I've only made a couple of ATC's previously and so I hadn't really gotten fully emersed in it, but I have to say I had a lot of fun with these little cards!! Participants in this particular ATC swap joined groups of different themes, and each person picked their favorite subject within the theme. So, everyone will make one card for everyone else's theme, and then you receive back the cards that are your favorite subject within the theme. Silly me, I was so excited I joined 4 groups... not a good idea for your first ATC swap! These cards require quite a bit of research and thought... mine are still probably very simple compared to what other swappers will come up with - I hope they're OK!
Anyway, enough jibber jabber - here's what I came up with!
Color Group #21
The four color mixes in the group were: white on white; monochromatic yellow; silver, robin's egg blue, and black; and black, turquoise, and terra cotta. I picked fuschia, celery, and basic grey, so I will receive four cards in those colors. Here are the four I did:
The white on white card was the first one I attempted. Normal monochromatic color schemes utilize different shades of color, but there really aren't a lot of shades of white to work with, so I decided to work with texture. I matted the different layers with mulberry paper and used a cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the background. The ribbon slide behind the frame is a Quickutz, and the corner piece is a spellbinders. I found the little frame in my white embellishment box - I think it's from Melissa Frances. I stamped and heat embossed flowers inside the frame, but they were hard to see, so I added Quickutz blossoms and white pearl paint for the centers. It was extremely difficult to photograph, but it was pretty cute IRL!
For the monochromatic yellow card I automatically thought of my new little bee stamp set from SU, so the whole card was created around that. I basically stamped the different pieces on different shadesof yellow and paper pieced. The dark yellow is mustard, and even through it kind of looks brown in the picture it is actually yellow. I paper pierced the edges as for a little added punch.
I think this was probably my favorite. I did the polished stone technique on glossy white paper, stamped the image on clear acetate, and then painted the back of the blossoms with silver alcohol ink. The black frame was created with a corner punch. The little silver frame was another find from my embellishments, and the butterfly sticker is actually a Jolee's sticker... hope that's not cheating, but I thought it looked great on the card!
This one didn't come easily for me. The colors naturally drew me to a western theme, but I didn't have anything to really go with it. In the end I heat embossed the horses on some Daisy Bucket patterned paper and added Quickutz hinges and stars to incorporate the western theme a little more. It still feels like it needed a little something else, but I never could settle on anything, so off it went! Still lots of other cards to make!
Designer Group #18
For this group each person chose a favorite designer or artist. I chose Laura Ashley, so those should be some pretty cards! Two members of the group chose Mary Engelbreit, one chose Susan Branch, and one chose Laurel Burch. Here are the cards I made for those subjects:
This is the first of the Mary Engelbreit cards I made. I didn't have any stamps or product from her, but I did find some cool dimensional stickers in the dollar section at Michael's, so I designed my cards around those. The patterned paper is from SU. I added the little red heart button and put QuicKutz leaves behind it.
This is the second Mary Engelbreit card. I used another of the dimensional stickers I found, mounted on a black scallop. I added some little white dots around the scallop with my white signo pen. The patterned papers are from SU; the felt flowers are from Zva Creative, and the pearl bling from Kaiser. I added some QuicKutz flowers and leaves to fill in.
This was the Susan Branch card. I have a lot of stuff from her, but unfortunately it is still in storage, since I don't have a full craft room at the moment. I found this stamp and colored it with markers. I stamped it again and cut the pie out and mounted it on a pop dot for a little dimension. The edging around the stamp is a SU rub-on. The red gingham ribbon is from SU, and the patterned paper and buttons are from my stash.
This is the Laurel Burch card and I have to say, it was fun to do! I actually didn't know who she was, so I googled her and found this painting on her website. I printed it out several times and cut out the little cat heads. I traced their wings on heavy glitter paper and cut them out and replaced the original wings, which printed out a little dull. I mounted them on different thicknesses of pop dots so it really looks like kitty heads flying through space. I added the bling across the bottom for fun. I was watching an old Star Trek when I was doing this one, so it was all in all a very cosmic experience. I wonder what Captain Kirk would do if he saw these things floating around through space!
Historical Figures Group #20
The cards coming to me will be about Albert Einstein; the other members chose Johnny Carson, Harriet Tubman, Louisa May Alcott, and 'signers of the Declaration of Independence'. For that one I chose Benjamin Franklin. Here are the cards I made:
For my Johnny Carson card, I wanted to have a sort of retro look. I found the little TV clip art with the picture of Johnny in it on line, along with the quote. The patterned paper is from an SU paper pack, and I rounded the corners and added the QuicKutz splat flowers to enhance the retro feel. It was pretty simple, but I really thought this one was fun!
This was another one that used a lot of computer help but was fun to do. I found this painting of Harriet Tubman on line and printed it in color and in black and white. I emplyed the spotlight technique to highlight Tubman, and used papers from Basic Grey to compliment the rich colors in the painting.
For the Louisa May Alcott card, I printed a copy of the original illustration for 'Little Women', which was actually drawn by Alcott's sister. My mother remembered the artwork and said the copy of the book she had was blue, so I made the card blue. I added some gold glitter paper under the illustration to mimic book foiling, and found some pretty laser cuts to add to the corners. The button was from my stash. This one was one of the last one's I made, on the DAY it had to be posted, so it was a very quick job, but I thought it turned out kind of cute.
OK, so I'm not at all sure how this one will be received! One of those things that looked a lot cooler in my head than it came out, so we'll see.... the subject was 'signers of the Declaration of Independence", so I printed a very small copy of the Declaration out on blue granite paper; the idea was for Ben to be flying his kite with a storm behind him. I found this cool Cricut die cut that was a town cryer, so I just cut the bell out of his hand and made a QuicKutz kite. The kite is mounted on pop dots and they are attached with a piece of string. My friend gave me the key, which, although way out of proportion, added a little fun to the piece. Again, in my head it was all much more exciting, so I hope the recipient likes it!!
Art Deco Group 5
The last group I joined was a group about different examples of Art Deco work and to be honest, I only joined it because no one else did and they needed a final group member. When it came to making the cards, I suddenly realized that I had NO idea what Art Deco was all about, and no supplies that fit the period, so I'm not at all sure how the cards are, but I gave it a go!
So for these cards I really didn't know what to do! The theme for this one was Art Deco ladies, and I loved this painting, with the square shoulders and angular features.... lovely. But what to do to it? In the end, the only thing I could think of to do was to use a corner slot punch so that I could add a thin gold frame around it and added a red flower to her hair. I mean, really, the painting speaks for itself.
The next subject was Art Deco architexture. I googled it and got a lot of pictures, and I really loved this picture of an elevator. I decided to make it come to life by making it dimensional. I printed it a couple of times and cut the 'walls' out. I made angular cuts in the corner so that I could bend the inner walls down toward the 'doors'. I added gemstones to the lighter panals on the door for a little fun.
This one looks really cool IRL. I found this example of an Art Deco building and printed it out about 5 times, then cut out the different layers of the building and popped them up. I added some thin lines of Glossly Glaze over the lines in the artwork, so it really has a lot of pop and dimension you can't see in the pic.
This is the final ATC for this swap, and it's a doozy! It might be too thick, so I hope the recipient is flexible bout that, but it was fun. The subject was Art Deco furniture, and I found this cool picture of an Art Deco screen, so I thought I would duplicate it. All the colors are little strips of paper 1/8 to 3/8" wide. I sponged them to mimic the heavy varnish of the original piece, and then I decided to add the title on the side so the recipient would know what the heck it was! The dragonfly brad was added from my stash just for fun...
Well, that's it for now!! Whew! I'll show you some of the recipes in my next swap... hope you enjoy!!
