Blog Testimonials: Part Three
Blogiversary Archive Pick: Suzanne's Curatorial Tour of Ten Years

Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

I asked the super duper talented Gwen Lafleur (You should follow her on instagram.  I do!) to choose a tutorial from my blog archives to put her own spin on.  Check out what she did:

I’ve been super inspired by all of the tutorials Julie has posted over the years, but while I was trying to choose one to put my own spin on, the Colorful Garbage ATCs from back in May 2011 really jumped out at me. Like Julie, I’m pretty good about throwing things away, but I can’t let go of my under-paper. (You know, the stuff where you clean off your paint brushes and stencils, test pens and stamps, and all that good stuff?) I tend to use both copy paper and deli paper for this, and I let the layers build up until they look cool. Then I stash them away and save them.

To make my own version of Julie’s Colorful Garbage ATCs, instead of sewn fabric scraps, I pulled out these piles and pieces of under-paper.

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

While you could just cut out ATC-sized sections of these sheets and be done with it, I loved the mixed-up look of Julie’s cards, so I tore these into strips.

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

Rather than sew them together (which you totally could,) I grabbed some Heat n Bond and cut a piece about the size of my assembled strips. I arranged them face down on my ironing board and overlapped the edges, then laid the piece of Heat n Bond on top and ironed over the liner per the package directions.

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

Could you just collage the papers onto a sheet of deli paper or directly onto ATCs? Yes! This was faster though, without the sticky fingers and drying time.  Once I was done ironing, I had a solid sheet of fused together strips of under-paper. So cool!

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

For the ATCs, I decided to go big and pulled out some old 5x7 playing cards. I arranged them to figure out how they would fit and how many I could get, then cut my sheet into roughly 5x7 pieces.  Back to the ironing board! I just peeled the liner off the back, laid it over the card (trimming overhanging edges) and then got ready to iron. This time I used what’s called a Goddess Sheet (it’s a folded Teflon sheet for ironing stuff like this).

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

I got four cards, then took the scraps and layered them to make a fifth. It only took about five minutes, and I had my jumbo ATCs, ready for finishing touches!  

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs
Julie finished her cards with some cool stitching (which you could totally do here,) but I decided to use paint instead and pulled out gold acrylic with a fine-liner tip and drew some scribbly circles. Then I just added some words and a touch of gold along the edges.

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs

I absolutely love the different layered patterns and colors together! I’m thinking I might bind them into a book instead of trading them, but we’ll see how it goes.

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs
From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCs
A big thanks to Julie for inviting me to participate in her 10 year Blogiversary, and I hope you enjoyed my take on these colorful garbage ATCs!

From the Balzer Designs Blog: Blogiversary Tutorial Redo: Colorful Garbage ATCsGwen Lafleur is a lifelong artist and crafter, currently living in South Jordan, Utah. Gwen has been involved in arts and crafts her entire life, trying anything from drawing lessons to paper crafts, and finally finding her true home as a mixed media artist. Whenever she gets a break from her full-time job in the eCommerce industry, Gwen can most often be found playing in her studio and working as a stencil artist and creative team member for StencilGirl Products.

Blog: http://gwenyth.typepad.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gwenythlafleur
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/gwenaval 

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