Stick Pin; Lace ATC and March Blissfull ATC Swaps Recieved

Took at quick trip to Vegas with the Hubby.  Had a blast, we saw Cirque de Soleil's LOVE.  This show featured the music of the Beatles and I loved it.  I think this show ranks right up there with Cirque's La Nuba.

Before I left town I was fortunate enough to receive several packages from my March swap partners.  I participated in the March Blissfull ATC Swap. The theme was dress forms.  My partner was Melanie Statnick over at The Rabbit Hole.  She is a multimedia artist and her ATC is awesome.  She also send an envie full of goodies.

The other Swaps I participated in over on the Altered Paper site were a Stick Pin swap and a Lace ATC Swap.   My stick pin partner was Donna and she send these gorgeous red stick pins and vintage red seam binding all wrapped up in vintage pattern paper.  I will be able to use these pins and the seam binding on wedding layouts for Matt and Tori.

Finally, I also received my lace ATC from Karla over at Sketchbooks ATC's Mail Art.  She sent this beautiful ATC covered in lace and topped off with a gorgeous resin Cameo.  Its absolutely stunning.  Then to add to the beauty of the card, Karla made a lace envelope for her lacy creation, how creative is that!!! Karla recently informed me that my Lace ATC was obviously lost in the mail, as she has not received it to date.  Such a sad state of affairs.  I will be recreating her ATC today and shipping it out priority with goodies as my way of apologizing for the Post Office's screw up.

I also wanted to share my Altered Stick Pin holder and Stick pin creations with you. I created this little card which housed the 5 multi colored stick pins inside.  I sure hope Donna in Florida gets her package soon, I would hate to think that two of my packages were lost.

Have a wonderful Sunday!!!

More ATCs

Here are the latest ATCs that I created over the past couple of days.  The Who Dat card is for the Winner Takes All Swap that Wendy hosts.  She randomly draws a person once a month and that lucky person is the recipient of ATCs from all the other participants in whatever theme she chooses.  This month Celia wanted owls.  I hope she enjoys her little Who Dat.  The owl was cut our of really thin wood veneer.  I found the cute little owl on Kate's ABCs cartridge.  The background was created with several colors of distress ink and then topped off with Viva Decor's Pearl Pen in Blue.  This paint is very translucent and easy to use.  I smeared a thin layer on top of the distress inks.  I also used the White Pearl Pen to create the moon

Who Dat

Cinderella's Dream was created for the Monthly Swap over at Blissfull ATCs.  This month's theme was dress-forms.  Under all the fluff of the dress is a beautiful gold leaf dress-form.  I decided to dress my form.  The skirt itself is made from glimmer misted cupcake liners.  The top is a small piece of cotton lace that was the perfect fit.  I added a rhinestone necklace and sequin trim.  The background was created using Tim Holtz's crackle paint.  I then added pink colored pearls as a frame. and randomly placed pink iridescent sequins for a bit of sparkle.  When it was all finished, the dress reminded me of the dress the mice made for Cinderella in the Disney Movie. 

So it just seemed fitting that I would entitle my ATC Cinderella's Dream.  

I sure hope that my partners enjoy their cards!!!  

Recent ATCs

Recently I have been participating in ATC swaps.  These little works of art are the perfect size for me to use my arm but not bring on hours of pain after the fact.  In the past couple of weeks I have participated in a Lace ATC swap over at The Altered Paper and the "it's a mad, mad Alice in wonderland world" over at Blissfull ATC swaps.

Lace ATC

Alice

The swaps I am participating in for March over at Blissfull ATC Swaps are the Winner Takes All with an Owl Theme and the March Swap with a Dress-form Theme.  I am almost finished the with both and will post pictures over the weekend. 

February ATCs

Its hard to believe that February is already over.  I participated in two swaps this month over on the Blissfull ATC blog.  I am really enjoying swapping ATCs with ladies from all over the US.  The theme for February was Its a Mad Mad Mad, Alice in Wonderland World.  This month my swap partner was Sonya Nelson.  I have already received Sonya's ATC, as well as, an envelope full of sussies.  Sonya sent along with her card a  shower of Cupcakes, lol.  Teach me to open a card while walking, lol…  Her ATC came at the most opportune time, as I have been taking care of my mom who fell and had a mild concussion in late January, so  receiving this beautiful ATC and cupcake shower perked me right up. Along with my card and shower Sonya also sent the cutest little Cupcake stamp.  Little does she know that I also love to bake and decorate cakes.  Here is a photo of the ATC Sonya sent to me.  

The Queen has Spoken is the name of Sonya's blog as well as her card, I'd say that worked out perfect, lol.  

This is a photo of just a minute portion of the cupcake die cuts that Sonya sent.  I love getting sussies in my envelopes.

As if I didn't already have enough on my plate with the committed monthly ATC swap, Mardi Gras balls and parades and taking care of my mother, I also decided to partipate in the Blissfull ATC's Winner Takes All swap.  This month, Jane won and she wanted the Theme to be the 60's.  So here is the ATC I created for Jane.  You can explore her blog here.  

  

I know its a bit fuzzy, sorry.  Here's to hoping that March is a bit slower for me, oh wait, what am I saying, this month I signed up for three swaps and a trip to Vegas, yie, yie, yie, why do I do this to myself, lol....

January ATC from Janet

Happy 2012 to everyone!!! 

I have received my January Blissfull ATC from Ms. Janet in Missouri.  This month's theme was Jane Austen.  I love the background, the way Janet gave Jane's hat such dimension and the added touch of lace.  A wonderful job by a very talented lady.  You can hop on over the Janet's  blog to admire more of her amazing art work.  

I had difficulty trying to decide what I wanted to do for my ATC, I started thinking about the design over the Christmas/New Year Holiday.  So what did I do?  I ended up creating not 1 but 2 ATC's.  This is the one that I ended up sending to Janet.  I so hope she enjoys it. 

The other ATC was the first one I attempted.  I was soooo arrrrrgh over how it turned out that I send a photo of it to Wendy and asked her opinion.  She told me that she loved it and would love to have it, soooooo the ATC below is now on its way to Ms. Wendy.  I have she enjoys it...

Our theme for next month is Alice in Wonderland and the wheels are already turning...

This Month Wendy also started something new over at Blissfull ATC.  Its called Winner Takes All.  She randomly selects one person to choose a topic for and ATC and everyone who signs up sends the Winner an ATC in her choice of theme.  I choose Mardi Gras, but I didn't win.  The winner's theme is Steampunk, which is a theme I adore.  If you want to check out the Blissfull site here is the link.  Happy January to Everyone

December ATC from Wendy A.

Over the weekend, I received my package from Wendy in GA which contained my beautiful December ATC.  Wendy is such a talented artist.  Her cards have such dimension and depth.  The theme was "A Christmas Carol", which I totally screwed up by interpreting as representing a song.  As you can see from Wendy's beautiful card the theme was actually Dicken's story. 

 

The photo does not do this beautiful card justice.  Wendy was also kind enough to include an additional ATC in my envelope.  The card below is just another example of her creativity. 

  

And lastly, Wendy included a little zippy bag filled with winter goodies to add to my collection of bits and pieces that are all so important to the creation of ATCs.  Don't forget to check out Wendy's other creations at her blog Bliss Angels

 

Thanks Wendy for being a wonderful swap partner.  Looking forward to swapping with you again in the new year.

December ATC for Blissfull ATC Swaps

Well I finished my ATC for the Blissfull December swap.  But I think I did it all wrong.  The Theme was A Christmas Carol, which I took to mean "A Christmas song".  I think I got the theme wrong.  I am now thinking that it was suppose to be a reference to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".  Boy did I goof up.  Anyway, I really love the atc card that I created and living in South Louisiana we are always "Dreaming of a White Christmas".  I just hope Wendy in Georgia likes its as much as I do.  Merry Christmas Wendy !!!

November ATC's

I was lucky enough to participate in the Blissfull ATC November swap.  I was paired up with the wonderful Debbie.  The theme for November was Thankful.  It didn't take me long to know what I was going to do for my card.  After just having gone through back surgery and having to rely on other for my recovery I knew that I was eternally thankful for my family and friends for helping us through this process.  I was also thankful for my faith in God for pulling me through and walking with me when I didn't think I was going to recover. 

 Below is the card that Debbie sent to me.  It really spoke to my heart, I guess because I am also thankful for the same things she is. 

It will soon be time to start making the December ATC.  This month the theme is Christmas Carols.  I will take the next couple of days and think about what I want to do and will post a picture of it when I have completed it.

My Oct ATC Swap

My Swap Partner was Donna Liljegren from Florida.  She totally blew me out of the water, or maybe it was a pain meds induced fog, lol, with her ATC.  It is soooooo creative and inspirational,  Its just something I would have never thought of.  The theme was Movie/TV Monsters and she chose the movie "The Mummy". I think her version on the ATC is perfect all the way down to the scarab.  Donna not only creates awesome ATC cards, she also creates awesome hand sewn items for your home.  If you are intrerested in checking out her blog the link is here.  I suggest you go check out all her items from her ATC's she has made for swapping to her hand crafted items.  Thanks Donna for being such an awesome swap partner, it was a pleasure. 

Here is the card I send to Donna.   My take was to try to represent a bit about Louisiana as well as Monsters.  So what better than a Swamp Monster.  I almost went with the blob, but couldn't figure out how to hold that goop on the card, lol..  Anyway here is my ATC that Donna got.

All I can say is the backtround and the tree were made before my surgery and the moss and monster were added later, so don't judge me to harshly. 

Until next time...

ATC Trades

Well since I last posted a lot has happened in my life.  The short story is I was admitted to the hospital on 9-19 with leg pains,  I was diagnosed with a pinched nerve at L5 S1 which after a failed nerve block I was scheduled for surgery.  So on 9-23 I had a Lami/fusion and spend a total of 16 days in the hospital with 5 of those being in therapy rehab,  But I'm home now still having nerve pain because the nerve was that pinched.  But before all this happened I was able to finish the September themed ATC swap and get it mailed out.  Mine went to a nice lady in Michigan,  I haven't received mine yet because she had bladder surgery recently.  So I though I would post mine.  The theme was industrial and the first thing that came to my mind was the Industrial Revolution, steel mills and clothing factories.  I first glued some gears down on the card then covered the entire card with medal tape,  Next I added more gears on top added a picture of a factory, added some watch springs and the title.  This is the one I kept for myself.  Ms Fran hasn't been able to post the one she got but it was very simila to this one, 

Next Again before my surgery, I signed up for the Oct. Swap wich was tv monsters.  How fun is that???  S0 this month my partner is Donna.  I have already received my ATC from Donna,  Thank goodness for me I had already started my card prior to my hospital stay,  I informed Donna I wqs going to be late and she graciously understood.  Well as of Yesterday her card was shipped.  So in the meantime I'll Post Donna's fabulous card.  I just love it. 

Isn't this the coolest card!! I love it!!!

I will post my Atc in a few days, after I know that Donna has gotten her package/