ATC Fun!

My friend Marg, and I, and three more friends meet once a month in Marg's wonderful studio and play. This month we played with a background that we found in Bernie Berlin's ATC book. Marg and I had done something similar a few weeks before (faux batik) but we liked this effect so much more!
The way we did this was: first we painted the ATC (this one I painted in green-just used cheap craft paint), then stamped on it with clear embossing ink, covered it with clear EP, and heated it until the EP melted. When that was cooled down, we dry brushed another colour (contrasting-I chose a browny-gold) over top of it all, then we ironed it, placing a paper on top to pull off the EP as it melted. The result was so wonderful that we repeated the process many times! It gives a very aged and antiqued look. We also found that there was a neat impression left on the top paper, and so we started using good cardstock to pull off the EP (second photo). This example was the piece that came off the "Damn that Woman" ATC below. We then swiped the cs with Marvy Marker Matchable ink pads (I'm sure you could use any kind, but the ink nicely didn't adhere to the image). I love the result!! The finished ATCs from that night are below: