Bernie Berlin ATC Workshop #10 Swap

I completed my interpretations of the next instalment of the ATC_World swap based on Bernie Berlin's book Artist Trading Card Workshop. The 3 techniques for this month's swap were Friendly Plastic, Hand Journalled and Folded ATCs.

FRIENDLY PLASTIC
I'd never even heard of Friendly Plastic before so eagerly searched the internet to see whether we could buy it anywhere in Australia. I found one site and promptly ordered the product and then when I wanted to buy more was told they were out of stock and would need to wait a few weeks before they get some more in ... well of course this wasn't going to work because I wanted it straight away so I could have a play. I then found a store in Brisbane who stocks Friendly Plastic and they were going to be at the Scrapbook and Papercraft Convention and were running classes with Myléne Hillam, so I booked in to get some first hand experience in creating with Friendly Plastic.

So here is my Friendly Plastic ATC ... I didn't make the whole card out of it as per Bernie Berlin's book, I just used the Friendly Plastic as an embellishment instead. The background is turquoise Basic Grey paper that I embossed through the Cuttlebug, I inked the raised bits in silver, added some German Scrap along the bottom. I created a design using various colours of Friendly Plastic that I melted together and ran a comb through to make the patterns, I then cut out two large wings and two small wings, stuck these to the card with a silicon glue and made the body with wire an beads.

Friendly Plastic butterfly on ATC ... sorry about blurry picture, I really do need a better camera.

FOLDED ATC
I was completely stumped about what to do for this technique and then I did a google search on "Folded ATC" and I found a blog (http://hermaf.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/folded-atc/) with a template that was just perfect.

I started this ATC with black cardstock, scored all the fold lines then covered the card with a serviette. I felt the card was too "flat" with just the serviette, so I painted over the top with my brayer and 3 different colours : shopping bag (a beige colour), raw sienna and red oxide. I was really starting to love the background, so I then stamped over the top with black StazOn to tone it down some more. I added a diamond shaped picture from a Graphic 45 paper called Botanicabella Garden Suite, which fit perfectly in the centre after coating with crackle medium and some alcohol inks to highlight the cracks. I never feel like my ATCs are finished unless there is a border, so I used Gold, Patina and Spanish Copper rub 'n' buff around the edges.

Folded ATC

Folded ATC Open

Folded ATC Standing.

HAND JOURNALLED ATC
I really had no idea what I was going to do for the hand journalled ATC and then I heard a song on the radio and a few lines stuck with me and my creativity was awakened. I was so excited and immediately started my search for a picture of a train, which I added to this card using a gel medium transfer technique and then I creatively hand wrote the words to go with the image.

After I'd finished and sent my ATCs off to Tammy in the USA (the hostess of this swap), I realised I hadn't written the artists name on the back of the card and actually didn't even know who sings the song ... so promptly searched the internet to see if I could find out who it was. I found a site with the words and a video clip of the song and lo-'n-behold, the word "train" doesn't appear anywhere in the song ... whooops ... a slight faux par ... it's meant to be "dream" (LOL)!!! Ah well, I'm sure that whoever gets this ATC in the swap, will get the gist of what I meant.

Here's a Behind The Scenes video of Natalie Bassingthwaighte singing Someday Soon ...

"Someday soon you're going to catch that DREAM you've been chasing."
Natalie Bassingthwaighte