"Duck & Cover" ATC

A while back, I was getting ready to mail some books to friends as out-of-the-blue presents and decided the books needed a little somethin' somethin' to round out the package. That something turned out to be homemade bookmarks that doubled as notes explaining why these friends were receiving these books on no occasion. After the bookmarks were made, I was left with scrap background paper that I had created using Distress Inks, a Heidi Swap script background stamp, Deep Red Stamps' Grunge Borders stamps, and Lindy's Stamp Gang Burnt Umber Moon Shadow Mist.

Separately, I had stamped a page full of new Santoro portrait-like rubber stamps, and had slowly been coloring them in using different mediums. I combined some of the leftover bookmark background paper with a colored & fussy-cut Santoro image, then added some brown baker's twine and tea-dyed lace for this ATC. It is titled "Duck & Cover", because that seemed appropriate for my week.

My First Pocket Letter

This has taken me months to post since I forgot to take pictures right away, but here is the first pocket letter I ever made! If you are not familiar with pocket letters, or have heard about them but do not know what they are all about, check out Janette Lane's blog for a rundown.

Front

Back

The thematic saturation of a recent Jane Austen-themed crafting session had not fully worn off, so the excess Austen crafting energy went into this pocket letter. It was a lot of fun. Three of the cards can be colored by the recipient, and another includes accordion-folded paper for a short letter. The stamps are from both Papertrey Ink's and Oxford Impression's Jane Austen sets.

{crafted while listening to Florence + The Machine's "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful"}

Playing with Prima Pencils

For Christmas, I received a lovely Pepin Art Nouveau artist's coloring book. The first patterned page I tackled, I decided to color with my new Prima Watercolor Pencils. I loved how easy that this project traveled; just grab the tin of pencils and the paper in progress, and I was set to go!

The pattern was simple and fairly brainless to color in, though I made a gross miscalculation on color: I wanted red for the larger spaces in the pattern, but mistook the fuschia pencil for red. The error of my ways did not become obvious until I had colored the entire page and started blending with water. Whoops! Even the unintentional can be beautiful, thankfully. I finished off the page by adding silver glitter glue to some of the spheres in the pattern.

So what to do with this completed page? Well, I decided to turn it into a set of thank you cards for some customers.

The "thanks" die is from Papertrey Ink's Swoosh die set, covered in Versamark ink and glittery embossing powder, then outlined with a Micron pen. I outlined the coloring paper with my new white Sharpie water-based fine point marker. I love that thing! It is so handy.

Austen Card Set 3

Here is the third and most recent set of Jane Austen-themed cards I created. Like the previous sets, part of the set went to my local Jane Austen Society chapter for their use. It is so fun to have a legitimate, productive reason to craft beyond creating cards for my own use! It is very lovely to know that these card sets save my local JASNA chapter a little money and get used either as "thank you" cards or as fundraising material.

The starting inspiration for these cards was my new DecoArt Media Crackle Glaze that just arrived in the mail. Due to an epic "Welcome to Night Vale" podcast and die cutting session a few months ago, I already had three food-packaging die cuts prepared from Anna Griffin's Flower Bramble die.

• I slathered the crackle glaze over the convenient white side of the thin cardboard die cuts and left them to dry overnight.
• While waiting for the die cuts to dry, I Versamark stamped Austen Gallery "Jane Austen" images onto striped paper from the DCWV Dear Jane Stack, then heat embossed with black embossing powder.
• The background pink and white damask paper is, I think, from the DCWV Luxury stack. The rough-torn edges exposed the white paper core, lending both a little more white and a bit of grunge to an otherwise super feminine card.
• To offset and make the Jane silhouette piece stand out from the white crackle glaze die cut background, I used some very shiny metallic gold DCWV paper to make a stacked border.
• My new gold leaf was taunting me from my desk drawer, so I pulled that out and added a little to the corners of the Jane silhouette piece to complement the metallic gold border. And then I could not stop, so I added a couple stripes of gold leaf to the pink and white damask background paper.
• The card still needed a little somethin' somethin' to distinguish the layers, so I stamped a little metallic gold paint with bubble wrap on the left side of the damask background paper.
• Finally, assembly time! A little cream embroidery floss bow, a strip of lace, a little champagne pearl, strategic gluing... and voilà! A finished set of six beautiful Jane Austen cards.

Wonderland ATC 9

Number 9 in my Wonderland artist trading card set.

• Allow some of the thin black acrylic layer of the cardboard base to show through on the right side of the ATC. Add red patterned paper, with three scissor-distressed edges and the fourth edge hand torn at an angle.
• Stamp the Jabberwock on mildly-patterned grey paper, fussy cut, then glue down to the red and black base.
• Once the Jabberwock is in position, glue down the sentiment pieces for "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" Stamp these in black ink on ivory paper, cut down to size, then faintly ink the bottom edges with vintage photo Distress ink and slightly distress with scissors.
• Finishing touch: stamp the rest of the Jabberwock sentiment ("The jaws that bite" and "the claws that catch!") along the edges of the red background using grey marker ink.

Wonderland ATC 8

Number 8 in my Wonderland artist trading card set.
My sarcastic side and enjoyment of juxtaposition were definitely at the forefront while creating this particular ATC.

• Green patterned scrap paper adhered to cardboard base and edged with black ink.
• Stamp Duchess with black Versafine ink on yellow and ivory patterned paper, fussy cut.
• Glue two pieces of tea-dyed lace with edges curved towards center of card, then glue duchess on top.
• Color "#" and "bliss" woodcut embellishments with grey marker, then cover with silver glitter glue. Once dry, glue to bottom of ATC.

Wonderland ATC 7

Happy Leap Year!
After a two week break, here is number 7 in my Wonderland artist trading card set.

• Card base is black acrylic painted cardboard food packaging, edged with white pigment ink.
• Measure washi tape and mask off Knave of Hearts stamp, then stamp in white directly onto black ATC base.
• Add strips of washi tape, mask top and bottom edges, then stamp directly onto washi tape using black Staz-on ink. Dry completely.
• Stamp sentiment in Versamark ink, heat emboss with white embossing powder.
• Final steps: Add adhesive crystals and adhesive black pearls.

Entered in:
Brown Sugar Challenge - #187 Pearls
Crafty Girlz - February Anything Goes Challenge
Create and Inspire - Challenge #40 Anything Goes
Creative Fingers - Challenge #103 Anything Goes
Left of Center - Challenge #119 Bling Bling
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - Challenge #24 Anything Goes
Sparkles Monthly - Challenge #77 Something for the Males
Stamping Sensations - February Anything Goes Challenge
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - #119 Twist of Fantasy 
Word Art Wednesday - Challenge #220 anything goes