Mythological Creatures Swap

So, last month for my collageATCs group, we did mythological creatures. It was fun to see everyone's interpretation of the theme, here are my cards:

I like tags, can't you tell. In the left picture I used all the fairies , the card is just paper with layered paper at the bottom using some decorative scissors I got for Christmas last year. The tags are ones I had in my stash, the one on the left is chipboard the other two are just plain paper. They're all attached with jeweled brads.

The card on the right I used the mermaid. I took a manila colored tag and pressed it into Stampin Up Classic Stamp pads of Ballet Blue and Green Galore. The background is when I did a bunch of backgrounds with some spray mists and added random stamps to them.

Lots of times in the swap items, I send out items that have white around the image, seems to happen a lot with stickers, and that white stuff drives me nuts, I always have to trim it off.

The card on the left I used the cupid, you can kinda tell from the picture, that he's stuck on something, he was a window cling on some clear plastic, other people had used the cupid, and he had a hard time being stuck down, so I decided to just leave him on the plastic (as he was pretty well stuck to that), and I added the love tag with a jeweled brad and the rose in the bottom corner.
The card on the right I used the witch and the frame she's in. The frame was around another item that looked like a bunny with wings and antenna, it was a stamp my mom bought in Mexico. The background is from when I was making backgrounds one time and painted it with metallic paints and then added stamps, the gold piece is just a piece of vellum.

The card on the left I used the fairy, it's a stamp I bought through Stampin' Up, and in the stamped image, she had some kind of fairy dust trailing along behind her, so I added blue glitter glue and some ancient gold embossing powder, that you can't really see in the picture. Someone else in the group used a mermaid stamp that had her hands outstretched with a shell in it. I thought the plastic lyre would fit perfectly with the music paper in the background.
The card on the right I used the dragon image, I had the Asian character stamp, and stamped it in the ancient gold embossing powder, then glued the dragon onto a tag and lightly covered it with gold paint.

The card on the left I used the kokopelli, I just added the sun punch and the sun stamp, both from previous swaps.
The card on the right I used the mermaid. She was stamped in black on white paper and had a comb in one hand and a mirror in the other, I didn't like those so I took them out. Her hair is colored with some orange glitter glue, her body is colored with chalk as well as her tail. Her shells are colored with some aqua paint (that took way too long to dry) that I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I had the water paper in a paper stack, and added the sand (from our back porch waiting for winter) and the tiny shells that I acquired on a vacation.

The card on the left I used the angel image, you can't tell very well from the picture, but I stamped another angel on top of the one I had and embossed the halo and wings with the ancient gold embossing powder. The background is a gold patterned piece of paper with mica flakes glued on top.
The card on the right I used the phoenix and the feathers. A phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes, so I cut a flame out of a metallic piece of paper I received from one of the members of by group and added the orange glitter glue to it and some extra flames. I really liked this one.

Chunky House Swap

In one of my Yahoo! Groups, I signed up to do a Chunky House and Charm Swap. It entails decorating a chipboard house and creating 5 charms to go with it. Here is my (almost) finished house:
I chose an underwater theme. The background is covered with pieces of ripped book pages and then painted with a mixture of Pearl Emerald Green and Pearl Blue Lumiere paints. After painting it, it took me so long to actually do the rest of the house. I finally sat down on Sunday and started on it. The bottom is covered with small spiral shells someone sent me. I painted seaweed in (I'm guessing, as I don't have the paint here in front of me) Pearl Purple Lumiere paint. The shell and starfish sticker in the corner came from a sticker sheet I bought at Hobby Lobby. The mermaid is a stamped image that someone from my CollageATCs group sent me for our Mythological Creatures swap, I colored it with chalks and added some "shells" to cover her up. The gold fish is actually a clear plastic fish that I painted the back with gold pain. I then added "under the sea" with green and blue glitter glue.

Since deciding on this theme, I envisioned adding a shell on the back that opened up with the information from the swap printed inside. I first painted the back with white craft pain and then added a thinned out mix of the same blue and green paints as the front. In real life it looks a lot more green than blue. I added some sand (from the pail on the back porch for winter sidewalks) to the bottom. I searched Microsoft Word clip art for shells and found the one I used, all I did was print it out, glue it on some blue cardstock that I folded in half. When it's opened I have the name of the swap, the hostess' name, the name of the piece, the date and my name printed in it. I also added the purple startfish button to the corner and a sparkly dolphin sticker on the top.

To me, the back is way too flat, but I'm not sure what else to add to it.

Other than the flatness of the back (which I'm planning on changing), I love this project. I still have to figure out what to do for my five charms, but I'm sure they'll come out just as cute.

It's Christmas time

UGH! I need someone to show me how to use my camera, I've had it almost 3 years and I still can't figure out how to get it to zoom in and focus on things. I hope these pictures are at least clear enough to see what they are.
I am in a swap to make 2 sets of 6 charms that are Christmas themed. I knew right away that I wanted to do a snow man, and mom had some Sculpey clay that she bought a long time ago, so I used some of that. Originally they had red scarves on, but they darkened quite a bit when I baked them. The white also was not so white when it came out of the oven. So, I bought some paint and retouched the white, the carrot noses and put a coat of green over the red scarves. I still need to repaint the eyes and mouth, but otherwise I'm done with them. They are so cute, I had to make an extra one for myself.
I couldn't figure out what I wanted to make for my second set, I considered just making one set, but I like how the bracelets look when they're more full. Then I thought doing an ornament might be nice, but I couldn't figure out what to make it out of. I finally decided to needle felt some, but I didn't have the right colors, the only solid colors of roving I have are orange and a nice summery green, not so nice for Christmas.
I went to a local quilting shop and bought some little bags of red and green for $1.00 each. When I opened them up today, I realized there's a lot in those little bags, they will last awhile. I was going to try and wet felt the ball, but I couldn't figure that out, so I settled on needle felting. I did 3 each of red and green and put tiny circles of the alternating color on each. I think they're very cute as well.

I hope everyone in the swap likes them as well.

I am also in a swap where we decorate 5 chipboard shapes, I received Santa hats, and all I could think about was a regular Santa hat: red with white fur, I knew people wouldn't want that. I thought I'd use some red foil, my friend Loretta gave me, and put white paper on the "furry parts", and then put a vintage Santa image on the red foil and spray some gold webbing over the top. After gluing on the red foil, I had some ripped book pages out for another project and thought those might work for the "fuzzy parts", so I glued them on. The hats look really cute, I'll try and get some pictures up soon. I'm having a hard time finding a Santa image I like though.

Another swap I'm in, I have to decorate a chipboard house and make 5 charms to hang from the bottom of it. I did a birthday ATC for a member in my collageatcs group of a mermaid underwater, and thought that would be perfect. I glued ripped book pages onto the house and painted it with blue and green paints. I'm looking for a mermaid image I like, but I'm going to put some seaweed looking plastic along with some tiny shells I have and some sand. I think it will turn out very cute. I will also get pictures of that up when I get it done.

Happy 234th Marines!

Queen of Hearts follow-up

This is what I finally ended up submitting for my Queen of Hearts swap. I figured out my other cards just didn't quite have enough embellishment, and now that I go back and look at them, they sort of do look like a beginner made them. I think if I put a little more into them, they can look better.
For this card, I already had the background, a texured gold piece of paper, I rubbed my mellow moss and Green Galore Stampin Up classic ink pads over it. I have quite a few old books, so I took pages of one, ripped them and then rubbed the edges with really rust su pad. I stamped the face on a piece of fabric and colored it with chalk. The crown is a foam stamp, that I used in a almost dried up Colorboxpetal point pigment option pad called Alchemy, the color I used is Goldrush. I'm really disappointed this stamp pad dried up, I think the top got loosened sometime, but it's a gorgeous ink pad, I plan to buy another one some day. I added the pink heart and clear circle gems as a little embellishment to the crown. When I laid the head and crown on the book page, they seemed to be hanging in air, so I cut a little piece of red doily heart, flipped it over to the back where it looked pinkish and glued everything down. For the Q, I used a sticker, only I didn't have enough "Q"'s for 6 cards, so I had to change some "O"'s as well with black permanent marker. The heart is a shell charm from Hobby Lobby.
I think these cards came out much nicer, though I still really like the others. I've noticed with some of my artwork, I seem to fall into a rut and don't put near as much into them as I should. People in the new group I joined won't be taking that, so it's a good push to keep going in my art.
I already signed up for more swaps in this group, and have a couple ideas for them.
1. A Christmas Chipboard book with 5 pages. Each person has a different shape (I got a Santa Hat). Once we get them all decorated and back to the hostess, she will string them all together to form a garland that we can hang up.
All I could think about at first when I saw the hat was to decorate it like a normal hat, but now I'm thinking of adding some red foil to the bigger part and adding some kind of vintage Santa photo, then adding some white fur stuff to the top of the hat (I bought some neat stuff at a sale this weekend), embellishing the Santa photo and then covering the whole thing with some gold webbing I bought.
2. A House Chipboard piece and 6 charms to go with it. We will get the charms back on the bottom of the house from 6 different artists, plus a different artist for the house.
I have no idea what I'm doing for this one. I'm hoping people will post pictures and I can get some inspiration from those. The only thought I have is to cover it with book pages.
3. Christmas Charm Swap. Each person will make at least one set of 6 charms that are Christmas themed (but not religious). The hostess will swap out the charms and put them on a charm bracelet.
I have already made some polymer clay snowman charms and they are cute. Only problem is they darkened a bit in the baking, so I need to buy some white paint to paint over them. I think it'd be cool if it were iridescent or pearly. I signed up for 2 sets of 6 charms, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with the second set.
I love these charm bracelet swaps. It's so much fun to make the charms and see what everyone else makes. I rarely wear charm bracelets because I get caught on stuff, but I sure am displaying them.
4. Glittered Mucha Swap. We make 4 ATC's with Mucha girls (an artist) and decorate them, making sure there is some glitter on all of them.
I haven't started these either. I haven't even thought of what I'm going to do. But, they sound like fun.
5. Fabric Book. This isn't a swap, every week we get a set of instructions to do a page for the book. This lasts six weeks and in the end we have a little fabric book.
I bought the fabric, but am thinking of waiting for all the instructions to come out, and adding some quilt batting in between the pages so they're a little bulkier and sturdier.
6. Altered Filled Matchbox. You decorate a slide out matchbox and include some 3D items in it.
I haven't officially signed up for this one yet, I want to make sure I can do it first. But I think it would be really fun. I also have to find a matchbox. I don't use matches for anything, my stove is electric, and if I light candles I have one of those flame things where you just push a button.

I am looking forward to do all of these. Unfortunately I never get started on them. I started a new job at the library, so I get up early to go to that, but I have about 4.5 hours between jobs that I certainly could be working on them.

That hurts

For some reason Blogger won't load the insert picture thing, so, remember this post about my Queen of Hearts cards? You have to scroll down to the bottom. I received an email today from the hostess of the swap saying she didn't think my cards were good enough. As much time and effort and thought that I put into those cards, you'd think they'd be good enough.
It never feels good when someone tells you your work isn't good enough. I did this to someone in my group awhile back and now I guess it's karma coming back at me. I still judge people's art, but I generally do it in my own head now. I know most people put lots of time and effort into things they make and I think it's rude when someone says they don't like someone else's work. There are certain people's work I don't think are up to par with mine, but I still want to trade with them and encourage them to do art.

The hostess of this swap said she could send my cards back to me and have me add more to them, fix them herself, or send them back unswapped after the swap was done. I'd like to know what other people in the swap think. She said they seemed like "beginner's" cards, and that my cards showed very little effort in construction. Personally, I think she should swap them out anyway, but I'm bias. I told her she could go ahead and send them back to me and I'd make up another set. But, that leads me doubt myself, what if this other set she doesn't like either. It sounds more like she doesn't like my style. I am mostly a collage artist, meaning I find objects and put them together until they look finished.

Holiday cards

Here are the cards I made yesterday. This first one has a felt stocking with wooden stars in the corner.
This one has a small felt snowman with wooden stars.

This one has a bigger felt snowman with a wooden star and candy canes.

This one hasa felt Santa with a sleigh.

This one has a paper Santa with a plastic Rudolph

This one has a felt Rudolph with a plastic gingerbread man.

This one has a paper tree with a plastic star on top and a plastic sled.

Anyone have ideas on prices? I'm planning on sending them with white, red or green envelopes according to the color of the cardstock in the background and in a plastic sleeve.

I also have a couple white snowflakes on black and a card with a felt penguin that needs a little touching up. I'll post those tomorrow. If you're interested in any of these, I can put them under reserve.

Weathering some cards

I'm behind again, I know it. Here are my September ATC's for my CollageATCs Yahoo! group:

In the left one I used the moon and the "fog". It's actually cotton batting. The moon, bat (which you can't really see), ghost, tree and pumpkin are all buttons from a button mix bag I picked up at Hobby Lobby (I love buttons). The other pumpkin is a sequin I had lying around. The grass is from sushi, a friend of mine had some sushi one time, and the green paper wrapped around it was so cool, I asked if I could have it.
In the right one I used the cloud and the start of the rainbow. It's supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and if I could have cut the button in half right, it would have looked like a pot of gold. The rainbow is colored with markers, the "gold" above the button is a sequin, the pot is just paper, and the flowers are al stickers, I had a hard time getting those little flowers to stick, they kept coming off.

The card on the left I used the small white snowflake, the iridescent snowflake and the face. The face was a plaster face one of my group members made and sent to me. The other white snowflake and the rest of the snowman as well as the hat are all buttons from a button bag.
The card on the right I used the sun at the top colored with markers, and the sun punch that is pretty much covered by the yellow gem. The yellow strip is a background I made with reinkers, and the bottom strip is from a magazine.

The card on the left I used the white flower background, which was a punch sent along by one of my members; the green sun, that's a stamp of mine and is affixed on a chipboard tag; and the foam lightening bolt that's being used for a stem. The leaf is a sequin and the grass is more from the sushi.
The card on the right I used the 2 tornado pictures, the one on the left was the ISU gymnastics teams keychain schedule. I saw them and knew they wanted to used in art. The other one is some clip art sent in by one of my group members. The green circle on the top is a sticker that came with the energize word, they are on a piece of black paper.

The card on the left I used the two cloud pictures, one is a stamp and one is a sticker; and the umbrella punch the ladybug is using. The bottom piece is from a magazine and I just layered some leaf stickers and the lady bug sticker on top. The rain is colored with markers.
The card on the right, I used the lightening, which is clip art sent in by a member; and the cloud, which is part of the stamped image the cloud in the previous card came from. The tree is a sticker and the grass is some more from that sushi.

The card on the left I used the star which is a button and the snow which is some kind of clear crystals a member sent me. The tree is a tiny plastic "stained glass" ornament, and the other snow is just paper.
The card on the right I used the yellow stars, the yellow sun and the snowflake. The sky paper was something I did awhile ago, it's sorta marbled using ink. The mermaid is a poufy sticker, the snowflake in her hand is a brad. The sun is glued onto two buttons.

I decided to make some Holiday cards and try to sell them on Etsy. They came out really well. I plan to scan them tomorrow and then add them here for people to see. But I will be adding one a day on Etsy until I have them all listed. I'm thinking about $7.00 per card. They're regular sized cards with layered paper and some embellishments. I'd love feedback on price. I'll get them posted tomorrow, so you guys can use your expertise in what you think I should price them as.

I also made some birthday cards for my cousin and grandma. I'm trying to make more cards to get in the mood of making more stuff for etsy as well as use up some of my supplies. I wanna do more embellishment on boxes too. I already got some stuff for a Christmas present for my friend Loretta where I'm going to be embellishing something with orange/copper colors. I think it will come out nice. I want more useful things as well. I know cards are nice, but once you get them most people just throw them away. People need more useful things. Any ideas on what I can do for useful things?

More ATCs

I was at the post office today, mailing the beauties below and these beauties, and this guy in front of me had a piece of clothing in a plastic bag. He gets up to the window and tells the mail person he wants to mail this to this address and have it there by Saturday, the mail person told him his options, but said he needed to put it into a box first and then come back up to the window. It was like the guy just thought the mail person would do it all for him. I bet mail people have a few stories to tell.

Anyways, like I said I was going to mail these pieces below. They are from two different swaps in the new group I'm in.
The first is a Ladies Vintage Wallet, we had to make a wallet out of paper and decorate it in Victorian style, and because Blogger spit out my pictures backwards, the first picture is of the inside of the 'wallet'.
I took a piece of white paper and distressed it with a Mellow Moss inkpad from Stampin' Up, then I took a script stamp and stamped all over it. I took some gold printed vellum roses and glued them onto the 'wallet'. I also added the pink lady, the stamps, the nostalgia tag, and the ceramic square.

The next picture is the outside of the 'wallet'.

The outside is distressed with the mellow moss ink and the script stamp as well as adding some gold mesh rectangles. On the front, I cut out the "Life's Journey" from a piece of packaging, and then pieced together the "MY" with clear stickers onto a neutral background and affixed it to the wallet. I piled three mini shells beath it. On the back I added the green button and the two paper beads (I'm not really sure if that's what they are, I got them a long while back from someone), I also added the blimp on green paper and the green doll dress.

This next picture is of the whole wallet with tags, ATC's, calling card and Victorian letter all tied up together and ready to be sent. To see the tags and ATC's, go here.

This next picture is of the cards I did for the Queen of Hearts swap. We were supposed to do our artist's rendition of a queen of hearts card. My first set had nothing to do with the queen of hearts except for the fact that you could tell I used a queen of hearts background. I decided that didn't fit the theme, so I tried again. I remembered I had some American Doll paper dolls and thought if I could find 6 regal outfits I could use them as my 'queens'. I originally was going to just mount the head and shoulders of each doll as that was all that would fit, then I thought it would be cuter if I scanned the whole doll and shrunk them to ATC size. So I scanned them onto photoshop and then used GIMP (free program, if you don't have or want to pay for photoshop) and shrank them to the correct size. I glued them onto actual playing cards that I had covered the faces of. I stamped the "Q" and a heart in the correct places and they were done. I'm very happy with how they came out.

Flying Away

I am so behind. I totally meant to update on the 6th or 7th, but I was dealing with relationship issues, then I was dealing with cleaning my apartment last week, and this week has just begun.
Anyways, here are my cards from my CollageATCs Yahoo Group August's Flying Things Swap:
In the lower left hand corner I used the bluebird with the red ribbon (it was a stamped image that I colored. In the upper left hand corner I used the bat button, it may be a little hard to see as it's a black button on a black background. In the upper right hand corner, I used the toucan image. In the lower right hand corner I used the UFO, the dinosaur, and the little brown image, it's actually a bear in an airplane.

On the left side I used the two ladybugs, the red one's an eraser, and the bee. I wanted to create something really cool with the bee, as I have been reading this blog lately (and she loves bees, so I wanted to be noticed by her), but I couldn't wrap my mind around something really neat, and I was the last one to make these, I wanted to get them done Friday night, so I could swap everything out and get it in the mail on the 5th. In the upper right hand corner I used the balloons and the kite. I've had that image of the boy hanging around awhile and decided this was the perfect time to use him, I embellished the image with actual string for the balloons and a wire for the kite. In the lower right hand corner I used the 3 lady bug images, enhancing their spots with brads, and the tiny silver bug.

In the lower left corner I used the green ladybug, the green butterfly, the blue dragonfly (inside the butterfly) and the white foam bug (who's been stamped with swirls in green). The green butterfly started out as a hairclip, but I couldn't think of something really cool to do with it. Upper left corner, I used the airplane and the kite flyer. Upper right corner, I used the dragonfly (on a sunglasses lense), the blue butterfly gem and the butterfly ribbon. Lower right corner, I used the owl, the bee and the bug.

I totally planned to have wicked cool cards, but since I was working at the bookstore from the 18th of Aug through the end, I was just so tired at the end of the day. I know, I had from the 1st through the 18th, but it was a pretty busy month, my brother came back on his way to Okoboji, among other things.

Don't get me wrong, I love my cards, I wouldn't have used them for the swap if I didn't, I just wanted them to be better.

Quick Post

I will be doing a post on some of the items I've been making for the Yahoo! group I joined not so long ago, I've just been so busy with work lately that my few hours of free time are spent relaxing and falling asleep.

New Art Group

I joined a new art group on Yahoo. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I already joined 5 swaps, the earliest due on 9/20 and the latest due on 10/15. My plan was to join swaps that weren't due anytime soon as next week I will be starting work UBS for 3 weeks and working about 8 hours there everyday and the 3 hours at my other job every day, so I wouldn't be very energized to do anything in the evenings.
The other day I was in my art closet and decided to start on some anyway. OK, it really started at the event I was working at Hilton on Thursday when I was a little bored and started sketching out ideas for the upcoming swaps on my information sheet. One of the swaps I'm in is called a Ladies Vintage Wallet swap. Basically, we're creating a simple 'wallet' out of paper, decorating it and filling it with a few things that will be swapped out. We have to create, in addition to the wallet, 2 vintage decorated ATC's, 2 vintage decorated luggage tags, 1 vintage decorated calling card and 1 vintage decorated/written letter to ourselves, as if we were living in that time period. I had to scan an ATC I did for a sale on etsy, so thought I'd scan the finished (or so I thought) pieces I had for the swap.
These are the lugguge tags. I took the dimensions given (2" x 3"), cut the tags out, rubbed a Really Rust Stampin' Up ink pad on them, and then added images I thought made them look vintage. Clock: I found the clock image on a collage sheet, cut it out and wrinkled it up, I did the same with the two kids bicycling in the corner. The bead is a paper bead I did when I was younger. Leaves: The top leaf is a ginkgo leaf that was sprayed with ink and then pressed onto a piece of paper, the other is from a piece of patterned scrapbook paper, I then layered the button and brown flower embellishment in the corner. After scanning these, I added a green tinged image of a boy on top of the leaves and added a twine to the clock tag and a green yarn to the leaves tag.

These are the Vintage ATCs for the swap. The one on the left has an image I took out of a dictionary of the occult that I bought at a bookstore in New Orleans when I went there in 2003, I distressed it with the same rust ink pad as I did the background and the two luggage tags. I also wrinkled it up to make it appear older, it is mounted on a green paper and then onto the ATC. There is a piece of gold mesh across the corner with a tannish button and a green button on top. I decorated the wallet with the mesh and green so I was trying to tie those colors in. The card on the left has a napkin for a background. The lady image was stamped with bleach into some green paper, the "INSPIRE" was also stamped this way.

I'm still in the process of finishing the wallet and the calling card. I'm having a hard time figuring out what a letter to myself in the Victorian age would be.

The other swaps I joined are: a charm swap, I've never done charms but it sounded so neat, plus I'm psyched to see what other people did. For this swap, I wrapped some puzzle pieces in tissue paper and covered them with tacky glue, kinda decoupaging them and then stamped an interesting texture stamp into them. I need to paint/color them in something bright as they're stamped with black onto a darker teal and blue tissue papers. I had also planned on doing the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on some matboard, but I don't have the supplies, and I'm not sure how to keep the holes in the pieces as I'm making them. I might borrow the supplies from my mom, not like she's using them now anyway. This one's due on 9/20, I will receive as many charms back as I send (8 or 16) on a charm bracelet.

Tag swap: I'm supposed to make 5 tags ATC sized or ATCs with tags on them. I've already finished these, they're distressed with the same ink pad to paper technique as the above cards/tags.

Chain Swap: I have to make a paper chain of 3 people/animals/whatever and decorate as I wish. I found a really cute alien chain pattern online and did that decorating the head and legs. I then made a single one for me decorated the same way.

Queen of Hearts Swap: Basically I take 6 Queen of Hearts cards and alter them to whatever I want. I can also make my own cards. I'm having the hardest time on this one, but it's not due until 10/15, so I have some time.

I'll scan and post lengthier descriptions on the other projects soon.

I joined a new art group on Yahoo! called TheSumOfAllAtcs. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I've already joined 5 swaps.

Sparkly Gemstones Glittery July 2009

July's CollageAtcs theme was Sparkly/Glittery/Gemstones.
I thought I'd try to make my cards the same but different, a few of my group members do this, and I try but it's so much more fun to do them all different. I found a group of postage stamps in my stash and that's what sparked the cards. This month I succeeded in making the same but different, maybe I can do it again for August's theme of Flying things.
Pink card: I used the pink butterfly, the pink ribbon and the pink gem in the corner. Purple card: I used the purple cord (under the tree), and the purple gem in the corner.

Dark green Card: I used the 3 gold beads and the dark green gem in the corner. Silver card: I used the sequin trim (underneath the button), the silver tinsel (on top of the button) and the silver glittery paper. Brown Card: I used the glittery paper across the corner, and the black bead in the center of the card. Light Green Card: I used the glittery paper across the corner and the light green gem in the corner of the card.

Blue Card: I used the blue raffia along the edge of the card and there's a blue gem in the corner that doesn't really come out in the picture. Red Card: I used the background card with the crown on it, the red ribbon on the edge and the red gem in the middle. Purple card: I used the purple sequin trim underneath the butterfly, the butterfly, the clear gems on the edge and the clear bead in the middle. Red/yellow Card: I used the glittery paper in the corner, the red raffia on the edge and the yellow gem in the corner.

I always encourage my players to use more than one item on their cards just to see how they figure to use them together. I made sure I used at least 2 items on each of these cards.

Exciting announcement

I'm so excited, I finally got a return customer on one of my etsy stores. It was my supply store, not the art one. I can't wait until I get a return customer on my art etsy store. I plan to give my first return customer on the art store a 10% discount, like I did for my supply store.

I have also created fan pages for both stores on Facebook, I am hoping to bump up my promoting. Here's the supply store, and here's the art store.

Is it sad that I became a fan of both of them, just so it could say I had fans? I now have 2 fans on each page, me and someone else.

It was like lightening

The June swap for my CollageATCs Yahoo! Group was Body Parts. I sent out a packet of stamped faces, bone buttons, googly eyes, stamped lips, magazine cutouts, diecut people, stamped dress forms, diecut hands and lips, a plaster face, a vellum dress form clip art, a heart, stamped footprints, and yarn.
On this first photo, starting in the bottom left hand corner, going clockwise, I used: a stamped face, that I cut out to fit the flower. The googly eyes, and the lips. The stamped face in the flower and the bone button. The die cut person.

On this photo, starting in the bottom left hand corner, I used: the stamped face and the handprint sticker. The stamped doll parts and the die cut lips. The plaster face in the flower and the footprints stamp. The man's face in the flower and the die cut hands.

On this photo, left to right, I used: the face on the flower, the face on the flower.

A few ladies in my group make multiple versions of about the same card. Since I don't send out 20 of the same item, they can't make the exact same card, but they are all very similar, I like that approach and tried to do that with the June cards, as you can see they all have the flower head, but that's about as far as I got.

I'm thinking about doing fabric cards sometime in the future. I know they will require a little more thought and planning, but I think people would be very intrigued in them.

July's swap is Glitter/Sparkly/Gemstones. I sent out an ATC sized piece of wallpaper with glittery crowns on it, a piece of silvery glittery flower paper, two sequin trims in silver and pink, six different ribbons: red metallic, blue metallic, pink sparkly, silver tinsel, purple and gold ribbon, and a piece of gold ribbon; gold beads, clear and black metallic beads, safety pins, yellow, light green, dark green, pink, purple, red, blue and clear gemstones, purple stones, mirrors, purple and pink metallic butterflies, red, white and blue sparkly stars in two sizes, brown, orange and green glitter glue painted on paper, a piece of blue sparkly paper, and two pieces of metallicy raffia in blue and orange that I got from my friend Loretta. I can't wait to see what people produce with those items.

Come back in about a month, and I will have my July's cards posted.

Baby shower gifts

This weekend I went to my friend, Amanda's baby shower. I bought her a couple cute gifts at Walmart, but I also made her a Survival Kit for New Mothers, and the card below:
I love buttons, I like to buy the mixed button bags at Hobby Lobby, I've been trying to cut back lately, because not only do they have the cool buttons like I used in the card above, they also have a lot of boring ones. The pacifier, bib, rattle and stork are from one of those bags. Across the top I attached a "clothesline" with mini brown brads. On the bottom in the middle is a baby image from a piece of vintage baby wrapping paper I had. I also attached a tag in the corner with the words "Welcome, baby" stamped on it. Inside there is a stamped quote about babies being from heaven.

Survival Kit for New Mothers

I got this idea out of the book The Ultimate Paper Crafts Collection published by Primedia, the projects and ideas in the book came from Papercrafts & Stamp It magazines. I got the idea for the "bag" from here. I attached the black and white floral paper as accents on the front and back of the bag, as well as on the sides. For the handles, I found a piece of pink plastic mesh and attached it with some "studs" I took off of a belt I bought awhile back.
The tag sticking out of the bag says:

The New Mom's Survival Kit

Hershey Hugs - for you and the baby, because you both deserve them.

Clock - to remind you that time will pass by too quickly, enjoy every moment.

Mirror - to remind you that you are important, too.

Marbles - to replace the onew that you will lose.

Rubberband - to remind you that flexibilty is the key.

Lifesavers - to save you from one of those days.

Tissue - to dry those tears, the baby's and yours.

Lollipop - To lick all your problems away.

Eraser - t0 reminde you that every mom makes mistakes.

Puzzle Piece - Because you are an important piece in your child's journey through life.

I didn't have a clock, so I took a chipboard one, added some hands with a brad and layered it on a piece of matboard.

I also took a round mirror and framed it on matboard.

This is a downward view of the front of the bag.

This is the back of the bag.

Also, a question for everyone reading this, or just passing by. I noticed when I uploaded these photos, I'm apparently using 94% of my allotted space for photos. I find that kinda weird, as I have way more photos on my other blogs. Does anyone know if there's a way I can save my pictures on my computer, so they take up less space?

May Flowers

I chose flowers as May's theme.
Clockwise from lower left corner: This one was my favorite and I kept this card. I love how the colors work so well together, the rose is a plaster rose that I painted with black and silver paint, the leaves underneath it are a sequin, they are a dark green metallic color. I used the rose and sequin from my packet;
I've been hanging onto the yellow flower piece for awhile, looking for the right thing to use it in, and I finally found it. I used the purple paper in the corners from my packet;
This one didn't turn out as cute as I imagined it, but I still like it. The big blob of green is actually a lot of little tiny malachite (I think that's what they're called) stones, and in the middle is a 3D rose sticker. I used the rose sticker and the ribbon daisy in the corner from my packet;
This last one didn't quite work out like it was supposed to either, but it's still pretty cute. I had planned on having the daisy in the upper right corner encased in some diamond glaze in a watch body, but I didn't think about putting something behind it to actually encase it in the body, so the diamond glaze never really dried and when I flipped over the watch body it sorta oozed out, so I took it out and just glued the flower, with the brad center to the card. I also have a pretty cute little button as the center of the sunflower in the corner. I used the daisy, the sunflower and the purple vellum flower from my packet.

Clockwise starting in lower left corner: I accidentally put this card on sideways. I liked how the wallpaper flower looked behind the pumpkin and wanted to use that along with some more color on the card, so I colored the flowers in the corner and glued them on. I used the piece behind the pumpkin and the heart charm from my packet.
I love the simplicity of this one. The scalloped flower piece was in a collage packet I bought, it's a piece of old ledger paper, I glued the pink flower button on top of that. I used the purple mulberry paper in the background from my packet.
This one's really cute too, I felt the copper/blue piece needed something layered on it, so I found a silver button and brushed it with some copper ink and then sealed it with diamond glaze. I used the copper/blue piece from the packet.

I decided to make flowers in a field for this one. The two butterflies are from the same collage package as the scalloped piece above. They are also on some old paper. The blue and white flowers are ribbon, and the pink flower was a button. All three ribbon flowers had stems, so I punched holes in the background card and "planted" them in the field. I used the two flowers on the bottom from my packet.

This one was a nice old looking piece. The book paper is from an old book I had, the picture of the guy on a bicycle was from a clip art book, I distressed it with some brown ink. I needed a leaf for the calla lily, so I cut one out of some green paper that went nicely with the colors on the card. I used the calla lily (which is made out of clay) from my packet.

April Fun

In April, I stamped various images onto patterned paper. The images were ones that would be recognizable no matter which side of the paper you looked at.
Clockwise starting from lower left corner: I love the colors on this card, I used the heart image from my packet. I don't know if you can tell, but all the centers of the pink flowers are different colored brads and the flower in the bottom right corner is two layered sequins with a brad for a center, I used the purple iris from my packet. The colors in this one came out really nice as well. I used both suitcases from my packet. This one was so cute, the hat in the corner is 3D and stuck out from the page, I was trying to make it as girly as possible, there's a piece of lace on the right side, and pearls as a belt or trim on the dress, I used the dress form from my packet.

Clockwise starting at lower left corner: The envelope actually opens, so I stuck the "Olde Keys" tag that I received in a collage pack I bought inside it also the "W" piece is a domed sticker, I used the tag in corner and the "W" sticker. I wanted to make this a whole tag piece, so I looked through all my tags and created the piece, I think I might do a tag swap in the future, I used the tag mounted on orange paper from my packet. This was my favorite from the swap, I used a plastic blue cowboy hat, a pair of Ronald McDonald shoes I cut out of a playing card and a metal 3D revolver that was a pin on this card as well as the cowboy boots that were from my packet, I titled it Ronald McDonald's alter ego. I wanted to show the gorgeousness of the green in the ginkgo leaves and ironically, the mini calendar page I picked was April when trees have all their leaves and people start looking at them again, I used the ginkgo leaves from my packet.

Starting with top image: I wanted a really cheery piece for this one, so I used the dancing girl from a clip art book I had along with a leaf cut out of a piece of paper and three flowers in the corner from my packet. This one was supposed to kind of look like fish in the ocean, I used the stamped fish image from my packet.

March Metalics

OK, I'm a little behind, I just noticed today, that I hadn't posted my CollageAtcs since February, so I'm posting March (this post), April and May's cards today. They'll all be separate posts.


Left to right: In this one, I thought it might be cute to add circles to the middle of the flowers on this paper. The items I used from this swap are the purple circle and the brad with the faux clear jewel in the middle. On the second card I used the star bead and the faux jewels.

On the purple card, I wrapped the printed scalloped piece in a gold cord I was given and then added the gold foil at the bottom to tie in the gold colors, both gold pieces were in the packet. On the butterfly card I used the little red flower. On the tag card, I used the faux jewels.

On the heart card I used the white heart under the green button. On the gold card I used the gold foil background, I love the look of this card. The sunflower in the corner was used on the girl card. The "Sew" card was my favorite, I used the pink fabric in the corner, and then "sewed" on the buttons with a piece of copper wire from my package.

More past pieces

Art Heart

This an altered tin, I received the tin filled with chocolates for Valentine's Day one year. The paint has been burned off by holding the tin over a gas stove, until it started peeling off and then wiping it down with a towel*

After removing the paint, I layered Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on to it, heating and adding more embossing enamel until I achieved an even layer. I allowed it to dry, heated it up again and started adding colored embossing enamel (silver, purple, green glitter, and blue) until I achieved the color combination I wanted. After letting it dry again, I heated it up and stamped the word "Art" in black ink, a pine bough and a heart button into the warm enamel. I colored the imprint of the heart button with a turquoise paint pen. To tie in the turquoise color, I added some turquoise faux jewels around the arches of the heart.

This is one of my favorite altered tins. I don't have a gas stove anymore so I have to find other ways to alter tins by adding paper/fabric/paint to them like the butterfly tin below.

Blue Butterfly Tin

This is an altered tin, I received the tin in the mail with junk mail in it. It measures 5 3/4" wide by 5" tall by 1/2" thick. I painted it with a blue Lumiere Jacquared paint. On the front I attached some blue suede printed with a texture stamp. In the corners I have a round bead on top of a gold jewelry finding on top of some glitter. In the lower left and upper right corners, the bead is clear. In the lower right and upper left, it's blue. In the center is a piece of blue suede with butterfly stamped in gold ink framed with a gold paint pen, layered on a piece of glossy gold paper, layered on another piece of the blue suede. I have also used the gold paint pen to frame the blue suede. The lid has some beige fiber around the lip. On the bottom, it is painted with the blue paint with a piece of blue lace on top of it. Inside the tin, I have a 5" long by 4.5" tall journal. The cover is blue paper stamped with a butterfly stamp, covered with a piece of blue vellum, then laced togeter with a piece of navy blue ribbon. The six pages inside are parchment paper measuring 4 1/2" long by 4" tall. I have also included a tiny metallic blue gel pen.

Blue Lady

This piece I did on a stamping trip, my mother and I took through Stamp Lovers, a store that used to be in Ankeny, IA. We got to travel around to various stamp stores in Iowa and make crafts at them. This piece is a matboard silhouette and a matboard hat. This piece was pressed into a stamp pad and then covered in embossing powder and heated up. The silhouette is covered in clear embossing powder with a blue metallic glitter, the hat is covered with a light metallic blue highlighted with the same blue metallic glitter. The embellishment on the hat is a piece of semi melted ribbon and a blue gemstone.

At the store where I did this, I bought the matboard set that had the silhouettes and hats and created another piece, which I will feature in another post.

Blue Stars
This is an altered CD. I scraped the covering off of it and then paintedit with black Neo Opaque paint. After that dried I stamped some stars in a metallic blue ink and embossed them with a clear embossing powder. I added some black and gold micro beads for texture. On the bottom of the piece is some eyelash fiber dangling down. It has a pin back on it.

Create

I have no idea when I did this piece, but I love it so much. It started out as a 4 2/8" by 4 2/8" matte glazed square tile. I painted it with copper and light gold Lumiere paint and black Neo Opaque paint both by Jacquard. I then stamped the dragonfly image in copper ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I glued the fabric Asian dragon image on the lower right corner, balancing the opposite corner with some fiber tied into a tassel and glued a Singapore coin on top of it. Above the dragon is the word create painted with the same copper Lumiere paint and bordered with the black Neo Opaque paint. In the middle of the tile, on the copper painted piece, I glued four teal green square glass beads. Also, below the dragon in the corner is a silver colored "faith" charm. It doesn't go with the rest of the piece at all, but I used some good glue on it, and it's not coming off.

*If you choose to do this, please use metal tongs with some kind of plastic or insulated handles. When wiping off the paint, you have to be careful as the tin will be very hot. DO NOT do this around young children. DO NOT let young children do this technique.