March 2014 ATCs

So here is another group of ATCs. The background on the front is recycled chocolate bar packaging embossed with an embossing folder. The sentiment is a Quietfire Quotemarks stamp on a Spellbinders die cut label and inked with Distress Ink.  The back is the rest of the sentiment.

Front

Back

This group of ATCs are based on the same design as the Byhandartists winter Rolodex swap. The trees are rubber stamped and printed on transparency then layered over a rose image.

February 2014 ATCs

 I'm continuing to add art from earlier this year. Since I have been able to keep up the ATC swap I have made at least some ATCs each month. These are of course from February. This group is rubber stamped and die cut.

This intelligent cat is rubber stamped and layered on a grungy background found online.

Queen Of Hearts Challenge

I haven't have much time for art lately, but today I got inspired to enter the Queen of Hearts Challenge on Quietfire Style blog, check the link for all the details.

I did a journal page with some heart shaped playing cards from the dollar store. I used my Zyron to put adhesive on the back of one card and sprinkled sugar beads on. For the other card I used the face side and added the word "of" and a label cut and embossed with the Cuttlebug Build a Flower set. This was stamped with the Quietfire stamp "All that's important". The sugar bead heart is mounted with pop dots. The page is coloured with Fired Brick and Tea Dye Distress Ink. I used the flourish stamps from the Quietfire Design Queen of Hearts set. The flower is pulled from a silk flower stem. The date Feb 11 is from a West Coast Express train ticket and the 20 is computer generated.

This also is my entry for the Created Byhand Challenge

ATC Vancouver Swap January 2011

ATC Vancouver Swap January 2011
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

One of the themes for this month's swap is purple and that's the theme I have chosen to do with sewn, singed and beaded layers.
This month the swap is taking place at the Richmond Art Gallery so that we can view the exhibit of ATCs before the final day and swap.

12 Days of Christmas

I've been missing from blog posts for nearly a month, but even though the gift opening for the Byhand Artists 12 Days of Christmas is long past I want to show you some of the cuff bracelets that I made for my Day 9 gifts. I showed the wrapped packages is my last post and so now here are the gifts that were inside.This is a selection of some of the cuff bracelets that I stitched up from fabric samples, hand knit pieces and fabric binding. Some have beading and rubber stamped pieces stitched on.
This group shows some more of the cuff bracelets including one that has a needle felted heart and beads.Close-up of one of the bracelets with a fabric mesh and buttons added.
This one is a fabric sample with a knit lace edging and flower added to the front along with some fun beads.
And the rubber stamped back, all rubber stamps from Quietfire Design.

ATC Oct 2010 Word Scraps

ATC Oct 2010 Word Scraps
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Tomorrow is the monthly swap at The Grind and I managed to get some ATCs made so I can go trade. The themes are octagons, oracles and octopi, but since I didn't have much time for creating art and I have lots of scraps I decided to go off topic. I used some cereal box cardboard run through the Zyron and I dug through my bag of scrap papers, glued with the Zyron adhesive. I left room between the pieces and added gold embossing powder to some of the ATCs and micro beads to all of them. I have added assorted rubber stamp words and images to each of the ATCs. There is another set of six ATCs over on my Flickr photos if you would like to check them out.

Oct 9, 2010 Greeting Card

Oct 9, 2010 Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Because of continuing medical issues with a family member, I didn't make it to the card project today, but I did get there last Sat. and I have finally taken some time to post the card.
The greeting card at Cherish The Thought is rubber stamped and coloured with Tombow markers and the image is layered over a pink cardstock. The card base is yellow with a die cut "apron".

Sept 4 Greeting Card

Sept 4 Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This is the Sat Sept 4th Neat Nique card at Cherish The Thought. The white background is stamped several time with Crafty Secrets music border stamp, layered on a slightly larger red cardstock and mounted on a green base. The peel-offs Merry Christmas is added just below. The acyclic card front is scored at .25 in. and attached to the back of the card with Soukwang tape. The peel-offs ornament is placed on the front of the acrylic and coloured with glaze pens.

Creative Escape Journal Page Aug 31

Creative Escape Journal Page Aug 31
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This page in my Creative Escape Journal evolved this morning with inspiration from a link on the MmarioKknits Yahoo group. One of the members posted about this Erika Knight baby hat pattern which has a lovely edging on the bottom that the member is using for other projects. I saw the flower and edging and thought it just had to be done in my journal. This is done on one of the coffee dyed watercolour pages. I converted an old black and white photo to sepia and layered it over a kraft and dark brown cardstock. The lace flower and edging are knitted with 2.25 mm needles and a light brown cotton thread. I used some of the same thread to sew the edging to the edge of the page and to sew a button to the centre of the flower. The words are rubber stamped with a clear alphabet set and Versafine Vintage Sepia ink. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

21 Aug Greeting Card

21 Aug Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This is the card project from the Sat. Aug 21 Neat Nique at Cherish The Thought.The Core d nations cardstock is embossed and then sanded to remove the colour off the high points. The bird from Crafty Secrets is stamped and embossed on shiny cardstock, colourde with a stencil brush and cut out. It is mounted with a foam dot.

My Envelope Book Pages

Now that everyone has their envelope book I can show you my envelope pages and the contents.

Here is all 17 of the envelopes that I decorated for the envelope book created by 17 members of the ATC Vancouver swap group. I used paper from brown gift bags with a vintage black image, vintage letter ribbon, lace and some of my faux postage stamps.

The front of a couple of envelope pages.

The back of a couple of my envelopes. These used up some of my stash of 6X6 scrapbook papers painted with sepia acrylic varnish.

This is one of my envelopes and the contents. Each envelope contained an ATC, all diferent and decorated on the back to look like a miniature postcard, the ATC background viewer, 2 pieces of lace and 2 hug tickets.This is an ATC background viewer that I included as a tool in my envelopes. It is cut from chipboard or cereal box cardboard and is the frame left when cutting an ATC with the Sizzix die. Ive had a and cut version that I've used for years to see what a background or stamped image would look like.

The Thank You Gift

Last Sunday at the ATC Vancouver swap I delivered the mini journal in the previous post along with a small knit felted bag as a thank you gift to Penelope for hosting our collaborative Envelope Book. Penelope has finally started a blog and you can check out her posting here.

This is how I wrapped the gift. I used Ikea drawing paper randomly stamped with several different stamps, sandwiched between wax paper and stitched all around. This was then stitched into a pouch to hold the gift.

This is the front of the gift pouch with lace seam binding used as a ribbon to tie the package closed.

4 X 4 Mini Journal

I've just completed another of my mini journals using My Minds Eye Life's Journey scrapbook paper and some of my own journal pages. The pages are punched with the Zutter Bind-it-all and bound with ribbons and coffee dyed fabric. This is a thank you gift for a friend.

Greeting Card Aug 12 Byhand Challenge

Greeting Card Aug 12 Byhand Challenge
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Yellow is one of the themes for the Byhand Challenge this week and I used a yellow scrapbook paper embossed with the butterflies background from the Cuttlebug Heritage embossing folder set. I sanded the high points to reveal the white core and then flattened it back out by running through the Cuttlebug a second time without the folder. Next I embossed with the gate folder, also from the Heritage set, and rubbed a Tuxedo Black Memento Dewdrop ink pad over the high points. The butterfly wings from a Crafty Secrets set are stamped and embossed with black, then coloured with gel pens. This is layered over a yellow and then white cardstock, attached to the gate background and a yellow gem sticker added to the goddess which is a Quietfire Design stamp. "Follow your dreams" quote is also from Quietfire Design and is stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink on white cardstock and attached to the gate with brads. This is then attached to a 5 X 6.5 white card blank

ATC Telephone For T Time

ATC Telephone For T Time
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This is another example of ATCs for the August swap at The Grind in the Telephone and Time theme. I used a collage stamp which had a telephone and script and one from a time set for the clock.. The words are computer generated and the "T" is from a Crafty Secrets stamp set. The stamped images were embossed with Pearl Lustre Hematite embossing powder and the colour was added with Distress Inks.

Greeting Card For July 31

Greeting Card For July 31
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here is the card I made at Cherish The Thought for the Sat Neat Nique. For this we used a fern stamp and stamped it with Versamark on shiny cardstock, the drew random circles with a clear glaze pen. Next step was to brayer ink from a Big and Juicy Waterfall ink pad onto the cardstock, then rubbed with a tissue to reveal the fern and circles. Now we used a different fern stamp and stamped it on another shiny cardstock. This was layered over coloured cardstock, then over the masked and brayered piece, over another cardstock and finally on a green card black
I think it's very pretty and this is the first time I did masking and brayering ink like this. Big fun and I need a Big and Juicy ink pad.

Tea Time Triptych 1

Tea Time Triptych 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The themes for the ATC Vancouver swap at The Grind are telephone, time or tea pots. I focused mostly on tea pot with a digital photo of one of my tea pots and a Quietfire Design quote stamp.

July 24 Greeting Card

July 24 Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Today's Neat Nique card at Cherish The Thought uses White Wash Core-Dinations cardstock and a new Cuttlebug embossing folder. This is lightly sanded to let the base colour show through. The stamp is from Local King rubber and is stamped with StazOn ink on cardstock cut with the Nestabilities scallop oval die cut. Jessie provided this beautiful striped ribbon which provides the perfect finishing touch.

Greeting Card Teapot

Greeting Card Teapot
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

My all time favourite die cut project so far is a journal page I posted on July 1 and it would fit the Byhand Challenge for this week of Looking In, Looking Out or die cuts but I thought I should actually create a new project for the challenge. This card for the Created Byhand challenge uses the Cuttlebug Blooming Bouquet Embossing Plus folder for the main background and I rubber stamped the Quietfire quote with Versafine Vintage Sepia on white cardstock before running it though the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folder. This is layered over brown cardstock then mounted on an ivory 5 X 6.5 in. card black. The teacup is stamped with Memento Rose Bud on a separate piece of white cardstock and cut with the Nestabillities classic scalloped oval and the edge rubbed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. This is mounted with foam dots and a brown sheer ribbon bow is glued near the top.

ATC Vancouver July Swap at The Grind

ATC Vancouver July Swap at The Grind
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Now to the main reason for going to The Grind on Sunday, the regular monthly ATC swap. The themes for July were animals, architecture and Asian. I did all of mine on the Asian theme. I used stamps from 2 different Asian theme sets, the Chic Circle Embossing Plus Cuttlebug folder, my own flower photo and some silk flowers. Some of the photos were debossed and coloured with gel pens. These are a representation of some of my cards for this month.