A Jillian Vance Design: Birch Trees & Birdies ATCs

Hello there everyone, it's Lisa Hoel here with a mid-January guest post. Can you believe it's mid-January?? I feel like I'm still trying to get in my regular life groove after the holidays! At any rate, wintry themed projects are on my mind. Today I've created a set of ATCs using the super cute Birch Trees & Birdies Die Set and another oldie but goodie technique using Distress Paint.

Don't toss those "leftover" shapes! I used the negative inner shapes from the
grey "outline cut" of the card on the right to make the completely different
looking card on the left. Get more bang for your buck! ;-)

I'll give you a quick run-down on how I did the marbled backgrounds. You can also see a tutorial by Tim Holtz HERE. Distress Paints are very liquid and highly reactive with water which means you can do some really cool techniques with them. This is one of my favorites!

First, scribble and dab various colors of Distress Paint onto your craft sheet. Mist them with water.

I'm using a wintry palette of Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky, Hickory Smoke & Pumice Stone.

Second, swipe your substrate through the paint. I used bristol board – manila works really well too. Flick drops of water onto it if you like to create more reaction. Dry it with a heat tool.

Look at that cool marbling and interaction between the colors!

I usually have drops of paint left on my craft sheet so I'll blot them up with my dry (or mostly dry) marbled sheet to add even more layers of texture and color.

neato!

Look at the great color and texture you get! I cut this larger sheet up into 2.5 x 3.5 inch rectangles for my ATC bases. This technique is perfect for all sorts of backgrounds and color palettes.

Thanks for stopping by! Supplies used are as follows:

AJVD Products