A is for .....

On Art-Ventures we are doing a monthly Alphabet ATC swap, where the Alphabet denotes the technique used. We have started with A in April.

I chose to use Adirondack color wash sprays for the background on my ATC's. I soaked a sheet of cardstock with water and sprayed Lettuce and Denim across the page. The colours wick and blend into each other. After it dried I cut it into ATC's.

I stamped four different stamps on the background with Onyx Versafine ink. I printed off the image of the Woman from Moonlight Journey and attached it to a piece of scrap cardstock to give it body, cut it out and adhered it with double-sided foam tape.

To complete the card I coloured some clear gems with Pesto alcohol inks and glued them along the side.

I added two of the ATC's to show the variation in the spray.

In My Easter Bonnet ATC's

The latest swap I joined on AFTCM is to make two ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) with the theme In My Easter Bonnet.

I printed off a couple of images then went from there in creating the cards.

The first one is fairly simple: I took a piece of maroon cardstock and stamped a Hero Arts background stamp in Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black ink. I cut out the image and mounted it on a piece of black cardstock and adhered it to the ATC. To finish the piece I took a piece of Sookwang tape, covered it with Merlot Glitter Ritz and burnished it well; removed the backing and added more Glitter Ritz to the opposite side. I added it to the card on top of another piece of Sookwang tape that was placed on the card (this idea is one that I learned from Cathie Allan). I had a nice brad in my stash that I added to the "ribbon" and placed a tiny bead in the centre.

The second card is a background that I tried that which was on the Hero Arts site. I am certainly going to try this one again as I love the effect. Because I liked the background so much, I decided to be very sparse with the amount of items that I added to the card. Therefore all I added was little girl  and a basket of Easter eggs mounted on scrap cardstock and cut out.

Criss Cross Card

On AFTCM group we are doing a criss-cross card swap in a vintage theme. I usually only make cards for special occasions, but this seemed a bit different so I decided to join.

I took a piece of cream coloured cardstock and stamped a Hearts in Touch stamp and coloured it with Lyra pencils. I stamped and embossed a couple of Hero Arts stamps at each side. I then went over the whole piece with clear embossing ink and dabbed smooch ink and worked it in with a Clearsnap stylus applicator. I placed it on a piece of pink cardstock and cut a little edge around it.

For the criss-cross "envelope" part I started with a light tan cardstock, and cut out the flaps that fold over. I then put the flaps in my Cuttlebug and embossed a paisley pattern. I coloured this portion with distress inks. It looked unfinished after I glued the flaps down, so I added some paper lace to the edges.

I stamped a long piece of white cardstock with creamy brown and warm red fluid chalk inks and added another piece of paper lace over the centre, then attached it around the envelope portion.

To complete it I added a paper flower, some embossed punched leaves and a couple of small paper roses. I hope my partner will like the card since I don't really "do" vintage much.  

Ezee Pzee Design for March

This month's Ezee Pzee project was planter. I started by sealing the pieces and painted the inside of the box. I then attached some Mariposa Scrapbook paper to the outside of the pieces and glued it together.

I coloured some of the flowers with acrylic paint then embossed them and added washers and stickles. The large daisy type flower was coloured with smooch ink and H2O's. The centers of the flowers are some little embellishments I found at my local stamp store and others are washers that I coloured with alcohol inks, and some are some coloured reinforcements for 3 ring binder pages.

I stamped the Pedlars Pack butterfly on cardstock that I coloured with various shades  of green, two in black & two in gold. I added some of the strings of beading to the centres. All of them were attached to the box with double sided tape after bending the wings a bit.

The large flower from Ezee Pzee is done with pigment ink, fantasy film, clear Utee and Opal embossing powders then stamped into with a turquoise pigment ink while hot. I glued one of the embellishments to the centre and added a leaf that fell off one of the other flowers.

For the opposite side I found a saying that I liked and printed it off. I then took a chipboard label holder and covered it with green acrylic paint, embossed it with two colours of distress embossing powder then with Perfect Pearls. I placed the saying behind it and put two screw brads through the ends; attached it with double- sided foam tape.

Inside the planter I scrunched up a plastic bag and then cut a piece of corrugated cardboard to size and put it on top. I decided to place the flowers in little flower pots that I had on hand and to make them stay in place I glued some sea glass to the bottom of the stems, put some foil wrap around them and place them in the pots. i added some Indian Moss over the top to cover the foil.

The pots stood up quite well and I added a little butterfly, some ladybugs and a wee frog.

Altered Box

On AFTCM we are doing an altered Box Swap. A while ago I bought a little box at the dollar store so I chose to use it.

I took some Mariposa Paper and attached it around the box and on the sides, and added some black German Scraps trim around the edge of the closure part. I took a little Dragonfly brad, removed the backing and coloured it with sharpies and attached it to the knob which I painted black.

I stamped some little butterflies on some book text paper then attached them to some cardstock and cut them out. I embossed them with some clear embossing powder and added them to the box with pop dots. I had the little punchie flowers left over from another project and just added some gems to the centre and applied them to the box. I stamped the saying and attached it with double-sided foam tape.

 I had some wooden scrolls in my stash and painted them with black acrylic paint then when they dried I added some black foil over the top; which I attached to the sides of the box. I took some little self-adhesive beads and painted them black with a sharpie and added them around the scroll

I also made  little mini book to go inside. I made a mistake in the size and could not bind it and did not want to start all over again, so I just placed a coloured binder clip on it to hold it together. I was thinking that way the recipient could use the pages as tags or for other purposes.

I made some of the pages with the Mariposa paper and the rest are done with stamped backgrounds. One of the stamped pages is blank as I thought my partner could use it to add images or stamps.Both the box and the pages are butterflies, flowers and children-some of my favourite things.

Fan

The AFTCM group is continuing the apparel swap and this month it is a Fan. I had several ideas for the fan but most of them were disasters and I was getting too frustrated to continue trying to figure out the instructions so fell back on an ordinary fan with folds.

I took some old large calendar pages and fan folded them in two directions. I laid them in a spray box and sprayed them with Adironack Cranberry and Pesto spray. When they dried I stamped images with Onyx Black Versafine ink and a Magenta and Hero Arts stamp to cover the dates and some of the writing on the calendar pages.

I attached the pieces together with Sookwang tape and placed a Popsicle stick in the middle, which I coloured with a black sharpie.

I attached ribbon along the top with some (3M) 465 tape. Since there was a hole at the top of one piece I attached some coloured reinforcements to it to make it sturdier and attached some charms with a piece of light-weight cording and a jewellery ring. To finish the edges I attached some lace with tape.

To cover the rough edges at the bottom of the fan near the "handle", I embossed some tape from the hardware store and coloured it with a gold Krylon pen, and put it around the end. I added a tiny tassel at the bottom of the Popsicle stick.

Rolodex Swap continued

February theme for the AFTCM Rolodex was Hawaii and for March it was Ireland.

For the February one I printed off an photo of Hawaii in the sunset, glued it to the Rolodex card and cut out the slits. I printed off a template of a palm tree, cut it out, coloured it and attached it on the left.

I stamped the Leaf  and the two word stamps (PSX and a dollar store) and attached them to the Rolodex card. The little sequin flowers on the leaf represent a Lei.

The background on the Ireland one was done with fluid chalk inks using Cathie Allan's "Stamp Smoosh" technique. The clover leaf with the ladies and the saying is from Lisa Vollrath's free images. The stamped clover leaf is dollar stamp from Michaels.