Fun with ATCs

Hello everyone.  I want to share some fun Altered Trading Cards, aka ATCs, with you today, and show off some more of the Altered Pages products with the Sin City Stamps.  The combination of the two companies gives you so much creative flexibility, and I think they are amazing together.

I am sure most, if not all, of you know that ATCs are always sized 2-1/2" x 3-1/2", and can be oriented in either direction, that is, either vertically or horizontally.  Here is a template I got off the internet showing how to get the most ATCs from one sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" card stock.  As you can see, it yields 10 cards.

Supplies used:

Altered Pages collage sheets:  AP-585 Vintage Artist Trading Cards Backs;  AP-1724 Collage Backgrounds Oriental;  AP-779 Red ATC;  

Cream card stock

Wink of Stella pens:  Clear; Red

Metallic rub-ons All Metals #2

Mix'd Media Inx:  Leather; Black; Patina

Ranger Blending Tool

Sin City Stamps Bingo rubber stamp plate

Black embossing powder

Tiny resin flowers (Prima)

Tiny wooden birds (Recollections)

Tiny heart punch (Martha Stewart)

First, I cut my ATCs to size from Cream card stock.  Ink edges with Black Mix'd Media Inx and blending tool.

Print AP-1724 Collage Backgrounds Oriental onto parchment paper.  Trim brown background to measure slightly smaller than the front of two of your ATCs.  Ink edges with Leather Mix'd Media Inx and blending tool.  Adhere to front of ATC.  Voila, instant background!

Add a few images from the Sin City Stamps Bingo rubber stamp plate to the background with Black Mix'd Media Inx and emboss with black embossing powder.

Choose two smaller images from the AP-779 Red ATC collage sheet, adhere to thin chipboard and cut out.  Ink edges with Leather Mix'd Media Inx and blending tool.  Add tiny amounts of Wink of Stella clear and red pens to each collage image for a bit of shimmer.  Adhere to front of ATCs.

Punch two small hearts, ink edges with Leather Mix'd Media Inx and blending tool.  Adhere to front of ATCs. Add tiny resin flower to center of hearts.

Ink two tiny wooden birds with Patina Mix'd Media Inx and adhere to each ATC, as shown.

Apply brass and deep gold from the Metallic rub-ons set around edges and randomly on the front of both ATCs for extra shimmer and vintage-y goodness.  Here is a close-up of that golden shimmer.

Cut out AP-585 Vintage Artist Trading Cards Backs and adhere to back of your ATC.  Now, fill in the information and swap with your friends!

Well, that sure was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.  And pop on over to both the Altered Pages and the Sin City Stamps websites to see all of their wonderful products.  There are lots of new products on the way, and the design teams are constantly working to inspire your creativity.  

Have a simply fabulous, creative week!  

Hugs,

Barbara

Sin City Stamps Mini Butterfly Album Continued

Hello everyone!  I have a new post up on the Sin City Stamps blog, and I want to give you a quick preview here. As promised earlier, I have a couple of pages from my Butterfly Mini Book.  You can click on the link to see my earlier post where I decorated the front and back covers.  I am also using
collage sheet images from Altered Pages, so I am combining some of their products with Sin City Stamps' products to show you how well they work together.

Front

Back

Supplies used:

Sin City Stamps:  Butterfly Chipboard Book; Mannequin Tags 2; Love of Butterflies; A Wing Above the Rest; Art Journaling with Terri Sproul; Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2; Birds and Clocks
Altered Pages collage sheets: AP-761-Queen of Hearts (lady); AP-1735 Altered Images I (Butterflies); Vintage ATC Sheet III (moth, Kimball label, bottle stamp)
White gesso
Black archival ink; Artprint Brown ink
Distress inks in blues, greens, browns, yellows
Chalk inks in jade, violet, and yellow ochre
Print papers and card stock
Embossing folder

Here is a close-up of the front and back of each page.

Front

Back

Front

Back

I have posted a complete tutorial on the Sin City Stamps blog here.  Two pages done, several more to go.  But between the wonderful Sin City Stamps and the fabulous collage images from Altered Pages, I will get this book finished in no time.  So I hope you will visit both shops and see what wondrous products they have in store for you.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a super creative weekend.

Hugs,

Barbara

Chinese New Year Banner

Hey everyone!  Glad you stopped by, because I want to share my Chinese New Year Banner with you today.  I have been having fun with my Silhouette and my Altered Pages collages sheets, and the AP Challenge this month is Chinese New Year.  So, here is one more inspiration piece for you.

I cut all of my base pieces from the card stock colors, as shown in the photo below.

Adhere layered pieces together.  This gives our base piece a lot of sturdiness.

Add two strips of gold card stock to the top for your chopstick.  Now you can hang your calendar.

Print out your AP-2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet, as well as a mini 2014 calendar from the internet, die cutting and trimming, as shown.

Each of my images were edge distressed with Mix'd Media Inx in Schoolhouse Red and Black.

Reverse side

Supplies Used:

Altered Pages AP-2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet 

(printed onto Astroparche paper and vellum)

Mix'd Media Inx:  Schoolhouse Red, Black

Silhouette machine and cut files

Red, Black, gold card stock

Spellbinders dies: Labels 25, Marvelous Squares

Dollar store chopstick

Various embellishments and trims

I hope you enjoyed my project today and will be inspired to make your own Chinese New Year Banner style calendar to hang near your desk.  So hop on over to the AP Store for some of their fun products, and be sure to check out the Altered Pages Challenge Page so you, too, can show off your work and participate in this fun project for a chance to win some fabulous products.  There will be much more inspiration on the Altered Pages blog for you to see.  

Have a wonderful, creative week!

Hugs,

Barbara

Altered Pages Monthly Challenge

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!  And speaking of the new year, our theme for this month's challenge is Chinese New Year.  2014 is the Year of the Horse, and this year, Chinese New Year's Day will actually arrive on January 31st.  So, to celebrate this day, I decided to make a Chinese Lantern, but instead of using a candle, I prefer to use the battery-operated tea lights.

Side 1

Side 2

Side 1-Night View

Side 2 - Night View

Close-up - Night View

I used two pieces of 6" x 12" black card stock that I scored vertically along the long edge  at 3", 6", and 9".  This gave me four panels to work with.

Next, I resized my four central images from AP 2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet and printed them onto vellum.   After cutting four lattice frames in the center of each of the two center panels using my Silhouette die cut machine, I placed strips of Scor-tape along the lattice edges, applying gold leafing through the openings.  When I removed the release paper on the opposite side of the Scor-tape  I centered the frames over my vellum images.

Graphic 45's Birdsong paper lent itself beautifully to decorating my lantern, using a decorative corner punch on each corner before adhering to each outer panel.  On two outer panels, I die cut two horses using my Silhouette machine, and two more horse images from the AP 2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet.  I used images from AP 1842 Chinese Health Posters to place behind each horse image, and a few calligraphy symbols for the center panels.

Supplies used:

Altered Pages Collage Sheets:  AP 2251 Year of the Horse; 

AP 1842 Chinese Health Posters 

Scor-tape 

gold leafing

Black card stock

decorative corner punch

Chinese embellishments

Mini tassels (4) 

Maple leaf brads

Below are some close-ups of each panel.  

           Side 1 - Panel 1

Side 1 - Panel 2

           Side 1 - Panel 3

Side 1 - Panel 4

Side 2 - Panel 1

Side 2 - Panel 2

Side 2 - Panel 3

Side 2 - Panel 4

Now that you have a bit of inspiration from the design team for this month's challenge, I hope you will join us for this fun, festive holiday by making your very own Chinese New Year project, posting it to your own blog and linking it up to the Altered Pages Challenge page.  There is always a wonderful prize to be won, and we love to see your work!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see your creation this month.  

Hugs,

Barbara

CHA Block Party

Hello everyone, and welcome.  As most of you already know, the big Craft and Hobby Show, or CHA, opens today in Anaheim, California.

I am honored to be participating with many other designer artists in Sizzix's Block Party at CHA featuring one of Eileen Hull's new Sizzix dies, the Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D, aka the Artist Trading Block™, or ATB for short!   Here is a quick look at mine, with some directions on how I decorated it.

Eileen says this about her ATBs:

 The Block is part of my new Sizzix Cherished collection which is designed around a baby theme. But let me tell you, this die is not just for babies! First of all, it is a ScoreBoards die, which is specially designed to cut and score THICK materials, like matboard and chipboard. This technology is unique to Sizzix so you won't find anything else like it! 

The Block measures 3" square, can be assembled in under a minute and it is super versatile! You can use inks, paint, chalks, mists, or markers with your stencils- the rigid matboard makes the block nice and sturdy so you don't have to worry about wrinkling or tearing- load on the techniques- the matboard can handle it! 

Artist Trading Blocks™ are the next big thing in the crafting world! Unlike tags and ATC’s, Artist Trading Blocks allow you to create in 3-D!  Why show only one side of your creativity when you can express yourself with multidimensional style? Make your mark on these six-sided blocks using all of your favorite craft supplies and techniques.

Supplies Used:

Sizzix Scoreboards die: Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D
The Looking Glass 8x8 paper pad (Kaisercraft)
Distress ink:  Evergreen Bough (Tim Holtz)
Decorative Labels Eight die (left side), Blossom Tags and Accents (front)(back), Damask Motifs (top)(right side)(bottom),  (Spellbinders)
Corner rounder (Marvy)
Wooden clock (Prima)

Hey Pesto, South Pacific, Nougat Fresco Finish acrylic paint (Paper Artsy)

Paint edges and inside of both pieces of box with the three acrylic paints, blending as you brush it on.

Dry fit box together and mark sides and direction, as shown.  This will help greatly when you are decorating your box, especially if your papers and embellishments have a direction.

Now you can see which way to place your papers and images while working on it flat.

Cut 6 pieces of print paper slightly smaller than 3" x 3", ink edges with Evergreen Bough, and adhere to each side, marking with a tiny post-it note as you go.

Add your embellishments, maintaining that direction you have noted on your post-it notes.

Here are some close-ups of each side of the box.

And the completed box, once again.

I hope you enjoyed my project today.  This is going to be a fun new trend this year, so you may want to check out your local stores to get your hands on this wonderful die as soon as it becomes available.  If you are at CHA this year, I hope you are having a blast!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a super wonderful weekend.

Barbara

Two for Tuesday Blog Hop with Altered Pages & Pink Persimmon

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Two for Tuesday Blog Hop.  This month, we are teaming up with a wonderful stamp company, Pink Persimmon.  I selected this wonderful sewing themed stamp because I love collecting vintage sewing tools and sewing themed ephemera.  It is about the size of an ATC, so it is perfect for my project today.  So, I decided to make a sewing themed matchbook style mini book, using Altered Pages collage images and this stamp.

After stamping the image directly onto various collage images, I then adhered them to stronger card stock, cut them out, and inserted them into the bottom of the matchbook  Here is a close-up of each page inside the book.

Inside matchbook

To finish off, I added a tiny dress form, some bling, and distress inked the edges.  Then I 
tied Sunflower ribbon around top and pinned sewing machine charm to ribbon knot.

Supplies used:

Altered Pages Collage Sheets: AP-649 Vintage Sewing Trade Cards (roses, girl & pup, mother & daughter sewing, frowning girl, toddler); AP-468 Antique Sewing (ladies sewing, sewing machine, scissors)  (printed on Astroparche paper)

Graphic 45 French Country 6x6 paper pad

Vintage Mix'd Media Inx

Pink Persimmon Sweetheart Mending stamp

Burgundy/tan card stock (Nostalgiques-EK Success)

Lasercut doilies (Gina's Designs)

Archival black ink pad

Sunflower rumple ribbon

Hope you enjoyed my vintage matchbook project today.  Wouldn't this make an awesome ATC holder?  And thanks to Pink Persimmon for sponsoring us this month.  I absolutely love this particular stamp image.  It lends itself to so many possibilities.  So be sure to go on over to both Altered Pages and  Pink Persimmon for all of your art needs.

Don't go anywhere though, there are more projects for you to enjoy from the rest of the team.  Here are the links to help you find your way.
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Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative week.

Hugs,
Barbara