First ATC's

Hi People,
Well as promised, better late than never!
My first ever ATC's. For those not in the know, ATC's are Artist Trading Cards (although I am no artist, just a crafter).

Here's my first ATC (too nice to swap). Inspired by Beyonce's song, thought I'd make it a little modern.

I used the resist technique, by stamping with one of Tim Holtz's stamps with pink ink and embossing with clear embossing powder. I then took the green ink and distressed over the top. The words are stamped on bits of clear perspex packing material. The pink textured material is a scrap of sinamay from my hat making. The butterfly is simply a piece of plain white copy paper distressed in blue ink and then punched with the Martha Stewart butterfly large punch. I didn't realise at first that ATC's are one sided, so I stamped the back with the Martha Stewart stamp around the page stamp. I also used stickles and a pink tag with girls stamped on and then distressed.

After I took this photo I attached a ticket cut out with Tim Holtz's Sizzix die and added the details normally added to an ATC, which I didn't know at first.

You can copy, paste and print your own from below;

ATC title:

By:

Date:

No:

Email:

The next ATC's I created;

 

This was using some packing material from a 'me to you' present my best friend gave me for Christmas. I simply used one of my fiskar's boarder punches on the bottom, distressed with pink ink, added ribbon and some more sinamay for a little pocket for a tag with a Tim Holtz stamp.

Quick Product Review - Fiskar's Vs Martha Stewart punches

I cannot rate fiskar boarder punches highly enough! They punch through even card, like a dream. They give a clean crisp edge, unlike other punches I've used.

Now here comes my controversial comment . . . I'm not a fan of Martha Stewart punches.

I have used other peoples and have the large butterfly which I used above and I have two punch anywhere punches.

Don't get me wrong I love her designs and concepts, however the punches are sticky and don't leave clean crisp lines. They only cut through thin paper and they also jam.

I was at a crop borrowing someone's beautiful punch, and I though I had broken it, I was absolutely horrified, luckily it wasn't broken. Also the lady was so lovely about the whole thing.

So rounding up - Fiskar's rule quality, Martha's designs are beautiful.

The next ATC was again using recycled materials.

You do not need to spend lots when making ATC's.

This was one of the ATCs I have swapped. I used the technique of crumpling the paper and then inking it. I stuck the perspex packing material to the card after die cutting the skull shape, using the movers and shapers dies by Tim Holtz and Sizzix. I also stamped the perspex using a scrap piece of paper as a mask. I then attached the scrap sinamay over the top with eyelets, cutting the holes and setting the eyelets with the big bite crop-a-dile (awesome tool!).

I'll have to put my 5 ATCs for the monthly crop in the next post.

Happy Crafting!