excess with a paper towel and then dried it off with my heatgun.



Then, using Spiced Marmalade, I stamped the Worn Wallpaper stamp by Tim Holtz. This gave me a faded image that I honestly wasn't that chuffed with. It wasn't as dark as I would have liked, so I then decided to stamp one of the little ATC collage stamps that Tim has just brought out. I made a muck up of this too!! I used Dusty Concord for the majority of the image and Walnut Stain for the skull....only to find, once stamped that it looked totally naff and wasn't very prominent. So, I quickly covered the image with clear embossing powder as this sometimes makes the image stand out more....still no joy with this either :O(( I was all set to stick the whole thing in the bin but then decided to try one last thing....so out came my brand new Ranger White Pen....oh, it is sooo heavenly!! I literally drew around the skull with the pen and then to make the white co-ordinate more, I went over the flourish part of the image.

All in all, I am relatively pleased with the tag, I would have liked it to look a but more defined but I will know for next time to stick to stamping in black LOL



GOTHIC ARCH



For this arch, I used three colours of Ranger Alcohol Ink; Stonewashed, Butterscotch and Wild Plum, my fave colours together. I drew a line of each colour on the applicator tool and then streaked it across the glossy card first one way, then the other, so I was left with a "plaid" look. I then cut out the Gothic Arch shape and got down to stamping. Using Bricks & Mortar by PaperArtsy, I stamped the house straight onto the arch using VersaFine black ink. I then inked the stamp again and stamped onto an off cut of the card. I cut out the roof and layered it onto the arch with 3D foam. I used Sepia VersaFine for the scrolls and then stamped the word using an alphabet pack I have and added this to the roof...along with a heart I had also stamped. I then added a "door" to the house and doodled inside the door using the Ranger White Pen again.



To finish off, I edged the whole arch with Black VersaFine and then added little dots to the scrolls with the white pen.

Can you see a new favourite here? That White Pen.....ooooh, you neeeed to get one, it is FAB!! Oh, I almost forgot to mention!! This week, the ArtyGirlz Challenge is being sponsered by The Artistic Stamper and there is a fabby prize up for grabs. And...if you pop over to the Artistic Stamper online shop you may just find one of those white pens :O))

Anyways, thanks for looking!

Hels x