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Welcome! This is the place where I share my artsy and crafty projects. I am an evolving artist these days ... finding myself enjoying less of the cards and mini albums that I have made for years, and turning to art journaling and more artistic endeavors. I have always enjoyed some craft or other, and some of my earliest memories of my mother helping me make paper dolls and other crafts. I am now in my 60's and finding myself more passionately enjoying creating beautiful things and learning new skills and techniques and products.

While you are here I hope you will find inspiration and ideas for making your own projects, however any images or projects you find here are my personal property and should not be used for your own monetary gain, or for contests or challenges. Thank You!

1/03/2010

ATC's - Just For Fun!

Lately I have really started getting into the making of ATC’s (or Artists Trading Cards) just for the enjoyment of making them! It is a good way to use up bits and pieces from your stash, and I think they may be a good way of getting started in making cards (Val, are you listening?) if you don’t know where to start.


Basically the only rule is that they must be 2 ½ inches by 3 ½ inches, or the same size as a baseball card, or a plain old deck of playing cards. In fact, many people use playing cards as the base for their ATC’s!

This first one was really fun, mostly because of the bright colors! Cheery, don’t you think?





The paper I used was from the Sassafras Lass line called ‘Vintage Yummy’, and this specific paper is called ‘pleasantly puzzled’. I love the crossword puzzle look!

The flowers are Prima, the flower shaped brad is old as the hills and I couldn’t tell you what brand it is!




I used Crystal Stickles on the flower, a Jenni Bowlin rub-on of the bird on the branch, some small stamps and brown ink to stamp the J O Y letters. 





The ribbon is from my stash.  I ran it through my sewing machine on a long stitch to baste it, then drew the threads to make it ruffle up.  I love the texture it creates!

The ‘create’ epoxy sticker and the small frame beneath it are from old Brenda Walton sets by K & Co.


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The next two ATC’s were made using Websters Pages line called ‘Your Life. Beautiful.’ and this specific paper is called ‘peacefulness’.

I’m afraid this first one may be a bit busy, but I just kind of went with the flow of things, and this is how it turned out!


 
Once again the paper is Websters Pages.  The 'Today' tag is by Creative Imaginations/Creative Cafe and is simply called 'Price Tags'.  I got them at a local scrapbooking store.The ticket is from Tim Holtz idea-ology's journaling tickets.
 

 
The flower was cut freehand from a piece of corrugated box that once held a McDonalds Quarter Pounder with cheese.  I was putting hubby's dinner wrappings in the trash, saw the pretty kraft paper and kept it, the clean part at least!  I cut it, inked it, then ran it through the cuttlebug with the swiss dots folder.  The 'leaves' are from an old scrap of some Fancy Pants paper.  I cut them freehand, too, and ran them through the swiss dots embossing folder as well.
 
 

 
The charm and angel are from my stash, as are the button and pom-pom fringe.  The pearl is from K & Co.  The Stickles is 'platinum'.
 
Now, the last ATC for today is my favorite of all the ones I've made - ever!  The paper is Websters Pages (as listed above), and the body of the bird is the reverse side. 
 
 

 
 
I inked the edges of the base card, then used an emery board to 'sand' the edges of the bird for contrast.  The wing is cut from a piece of the paper that had a pretty swirl on it.  I took a damp tissue and dampened the paper to get it to 'curl' a bit, and inked around the edges.  I used Stickles 'stardust on the wing and tail 'feathers' as well as the butterfly.  
 
 

 
 
The tail feathers are made from a bit of raveled brown twill ribbon that I folded and glued to give it the shape of a bird's tail.  The gem used for the eye is from Prima's 'e.line', as is the brown 'pearl' on the bow..
 

   
The ribbon for the bow, lace and flowers are from my stsh.  The bottom flower is a hydrangea blossom that I stamped with a flourish stamp and brown ink to match the flourishes on the paper.  The top 'millinery' flower is from Glitter Your World - a favorite source of mine for pretty 'stuff'!
 
And that's it!  Three pretty ATC's.  I'm hoping to do one ATC per day this year, and I have one made for Jan. 1st, and one started for Jan. 2nd, so we'll see how that goes!
 
I know it's 'back to the real world' for most folks tomorrow.  The holidays are over and everyone is back home from travels and back to work and school.  Have a great week, everyone!  Blessings, Becky.

8 comments:

Val said...

Oh I just love these! Now is that fabric on them? I will be getting my scrapbooking things out this week. Yes, it is back to reality but I hope we all remember to play a little bit. Thanks for sending me this. I LOVE that bird!

Robin said...

I really love these little miniature cards, they are great ideas to use for tags on scrapbook pages. I did a similar one on a page of my daughter trying on my wedding dress that was also my mothers dress in 1961.

Vicki/Jake said...

Oh, these are sweet and how clever of you to put McDonald's to work! I'll watch for more...you're good!

Shalini said...

wow... love this one... specially the bird on the branch!!!

Rleen said...

Hi Becky,
WOW! You've been really busy. I love all your beautiful ATC. You did a fabulous job!
Have a great day!

Hugs,
Rleen

aimee said...

you did a fantastic job! just perfect :)
blessings,
aimee

Patsy said...

I sure like your ATC'S
Patsy

kavitha said...

cute ones,.love it:)