Mini ATC Grunge Collage Album featuring Blockheads Stamps!

Hello Stampers!

Here's another project tutorial I designed for Blockheads Paper Arts!

Blockheads has this awesome little collection of ATC Grunge Collages and I decided to create a mini ATC album to showcase all 4 of them as a set.  ATC stands for Artist Trading Card just in case I've got some newbie rubber stampers reading this ;0)

Materials List

 Blockheads Paper Arts Grunge Collages
PrismaColor Pencils 

White, Peacock Blue, Indigo Blue, Light Cerulean Blue, Violet, Blush Pink and Sienna Brown

PrismaColor Fine Point Metallic Gold Paint Pen
Distress Ink - Walnut Stain

Versafine Onyx Black ink pad

Opalite Orchid Ice ink pad

Black and Dark Cream cardstock

Iridescent Glitter Glue

Iridescent Ribbon from Michaels

Scoreboard

Paper Trimmer
Stipple brush

Ruler and Pencil

Black velcro dot

Double-sided sticky tape

Permanent Adhesive tape runner

 I started off by stippling Walnut Stain Distress ink onto dark cream cardstock to grunge it up a bit so it's not so bright.  You can see in the photo I put a piece of the original cardstock on top so you can see the difference the stain makes.

Stamp the collages onto the cardstock with Onyx Black Versafine ink.  Do two  each of the Lepidoptera Moth and Bird Nest collage, and one each of Romeo & Juliet and Mother & Baby.  I used PrismaColor coloured pencils to colour all of the collages and in this photo I started with White and then Peacock Blue.  Ignore the collage of moths in that photo for now, those are for another project ;0)  

 I worked on all six collages simultaneously applying the various colours and adding shading with same colours by varying how hard I pressed and just going over and reworking all the areas.  I blended some areas with the white pencil too.  The following photos show the progression and build up of colours.  I used a combination of White, Peacock Blue, Indigo Blue, Light Cerulean Blue, Violet, Blush Pink and Sienna Brown on all of the collages.

 

 

The style of the collages makes them a set already but my colour continuity through out further pulls them together.  I then cut them out using the standard ATC dimensions of 2.5" x 3.5".

I added touches of gold to the squares on some of the frames, the frame points on the Romeo & Juliet collage and broken lines around the Bird Nest collage frames with a fine point PrismaColor metallic gold paint pen.  I was going for the illuminated look of drawings in old manuscripts and I love the way these turned out!   I decided to add a touch of sparkle to each collage with diamond glitter glue too.  It was hard to capture the sparkle of the glitter but I think you can see it a bit in the photo above and better in the one below.  I put them aside to let the glitter dried and made the mini accordion album.

I based my measurements on the standard size of an ATC and cut a piece of black cardstock to 3.75" x 11".  Score fold lines at 2.75", 5.5" and 8.25".  Fold the accordion album so that the first fold is a valley fold, the second a mountain fold and the last a valley fold.  The dimensions of each panel of the accordion album is 3.75" x 2.75".

Turn the album over and stamp a collage of the 3 individual moths that come with the ATC set with Opalite Orchid Ice ink onto the two middle panels.  The iridescent interference purple ink is stunning on black cardstock!  It was also hard to capture it just right in the photo but you can see what I mean.

While the ink dried I cut two lengths of a beautiful pastel blue iridescent metallic ribbon that I got from Michaels to make the closure for my mini album.  I adhered the ribbon to the outside of the front and back panels with double-sided sticky tape.

Then I added one of the Moth ATC's to the front cover and one of the Bird Nest ATC's to the back cover with permanent adhesive tape.

I then adhered the remaining ATCs to the inside of the album!

My mini album can be displayed in a couple of different ways.

Standing and unfolded.

Folded in half so that the album forms a gate fold with the ribbon tied in a bow.

Standing with the album closed and the ribbon tied in a bow.

Or standing but with the 'pages' of the album attached at the spine with the aide of a black velcro dot I adhered to the back of the middle panels.

Finally it can also be displayed flat as a closed mini album book with the velcro holding the pages together and the ribbon holding the book closed.  So many possibilities!

Please feel free to share my project on your blogs but I would appreciate it if you'd include a link back to Leigh S-B Designs and mention me in your posts and as always comments are very welcome ;0)

For more Blockheads inspiration pop on over to Karen's blog if you haven't seen her Faux Batik technique projects yet!

Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN
Blockheads Paper Arts Design Team