Painted ATCs

I love painting ATCs. The perfect mix of paint and paper ... and I'm in creative heaven. This batch was fun to do. I used my WISP brush (the largest size) to paint the lines. When I paint on paper with acrylics, instead of using water - I use glaze medium. No buckling!

These are for a quick ATC swap on Urban Scrappers.

National Scrapbooking Day_My First Tag Book_LONG POST...Lots Of Pictures

For National Scrapbooking Day, I worked on my first Tag Book. I'd actually finished the basic book earlier this week, but yesterday was spent adding lots of details.

The theme of this tag book was Grunge - so after some quick You Tube and GOOGLE searches, I jumped in. Since my upcoming cross-country trip is on my mind, I decided the theme of my book would be Trips, aptly titled Life Is A Trip.















This was done for a swap on Art For The Creative Mind yahoo group. This group is a swapping group, so there is always something going on. If you want to stretch yourself and swap - this is a group for you.

A tip: For the pockets that held the mini tags - I used manila folders to cut out the pockets. I also managed to cut out 5 large tags from one manila folder .. and I am sure you can get at least 10 smaller tags from one manila folder. So, if you don't' have any tags from the supply store - use a manila folder.

For The Birds

Collages I see in the mags and on the blogs look so beautiful...so well thought out and put together....until I try and do some. The Art For The Creative Mind group just completed For the Birds ATC swap. My poor partner ...

A Rose Is A Rose

These ATCs are for a swap on the Brush Bunch list. I used Twinkling H20 paint pots to add color. I left them plain, since this is a paint list and did not add any of the normal paper craft embellishment...but I can easily see these used as centers for cards, so I will be using these stamps again. The sayings are stamps I bought from House Mouse many moons ago.

Red, White & Blue ATCs

Two recent swaps that I joined had red, white and blue themes ... and I created a series of themed ATCS of 3 originals. The most recent ATC Themed Editions I sent out were titled "Ms. Independence" & "Le Fleur of Independence". I always hesitate when sending out some of my ATCs, because I am a born scrubbler and doodler - and compared to other ATCs that I see - mine always seem so sparse in comparison ... but I love to play with inks, pens and H20 Twinkling Luminaries.

Celebrate Spring ATCs

I still don't know sometimes if I have the hang of ATCs. I have seen beautiful ATCs made with stamps and bits and pieces of paper and ribbon ... beautiful images that make me oooh and ahhhh.

Then it's my turn.

Maybe I need a theme? ... I don't know, but when left to my own devices with blank ATCs - the doodler in me is strong. I like to put swirls and dots and hearts and simple flowers on paper ... all over the place. My mother tells a story about sitting in her kitchen, thinking about me after I had just left for college ... and she looked at the wall by the phone ... and on a small piece of paper hung one of my doodles that she'd found. "Back then", when I was in my teens, there were no cell phones and cordless phones were too much money! The kitchen phone with the 100 foot twisted cord was all there was!...and I can't htink of how many days I'd sat in the kitchen on that phone, yakking and doodling.

So in the spirit of a doodler, my latest ATCs which are to be Celebrate Spring!, were born. Materials used were 2 pieces of blank watercolor paper, a pencil, pearlescent chalks for the background, a black sharpie, H20 Twinkling pots to add the bursts of color, and a bottle of Sticklies for that textured glitter in the hearts.