AN ATC FOR YOU!

Hi, there!  Welcome back to Traveling Down a Crafty Road!  I've been working on a bunch of ATC swaps and would like to share the only non-Christmas one that I've done.  Keep in mind that I've recently completed 4 swaps.  Three were Christmas or sort of Christmas themed and involved a grand total of 63 cards!  This one only required 12--one for each month and I was responsible for September.

I found the seed packet image on the internet (morning glories are the September flower) and I replaced the seed company name in MS PowerPoint.  I also accented the flower with a little Perfect Pearls painting technique.  The sapphire-like jewels are from Michael's Recollections brand.  Stampendous Royal Blue pigment ink finished off all the edges.

Now let me send you to fabulous places! 
Debby Lewis, Fiskateer of the Year for 2008, hostess of the 52 week long Dare Ya! challenges, owner of Debby's Dream Studio shop and a wonderful crafter is doing "12 Days of  Home for the Holidays" on her blog (link below).  The ever creative Debby has invited 12 guest designers to share their holiday traditions and creativity.  It's a fun time over at Debby's Dare and I encourage you to visit and maybe learn something new.  I've also signed up to participate in the Dare Ya! challenge for 2010 so you can look for my challenge layouts right here on my blog starting in January!  I would love to have your company in the challenges.  Find out more here:  http://debbysdares.blogspot.com/

Lisa Falduto, another amazing designer and fellow Fiskateer, is hosting a Week of Holiday Cards on her blog, Paper Fashions.  Lisa is always inspiring and her cards are absolutely beautiful.  Please take a minute to check them out.  They are really super!  And she's got a giveaway going : )  Here's the link
http://www.lisafalduto.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are having great success doing all the crafty things you do and preparing for the holidays!

ATC's

Good morning!  Ghosts and ghouls, and probably a few princesses, pirates and super heros will be haunting my street at the end of the week.  In the fun spirit of the holiday, I have a few of my recent ATC's to share.

All Hallow's Jazz

Supplies:  Wausau Paper Gold shimmery card stock, DCWV black textured cardstock sprayed with homemade glittery mist (gold PearlX in hairspray sealed with Krylon matte sealer), Fiskars Threading Water border punch, hand pieced top hat made with DCWV black textured cardstock and orange Stickles, Fiskars 12 inch desk top trimmer, Fiskars #5 Microtip scissors, Fiskars He Said She Said squeeze punch, skeleton image from the Internet, Tombo tape runner, All Night Media pop dots and Fiskars glue dots.  The cane is a toothpick painted with a black Sharpie marker.

Kona

Supplies:  Bazzill magenta textured card stock, Fiskars 12 inch desk top trimmer, Fiskars scalloped decorative scissors, ColorBox Petal Point pigment ink, Lion Brand yarn, Tombo tape runner, Fiskars glue dots and All Night Media pop dots.  The kitty photograph courtesy of Sylvia Brown.

Crow 

Supplies:  DCWV black textured cardstock sprayed with homemade glittery mist (see All Hallow's Eve ATC), hand cut images from the Internet, Stampabilities black pigment ink, Fiskars 12 inch desktop trimmer, Fiskars #5 microtip scissors, Tombo tape runner and All Night Media pop dots. 

These three were really fun to make.  Now I need to stock up on treats, and try not to eat them all, before the big event!

Thank you for visiting Traveling Down a Crafty Road!  Have a creative day!

EXCITING NEWS!

Hi, everybody!  Take a look at my sidebar.  Notice anything different?  Right!  Scrapbook News and Review, an online, subscription only magazine, has chosen to publish two of my Artist Trading Cards in their October issue!  I'm over the top excited and bouncing off the walls!  I love this magazine!

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll have crafty stuff tomorrow so please come back.  Enjoy the weekend! 

WHERE TO PUT ALL THE ATC’s?

ATC’s are really mini works of art and I find them very inspiring. When I receive a package from a swap, it’s like opening a birthday present! Incredibly thrilling! I look through them and am amazed at the creativity. The conversation with myself usually includes “Wish I had thought of that!”, “Wonder what adhesive was used?”, “How did they do this technique?” and on and on.

After participating in a few swaps, display and storage questions arose. The precious, little cards are too pretty to hide away in a drawer or box and they stimulate my own creativity. I thought and thought—maybe a tree type thing? Nope—too big for my space. Maybe a clothesline? Hmmm, that might work. Or what about a teeny tiny shelf? So off to the hardware store and this is what I ended up with.

I found plastic ceramic tile starter strips and screwed them into the wall. They have a little groove along the horizontal edge that most of my ATC’s fit right into. A few of the ATC’s in my collection don’t fit exactly—they are thicker and made with multiple layers of cardboard or include fibers or top heavy embellishments. For those, I added a little rolled up painters tape stuck to the back of the sleeve and the wall to hold them upright. (I was concerned about the tape pulling the paint off the wall but after a month, it’s still intact.) The best part of this project: it was CHEAP! An 8 foot length was less than $5. I just cut the strips with a hacksaw to the desired length and cleaned up the cuts with a bit of sandpaper.

Since I only have a few free feet left, I started thinking about long term storage. I visited a local sports card store and found bunches of cardboard storage boxes—all different sizes and price points! I bought a midsized one for $4. As soon as I personalize my plain white box, I’ll share a picture with you! I don’t want to put any of my treasures in a box but my wall space is limited. I plan to rotate the display and am anticipating how much fun that will be. Just thinking about it brings back memories of playing with dress up dolls. I’ll just be playing dress up the wall!

If you’ve joined the ATC brigade, let me know how you display and store yours! The birthday RAK is still up for grabs so leave that comment, or another, here and become a follower if you aren’t following yet. Thanks for stopping by!

THEY WANNA MAKE ME GO TO ATC REHAB

But I say NO, NO, NO! Anyone who has ever crafted an ATC knows exactly what I mean. They are super addictive. I’m participating in four swaps this month!

For those of you who haven’t succumbed, they are 2.5 by 3.5 inch Artist Trading Cards meant to be traded among an ever growing community of artists and crafters. Yes, traded--not sold. It’s a sharing thing!

Any arts and crafts media is acceptable—collage, watercolor, rubber stamping, fabric, photography, embroidery, oil paints, etc. Whatever makes your heart sing is okay as long as you adhere to the size rule. I save cereal boxes and cut those for my card base but you can buy precut cardboard ATC bases or even use old playing cards. The front is your artwork and the back provides the space for the title, edition or series number if any (1 of 20, etc.), name of swap, your name and contact information, date created and any other information the swap host requests or you want to include. A few that I’ve received have cute little poems or personal notes on the back.

This is one of my earlier efforts and is titled Hunka, Hunka Merman. It was part of a mermaid swap hosted by another blogger. “He” came from a magazine ad for watches, photocopied onto matte photo paper. The watch is why he has an embroidery floss wrist band. I added little beads to the band as I sewed it on. The background paper and his tail are from a ProvoCraft slab. His hair is made from unraveled twine with a little peat moss glued here and there. The hair was rather unruly so he ended up with a ponytail holder made from a bit of jewelry wire and the Fiskars Itty Bitty Cassette Punch sun shape.

A wonderful resource is Bernie Berlin’s Artist Trading Card Workshop. Her book is full of techniques, trading information, and inspiration. She recently shared her art on FiskarsTV (http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tv/). It’s Episode 99 and definitely worth viewing.

A big THANK YOU to everyone participating in the Birthday RAK! Your comments warm my heart. I’m thrilled that you have joined the celebration. We are still celebrating so leave a comment for a chance to win the RAK. Become a follower for another chance. Thanks, Amy Winehouse for today’s post title.

Gotta run! My ATC addiction is calling.