Graduation Celebration ATC

It's been awhile since I've made an ATC but since DRS Designs is this week's sponsor for the Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge, I decided to give it a try. One thing I really like about ATC's is the small space you have to work on, which makes them quick to complete! For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, they measure only 2.5" x 3.5". The size alone can be a challenge in itself! The theme for this sponsorship is "Quotes and Words" with the focus being on the sentiment. I used this challenge to create this Graduation Celebration ATC.

I used the upper portion of the Culmination Graduation Greeting (1126K) as the focal point of my ATC. I thought the wording was a little plain on the white cardstock so I stamped the Brush Mortarboard (287G) using the stamp-off technique with green ink on top of the wording. Then I embellished it with a green decorative border on both ends and green grosgrain tied in a knot at the bottom. To finish it off, it was adhered to a black base.

I plan on using this ATC to complete another project. Please check back to see it on a future DRS blog post. In the meantime, give this ATC challenge a try! Check out all the details HERE for a chance to win a great prize from DRS Designs.

Have a great day!

Smiles,

Jennifer

Read more...

Moonlight and Magic

Hi Stampers! Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a wonderful week! 
Jennifer here today to tell you about this week's Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge. DRS Designs is their sponsor and for playing along, you have a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the DRS Designs store.  The theme is "Full Moon."

It's been a really long time since I've created any sort of ATC's, so I decided to take this opportunity to create a Halloween ATC and then I used it to create a card. If you're familiar with ATC's, you know that they are only 2.5" x 3.5" in size. It was a nice change to work on a smaller scale! The Halloween scene on my ATC was created using 3 stamps from DRS Designs: the Spooky Tree with Moon (070L), the Accent Bats (517A), and a portion of the Moonlight and Magic Halloween Greeting (609G). Everything was colored with Copic Markers, even the background--I originally started with white cardstock! I used a scalloped rectangle die to create a mat for the scene and used an ATC sized piece of yellow shimmer cardstock for the base. I thought the black ribbon completed it nicely. 

Then I created this card by adding a little texture with a star embossing folder, some star-shaped rhinestones, and yummy purple and yellow plaid ribbon. I used the remaining portion of the Moonlight and Magic greeting at the top, and the ATC was added at the bottom. Viola! Another Halloween card was complete!

Please check out all of the wonderful ATC's created by the Wicked Wednesday DT and link your ATC for a chance to win! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles,

Jennifer

Read more...

more ATC fun or, darn, my stamp is too large

No it isn't :)
Often times when following a sketch or wanting to make an ATC I go look around for stamps that "fit" the different panels or sizes. You don't really have to because you don't always need to use the whole stamp, partial is totally ok and can give you nice effects! Take for instance those very cute new snowmen stamps:

These are two separate stamps, I just combined them in one image for you. The smaller one JUST about fits onto an ATC, but it looked a bit overwhelming on the small canvas. So I thought why not just take the tops of both making them look into the scene:

They work very well without their bottoms and it gives a fun look!
The way I made this ATC:
First prepare a background with acrylic shimmer colors (you can also take a stamped or patterned card stock)
Stamp the Interlocking star background twice over the top at an angle with versamark and emboss in gold.
Stamp snowmen at an angle in black for the background layer so that you don't have to cut out arms etc.
Stamp snowmen again on white shimmer card stock, color and cut out bodies but cutting off hat rims, arms and scarf fringes.
Align snowmen over stamped ones and glue down, then trim ATC to final size.
Stamp sentiment and add dove brad, sponge the edges and you're done :)
Manke many and trade!!

So next time you are looking for that perfect stamp for a perfect size, don't be limited by the size of the stamp, see if you can take a partial image, it can work to your advantage!

Read more...

more ATC cards

Since I had made more than one ATC two weeks ago, I thought I show you some more examples how you can use them to make a card. It is kind of clever, you have you main image and style done already and just get to play with it to make a full card.
Here is w hat I did with the little bee:

I stamped the bee numerous times all over a yellow base card in two different light inks, then punched out some flowers in white and popped them up in the corners to visually connect with the white of the card and the raised bee.

The "create" card I wanted to be a bit different, so why not CUT your ATC? This sentiment always makes me feel like I can jump outside of the box and I tried doing that with this one.

Scissors on the table, I cut some more on the christmas bug ATC. The corners went into the card corners and I added the black glaze pen again to the cut edges. Stamped the backgrounder mosaic again on red card stock and took a few pieces to lead the mosaic puzzle into the background.

So, what can you do with your ATC? If you play go ahead and let us know so we can see your creations!

Read more...

Challenge #4!

Welcome back!! Today is a busy day for DRS Designs!!! Our new Halloween images are available for purchase today!!! Be sure to check the website and get that order in so you can get a jump on your Halloween cards and projects!! Be sure to check out the DT blogs (and this one too!) for some great inspiration pieces using the new images!

Today is also the start of Challenge #4 here on the DRS Designs Blog. Our last challenge was to make two ATC's...the reason I asked for two is so that one could remain as an ATC and the other could be incorporated into a card. So, that is your challenge - find the ATC you made within the last two weeks (!) and make it into a full card!

There is no time limit for playing...we would love to see what you create so be sure to come back and post a direct link to your project in the comment section. If you upload your project to Splitcoaststampers, be sure to use the keyword DRSC4.

You can check out the Challenge #3 post to see the original ATC's on their own!

Here is some inspiration from our design team...

Cathy Indelicato/Crafty Thoughts

Jennifer Emmi/Ink N Scrap Habits

Vicki Parson's ATC full card/ Stamped Smiles

Etha's ATC full card:

Jessica G's ATC Conversion Group:

Angel's full ATC card/Angel's World


Heather's Frog Daddy and Frog Mama ATC full cards


Dawn's Full Card... /Dawns Rubber Room




Janette's ATC conversions- Stampin with Style




ATC & ATC card by Jessica Knutsen/ There She Goes

Read more...

those large sentiments, making a background and calculated sloppiness

How's that for a title?? I just could not decide what I wanted to call this :)
I have a September Birthday card for you today, just follow along and see what I did. I wanted to use the wonderful September Sentiment stamp - DRSdesigns has one for each month ! I also wanted to use the beautiful sunflower stamp for the background but I did not really want to cover it up with a sentiment layer.
First I made my background using the sunflower:

The sunflower has just about the right size so that the sentiment would fit over it. I stamped my main flower in the upper part of the card panel. Then I stamped it two more times onto a post-it-note making sure that I have part of the flower on top where the sticky part is. I can cover up the main flower with the mask and then stamp some more flowers:

tip1: when you cut out your mask, cut off the black outside line from the stamped image, this way you will not get a while halo around it when stamping over it!

tip2: how do you find the way to orient the sunflower mask? There are two petals on the flower that lie "on top" of the adjacent ones, I marked them in the right image, find those and it will be easy to line the mask up over the stamped one.


Now I quickly colored the background flowers with markers:

This is where the fun sloppiness begins. I just layered markers of different colors over the stamped images until I was happy with the way it looked. Dye ink markers behave like any other water-soluble pigment, you can layer them and even dilute them with water. I colored the background behind the flowers with ink from a brown dye ink pad. I did not want this to look uniform, just slop it on with a water brush. You can see I laid the sentiment stamp on top of the main flower to show that it fits well in there. Next I needed to prepare my background in a way that one would be able to read the sentiment. I used some acrylic paint to just paint the area in bold brush strokes where I wanted to stamp the sentiment:

My first layer used "wheat" acrylic paint (making memories), I dried it with the heat gun, then painted a shimmery white acrylic paint (luna lights) over that and again dried with the heat gun. You could paint your "image" exactly where you want to stamp, but I think its fun when it is just a layer of brush strokes over your background.
Stamp your sentiment, add some embellishments and finish your card:


Click on the image to see what it looks like when you tilt the card in the light :) Since we were just playing with ATCs on Monday, here is one that I made with the exact same method and paint colors:
Fun, isn't it? acrylic paints are in essence a water dilutable pigment that appear transparent in a thin layer and depending on how you hold the ATC you can still see the circles background behind it, or not. A bit interactive if you wish.
I hope you have enjoyed today's venture into painting and masking, see you again in two weeks!

Read more...

Challenge #3

Wow, those two weeks went by fast!!! Are you ready for a new DRS Designs blog challenge? This week we are making artist trading cards or ATC's! You can find out more about them HERE. Bigger than the now popular inchies (these measure 2.5 x 3.5) these small canvases can be just as much fun. I've asked the design team members to make two ATC's that are the same...one for the challenge and one to hang onto for a challenge later in the month.

We'd love for you to join us in our challenges. If you choose, you can make just one ATC but be sure you hang onto it (put it in a safe place in your craft area - is there one?! LOL) and check back to join in on the second part of this challenge! Be sure to post a comment with a direct link to your project so we can come check it out! Tell your friends too, the more the merrier! If you upload to SCS, please use the keyword DRSC3.

Check out these inspiring ATC'S from our design team...



Etha used the beautiful Poinsettia Ribbon Slide on her ATCs:

Vicki Parson's Halloween ATC/ Stamped Smiles

Dawn Knight's Sunny Flower ATC card


















Cathy Indelicato's Christmas snowflake scroll ATC/CraftyThoughts...

Holiday Snowman ATC by Jennifer Emmi

Jessica G created a variety of ATCs, from a very basic version with a single image/sentiment to more detailed versions:



Heather's Frog Daddy and Frog Mama ATC's







Janette shows a variety of ideas using a single stamp



Created by Angel/Angel'sWorld:



Created by Jessica K/ There She Goes

Read more...