A cautious step into the world of ATCs

I have to admit.... I don't really *get* ATCs. So I decided it's about time I had a serious go at doing some. Inspired by Sy, who showed me a direct to paper technique at the Debden weekend, I made some backgrounds using two different colours of chalk ink (one lightish, one dark). The light went on all over and was swirled around a bit, then the dark was swirled on the edges. Then I stamped a crackle background stamp in the darker shade over the whole lot and inked the edges with it too, for good measure!

Result: one really incredible background. I was amazed :-) For about 10 seconds, until I thought "What on earth do I put on top???"

On forums, I am known as "here be dragons", so that was my starting point. Searching among my dragon stamps (of which I have quite a few!) I found the dragon and sword stamp shown here. I stamped and embossed it and added a gem to the hilt of the sword.

The photograph doesn't really do it justice, but I am rather pleased with it and have made some more backgrounds in the same way, with different colours, which will have their own dragons :-)