Feature the Background ATCs

These are the atcs I made for the September Technique Swap Feature the Background hosted by Larrie on Trimcraft. They all have simple images on them from Crafty Individuals and some magazine photos as I wanted the background to really stand out and not hide it with embellishments.

Rhapsody in Blue
This one has a background which has first been inked in shades of blue pigment ink. I then stamped on 2 tile type images from Stamp It in darker shades of blue. I then covered the stamped piece with embossing ink and embossed it with clear powder. I repeated this step twice more. The resulting background looks very like a glazed tile.

Music in Flight
The background of this atc is made using stripes of Marvy Metallic Marker pens in blue and green. When it was dry, I stamped on some dragonflies and embossed some in silver and some in metallic teal. I painted in details on the wings with glitter glue.

What A Girl Needs
This background is made using nail varnish and is good for using up any odd bits you have. It's very smelly though. Basically, what you do is put some water in a foil tray and drizzle nail varnish in contrasting colours over the top. You put a piece of card down on top of the water and it will pick up the nail varnish. It gives a marbled effect and should be left to dry thoroughly in an airy place.

Blushing
I learnt this technique several years ago on a class with textile artist Kim Thittichai. The base is brown paper painted with metallic paints. You then iron on Bondaweb previously painted with metallic paint (you need to put a piece of baking paper on top or it will stick to the iron). Once you have done that, you can iron on snippets of threads, ribbon, handmade paper, mica chips, sequins, beads etc.  You can also stitch it if you wish.