ATC's to Inspire You!

First off I wanted to let all of the ATC & Charm Swappers that the envies are winging their way to you as I type!  Hopefully it won't take too long for them to arrive so you can enjoy the bounty in person.

Today I wanted to share the beautiful ATC cards sent in for the swap

for inspiration and your enjoyment!

(Note - lots of photos!)

You can click on any of the photos to enlarge for detail.

Olga

Sandie

Theresa P

Sara (hand drawn!)

Loretta

Robin 

Terry

this one has a little pull out surprise!

Donna Jean

Donna N

Judy

Dixie (aka - Mom)

Bobbie

Black Sand Beaches...

Friday's Black Sand / Hawaii charm created quite a stir...I had lots of e-mails about the black sand beaches and I had one very special e-mail from Phawnda - she shared a couple photos she took the last time she went to Hawaii.  She has graciously given me permission to share one with you!

Here is the sand I used....

and here is where it could have come from....  I cannot imagine how breath taking it is to see this in person.  Simply stunning - the colors so vivid and vibrant!  Just look at all of the colors of blue in that water alone.  The beauty of it just brings tears to my eyes.  

So anyway, I thought you might enjoy this glimpse into paradise!

Thanks Phawnda for allowing me to share this with everyone!

Inspired by....Sand!?!?!

Do you ever get inspired by unusual things?  Well I do!  Earlier this summer a "Main" country road which connects two of our State Roads had a road long garage sale so my son, his fiance and I decided to hit the road and see what we could find we couldn't live without.  We stopped at one house that we've driven by for years and years and the same old lady still lives there.  She must be 90 or so but she was out there with an assortment of stuff she had decided it was time to part with.

On one of the tables was this jar...

I was initially intrigued by the label - Black Sand Beach - Hawaii - 1964.  I asked her about it and she told me that when she was a young dental assistant there was a convention in Hawaii and the entire office got to go.  It was the first time she had ever been out of the state of Indiana and had never seen a black beach before so she collected this jar full of sand as a keepsake.

While I have been out of the state of Indiana before I've never been to Hawaii and doubt I ever will but I was and still am fascinated by the sand!  It has a much larger particle size than the sand we have here in Indiana.  I don't know all the technical why's and where's but it's beautiful so I bought the container and knew I'd do something with it.

Not too long ago Altered Pages got these nifty little glass bottles in stock.  They have a handy rubber stopper that has a built in hanger which is great for altered charms and I knew they would be perfect vessels for my sand!  I bought several packages of them and went to work!

And here's what I created...a charm which pays homage to Hawaii!  I have of course poured some of the sand inside the vial and added a strip of paper with the word Hawaii on it so folks would know where the sand came from.  I added some wood & bamboo beads which looked "tropical" to me. I hung a small shell off a short piece of chain which has a little surprise inside ~ a fresh water pearl!  Now I know these types of shells don't produce pearls but I thought it was a fun addition to the charm.    Oh and I tied the stopper to the vial with a piece of faux reed.  

I'm happy with how it turned out and I hope the folks who get one in the charm swap enjoy it as well.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend...

PanPastels on Black Cardstock - Take 2

If you visited yesterday you'll recall I shared this card....

It is the pastel colored PanPastels on black cardstock.  I wanted to share a bit more about how I got the look because I thought I had really screwed it up.  So here's what I did...I applied the rainbow effect of pastels across the black cardstock.

Just for comparison - white cs & black - pastels applied in the same fashion.

Next, I stamped the image using VersaMark ink.

Then I applied the second coat of PanPastels...and well, the results are less than stellar.  I'm thinkin what the heck did I do wrong - it looks like crap and it's exactly what I did on the white cardstock.  Honestly I was just going to pitch it since it didn't work...

But then I decided to go ahead and try to fix it by wiping off some of the pastels and start over.  I took a dry cloth and gently wiped away quite a bit of the pastels and to my amazement the VersaMark held the PanPastels in place without smearing.  By removing some of the excess pastels it actually made what was left really pop.    After I sprayed it with the fixative (hair spray) the colors became even more vibrant.  Needless to say I was extremely pleased with how just wiping away some of the pastels really made this almost trash background usable again.

To compare the black and white results again...

PanPastel Cards - My First!

Hey everyone!  I mentioned last week that in September Altered Pages DT is featuring PanPastels on all of their posts.  Well today was my first post and my first projects I made using the pastels.  I have to tell you I had such fun!!  Here are the two cards I made....

For additional info about how I made them please check out the post - 

PanPastels and VersaMark.

I'll be sharing more about this technique soon!

ATC's for the Swap

Hey Everyone...  Today I wanted to share some ATC's I made recently for the swap.... these were all made a bit at a time over the last couple weeks because of our crazy work schedule.  I didn't make as many as I had hoped but at least I got to squeeze some art time in here and there :)

The first one was so much fun...it's a Club Scrap stamp from the last kit - Cinema.  I KNEW when I saw it I had to make an ATC with it...of course I had to test the Bubble Wrap just to make sure it was going to work for the ATC's - LOL!!!  It did - you know it's such a great stress reliever ;)  LOL!!

I'm Ready for My Close-Up is also another product of August's Club Scrap Kit.  The sentiment and movie star (in the background) were stamps also included in the Cinema kit.  Marilyn herself is a stamp from Deep Red Stamps.  They have several realistic movie star stamps...Marilyn, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, John Wayne, etc.  I belive there are others but I can't remember who they are at the moment.  She's colored with Spectrum Noir Colored Pencils.

Bite Me is a fun combination of collage images from Altered Pages (Dracula & Skull), a piece of movie trailer film from "The Rite" (a scary movie w/Anthony Hopkins) and a background made using my spooky Memory Box Distressed Web stencil.  These are the backs of game board ATC's.  Some were black and others were red or maroon which is why some of the webs are in black and others are in white ink (Hero Arts).

 

Warning...not for the faint of heart....

Your Opinion ATC was made on one of those days....I'm sure we've all had 'em...a day when everyone was out to step on the last nerve you had left for the day...   This is one of the quotes from my Smart Ass Remarks & Bitch Comments list.  I knew I wanted to use this lady (collage image from Altered Pages) because she looked like she was in control and not taking crap from anyone but just needed a sentiment to go with her.  I was reading through the list and it was like...yep, that's the one - LOL!!  The background for the card is actually a vintage Bingo card that was painted with the Gelli Plate and the Corset ad is also from Altered Pages.

I do have an update on the swap (both charm and ATC).  I heard from the last person I was waiting on and she won't be able to make the swap so I am going to start swapping them out tonite if possible.  I am hoping to have them all sorted, packaged and re-mailed by this weekend.  I may get a chance to do it sooner if we don't get a new order this week.  I'll have to play it by ear but will definitely let you know how things are going.

Fun New Challenge..

There is a fun new challenge starting tomorrow Sept. 1st - it's the Altered Playing Card Challenge. 

Claudine will be altering an entire deck of playing cards (52) spread over 26 weeks.  Since it's only 2 cards per week I think it will be very doable.   I'm going to join the challenge so from time to time I'll be posting my creations here.  Maybe you'd like to join us and play along too!

I believe most people are going to use regular playing cards but you know I can't be "normal" - LOL!!  I'm going to try to get cards from several different decks of cards for something fun and different.  I know I have some really large playing cards, a zig-zag card, I think a round one and of course regular playing cards.  

Leap of Faith

Happy Friday!!  I hope this week has been a good one.  As most of you know we've been extremely busy at our business lately - well today we all got a day off!!  Whoopie!  Dh & the boys went to a farm auction and dh didn't want me there all by myself so I stayed home today to get caught up on house stuff <ick!> and I actually got to play in my art room which turned into LOTS of fun because the Fed Ex man brought my Pan Pastels this a.m.!!!!  

I was so excited...first thing I did was arrange the colors more to my liking...I'm sure they were in some order but it didn't make any sense to me so I put it into rainbow order which is what I like and how I art it up.

So, I decided to play right away and here's what I came up with...  Unruly Arts Reader Challenge this month is Take Flight with the following photo/color prompts...

And here's what I did....  I've been in the stencil making mode lately - this one is a large honeycomb design I made using my hexagon dies.  I just cut, moved, cut, moved until the entire piece of paper had been cut into what you see.

I applied a layer of yellow Pan Pastels down to my white cardstock then positioned my stencil and added a darker yellow over top.  I then took a piece of sequins scrap and added some rust dots here and there.  

Like most pastels you will need to seal it to keep it from smearing.  I used a bit of Creative Medium that I applied with an Ink Blending Tool & Foam.  Worked like a charm!

I added some stamped images - this huge bee was colored with Pan Pastels & some of their new sparklie medium...coarse black (eyes & body) and coarse white (on the wings).  I wish you could see the sparkle it adds. 

A bit of pen work in the corners...

And here it is....

The text & circle stamps are from Just For Fun stamps, the flowers and sentiment are Club Scrap but sadly I have no idea who made the giant bee...it's been in my stash for years.

Hope you all have a simply wonderful 3-day Labor Day weekend here in the States...

and I hope everyone else has a relaxing, rejuvenating weekend as well.

Remember to take time to get inky!!