Pantone Card Challenge - May

This month's colour is Pale Dogwood - a pale pink. I had to hunt around to find something suitable as none of my inks were the right shade. I finally found some pearlescent paper I was happy with and decided to use a new Sizzix rose die. It was a bit fiddly cutting out the pink elements and adding them to the green diecut. I found a lilac card blank to complement the diecut flowers and added the sentiment by Memory Box.

Rebel Stampers ATC Swap - May Technique

The technique for this month's swap is to use thread or yarn on our ATCs. I decided to use baker's twine as part of the background and so I threaded it through a lacy border diecut. The butterflies are from a Hero Arts stamp and cut set.
My second ATC used a spare background that I had made for this swap:

I added the fairy diecut and some text from a Kaiserkraft stamp which I embossed with black glitter powder. for some extra sparkle I rubbed frosted lace Stickles over her wings.

Rebel Stampers ATC Swap - May Theme

This month's theme for the Rebel Stampers ATC swap is 'Rainbow'. I decided to go for a literal interpretation showing a pot pf gold at the end of the rainbow. The stamps used were from a freebie set with a punched sun. Remembering my old school mnemonic about Richard of York I coloured in the full spectrum with alcohol markers and heat embossed the gold coins.

Alphabet ATC Swap - Z for Zebra

 

My final Z word this month is, of course, Zebra. I have a zebra stamp and if I can't use it for this when can I? The background is a very old cling stamp that is degrading and will probably not last much longer.

Alphabet ATC Swap - Z for ZigZag

My second word this month is Zig Zag. I had a pack of zigzag sticky -backed gems so thought it would be easy to do this ATC but hadn't bargained for how tricky it was to stick the rows of gems evenly onto the card (as opposed to my fingers and everything else). The base is a scrap piece of card that I used to mop up some spare distress ink.

Monthly Challenge

I had the perfect set of stamps for this month's verse in the challenge on the Craft Barn blog. It's by Hobby Art and although I had bought it sometime ago it had not been used. I used pencils and Distress Inks to colour in the scene and heat embossed the lambs with white embossing powder.

Alphabet ATC Swap - Z for Zen

We have reached Z in the Alphabet Swap, not the final letter but the 21st so still a few more to go. It was hard finding 3 words to depict but I managed it. My first word is Zen - I bought a stencil of Buddha about a year ago at a show and I hadn't used it so this was a good opportunity to get it inky. I've kept things quite simple in keeping with the word so used a colourful DI background and minimal embellishment.

Serendipitous Crazy Birds

I had stamped and coloured in a couple of extra crazy birds when I made the ATC in the previous post. I had put the unused ones to one side on my desk and by chance they had fallen onto some patterned paper (a freebie from a craft magazine) which I had used for another ATC. Rather than be left on the wasteland that is my desk I thought they deserved to be made into a quick card.

UK Scrappers Mixed Media ATC Swap

It's been a while since I last posted but I finally have something to show you. It's becoming quite a year for ATCs - I have my monthly Alphabet ATC swap which will be coming to an end in October, then there is the Theme & Technique ATC swap that I started this year on the Rebel Stampers forum. Now I have decided to take part in a Mixed Media ATC swap on the UK Scrappers forum. I have been a member since 2007 (not an active participant until recently) but this is the first swap I have taken part in.
I decided to start with a masterboard with no clear idea in my head:

I tried to keep a record of what got me to this stage:
Gelato scribbles blended with water.
Gesso roughly smooshed on with a credit card.
Torn book strips pushed into the wet gesso.
When dry, stencils with pigment ink.
Brushos - violet, lime green, vermilion & gamboge, a sprinkle of gold embossing powder and heat.
Flower stencil with glimmer mist.
Then I added white acrylic circles with a stencil and a lid and some splatters:

When it was dry I cut some ATC sized pieces. Using gloss gel medium I stuck some thread onto each ATC blank (not too sure I like this but impossible to remove), sprinkled some glitter and made this:

 

The bird is one of Tim Holtz's crazy birds, coloured with marker pens and covered with Wink of Stella. The text was computer generated and I scribbled a border with a white pen.

And this:

 

The image and text are from a Dina Wakley set.
And this:

The bird is a Sizzix die and the text is computer generated.
I hope the recipients are pleased with them.