Older and wiser ...

New challenge at Lost Coast Designs, #12 is to make an Artist Trading Card. I don't know if anyone has noticed that I quite like making ATC's ..... LOL.

Here is my DT make and an extra little something else ...

This ATC features the very wise and formal owl from Misc Anthropomorphs and also 'Wisdom' is lightly stamped in the background from dictionary words : 

 The background was made with distress paint and distress stains. The paint applied first and when dry it acts as a resist for the stain. I spritzed the ATC with water once I had added the stain and moved the card around so that the colors ran and gelled together a little more. I really like this effect. 

The owl was stamped in dark brown into onto my ATC, then onto white gloss card stock in brown archival, which I embossed with clear powder and colored him with distress inks and stains. When I had fussy cut him and was adding him to the ATC I glued him down slightly to the right side so there is a shadow behind him.  I also added a little white gel pen to pick out some of the details.

A close up of my owl : 

 For the back of my atc I did a similar technique to the front of the ATC, but I used a more absorbant paper - wow look at the different in the colors and how they merge together. I stamped the owl once and then added my ATC label. Lost Coast Designs have some really wonderful ATC sized images.

Now here is something extra. I make so many ATC's that my binders are bulging at the seams, so I decided to turn some of them into cards.

Here is the card I made, for a 50th Birthday for a friend :

I have done the same background technique, but then I used the Journalling tool / stencil to add the waves. I spritzed it all with water and removed some of the ink with paper towel, the added my journaling. Quite often we don't like our own handwriting - have you found that ? So I decided to go against that instinct and write :)

Hope you found some inspiration here, and maybe feel inclined to leave a comment or join our challenge over at The Lost Coasters Review :)