Circus Circus!!

Hello!
Normally, I have a theme or idea worked out BEFORE I start creating, with this one, the theme kind of crept up on me afterwards!! I wanted to go bold and bonkers with colour....so I did!

This is a chunky wooden ATC, fabulous dinky size, but still plenty of space to get to grips with!
I started off by giving the wood a thick coat of white paint, then heat drying. This causes the paint to bubble up, so you have texture as well as a white base to add the colour to. This pic shows the bumpy texture nicely...

All the colour on this piece was created using Acrylic and Indian inks, mainly from the Bombay Ink range, with a couple of the Daler Rowney pearlescent colours in there too! I very simply dripped the inks down the sides of the block, drying in between colours so no muddying occurred. The edges were given the same treatment..

I also added 'bubbles' of colour to the stripes to break up the harsh lines a little. White paint was then added in the form of printed circles and lines, again to break up the stripes, and I did a little doodling with a white pen. It was at this point that I started to be reminded of a Big Top, lots of bright Circus colour. This tied in nicely with the embellishment I had planned for the top, a die cut flower, again coloured with lots of ink bubbles...

Reminded me of a big joke flower in a clowns buttonhole! This one doesn't squirt water though, it has a little stack of buttons in the centre to add a little height...

Easily created, and very effective, simply glue buttons together, give them a coat of white paint then colour with the inks. I created feet for my block in the same way..

My stamped image (Jenni Bowlin) of a playful child seems to fit my theme too...love this image, I hope there will be more in this style from her! A small word snipped from chit chat stickers completes my ATC, a bit bright, but very cheerful!

Love Trish xx