Quick and Easy ATC Backgrounds

 

You just never know when you might need to work up a quick ATC and it is much easier when you already have your base completed. I was feeling a little bored today, so I pulled out some new paints and some paper and started playing. Uh, working. Let me show you. 

I began with a sheet of Harmony Hot Pressed Watercolor paper from Hahnemühle, a few acrylic paints and a brayer. That's it. 

I took the Dylusions Lemon Drop, Strawberry Daiquiri and Calypso Teal and squeezed out a few drops of each color. Just make those drops randomly across your paper. 

Take the brayer and roll out the drops. We aren't going for perfection here because we are ultimately going to chop this whole sheet up into smaller pieces. I added a little Fresh Lime and Mango Punch to fill in some white areas. I wanted to get full page coverage - if I could. See those big blue splotches? I probably wouldn't like those if I was going to tangle this page. For what I had in mind those blue splotches would be just fine. 

I loved the colors but felt like my sheet needed some contrast. And contrast I could get using the black Dina Wakley paint, a fan brush and my trash plate. I just squeezed out a dab of black onto my trash plate - rocket science measurements happening here - and sprayed it with water. 

Then I used the fan brush to pick up the black paint and drag it in streaks on my paper. Eek! No! No 'eeks' allowed, hahahaha! This is going to be perfect, I promise. 

In the Dina Wakley line I grabbed white and ocean, and in the Dylusions I grabbed Tropical Sangria. Great colors. 

And I made splatters. You may need to enlarge this photo by clicking on it to see them. I started with the lightest color first and worked to darkest, letting the spots dry in between. 

Then I had another idea. I wanted a white, white, white ink pad, but this is what I had so I went with it. I had never used this little stamp from Joggles and it felt just right for what I had in mind. 

Stamping white flowers all around my page. Primarily in the dark areas because I doubt they would show up well in the lighter areas. 

Pretty cool, yes? But that left all the lighter areas open. What to do, what to do?

Easy. Use black ink to add some of the same flowers in the lighter sections.

I took a Prima watercolor set called The Classics and painted the centers of all the flowers. Yellow on the black flowers and pink on the white flowers. Almost done. 

And the last step was to take a white water based Sharpie paint pen to add white dots in the centers of all the flowers. 

And my ATC background was complete. All that was left was to use my paper trimmer to cut the sheet down into 2.5" x 3.5" ATC bases. I managed to get nine from one 8.5" x 11.5" sheet of Harmony watercolor paper. I love how they turned out! So bright and colorful and happy! And you don't even notice the blue splotches - and the black streaks just work this way. I would love to see what you do with this technique!

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