TMTA Green Woman ATC

Perhaps you've heard of the Green Man, a mythical leafy creature born of the foliage? Or perhaps not! It was the theme for our local ATC swap, and it was one of those that was "love it" or "hate it" amongst our members (tee hee). I was on the "love it" side, mainly because I tweaked it to be able to use one of my favorite portrait stamps.... Stampington's Botanical Countess by Sandra Evertson. This also fits in with Think Monday, Think ATC's challenge, which is 'look into a face'. To me, this delightful lady looks perplexed by the fact that foliage has sprung up out of her! LOL! What a face! I used a mix of alcohol inks on glossy cardstock, blotted and stamped with leaf stamps, then stamped the countess with StazOn. I added a tiny copper dragonfly, and, in order to tweak it to fit the club's theme, I added the words "Behind every green man is a green woman." Hope that counts :) TFL!

Secrets

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge over at SCS was the amazing work of Sarah Collier. I chose as my inspiration this piece, entitled Frozen Custard. How amazing is her work?!?! I started by ripping out a page of old text (I liked that the chapter heading was "Secrets" - perhaps those shared by a boy and his dad) and painting it with ivory craft paint. While that dried, I stamped text with StazOn on a piece of acetate (stamps by Hero Arts and Limited Edition). I stamped the main image (Tin Can Mail) on the dry paint with ColorBox Chestnut Roan pigment ink. I stamped it another time on scrap paper and cut out just the sentiment. I then layered the image, the acetate, and the sentiment, and fixed them together with brads. I added a ticket (from Tim Holtz Idea-ology) to the top with a little paper fastener from 7 Gypsies. I then layered this whole thing onto a card base made with Basic Grey and K and Co. patterned papers. Fairly quick-n-easy.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend - thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly ATCs for Saturday Surprise, plus a little French Flavor ATC

A couple of little ATCs for the Saturday Surprise challenge, which is Butterflies.

This first one is actually a shaker card that I made a few months ago. The clipart butterfly and the stamped green foliage and text are on the back panel, and the blue floral image is stamped with StazOn on the acetate covering. Inside (as the things that actually move when shaken) are blue and green microbeads, blue butterfly confetti (which is sort of sparkling in the pic), and a punched butterfly with the word "dream" cut from an old book.

For this next one, I stamped the butterfly images first, then overlayed a K and Co. sticker. I penned in some additional text around the stamped butterfly, then mounted the panel onto text. I used inks, acrylic paints, and markers to distress and color, then added some picture fasteners.

One last ATC, a late addition for the Created Byhand challenge this week, which was "French." I used Ranger's distress embossing powder for the Eiffel Tower... this stuff is interesting, in that it gives a sandy finish, rather than a glossy one. The little plane is from Limited Edition.

Wow, thanks for sticking with me! I've got some family in town, so I'd better go socialize!! Have a great weekend!

Another Blog Candy Alert....

Sherry, a.k.a. the Button Junkie, is offering a wonderful blog candy prize.... Unity Stamp's May Kit of the Month! Go on over to THIS post and comment if you'd like a chance to win. While you're there, look through some of her other posts - she's very talented! I particularly liked her Winter Wonderland Blue Christmas tag (awesome vintage), and her mini albums are truly inspiring.

Winter Wonderland - Blue Christmas (and a Catch-Up)

Another fun challenge week from the ladies over at Winter Wonderland. The challenge for Week 4 is Blue Christmas.... anything so long as it's blue (my fave color!). For this challenge, I picked the cool, icy blue of frost, ice on a frozen lake, icicles hanging from the porch... aaah, I feel cooler already :). One of my family's favorite activities is skating, so I dug out one of my vintage trade cards that has ice skaters on it. The chipboard ice skates, icicles, and snowflakes are all from Tattered Angels, distressed and dusted with mica. The skates also have some Ranger Crackle Paint in pewter. I used some SU felt snowflakes around the edges, a K and Co. snowflake brad, Martha pearls, Basic Grey paper, and some ribbons and lace from my stash. Here's a close-up of that fun image:


Since I want to make a banner from all the theme challenges, I decided I'd better try to play catch-up with the two challenges I missed. The Week 1 theme was Oh, Christmas Tree, so here's my take on that one: Nothing too fancy on this one.... I used a print-out of sheet music for the base, and added some patterned paper from Basic Grey. The sticker is from Melissa Francis, and the swirly at the top is Tim Holtz grungeboard (love it!) painted green. Not sure if it needs something around the edges... gathered crepe paper, perhaps? I'll have to mull that over (I've got some time before I need it :). Hopefully next week I'll have time to work up a Christmas Carol pennant (Week 2's challenge). Here are my three pennants so far:
Well, I hope you're staying cool... it's a heat wave in many parts of this country, and I for one am looking forward to a little coolness! Have a great day!