ATC's With the Canvas Corp Brand Team

I recently became a new design team member with Canvas Corp Brands.  A team building activity was to make ATC's.  There were 12 people in my group.  Each ATC I have received have been beautiful and everyone of them very unique.  Today I am going to share my ATC.

I think of all the ATC's I received mine was the only painted/stamped one.  I guess I had a hard time leaving my card making skills behind me.

Here are the supplies I started with.  The base of my ATC was Canvas Corp ATC Artist Trading Cards (White).  There were 25 ATC's in the package.  They have the basic ATC cards in many different bases - ie black, kraft, cream, burlap.....

I used all these paints from the Tattered Angels line at Canvas Corp to achieve my watercolor look on my ATC.

The flower stamp is from Penny Black and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Here are pictures of the process of making the ATC's.

Yes the color of those poppies started out with yellow with pink on top.

See what a beautiful orangey color I achieved.

I then watered down my paints and colored the background of the cards.

I decided my cards needed just something a little extra on the left side.  I found my trusty Cardstock Pad and carefully cut a single row of black with ivory dots.

They were adhered  to the side of the ATC.  After this step was done, I am sure I went and placed all the ATC's in the press.  The press is four books.  It is amazing what a good heavy press will do to flatten out painted paper.

I sent my ATC's to 12 people and I believe half of them were outside the United States.  It is nice knowing that a small piece of my creative soul is now all over the world.

If you have not tried ATC's, you really should.  It is fun but sometimes difficult to work in such a tiny space.  It is always good to stretch our creative souls.

Here is a look at the finished ATC.

Thanks for stopping by.

Winter ATC

The challenge on the Wicked Wednesday ATC blog is "something new."  The stamps used on my ATC are new.  Love the cute little images.

Hope you are having a "ice day" - I believe we have that coming for weather in the next day or two - but I don't care - I am retired and can stay home.  But then the BRRRRR weather comes.

Mixed Media Mojo October Challenge

It is the first of the month and time to get our mixed media craft on with the challenge for October at Mixed Media Mojo.  The challenge for the month is Halloween with the added element of wings.

I chose to do some fabric ATC's for our monthly challenge.  Fabric was my first love before paper so I enjoy being able to play with it for projects.  I found fabric that had all these Halloween images on it in little blocks so it was very easy to cut out and use.  The ATC's were done for a swap and each one is a little bit different.  They each used the same cat image on them.  Wonder Under Lite was my adhesive for the project.  No sewing was done.  I made a total of seven ATC's.  Here are three of them.

 I used scraps of fabric on many of the ATC's.

Come back later in the month to see a card I make using another image from my Halloween fabric.

Calling Cards or Artistic Business Cards

I decided I wanted to make some business cards for my arty fun side.  I decided to make them ATC sized.  I bought the Sizzis big die for cutting the shape so I am recycling every box I empty into ATC bases.  I also have multiple dictionaries that are being used as a base on top of the cardboard.

This is my first set of cards.

The recipe for the card is recycled cardboard, dictionary page, gesso, Dylusions Paint, stamping, painting, fussy cutting, gluing, and splattering.  The quote is a new stamp I found at Tuesday Morning.  Once in awhile you get lucky in the store with finding craft supplies.  I am actually looking for a new rug.  No rug but I found stamps and some napkins.

I am entering this in two different challenges.

Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge - to use a trio of colors (orange, pink and teal)

The other challenge is Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge blog - the challenge is to use splatters (White paint spatters) or sprays.

Six done - one has already been used - when I sent off a postcard exchange this week.  My contact information is put on the back of the ATC card.

Mixed Media - ATC's and Canvas

If you are anything like me you buy things, or are given things for your hobby.  I have multiple bottles or containers of flowers.  Many are in little bottles.  In fact, I must confess, I have 2 drawers full of flowers.  I was lucky enough to use one small container of flowers and to then start on a jar.

I am part of a group of cardmakers and we do exchanges. My project for this blog entry was to make ATC's with a flower theme.  I really have no idea how I came up with the idea to make a flower tree.

I first cut out of recycled cereal boxes the cardboard bases for my ATC's.  I then added book pages to the front and back.  A layer of gesso was added .  I then went through my tree stamps (I do have lots of tree stamps) and found a good one for my project.  It had the trunk of the tree and the basic circle for my design.  This is what the ATC looked like before I added  the flowers and sentiment.

I very carefully separated my little flowers into color piles and started layering them. (sorry there are no pictures - I was not home while I did this process)  I spend lots of time at my daughter's and always try to take projects along with me.  I sit outside and work while the dogs run around in the yard.  I first used distress paints watered down to create the background for the trees.  I glued the flowers to the ATC with Glossy Accents.  I built layers until I was happy with how the tree looked and the base was all covered.   As you can see from the image above I had a stamping boo boo so I covered the boo boo with a flower and then added a couple more to resemble falling leaves.  A sentiment was stamped, fussy cut and adhered to the ATC's with gel medium.  As a final step I added a glass/bead gel medium brushed lightly on all the flowers to give them a little sparkle.

I had used up the majority of the flowers but had a bunch of burgundy flowers left so I decided to make a little canvas.  I covered the canvas with book pages and gessoed it.  This time I had to free hand a tree.  Luckily this is not too hard.  I painted the gessoed background.  Once again I started adding layers of flowers on top to make the tree shape.  I did my own sentiment and cut it out.  It was an experiment.  I had fun I did add some gesso around the edge of the canvas and the glitter/glass gel medium on top of the flowers.  

Dig out those flowers and go to town.  Make them into something unusual.  

Recycled Art

This month on Mixed Media Mojo the monthly challenge is to use recycled items.

The recycled/upcycled items in this ATC are the card stock from programs for commencement.  I have sprayed the white card stock with pink and blue sprays.  I have also recycled a tag from a piece of clothing I purchased.

I matted the pink card stock with black.  I stamped the circles and dots on the pink card stock.  I inked the stamp with VersaMark and VersaFine black ink.  I then clear embossed the stamped images.  They shine and have a little texture.  I painted them with yellow distress paint to pick up the color in the flower I am going to use.

I covered the outside and the inside of the recycled tag with the blue card stock.  I stamped the sentiments and clear embossed them.  The tag was adhered to the front of the ATC.  I cut off the end of the top of the tag.  The flower was glued to the end of the bottom of the tag.  The top edge slides under the flower and closes the tag.  A few pearls and a enamel dot were added to the ATC.

I am entering this in the weekly challenge at Wicked Wednesday ATC which was to use a fold on your ATC.

Christmas ATC

I have found a new love for creating.  It is tiny pieces of art called ATC's.  They measure 2.5  x  3.5.  They are very fun to do.  I also found an ATC challenge site so I am going to try and play along each week.  The site is called Wicked Wednesday ATC.

The challenge this week is April Fools Day or your favorite holiday.  I chose to go with Christmas.

I dug through my box of backgrounds I have made and found this pretty blue.  I believe it was made with distress inks.  The little stamp is made by Hampton Art.  I inked the stamp with VersaMark Ink and Black Versafine Ink.  I then put clear embossing powder over the top.  The little penguin and sentiment really pop and shine.  The beak and flippers were colored with distress ink.  Glossy accents was added tot he eyes.  I matted the image on black card stock to frame it.  I added a strip of patterned paper on the side.  I thought it needed a little bit of something.  I also randomly colored some of the squares with blue distress paint.  The stars and circles were punched out of silver paper that I made.  I rubbed VersaMark ink along a piece of paper and then added silver embossing powder.   You now have Silver paper.  A few rub ons were added along with some small enamel dots.

Everyone enjoy your Friday.  I am not working today so that is a plus to start the day.

Oldie Moldie Monday

I can finally share these ATC's I made for a swap.

I made 6 of these for an exchange.  This started me down the road of using all the eyelets I have (oldie moldie).  I needed to attach the vellum to the card.  I did not want to worry about making sure they were straight on the vellum so I did the random application of the first 3 and then added 2 more.  The stamp is also an oldie moldie.

I will post a "how to" later on.

Since I was participating in a swap - I made an ATC for the hostess with the mostess.  See I used more eyelets.

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your week.

Spring is Sprung

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  Yeah.  Winter has been long - very long so happy to see Spring come.  Of course, I love Spring but I also hate Spring.  I love the warmth returning, the flowers and grass starting to grow but I hate the work - all the leaves that did not get raked need to be cleaned up.  Hopefully the rain predicted this week will wash away some of the grime left on our lawns.

This week the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge is Spring.  I dug through my collection of backgrounds and found a yellow piece which I cut down to the correct size for an ATC.  This is a recycled background piece.  Recycled cardstock and a layer of an old book.  Add some gesso and paint and away we go.  I recently got the February color from Tim Holtz.  This time I got the ink not the paint.  The flower stamp is from Hero Arts.  I stamped it with Versamark and Black ink and then used clear embossing powder.  It really makes your image pop.  The flower was colored with distress ink and the leaves with distress paint.  A couple stencils and more distress paint added some texture to the ATC front.

The sentiment is a sticker from SRM Stickers.  I placed the sticker on a leftover piece of inked paper.  I added a strip of polka dot paper at the top of the ATC for some contrast.  I also used my favorite circle stamp from Stamps by Judith to add the circles.  Glitter gel was added to the flower and then glossy accents added to the petals and leaves.

I am leaving on vacation and if I can get up enough courage I want to do some art abandonment along the way.  I believe I will leave this piece somewhere in the Florida Keys.  I just want to try this but then I have lots of friends I could mail it to and they would love it also.  What to do what to do.

Oldie Moldie Monday

I have lots of eyelets so I am on a mission to use them up.  I have been using them on ATC cards.  I have a long ways to go.

Here are two ATC's I made.  I grabbed some pieces of background paper I had made for the base of the ATC's.  I believe both were made with Twinkling H2O's.

This ATC also uses a very old stamp.  The stamp really works great for an ATC.  It is the perfect size.  Two eyelets used.  Five circles colored with acrylic paint with glossy accents over the top and two eyelets - an uneven number.  I love that little circle stamp from Judith.  It is great for mixed media items.

This is a new stamp from Studio 490 and it has a coordinating stencil with it.  There are two sized flowers.  The sentiment is from a Unity Stamp Set.  You will note that 5 eyelets were used on this ATC.  I added Faber Castell Bead Glitter gel on the flower and then put glossy accents on the flower and leaves.

Be prepared for more eyelets.  I think it will become my new signature item until I use up the approximately 5000 I have.

Show some love for your old supplies.

ATC - Green Bird

I have started making ATC's and find they are quite fun.  Little pieces of art.  Something to satisfy the creative urge in your soul.  This week I discovered a challenge blog for ATC's called Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge Blog.  I thought I would play along with their challenge this week which is green.

I keep all my pieces of backgrounds I made so I went and dug through my box and I did find a piece of green background with blue highlights in it.  I think the background was made with different layers of acrylic paint.

I also decided to play along with the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge which is Birds of a Feather.

I have had this Hero Arts bird stamp for awhile - I had to have it and then it sat.  I have now used it twice in the last couple months.  I inked the stamp with some VersaMark and Versafine black ink.  I then used clear embossing powder on top to it really pops and has some texture.  The sentiment is another Hero Arts stamp which I stamped the same way but only used part of the sentiment.  The other day I discovered and decided it was my goal to use up eyelets.  I added 5 eyelets to my ATC.  Some rub ons from Basic Gray were added to the front of the ATC.  I used my black Big Brush Pen and ran it along the edges of the card.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my green bird ATC.  Yes life is good - our temps are in the 60's and the snow is melting.

B is for ......

B is for ...... Barb, of course.  This is the weekly challenge on the Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog.  How lucky for me that my Wednesday post is to share a fabric ATC I made for the Mixed Media Mojo March monthly challenge.

If you have been following along on my blog, you will see that I am starting to do art work with the letter B - which stands for Barb - which is lots of fun to do.  I have made several ATC's for my wall.  You can check out a couple at this link.  There are many ideas in my head.  I need to stop thinking and just make some "B" art.

I have a how to on the Mixed Media Mojo blog on how I created the ATC.  Actually it was too easy.  Pop over and check it out.

Hump day - yeah - downward slide to the week end.

Mixed Media Mojo March Challenge

Yes I know I have been missing but I have been doing some creating.  Winter continues to drag on and zap many of us of any desire to do much.  I go to work, I come home, I hope to sleep and then it starts all over.

On the creative side, I have been having lots of fun with the Monthly challenge for Mixed Media Mojo.  

There is something so fun about creating those little pieces of art.  ATC cards - 2.5 inches by 3.5. You can do so much in that little space.  The Twist is Set of 2.  It could mean two ATC's; it could be two of the same element on one card; what will your interpretation of the twist be.

My first interpretation (and I will share more during the month) is a set of 2.  I am redoing my living room and have some beautiful fabric that I picked out the some of the colors from.  I also have this idea to have a wall of "B" art.  Stay tuned to the blog for more fun with that.  Are you ready, here are my ATC's.  A set of 2; each ATC has 2 sets of B's, each card has a B an a b; two butterflies.

Once again I used my Dina Wakely scribbly bird stamp.  Do you know I have discovered entire boards on Pinterest of beautiful creations with this stamp set.  The Butterflies is a stamp I have had for years.

Come back later in the month and I will share a how to on these ATC's and also be sharing my other ATC's.

Get your creativity on and join us at Mixed Media Mojo.  Oh, did you hear we have a Design Team call - come play with us.