Altered ATC

Recently on UK Stampers  Lynn (known as Glitter Monkey) came up with the idea of having an altered ATC swap; this was to make an ATC from anything other than cardstock although cardstock could be used on the ATC. I can now show my ‘make’ as my swap partner has received it.

There were some amazing ATCs produced using felt, fused carrier bags, fabric, acetate, mica sheets and budgie feathers! The talent and skill of the piece is fabulous to behold. The theme was an open one.

I decided to make mine from air dry clay

Altered ATC from air dry clay

A piece of clay was rolled out to slightly larger than an ATC and then cut to size, the sides then reminded me of the layers found in puff pastry when it is cut!! I then used a fossil I had found in the garden to create impressions in the clay. I popped the rectangle onto a piece of foil and left it to dry out for a couple of days occasionally turning it to make sure it dried all the way through.

I painted the dried clay with shades of green and blue mica powder mixed with water. Stamped ‘Seashells’ in the top corner with black Stazon. I stamped and cut out a leaf image to mimic seaweed and added a fish that had been stamped onto shrink plastic and shrunk!  Various shells were attached with Glossy Accents as was a shell charm.

Thanks for looking 🙂

Another ribbon challenge…

…Leslie just doesn’t give up with encouraging me to use ribbon on cards. She has set this further challenge on her blog and there are some lovely cards there from Leslie, Shelly and Linda.

So this is my ‘take’ on Leslie’s challenge:

dangly birds

The background has been stamped in various coloured inks and using a feather stamp. The birds were stamped onto shrink plastic and then heated to shrink. There is also a ‘button’ made from shrink plastic on the title/sentiment. It has been a while since I last used shrink plastic and I’d forgotten what fun it is; while hunting for something else I came across a part used sheet and gave it another try out. When those bits of plastic start to curl and twist there is always a moment of panic wondering if that is all that is going to be – a curled and twisted bit of unrecognizable plastic! If you have never tried this then give it a go.

Over on UK Stampers there are various swaps and challenges going on and two that I entered this month were the monthly postcard swap and an ATC swap. There is also an altered tin swap in progress.

For the ATCs Stitcheramagirl set the theme as Alice in Wonderland; I have to say that this isn’t my favourite imagery and there are no Alice stamps in my collection as I intensely dislike the illustrations however I signed up for the swap as, foolish me, I like to push my boundaries and see if I can come up with different variations on the theme. These are the three ATCs I created:

Alice in Wonderland ATCs

For the first ATC (going from left to right) I downloaded a digi image of the white rabbit except that I coloured him various shades of brown and grey pencils! The background of the card has been inked with VersaMagic Aloe Vera  and then the pocket watch stamped over the top in the same colour; after colouring the rabbit I cut around his head/ears and adhered it to the background and then added Aloe Vera to blend the image n with the background, stamped the pocket watch in Versafine Onyx Black ink and added the charms.

The middle ATC consists of the Queen of Hearts playing card mounted on greyboard to give extra strength, the top edges were sanded to tone the card down a little. A scrap of paper was adhered across the bottom portion of the playing card and inked with Distress Ink Antique Linen. The jam tarts image came from the internet! Some white ribbon roses were coloured with a red felt pen and glued into place with Glossy Accents, the cat and toadstool images were stamped on with Versafine Smokey Grey and charms added.

For the last ATC I was running out of ideas! Then recalled the caterpillar on the toadstool/mushroom so raided the children’s stamp collection for the images here but there is no hubble bubble pipe! What I have since come to realise though is that I could have made all three the same so I made this swap more challenging for myself!

Sam set the post card theme for this month as ‘Numbers’ and there are some brilliant interpretations of this one over on the forum. Again I used a digi image for the main part and this ‘Counting Sheeple’s’ image really tickled me:

Numbers theme post card

I wonder what the postman will make of it when he/she has to deliver it:)

Well that’s the lot for now folks!