Very Vintage ATCs

Christmas has been over and I have been enjoying my self imposed annual January Holiday. I just don't do much of anything in January and I love it. I do the regular domestic necessities, I just spend the other time doing things I want to do. I did spend the end of the month doing some ATCs for a Red Lead swap, "Very Vintage". These were really fun to make, well they are all fun to make, actually just because I love doing them. I hope you enjoy them.

More Very Vintage ATCs

Winter Wishes

Wonderful Wishes to everyone. Whatever "Winter Holiday" you celebrate may it be bright and happy.

More ATCs......

A couple more ATCs I have made recently. The first one's theme was music and I had a hard time with it. I finally came up with this idea. I think I like it better now than when I first finished it.

FrontBack

This was a single image swap. Everyone was given the same image. It was fun to see how differently we all treated this photo of the ladies eating ice cream.

One man's Junk.....

I must admit I am a hoarder. Not the kind you will find on TV. Yes, I am a pretty neat housekeeper, but I hoard all useful things that may end up altered or used in any number of projects that I may come up with. My husband has been trying to get rid of this $6.00 bulletin board that used to belong to one of my sons. It had drawings all over it and some of the cork was missing, but I just knew I could use it for something. Well, he threatened to throw it away one last time and told me that if I came up with an idea he would give me $6.00 to go buy a new one. I asked for 24 hours more and he agreed. He's really pretty good to me. We have been married 29 (GULP) years last weekend.

This is what I came up with.

Since I swap ATCs and usually fall in love with them and want to show them off, I am am not comfortable with sticking pins or tacks through them. I saw an ATC album for sale once that had these pages in it that you could just slip the card into the folds of the page. Then I thought , EUREKA !! , that's what I will do with this old cork board. First, I collaged (don't know if that's a word) the frame with bits of collage sheets that I had, glued down and sealed with Perfect Paper Adhesive. I LOVE this stuff and will never use Mod Podge again. PPA does not dry tacky and it dries pretty quickly. It comes in a matte and glossy finish. It's acrylic based and water resistant.

Next, I practiced with some newspaper the folds that I wanted to have on the board. When I got it how I wanted it , I went to the Art store and bought some heavy drawing paper in a "Manilla Folder" color ( I need three big sheets, after folding, the paper size really shrunk) . I folded it according to my practice paper and then sewed the sides with my sewing machine to keep the folds down. I used that sticky red tape and stuck it to the cork and Viola ! this is what I came up with. Now I can take out, look at and show off my favorite ATC's without harming them and it looks like it will hold a lot of them. Thanks for looking. If you have any questions, about specifics, please ask me in the comments.

Holiday ATCs

A few more .....

Some Holiday ATCs

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm still a little blue over the loss of our sweet dog, Trouble. Life goes on. I got a little perked up making these Holiday ATCs for the Read Lead ATC swap. It's a little early for me to be thinking of Christmas, never the less it was fun to do. I hope you enjoy them.

More Ancestors

Ancestor ATCs

I'm in another ATC swap in the RedLead Yahoo group. It's an Ancestor swap and you have to use their images on the cards. It's been really fun to use these and to make each card different. Most of the time in swaps so far, I have made them all alike so each swapee gets the same card. So, anyway, this gives me a little more artistic leeway which has really been fun to do. I love the vintage feel of the images, and although they aren't my ancestors, I have given them personalities of my real ones. I hope you like them.

Some recent ATCs

I have been a member of my ATC group for almost two years. Time flies when you are having fun ... Anyway here are some recent cards. I loved the Travel theme. There are so many places I would love to visit I thought this would be a great series to  make of just places I wanted to go. For the swap I chose Rome. This ATC folds open, looking like a passport on the outside. 

This one is from a "Letters and Numbers" swap. The topic was my suggestion but it took me a while to come up with an idea. I kind of like how it turned out. 

More ATC's

Here are a few more ATC's. 

Vintage Advertising

Halloween

Patriotic 

ATC's

I love making ATC's. I started swapping with a small group about a year and a half ago. It has been a lot of fun and I have so enjoyed getting to know these wonderful ladies. The most cards I have made for a single swap is 10. Each one a little challenge on it's own, to come up with a design that I am happy with on such a small canvas, but so rewarding. Here are some of my cards. 

Literary ATC

Black and White, and one color.

Childhood Games

Valentines

A Child's Christmas