An ATC Challenge

Have you tried ATC's? I thought they were silly ... why would anyone want to do little Artist Trading Cards and put them in a baseball card-type binder? That was then ... this is now! I caught the band-wagon and a dear friend gave me an ATC challenge. The rest is history. Consider me ATC'd. Looky looky ... This is my first attempt - ever - at making ATCs. I wanted them to be "me" ... something that said "Yes, this is Kay!" when you looked at it. I choose Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides cardstock for my base -- because yes, this is my go-to color most of the time. Next up, was my Papertrey Polka Dots, stamped in pale pink, which is another one of my most often go-to techniques. The saying speaks my heart - I love my girlfriends! They really do knock my socks off! The little artsy joker stamp is part of my new stampington clear set (Whimsey) and in my humble opinion, it adds just the right amount of A R T to my A T C! I tied it all up with twine and last, but not least, I JUST HAD TO add a flower because THAT SAYS "KAY" like nothing else! I LOVE. I LOVE. I LOVE.

This was my girlfriend's ATC that she sent me in the mail, after a fun evening at her house making crafts. Her little dog Buster spent the evening with us, so here he is! On the back of the card, she wrote the details and issued the challenge. I took it! It's a brave, new, world! LOL

Check out Donna Downey's blog for some really stinkin' cute ATC's. She is starting a monthly kit club too. And they are displayed on an adorable 7Gypsies spinner. I'm hooked. Yep. Thanks Cindy, for a fun challenge!

It Takes a Village

The challenge? Use old book pages or sheet music in some form or fashion in your project. This is what our craft group did last month. So I dolled up some little wooden bird houses that I purchased at JoAnn's for $1 each. Here is the little village they turned into!First, I painted them with basic acrylic paint using a sponge applicator - very easy and not time consuming at all because they dry so quickly. Each roof is "thatched" with layers of scallop edges.

Then all that is left to do is embellish - the fun part! Some houses were covered with additional papers, but the front of each house was left for the paint to show. I choose various cute sentiments from here and there and added some tags and buttons as I went along.

This blue/green house is one of my fav's! Love the saying and matching tag.

Well, maybe this house is my fav because of the funny saying!? It's hard to choose!

Ever since I re-discovered my hot glue gun, projects like these have been fun to tackle. Adding trims and buttons are a breeze.

Many of the stamped tags are from a new whimsy art stamp set that I ordered from Stampington.

Here is my little village all lined up in a row, just like San Francisco houses! LOL

This is a nice photo of the roofs and back sides. I love them. I love my village. I'm moving in.

A Little More Valentine Love

Yes, I know it's over (Valentine Day - that is) but I got more good stuff to post. Indulge me, for the sake of LUV! I covered some heavy cardboard canisters and they turned out so caaaa-ute! The little one on top is painted and stamped, and it holds a little gift for my sister. It is adorable. The big one -- that's a whale of another story I tell ya. It holds a batch of chocolate no-bake cookies for my son who lives in DC. If the cookies arrive in a jillion pieces, it's still good right?

I covered the big canister with valentine paper, which was a fun and messy thing to do using Modge Podge. But the joke was on me ... because even though it looks like a cutie, once I got done covering it, then the lid didn't fit! LOL So I started junking it up with various embellishments to make up for the no lid. But I decided to send the un-fit lid along with it, just so he could see how cute it "would have" looked and it's still good, right? I mean, it has cookies in it, after all!!

Dig this "family" label I found in my stash, don't you?

The small canister has a squishy flower embelly on the lid -- made with various graduated sizes of circle scallops and papers. (just spray each scallop with water and squish the paper into a wad; unfold and layer together)

The Valentine cards are larger than normal (5x5). This one using one of Papertrey's fillable frames dies and matching stamp - love it!

More Papertrey on these cards -- the flower and leaves are one of their dies. In fact, this particular flower is my fav because you can bend the petals up for dimension. It looks great EVERY single time. Well -- okay then -- this year's Valentine attempts can go down in history!