Snow Days ATC's

 The January theme for the ATC swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana is "Snow Days" --  appropriately, considering the weather.  Again, I didn't get good pictures.  And I didn't have much energy to be creative -- some people say that a ticket or a stamp in the background is not creative at all, but I like it.  I like it a lot.  So that is what these Maremi SmallArt images have for a background.  The backgrounds are Ranger inks, Sizzix dies, and Stampers Anonymous Stamps all from the Tim Holtz lines.

Fingers crossed they like them!

Artist Trading Cards Frankie Series 1

 The October ATC swap at Wishful Thinking in October is "Monsters," so I decided to do the most popular monster ever - Frankenstein's monster; in this case little Frankie.  Made with Sizzix die: Costume Party 665555.  They are all pretty much the same except for the verses that came from the Tim Holtz Ideaology Halloween booklet. 

The other verses I chose were:  "I heard footsteps behind me"  "a laboratory"  "A Strange Visitor"  "sometime in the middle of the night"  "he gives me the creeps"  "charged with foreboding"   and the one here "the creature obsessed me"    

I hope my swap partners like them!

Mintay Halloween ATC's -- Witches (and a raven)

 Images from Mintay Halloween 2024 book:

And the raven:

What next?

Birthday Package

 This is the birthday crafts that I sent to a friend back in June.  

The card was made with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and Ranger's Tim Holtz embossing glaze.

I used all sorts of die cuts and ephemera for this memorydex card:

Was this Echo Park?:

A die cut of a little girl in a bee costume for the Queen Bee:

Packaged to go in the birthday box:

I hope she liked it!

Halloween Wall Hanging

 I made this little wall hanging for Angelina at work.  

It has a distress ink background. 

The Sizzix die sets used to piece this together were:

Moonlight 666386 for the moon and bats.

Mr. Bones 665554 for the skeleton and large tombstone

Vault Fright Night 666684 for the small tombstones and the wispy clouds

Graveyard 666383 was used for the fencing and flowerpot.

Gate Keeper 664734 was used for the large gate Mr. Bones is walking out of.

I hope she likes it!

Artist Trading Cards -- TriggMo Bird Series

    The point of these cards was for me to practice making Distress Ink backgrounds.  I don't have a lot of Distress colors, so a lot of them are very similar.  I topped the backgrounds with TriggMo images.  I don't know if these actually qualify as ATC's, but they are the right size; so, that is what I am calling them.

Be True to You

Mood

I was trying to get the background to match the yellow/brownish circle around his eye -- couldn't get it quite right:

Mannerless

I can't help how I look.

It's always the innocent looking one.

Crazy

Sergeant

Drinker

Fab

Sorry

I had a lot of fun experimenting with the distress ink backgrounds.  I hope to do it again soon.

100 Acre Wood Series 2 Artist Trading Cards

 Here is what I came up with for the ATC Winnie the Pooh swap hosted by Wishful Thinking.  6 cards total are required for the swap.  The background is made with Distress Inks, a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamp and an embossed tree (don't know manufacturer):

The Pooh's are EK Success Disney Classic Die Cuts and the quotes are cut from 12 x 12 Reminisce cardstock .  The Pooh's are popped up on foam to make them stand out from the background (I didn't want to ink around Pooh and make him grungy).  

Famous Saying

Stop and Smell the Roses

 

Never Go Hungry

 

Move Forward

Piglet Hugs

Rumbly Tumbly

Honey Friend

I sure hope my swap partners like them!

100 Acre Wood Series 1 ATC's

   There is one paper craft store within a half hour drive of where I live (I can remember when there were 5!).  The store is called Wishful Thinking and is located at 41 S. Van Buren St. Nashville, Indiana,  47448 USA.  Apparently, they have a monthly ATC swap.  I have never played along, but I thought I might give it a go for the next swap due in August.  The difficulty for me is that I haven't paper crafted in quite a while and I didn't know if I would be able to think of a way to make a card that followed the theme for August.  I don't think, I am the only person that has insecurities in this area.  Unfortunately, I can't draw much, so I am limited to mixed media cards. The theme is "Winnie the Pooh." 

   In order to test the waters, so to speak I dug through my scrapbook stash and found some stickers by EK Success that were left over from when my grandson was little (he's an adult now!).  

Card #1 titled "Oh, bother" has Distress Ink, pen, Tim Holtz words and an Eeyore 3D sticker on watercolor paper:

Oh, bother

Card #2 is Tigger, made much the same only with alcohol ink on yupo :

Bounce

For Piglet, I went back to the watercolor paper and Distress Ink.

A Friend

And that was all the stickers that I had in my stash!  My next step was to go to Wishful Thinking to see what they had in stock for Winnie the Pooh.  

Orange Alcohol Ink Series of ATC's

 It's been a while, but let's jump back in starting small with artist trading cards.

On the 5th and 6th of July (2024), I decided it was time to jump back in to playing with inks.  I used orange and blue alcohol inks on yupo and then stamped them with some to the Tim Holtz stamps by Stampers Anonymous to make the backgrounds.  To finish them off I decorated them with various ephemera.

Card #1 titled "Worth" has a strip that reads:  Wander.

Worth

Artist trading cards are 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  

Card #2 in this series is titled "Higher than a Monarch" and the strip on it reads:  "Don't forget to fly":

Higher than a Monarch

The alcohol inks are on Yupo and are a lot shinier than they seem to show up here.

Card number 3 is titled "Simple Friends Simple Adventures" and is simply a quote on the background.  It reads:  "Life was meant for Good friends and great adventures."

Simple Friends Simple Adventures

And the 4th and last card in this series is titled "Learning to Fly".

Learning to Fly

All the Chicks Say to Fill Your Heart with what is Important Memorydex Card

The chicks for this memorydex card came from Hobby Lobby.  The yard stick piece, the ticket and the milk bottle top are from Tim Holtz.

Butterfly Embellishments

 These butterflies were for a butterfly embellishment swap at Paper Paws. My partner was a lady named Cheryl.   I forgot to take pictures of them until they were already packaged and ready to go.  We were to make 3 embellishments that included a butterfly.

My favorite:

There is so much glare on this rosette, it doesn't show up well:

Paperclip banner:

Some bottle cap embellishments with a rosette on the bag topper:

I sent one of my memorydex cards, too:

Some butterflies made with a die:

More butterflies made with a Tim Holtz die:

And a few more made with the same Tim Holtz die: