The Language of Flowers ATC swap

Be sure to stop by Red Lead, say hello to Chris and Sharon and see all their new stamps and collage sheets, jewelry findings, art supplies and enough inspiration to keep you busy for days! And if you're looking for a fun group to swap with consider the Red Lead Yahoo Group...there's always a great swap going on. It's not too late to make a chotski pin...you know you want to!

Journey ATC

Green Paper's December Challenge

For her last collage challenge of the year Mary has given us some images that all of us who've been taking her classes know and love. The challenge is to use at least a piece of each of the images in any creation we like. Not having a lot of time today I decided to try a digital ATC using these images and bits of other papers Mary has given us in the past. Here's my atc and a look at the collage challenge images. If you'd like to download the full-size sheet and play along just visit Mary at her blog Green Paper.

six

Lady Churchill

Mary at Green Paper has offered us another challenge using some of her lovely vintage images. This time it was an image of Lady Churchill along with two other images. The challenge was to use at least a portion of each image in any kind of art piece. Some of the pieces that were made for the last challenge were amazing! I chose to use the images in an ATC this time. Be sure to stop by Green Paper and download the free images and join the challenge! On August 9th Mary will pick one participant at random to receive one of her wonderful vintage paper packs.

ATCs

Now that the Vintage Gluebook class is completed Mary is hosting an ATC swap so we can show off our new paper-and-glue collage skills. I've had so much fun with this class and everyone in the group created such beautiful pages. I can't wait to see everyone's ATCs...it'll be a treat to receive six of them! For my cards I used some Reed bird images, some of Mary's images from the class along with some vintage papers. And I couldn't resist the little brass crowns!

Blue Eyes

Images courtesy of Land of Nod Studios

Very Vintage Atc Swap

The latest swap at Red Lead is "A Very Vintage" ATC Swap. Chris and Sharon have some of the best collage images (just wish they'd offer them digitally!) and the sweetest stamp line to go with them. Anyone can become a Red Lead Swap Sister...just join the Red Lead Yahoo group and start swapping with us! Our next swap is for Valentine tags. Here are my atcs for the swap.

Boo!

This is an atc I made today for a friend at work...she just had a birthday and loves Halloween. Don't you love these costumes? Do you think these three clowns went into a studio and posed for this photograph or were they on their way to Halloween party? Boo!

A Few ATCs

My poor blog has been so neglected lately! I think I have to attribute my lack of artistic energy to the weather...we've had some ridiculously hot temperatures this summer. Too hot to even create art! One of the few things I have been doing is making ATCs so I thought I'd add a few here. The first one was made for an online friend who turned 50. Sue (another online friend) decided she would surprise Renee and have everyone make an atc to celebrate the occasion...isn't that a fun thing to do? What a pal! The next two were created for swaps...one at Alpha Stamps and the other with my favorite Lunch Ladies. What have you been up to lately?

Spring House Swap

Pam Sparks invited me to a Spring House atc swap with a small group of friends recently. I love house shaped cards...there's something about the notion of house and home that always appeals to me. Everyone did such a nice job. All the houses are a little different...just like in your neighborhood and mine. Thank you ladies for a lovely swap and Pam for dreaming it up for us!

my house

Baby Take a Bow

My mom and I both love old Shirley Temple movies...who doesn't right? So I made this card for a movie themed swap with her in mind and I'm sending one off to her today! Love you mumma!

With Love and Best Wishes

A valentine created with elements from an atc kit by Tangie Baxter.

SDA - Valentine

Another brown card...it's funny how I seem to latch onto colors at times. This is an image from Digital Collage Sheets - The Color Brown No. 2. This is such a gorgeous picture...I love her dress and hat...the lace and the flowers and the touches of cranberry are so lovely! I took her image and changed the opacity then placed it on top of a Valentine message. I like how you can see the writing in her face.

Starsnap

I love vintage sewing notions and I picked up this old Starsnap card at a thrift shop awhile ago. I scanned it and used it for the base of this atc. I enlarged the actual center image and added it to a bottle cap to make her the focus. I added a little Crackle Accents just for fun.

Happy New Year ATC

Well, after all the lovely red and green colors for the holidays I thought it would be a nice change of pace to use something different in this card. I love this image...the little girl is dressed so properly all the way down to her fur muff but it hasn't stopped her from taking a little slide on the ice!

November ATC Swaps

Here are two sets of ATC's I received from November swaps. The first set is from the Stampin D'Amour group and the second is from the Red Lead Paperworks group. Aren't they just great? Each card is a small masterpiece! This is the ATC I sent in for the Red Lead swap. I loved the hint of a mile on this woman's face...usually people in these old photos are so stern...but I think her eyes are actually twinkling!

Art Creations Friday

Vintage Wil and some friends have started a new Friday challenge site called Art Creations Friday. Their first challenge was to use this gorgeous image in an art piece of some kind. Be sure to stop by to join in the challenge or just to take a look at all the beautiful creations. Here's mine:

Generations

Here's a digital atc I made today for the November challenge at the Vintage Veranda. I'm still of two minds when it comes to creating digitally. It's fun and a challenge to create something in a totally new way and it's very convenient to be able to take an element...such as a button for instance...and change it's size and color to fit my needs at the moment. On the other hand there's something about it that leaves me feeling dissatisfied. The piece never looks as good to me in my hands as it does on my computer screen. Anyway...the theme this month is "generations" and the challenge is to create a piece with "women and child/children" as the focus. I've chosen this particular photo because of the small smile on the mother's face. So often in these old photos the people look so stern. I just love the serene smile this woman wears. I bet she was a wonderful mother. This photo was generously shared at The Vintage Moth.

SDA - November

I've had so much fun today playing at home in my craft room. I love having Mondays off especially when I don't have anything else pressing. I can get lost for hours cutting and pasting. I finished up my set of atc's for the SDA November swap. This morning I came across this lovely Sunflower Trade Card so generously shared by Hophopjingleboo (don't you love that name?!) here. I just knew I had to make a card with her...she's so golden and autumny. For some reason, my scanner just can't get the colors right on this card...the little gem at her throat is orangey but it insists on scanning as green! And all the glowing gold colors look a little flat...but you get the idea.