Artist Trading Club- Guest Artist

I was asked to be Guest Artist for February over at The Artist Trading Club.  I decided that rather than offer a theme for this months challenge... I would leave that choice up to the individual... instead I am asking everyone to make an ATC easel card for which I have provided a template and tutorial which you will find below. 

This is one of my completed atc's... I used a print of one of my paintings and a public domain quote by Helen Keller which I love, some ribbon, bling, watercolour crayons and acrylic paint.  (Sorry for the pants photo)

Ok here we go :-)  You will see the template below... please click to enlarge before saving to your computer to print out. 

If you prefer to cut without the template the three piece sizes are one each of the following :-

7" x 2.5"

3.5" x 2.5"

2" x 1.5"

Step 1...  Fold the long piece in half  then open it back up and decorate the bottom half ... also decorate the atc size piece and the smaller one.  You can use any medium you wish... paint, collage, stamps, etc...

To assemble the Atc easel card.... take the long piece and bring the undecorated outer edge in to the centre fold and use a bone folder to flatten as shown below.

 Now when you bring the outer edge forward from the centre fold you will have a shape as seen below.  Cover the part of the undecorated piece that faces you with glue (or as I did...DS tape).... this is where you will adhere the bottom of your previously decorated  atc.

Your easel card will look like the pic below once you have adhered your atc and the smallest piece to the bottom of the card to act as a stopper.  You may wish to use a button, brad or something else in place of this piece depending on the style of your atc.  As long as whatever you use is not totally flat... the sky's the limit.

 I hope you will join in with the challenge and I will be looking forward to my swaps :-)
hugs
Chris xx

ATC club March challenge-Garden Fairies

This months theme for the Atc club swap "Garden Fairies" was set by the lovely, talented Nancy. If you'd like to join in all you have to do is create 5 atc's to the theme... you keep one yourself and then send the other 4 off to Chriss by the end of March and you receive 4 swaps from the same theme... totally cool and I love receiving mine cos they are always so fabulous. More info can be found here.
I had a ball creating these... though it did take me a while. I made me a secret garden :D Tim Holtz distress inks on the go again...love them.

The fairy and daisy stamp (on inside of the doors) are Crafty Individuals.

I covered inside of my Secret Garden with rock candy stickles... you can just sort of see it on the fairies dress but it is lovely in real life and makes her look magical :D

hugs

Chris xx

Artist Trading Club- February challenge.... Cookies

Donna (Cookie Sunshine) is this month's guest designer at the Artist Trading Club and she has named her ATC's 'Cookies' after the blog she previously ran. Her Cookies are made up of art she has previously made including doodling, paintings and images etc, digitally collaged and then other pieces added after printing out.
Well I just knew I was going to love this!! So I painted and doodled my backgrounds...
scanned them... added my own digital image stamp

printed them out on canvas paper....

added some rub-on words and extra doodling...

and also some bling... lol

Cor I just loved it...it was so much fun.

Have a fab day all and thanks for looking :D

hugs

Chris xx

ATC challenge- zetti

The lovely and ever so talented Hermine is this months guest artist for the Artist Trading Club and she has chosen Zetti as the theme for our atc challenge. Loving it...loving it.... loving it!!! Thank you Hermine :D
My mojo seems to have returned big style just in time it seems. Well actually it's gone into overdrive cos even though we're only supposed to do 5 atc's keeping one ourselves and sending the other 4 for swaps.... I did 9 rofl.
Actually did some stamping...

and doodling.... some collage...

and some watercolour backgrounds too as a home to my luscious ladies...lol

I would never have been brave enough to have been a Goth but doing a Gothic atc was such a lotta fun.

If you'd like to join in with the challenge and receive some fabulous swaps you still have time as the challenge is open until the end of the month. Check out the links in the comments section on this post on the Artist Trading Club blog to see some amazing artwork and to see what you could receive in your swap.

Happy Crafting

hugs

Chris xx

Sewing ATC

I came across this picture yesterday of one of the atc's I did on a sewing theme for The Artist Trading Club. The background was handmade felt... my first attempt at wet felting (cool and so much fun to do ) I added chain stitch for extra decoration. The main image from lisa's altered art was added by printing onto t-shirt transfer fabric before ironing it on to the background. The only kind of ironing that I like to do...lol
I've been in a much better mood the last few days and I'm heaving great sighs of relief... the black dog seems to have been put in his place and has gone into hiding. I've been experimenting with some altered art...doing some sketches and painting and trying to find a style of my own. I love how you can recognise some peoples artwork and creating straight away, just by the style they have, but because I'm jack of all trades and master of none in my crafting I seem to flit around like a butterfly all of a flutter going from one thing to another without settling into a niche of my own. I do like to experiment as it's half the fun but I really want something I can go back to time and time again which lets out what's inside and gives me a head start. I feel that once I find my 'style' then I will have a starting block and I think you will see lots of journalling pages and altered art on my blog in the future. Wish me luck :D
hugs
Chris xx