Category Archives: ATC

ATC swap theme remember remember

Today I finished off my ATCs for the CBC swap. This months theme is ‘remember remember’. My first ATC is all about the Mexican day of the dead (El dia de los muertos) when people remember their family and friends who have died. They make little sugar skulls and decorate them to adorn alters at the beginning of November. I had a scrap of material left that had a similar pattern on so the skull embellishment on the front is cut out from the material and stuck onto an acetate overly. The background I made using these free brushes (thank you Mel) printed onto white card then coloured in using copic pens. The ‘remember‘ script I got from UK scrappers (thank you) which I also used in my second ATC .

dayOfDeadSml

El dia de los muertos

Card: white paper and card, material skull, copic pens to colour
Other: free brush set and wording

5thNovemberSml

Remember remember the 5th of November
This one as you have guessed already depicts Guy Fawkes night with fireworks lighting up the sky.
Inks: alcohol inks various colours
Card: white paper, dark blue mirror card, acetate
Stamp: free stamp from craft stamper mag
Other: sticky stuff and Tonertex glitter, 3 sequins

 

Swirls and flourishes ATCs

dragonSwirl
plumGreenSwirl
blackWireSwirl
My three ATCs for the ukstampers swap using swirls and flourishes stamps. I made the backgrounds first by brayering some ink onto the glossy card stock and spraying with a little thin bleach to get the white speckled bits. The background to the dragon ATC was actually my practice piece of card which I stamped with Versamark before I brayered with the coloured ink and I sprayed with too much bleach. I sprayed some magenta over a flourish mask onto it and I really liked the look so it became one of my swaps.

(NOTE: be careful spraying bleach as you DO NOT want to breathe it in and it can leave a fine mist of bleach on surrounding surfaces)

Inks: Marvy blending blocks Shade of blue and Shades of olive, Kaleidacolor rainbow pad Calypso, Versamark, Distress ink Fired brick, Memento Rhubarb stalk, black document ink
Card: Glossy white card, black card
Stamps: Impression Obsession Flourishes, Dovecraft Fantasy clear stamps Emblems, Basic Grey Flourish corners
Other: wire, gems, Stickles: burgundy, waterfall, lime, silver, glitter pen, bleach, magenta spray, silver pen

Halloween ATCs

halloween2

A couple of fun ATCs for the CBC October swap. The theme is any thing beginning with O or the month October. No stamping just stickers and rub-ons for these two but I kinda like them. They are the same size but I took the photo at a jaunty angle so my shadow would not be over them.

Materials: stickers, rub-ons, stickles, orange pens to colour peel-0ff Hi, clear arrow, Bo Bunny card

Watercolour ATCs

watercolourPear
watercolourAcerSml
watercolourHorseSml
The September ATC swap theme for ukstampers is ‘watercolour’ so I have used Oriental watercolours as my inspiration for my 3 swaps. I have used various sprays and a variety of techniques to make the background papers using leaves as masks and also masking paper.

Inks: black document ink, watercolour pencils and sprays
Card: white card, watercolour paper, black card
Stamps: Non Sequitur: Oriental love letters (Caligraphy), Samurai (horse and Acer leaves), Oriental collage elements (pear), cranes (small chop and other calligraphy). Stampin up canvas back ground stamp, Judikins bamboo
Other: white pen, Diamond glaze

CBC ATC swap Autumn

trickOrTreatSmlTrick or Treat

autumnLeavesSmlAutumn Leaves

I am hosting the CBC ATC swap this month and for a nice easy theme I have picked ‘Autumn’. Here are my two for the swap. Inspired by Jo Capper-Sandon’s article in the October issue of Craft stamper magazine I have been playing with spray inks and natural masks to make the background card (the leaves ATC). She used small branches for her example but I have used Acer leaves as a mask for mine.

For Trick or Treat:
Inks and sprays: Adirondack color wash butterscotch, Chroma jewels wine, Gold Krylon webbing spray, Glitz spritz Dessert moon Antique rose, Versafine Black ink, gelly glaze pens, Distress ink black soot
Card: white
Stamps: Non-sequitur Grave tidings
Other: Hambly screen prints rub-ons Halloween (text), black plastic spider, Stickles, black pen to highlight text

For Autumn Leaves:
Inks and sprays: Adirondack color wash butterscotch, Chroma jewels wine, Gold krylon webbing spray, Adirondack dye ink cranberry,
Card: white card
Stamps: Non-sequitur Samurai Acer leaves
Other: Diamond glaze

ATC swap using a recipe

I am hosting the August ATC swap for craftsbycarolyn and for a wee change I decided to use a recipe (items to include). Make two ATCs using any theme, any colour, any material but they must include:

  • vellum
  • fibre (wool, raffia, thread etc)
  • at least one eyelet (or brad)
  • and both ATCs must look different (either colour, layout, etc)

Here are my two

friendsVellum
I love the flock vellum on this one so I used it to make a cover that can close using a button and a loop of white fluffy wool. The little flowers on the inside were cut from the vellum and stuck over the leaves.

 

histogram

When I started cutting the stripy vellum it looked a little like a histogram so I took the idea a little further by adding the eyelets and joining them up with red darning wool.

Inks: Stampin up mellow moss, Distress ink peeled paint
Card: White card, stripy vellum, flock vellum floral
Stamps: Magenta leaf, Stampin up friend to friend, Dovecraft fantasy emblems flourish
Other: eyelets, clear button coloured with alcohol ink, white fluffy wool, red darning wool, letters (X and Y) from Cosmo cricket, stickles, tiny leaf beads

 

ATC swap theme – yellow and orange Moos

The August ukstampers ATC swap theme is that it must have a Moo which has been coloured yellow and orange. A Moo is a piece of work measuring 2.8cm x 7cm which can be any theme and any material.
holeyMoo2
The idea behind this one is a beautiful, if rather tattered, moth emerging from the moth-eaten cloth.
patchMoo
 This little Moo depicts patchwork on jeans.
sunsetMoo
In real life this one looks a little brighter. Tegan gave me the idea of a sunset or sunrise so this one is a sunset over trees.
Inks: Adirondack stonewashed, Distress inks dried marigold and mustard seed, Stazon black and cactus green, Brilliance pearlescent orange
Card: white and black card, orange vellum
Stamps: Stampers anonymous mini muse and fairytale frenzy, Papertreyink out on a limb, Lavinia stamps birds, Arts encaustic trees
Other: cloth butterfly, snaps, clear circle dome, glitter pens and stickles

July CBC ATC swap

albaJane swap

Here are my ATCs for the CBC swap for July. We had to use a stamp in this swap rather than a particular theme so I used a couple of the free stamps from the craft stamper magazine (and a background stamp for the piece of vellum).

ATC 1
Inks: black document ink, copic pens to colour the owl
Card: white card, Bo Bunny paper back to backs; a gift of love and my darling motion
Stamp: free owl stamp designed by sugar nellie
Other: orange organza ribbon, small green ric-rac ribbon, googly eyes, Boo rub-on from Hambly screen prints Halloween, Hobby craft dome sticker flowers 2

ATC2
Inks: Adirondack alcohol inks; clover, hazelnut, citrus, mountain rose, watermelon and sunshine yellow, white stazon, silver pilot pen, white signo pen
Card: glossy white, white vellum
Stamps: background on vellum from Aspects of design Daisy daydreams, free dragonfly stamp designed by Kay Carley
Other: tiny gems, Hobby craft dome sticker flowers 2, wire for legs, distress stickles peeled paint, yellow stickles

Magic ATC Tutorial

acetateClosed
acetateHalfPulled
acetatePulledUp

Inks: Black Stazon for the acetate, black document ink on the card, various colours
Card: white card, ivory card, acetate, decorative paper
Stamps: Penny Black toadily, Lavinia Stamps foliage, Rubber Stamp Tapestry (various), Sugar Nellie owl, Non Sequitur oriental love letters
Other: watercolour pencils, copic pens, ric-rac, ribbon, twine, coin, button, bead, stickles, eyelets

I found this link for a Magic pull up card years ago but I thought about altering it to make ATC sized versions for this months ukstampers swap theme ‘acetate’. I was using my ruler with inches on it so all the measurements are in inches.

Here is a tutorial to show how I made my ATC versions:

ATCs are 3 1/2 inches x 2 1/2 inches.
1
Measure some card stock 5 1/2″ x 7″ see Fig1
Score the 7″ side at 3″ (Fold 1)
Score the 5 1/2″ side (from the left hand side) at 1/2″ then 3″ (Fold 2 and Fold 3)

Fig 1

Fig1
2
Cut away the top left hand rectangle and save it for later – this will be the sliding piece.
Cut the corners off the flap at the left side
Cut a slot measuring 2″ x 1/4″ over Fold 1 as shown in Fig 2, leaving 1/4″ at both sides of the slot.

Fig 2

Fig2
Mark and cut out a window from the left hand rectangle measuring 1 7/8″ x 2 3/4″.
Now get the rectangle that you saved earlier and cut the flap off first. Now mark and cut away a strip down both sides down to about 3/8″ from the bottom.
You should now have pieces that look like Fig3.
Make sure that the T shaped piece can slide easily through the slot and if not just take slivers off until it does.

Fig 3

Fig3
3
Fold the top rectangle down over the bottom one.
Fold the left hand window side over the to the right and tuck the flap in at the right hand side.
Try to make the folds ‘generous’ because the inside will contain 3 layers, this will help stop the sliding part becoming stuck.
Now that you know which side will be the front and back unfold it all again. You can now colour and decorate the outside. Take care to leave the inside panel plain as this is the side you will see through the window and acetate.

4
Stamp an image on the T shaped sliding piece (you can use the window to guide you so you stamp within that area). This image will be the coloured one so if you are using water colours choose a waterproof ink to stamp with.
Take a piece of acetate larger than the T shaped piece, place it over your T shaped piece and using Stazon ink or Brilliance ink stamp the same image onto the acetate directly over the previous image. Make sure your ink dries before the next stage. Holding the card and acetate move them around so the images are EXACTLY over each other and cut the acetate to the same size as the T piece using a craft knife or scissors. If you have a stamp positioner you could cut the acetate out first and use the positioner to get accurate results. This image will remain uncoloured.
Colour in the CARD image. see Fig 4

Fig 4

Fig4
5
Fold the top right hand rectangle down over the bottom one. Slide your coloured card T piece all the way up through the slot until it stops.
Draw a very thin line of glue along the top edge only and place the acetate piece EXACTLY over it and stick it down. To disguise the glue you can add a small piece of card or ribbon over the top.

Fig 5

Fig5
Now push the slider all the way down and fold the front over. Put glue on the flap so that when you tuck it in at the back it will stick to the back and not to the slider. (you can just fold it over and stick it down without tucking it in if you prefer).
You can add eyelets and ribbon and decorate as you wish.

Tips:
When you fold it all over the first time it may not fold well so just take a sliver from the left hand side of the top rectangle and make the folds a little more generous.
The window can be any shape or size.
Try colouring your acetate image one colour and the card image another colour for a different. look.
If you stamp on the inside panel by mistake (as I have done before) you can still use it by folding to the left instead of to the right.
If you make a cardboard template then just use this to make others by drawing around it (saves having to measure things out) but remember to cut inside the pencil line when cutting it out but cut outside the pencil line when cutting out the window and the slit.
When adding embellishments to the front, remember not to stick them to the acetate.

ATC swap male theme

caught a fishy

Here is one of the ATCs for Andrea’s CBC June swap with male theme. I have used a stamped image from the DewDrop Craftz image swap.

Inks: memento black, Stampin up mellow moss, copic to colour, Distress ink weathered wood
Card: white card
Stamps: DewDrop craftz stamps Jim just chillin’, Lavinia stamps leaves
Other: fish charm

tavernSong

And here is the other male ATC for the swap.

Inks: I can’t remember as I stamped the image a while ago
Card: beige textured paper, ivory card
Stamp: The Artistic stamper Men’s plate, papers from Hot off the press Heritage range
Other: musical note charm