Fab Friday ATC Challenge

This time Leonie has set the challenge theme as 'A small thing of greatness'. Her ATC on this theme is absolutely wonderful and started me thinking about people who really make a difference! With this in mind I thought about all the people who have inspired me and who have actually 'made a difference' and I came up with Sir David Attenborough who is a truly remarkable man in my opinion. I wanted some words which summed him up and were along the lines of the theme so I hunted through some books until I came up with a quote by the polish-born american writer and humorist, Leo Rostin.

The purpose of life is to matter - to count,

to stand for something, to have it make

some difference that we lived at all.

I feel that these words really fit the man and the theme. I have kept with the sepia/vintage colouring as I am really enjoying using these colours at the moment. I printed the verse using an old-style typewriter font onto plain paper, tore round the edges and inked them with brown ink. Although it is difficult to see, there is a strip of torn paper down the right hand of the atc which has an acetate overlay of a watch. I found a photo of Sir David by googling him and again, I tore around the edge and inked it with brown. After I stuck everything down I went all around the atc with the same brown to give it an aged look.

Fab Friday ATC Challenge

This week Leonie set the theme of 'Time'. Mine is probably a bit predictable but as soon as I saw the theme I knew exactly what I was going to do. A while ago I bought some gorgeous Chapel Road Art Stamps from Canada. The one I used is from the set called 'Rock Artishapes' and I stamped it onto gold card four times but completely off-centre each time so you get the whole stamp but broken into section. I stamped it once more onto cream hammered card and cut out the clock face and the wording. I edged the clockface with a dark brown inkpad to lift it into the foreground. I then used some wings which I stuck behind the wording to portray the image that 'time flies'. The wings came from a download from the Enchanted Garden download from Prima Hybrid which I made smaller using Serif PagePlus (my favourite dtp program). I am pleased with the final effect and happy that the colours are how I hoped they would be.

Leonie's ATC Challenge

Here is my take on Leonie's challenge of "Beautiful & Bright". Beautiful background, bright man!

Apologies for the flash flare on the photo but hey, its a bright spot!

More Digital ATC's

I can't seem to leave this image alone at the moment, it just lends itself to so many different looks. This time I have used the original colours but changed the image to different finishes which simulate different painting techniques, keeping one original as a base mark! I added in some wording, 'beautiful' and 'Rose' in this case because not only is she beautiful and smelling a rose but because of the colouring and the fact that she looks like she would be called Rose! I wanted to add some embellishments after all my computer fiddling so I found some silk roses but they were yellow, definitely not the right colour, so I decided to try and colour them with some AI's, I chose Cranberry and just dripped it on and it worked beautifully giving a really dark almost black rose colour which is really effective in real life but probably does not show up so well in the photo. I added sparkle to the jewellery she is wearing with a clear Sakura Stardust pen, every craftbox should have one! I don't know if I will part with these or the blue ones, for some reason I feel more attached to them than I usually do to one of my creations LOL. I know from a crafty friend - thats you Kath! - that some purists don't consider digital ATC's acceptable but in my opinion they have as much work go into them as any other type and they are still art however the image is made!

Digital ATC's

I was playing around on the computer this morning and it suddenly occurred to me that if you can do you scrapbook pages digitally then why not your ATC's? I used the same image which I got from http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html , which is a great place to find vintage images. I saved the image to my computer and opened it in my DTP program (I use Serif) and then recoloured each image into varying shades of blue. I then added the words and overlaid a little butterfly as if it was just leaving the palm of her hand. After printing and cutting I then used a quickie glue pen to highlight some of the jewellery she is wearing and sprinkled it with peewee glitter, again using different shades of blue and I also added a tiny embellishment into the right hand corner of each one. I quite like the results of this although nothing beats glueing and sticking it all yourself!

The Stamp Bug

Just had to come on and say that if you haven't already checked out this site (The Stamp Bug) then do so, it's a really great site with loads of goodies and they will take payment by paypal as well which is great if you don't want hubby to see the credit card bills! There is a link on the right hand side under 'My Favourite Sites'.
I haven't really done very much crafting recently as I am still not feeling great. I really must get some ATC's sent off to Leonie and I have to do some for the Crafters Companion January swap and also some Fat Pages too. I have nearly finished tidying my craft room so I will be able to get back in there soon I hope, hubby prefers me to keep all the 'mess' up there and not scattered around the house - wonder why! I will post up the pics of my atc's as soon as I have done them.
My cat is jumping up now so I suppose it must be time for tea so I'd better go and feed the little chap - hubby and son will also be getting hungry too I should think LOL

My ATC's

Thought I would put these pictures of some recent ATC's I made. These will be going to Leonie's swap which I have been a member of for a while but not sent her any! For those of you who don't know who Leonie is, she is Dawn Bibby's helper on QVC and often presents when Dawn is away. She also has her own show on a Friday. She is great and I love her enthusiasm for papercrafting and the way she enjoys getting mucky!
Most ATC's I make for the various swaps on the Crafters Companion Forum. We currently have swaps which include Vintage, Floral, Oriental, Cute & Cuddly, Flitter & Flutter to name a few. They are great fun and there is no obligation to send in each time, just when you feel like it.

Hooray! I received my pack from Lou today for the Craft Addicts Challenge (Group 1). Its got some really pretty papers in it from Pink Petticoat (which I love) and I can't wait to get started - got an idea of what I am going to do already but can't tell until we have all finished and posted our creations on the Crafters Companion website otherwise its not fair to the other members in the group. I'm looking forward to when its my turn to provide the materials - I already have some ideas of what I shall do. I think its a while before its my turn though as I am fourth on the list.
I am also expecting my pack for the Papertake Challenge any day now. I saw a previous of this on the Papertake Blog and its looks great too so another one I cant wait to get stuck into. Have no clear ideas on this one yet and will wait until it arrives before I decide. I just hope it doesn't get held up with the Postal Strikes which are scheduled this week and next.

Funny old day today,neither one thing or the other really. Wanted to get on and make cards but
inspiration eluded me - will definitely have to start the 'idea tin' I read about. Made a couple of ATC's and started another Fat Page. Have this creative bubble inside me and dont know what I want to do with it! Well, tomorrow is another day as they say and hopefully my ideas will gel into some sort of card or another.