ATC...What's That?

Hello Everyone!

Have you heard of an ATC before? I never had. I was on Jen del Muro's blog and she was inviting us to paarticipate in a swap - a Bella swap of Artist Trading Cards (ATC). I thought this would be neat to participate in since it was new to me - I was curious. I questioned Jen and found that this is not a full sized card but more like a business card. It's 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches so it's not a lot of room to decorate. You do the same card over - each swap is different so you need to look at the details. This swap was a 9 + 1 so all 10 are alike.

Here's what I've bee busy working on...



This is Tatiana Ketto from Stamping Bella. I love the quirky, funky feel of these stamps. The sentiment, also from Stamping Bella, was a bargain at $0.25. I broke out the Copics, pencils and Odorless Mineral Spirits to color her in. I also added a splash of sparkle with my Sakura Gelly Roll pens. Another bit of sparkle comes from the Swarkovski crystal that centers the button up top. I was lucky enough to have had a package of 10 in exactly the right color. Whoo Hoo.

Ok, so these will be off in the mail tomorrow and I will share a peak of what I get back within the next few weeks.

Details:

Stamps: Tatiana Ketto and sentiment; Stamping Bella
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White and Bazzil colored cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, pencils, odorless mineral spirits, Sakura Gelly Roll pens, ribbon, button, Swarkovski crystal, glue dots, and Martha Stewart Border punch

Thanks for looking!

Cathy

Trotting By...

Happy Saturday everyone! Hope you all had a great week - ok, two weeks. Time just seems to be flying. We had a great vacation - weather cooperated, food was good (even went to Sutton's Marketplace & Cafe touted by Rachel Ray - they had the best fresh Cider doughnuts), friends were great and we didn't see a TV or newspaper for 5 days! The Vermont and NY landscape was beautiful and made for some great days out on the Harley. We took the ferry across Lake Champlain, drove past Killington, Pico and Okemo ski resorts, saw a bear, two dear and a turkey that crossed the road while we were on the bikes. The night life was entertaining - Tom and Auggie sang their hearts out and Tom lost his voice after the first night. Now, it's life as usual and I'm thrilled to be in my favorite room of the house, my craft room!

Today I've started with a Birthday greeting for a sweet young lady that loves animals - Lisa, don't let Stephanie read this post yet! While all animlas steal her heart, she loves horseback riding. She gave me this stamp for Christmas and I have been thinking about her birthday card ever since.



I started to use my pencils and mineral spirits to color the horse and then added touches of Copic markers to finish it off. Of course, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock was my choice of paper and Memento Rich Cocoa was used for the ink. I used both the small and large oval Nestabilities as well as the large scalloped oval to bring this image cener stage. There is a small strip of striped DP from Martha Stewart which I backed with the matching solid green all from the Classic Botanical Paper Pad. The brown DP came from SEI Alpine Frost and I loved the way it gave the texture of wood or a barn to this card. The card base is by Bazzil.

Now I know that pink or purple are Steph's favorite colors but I felt they just didn't go with the horse idea. Green reminded me of flowing pastures so I highlighted this with lime green satin ribbon. I tied the ribbon with some brown hemp and added a Dew Drop to the top. I always look for embellishments in unusual places and found the Daisy upholstery tacks at LumberJack. With my employee discount they were $0.50 for 24. Not bad I thought. Thank goodness the DH is strong, he clipped the heavy pin off and left me with the tops which I adherred with Glue Dots. The brown border was created with the Martha Stewart Cornice punch. The sentiment is SU Warmest Regards.

I'm off to work on another project and hopefully I'll have more to share with you this weekend.

Take care and thanks for looking!

Cath

Whimsical Birthday

Hello everyone! Our vacation is finally here. The DH and I are making our way up to the Adirondak mountains in upstate NY. This is an annual "Harley" weekend for us and we are so looking forward to the winding mountain roadways of NY. Michigan is so flat! Yes, there is lots of water around us but we love the changing landscape of hills, mountains, valleys and green! Americade is also an enticement for the DH. There will only be about 50,000 bikers roaming the mountain roads this weekend and the DH just loves to be a part of that (the night life at Duffy's and a stop at the pizza window on the way back to the hotel just might do it as well).

I also wanted to share that I finally started the next level of treatment for my RA. I will now be taking shots every other week (probably for the rest of my life the Doctor said). They are supposed to be self-injected but the DH has been trained and is willing to do them for me. (He's just a little too eager I might add to stick me which is just a little scary!) You all know how much I hate shots but I started yesterday and I am thrilled that I didn't have any reaction and barely felt the darn thing. Whoo Hoo. Finally on to the road of recovery and normalcy. I also received a special treat - two more shots of Cortizone; one for the wrist and one for the knee. I'm hoping that soon I won't be hobbling about so much and that my wrist gains strength so that I can open things, stop dropping things and make my cards easier. Ok - sorry for the non-card lapse but I'm so psyched that I wanted to share the news with everyone!

So, I saved a few cards from my weekend creativity to share with you during the week. Now it means that you won't likely see anything over the weekend so don't get antsy on me.

First up is a Verve creation. Actually it's more of an Amy Sheffer creation. I needed a card for a sweet little girl turing one this week - Happy Birthday Macey!



I know that this isn't a typical kiddie card but I loved the whimsical feel of the Verve Birthday Surpise set. (The birdie is just so cute!) Amy used this set on a card that I had added to my "to do" list so this is once again an inspiration from Amy. The layout is hers, the colors are mine. I saved Amy's card not only for the use of the Verve stamp set (that I had recently purchased) but also for the off square use of the image. What I mean by that is that the image panel appears to be square yet the stamped image continues outside. This is my first attempt to create an image panel where the stamped image exceeds the boundaries of the main shape. It wasn't as hard as I thought but it definately is tricky to keep the straight line without using a paper cutter on that leg of the cut. I'm gonna have to research this some more to see what tips and tricks the ladies in cyberland use to create these wonderful image panels.

I chose my Copics to color the image which I stamped in Mememto Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. I then cut the image out using the papercutter on two of the sides. I cut the last two sides by hand after a ruler helped show me the straight line. Some Swarkovski crystals help add sparkle to finish the image off. The DP is again from Hobby Lobby's individual sheet selection and is by The Paper Studio. The ribbon is double sided satin and looks so much more vibrant in person. Sorry that it wasn't captured in the picture. I used my Spellbinders Classic Circles to cut out the cicrle panels.

I like the almost Circus feel of the inside.



I used the EK Success border punch and added a small strip of the DP to create the circus tent canopy feel. The sentiment came from a wooden Birthday stamp I bought at Hobby Lobby. I forgot to record the info before I left home but I believe it is by Stampenous. So that's it for this one.

More Birthday greetings...



This is another Birthday greeting that I made just for fun. It was very simple and not as time consuming as you might think with all those layers. Sometimes it's nice to throw in a quickie to help make you feel productive and this did just that.

The image was colored with Copics and highlighted with my Glitter pen. I cut the image out using Spellbinders Classic small and large circles as well as the Scalloped circle dies. I paper pierced the scallops and raised the top circles on dimensionals. The Cuttlebug Diamonds in the Rough embossing folder helped add some dimension to the side panel and again I highlighted them with some Swarkovski crystals to add sparkle. The DP is some scraps that I had some I'm sorry I don't have more info to share with you. I again added some double sided satin ribbon to finish this off.

Phew.. this is definately longer than I intended but I hope it keeps you sated. Have a great one, thanks for hanging in there with me and I'll be back next week.

Cath