A Desk Tidy ATB by Amanda Pink

Hi Everyone

Welcome to my Thursday weekly DT post.

Having recently created a desk tidy to hold my paintbrushes using a large That's Crafty! Mdf Artist Trading Block (which you can see here) I decided to make a smaller one to hold my pens. 

The Artist Trading Blocks (ATB's)  are sold in packs of 4 consisting of 3 x 3x3 inch and 2 x 4 inch . They come flat packed so you have to assemble each ATB yourself but rest assured its a real quick and easy process. I'd highly recommend using That's Crafty's Multi purpose adhesive for assembling as it has an extremely strong adhesion. It's never failed me yet, no matter the substrate.

I worked with the smaller of the two ATB's (3x3inch) and as I was making a desk tidy with an 'open top' I used only 5 of the faces. The faces were painted on both sides with black Acrylic paint

and assembled ready to be covered.

You could decorate the faces of the ATB anyway you choose: scrapbook papers, paints, texture mediums to name just a few. I decided to cover mine with a textured mixed media masterboard that I created using some of Seth Apters/Aladine new Izink Ice.

Heres a little info about Izink Ice: it is a translucent gel glaze with a glossy finish. It can be use in a number of ways to create varying effects and finished results. It can be spread smoothly to create a softly coloured translucent glaze, it can be applied more thickly in layers to create a textural finish, it can also be brayered, used on a gel plate, used with a stencil.....

 More info about Izink Ice can be found on Seth Apters website (here) 

Seth has 18 colours in his range and That's Crafty! have their shelves fully stocked!

I chose a palette of earthy colours and worked on mixed media paper.
As I wanted my masterboard to be textural I applied the ice with a palette knife, using one colour at a time. I scraped and patted the Ice on to the paper with the knife, gradually building up varying depths of colour, texture and detail. When happy I 'hit' the Ice with some heat, using a heat gun.

Heat makes the ice 'craze and bubble' which you cannot only see but hear too! 

Heres my finished masterboard

This was cut into panels to fit each of the 4 visible faces of the ATB.
I'll show you a few close ups so you can see the fabulous textures and variations of colours Izink Ice created .

You can stamp onto Ice to add more detail to your project.

I stamped with a text and pattern design on each of my 4 panels but you could use any stamps of your choosing.

I caught the top of some of the textured 'Ice' peaks with a touch of gilding wax to enhance them a little more. 

To embellish each of the faces I used some of That's Crafty's greyboard small cogs and some of the other related bits and pieces from the sheet. They were simply painted with black acrylic pant, aged with wax, fastened with brads and adhered in place.

Two opposing sides featured this cog design

While the other two featured this one 

To finish off I simply filled my 'Ice' desk tidy with just a few of my pens!!

Products I used:

That's Crafty! MDF Surfaces: Artist Trading Blocks
That's Crafty! Sufaces Bits and Pieces Greyboard Sheet: Small Cogs
Mixed Media Paper
Seth Apter/ Aladine Izink Ice: Ice Coffee, Melted Butter, Whiskey Frost 
Black Acrylic Paint
Archival Ink: Jet Black 
Prima/ Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallique wax: Vintage Gold
That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Adhesive
Text Stamp:  Any will be ok . You can find some in the shop here
Texture/ detail stamps
Tim Holtz Ideology: Long Fasteners
Palette knife
Heat Gun
Paper Trimmer
Crafters knife
Ranger Cut n Dry Foam

I hope you have enjoyed your time here with me today. 

Thanks for stopping by

Stay safe and well! Everyone 

Take Care
Amanda

x

(ink-a-pink)