Flourishes & Swirls

On ccswaps there is a swap for ATCs using Flourishes & Swirls. This made me think of vintage & romance. So excited because on one of the yahoo groups, Carol Clements just mentioned a technique using Distress Inks to get a soft distressed backgrounds. Perfect timing and I was ready to play and made two different ATCs. For the first one, I went for the soft distressed look:

Following directions, I used a mini brayer to roll some distress ink (tattered rose) on a non-stick craft sheet, then rolled the brayer across the card stock. Replenish the brayer from the craft sheet and gently cover the cardstock. Dry with heat tool.

Then I added a second layer of color (milled lavender) in the same manner and dried with heat tool.

Next, I cut the card stock into pieces for the ATCs and rubbed the edges across the same color of ink that was the second color brayered onto the card stock. Using the same color I stamped on a flourish, and set with heat tool.

To make the flourishes stand out, I stamped them again in a darker shade ( the color was too deep for the look I wanted, so I stamped on scrap paper before stamping on my cards stock) and slightly off set them. Last I added a romantic image, some words and a swirly embellishment.

For the second ATC, I decided I wanted a bolder background, so I did the same technique, but used darker Distress Inks:

I used tattered rose & worn lipstick Distress Inks to brayer on the background.

For the background swirls, I used worn lipstick & fired brick Distress Inks and metallic gold. I stamped the saying in fired brick.

To finish the ATC, I made a slide mount out of the same card stock I mounted the background on, and created raised swirls with the Cuttlebug & Swirl embossing folder. I rubbed the metallic gold ink pad over the embossed slide mount to make the swirls stand out, and placed it over another romantic image. A metal flower with a matching brad finished the ATC.