ATC 26 Blackbird

Well this ATC was just kind of an accident. I was playing with my specialty papers with a fiskers die cut and made the blackbird, a purple. The base of this ATC card is actually recycled cardboard. I am not sure what this image was meant to be, or what I had gotten it from. I had randomly cut some scrap for the backs of these ATC's. I found this one and felt like playing with it. I put the bird on the small box on the desk. I found this old book that I have. It is the coolest thing. It has all of these interesting sentences. The purpose of the book is that it is attempting to teach grammar. Well, grammar is not my strong suit, but I must say some of the sentences are going to be great for these ATC's. They are awesome creative prompts.

ATC 25 Wise Bird

This ATC was done with fabric paper (sigh). I just loved the flowers that were trapped between the layers of tissue paper. I added some stitching and stamping. The final stamp was embossed in copper.

ATC 24 Precious Youth

This ATC is not made on fabric paper. I know, shocking. This is actually made on mixed media paper. I like this paper as it is very thick, almost like card stock. It can hold paint and water and doesn't warp. The three colors of the base where a bright green, teal blue and deep blue. I just scraped them across the entire surface with an old credit card. I then attached an image of this precious little girl. I am not even sure where I got her image from. I then stamped the entire sheet of paper. (Yes more ATC cards to come from this bigger piece). I then used some paper tape.

Text Me Challenge

I have used fabric paper in many of my projects on this blog. I just love the texture and the uniqueness of it surface. I decided to use this hand made paper for my latest quilting challenge. Quilting Arts magazine provided the prompt "TEXT ME". Any form of text can be used in this 8" X 8" quilt. I enjoyed making this quilt. The fabric paper which was conceived by Beryl Taylor (genius) is muslin that is covered in a glue/water mixture. Adding paper, tissue papers, fabric, trims, lace etc, you glue everything down, just like grade school. Perhaps that is why I like it so much. Then add a layer of white tissue paper over the top. Glue that down with the same mixture. Finally, add shimmer mist, diluted acrylic paint, glitter, and anything else you can think. Voila, fabric paper. You can iron it, sew on it, cut it, glue on it again, and as I did with this bee, thread paint it. I used 10 different threads and it took some effort to figure out which needle to use (denim) and what thread tension. Due to the thickness of the fabric paper the thread kept breaking. All in all I was happy with it's completed look. I am looking forward to making more of these little buggers.

The beauty of the bee

This photo was taken in my flower bed. I loved this little bee just carefully resting on this delicate flower.

Becoming a weed....the strong one

This weed is one of my favorites. There was an article written by a physician who stated that women who didn't work full time were like weeds in the garden. Interesting, as weeds are typically the survivors, and some of the flowers are well, shall we say temperamental? Once again done in pixlr.....

Poppies!!!

 These poppies were taken in the summer of 2011 at an abandoned house in Cross Village Michigan. I love their color. These images were edited with the pixlr software. I enjoy taking an image and aging it with this software. Operates similar to photoshop, but very simple to use. It is also free online. These photos are actually completed in multiple steps. They are color photographs that are made black and white. The color is "painted" back into the flower. The photos then are put through various filters to achieve the desired effect.