Learned Some Lessons about Paint and Adhesives; Made ATCs Yesterday

Yesterday while making ATCs I learned some lessons:

1. Don't use india ink on something then put acrylic paint or acrylic glaze on top, because it smears the (dry) ink and ruins the ATC.

2. Don't put acrylic glaze over the top of watercolor paint. The glaze activatated the watercolor paint, lifted it up and smeared and ruined the design. I was able to quickly rub off all of it and I will see if I can salvage this.

3. My water based adhesive (Dab N Stik), was sometimes a problem when I applied acrylic paint, acrylic paint wash (water mixed with acrylic paint), and acrylic glaze (tinted and not tinted) on the surface. The paper underneath lifted up from the base, and sometimes bubbled. Sometimes when it dried it ended up being alright, while other times, the bubbles remained. I am going to now try to use acrylic gel medium as the adhesive and see if the acrylic products on top or just the wet products on top don't affect the stuff underneath as much.

I was able to spend some time yesterday making ATCs. I finished three ATCs for a swap that mandates the use of a map in the background. I have to finish one more before I can mail out the swap to the hostess. I ran into some of the above challenges so this is taking longer than I anticipated.

I began making ATCs that include my photo on them. I ran into some problems so this is taking longer than anticipated.

For fun, while the other stuff was drying, I tried something new for a swap which I didn't officially sign up to participate in. If these ATCs turn out well then I will sign up and mail them right in. This is a process by which you take white glue and tint it with black ink or black acrylic paint. You then squeeze it out in a pattern or in a drawing onto watercolor paper. After it dries overnight you paint inside the lines. It ends up looking like a stained glass window (but not transparent). My younger son joined in with me on step one of the process last night. Today he and I did some painting on the insides of the black lines. My older son got interested today and he did step one this morning, and it is drying now.

One thing that is not fun is when I sign up for a swap then have problems with the ATCs and am rushing to meet a deadline. I find it more fun and freeing to make the ATCs first then if they work out and look good I sign up and mail them right in.