Artist Trading Blocks

Morning All - Paula here again using the fab New Retro Beach Set. I actually made 2 ATB's which are identical apart from the base colour I used.

The ATB's are 3'' x 3'' cubes made using Kraft card. I have my own template I use which I'm sharing here today - there are probably easier ways to do it but I found a way that suits me.

Take an A4 piece of Kraft card and cut it to measure 4"x 10" - hopefully you can see the directions on the photo but basically along the 10" length score on the 1/2", 3.5", 6.5" and 9.5" marks. Along the 4" side score a 1/2" in on both sides of the card.

Now cut a piece of Kraft card to measure 3" x 10" - score again along the 10" side at 1/2", 3.5", 6.5" and 9.5".

The next step is to take a dry brush and a small amount of paint, in this case I used Dylusions Paint in Vibrant Turquoise (the 2nd cube was painted in DecoArt Americana 'Indian Turquoise'). When painting the Kraft card, just make it patchy/random. Once the paint is dry, construct in to the cube shape. I then inked all the edges with docrafts Artiste Pigment Ink in Chocolate. I flicked white gesso over every side of the cube.

I then glued down bits of fine mesh material on the top and the 4 sides around the cube. I stamped images from the New Retro Beach set in brown ink on to more Kraft card - I did a bit of decoupaging with a couple of the main image to give them more interest. I inked some wording on to pink card, trimmed them out and added them to the piece as well as die cutting some words which are by Sizzix/Tim Holtz.



I did do a little bit of stamping directly on to the cube before adding all the stamped images - I just took the stamp in my hand and did it randomly, just to add a little more interest.

Thanks for popping by the blog today and taking a peek - I do hope giving my template has inspired someone to go and make an ATB!

Paula

To find the stamps used for these ATB's, please visit the Rubber Dance web shop

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Thank you so much, Paula! I love everything beach and sea themed, and your ATBs are gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing your template with us, that's so kind of you.
I hope you'll come back as a guest designer another time as well.
Till then - be good and keep stampin'! :)
XOX,
Bibi

PS: If anyone missed Paula's first post, here it is.