A Shabby Little ATC

This week at Our Creative Corner, our host Rebecca Ednie is challenging us to make an artist's trading card (ATC).  ATCs are miniature pieces of art measuring  2.5 by 3.5 inches.  Rebecca has given us a color requirement for our ATCs - use kraft plus black or brown, white or cream and one other color.

I must admit, this is only the second ATC I have ever made.  Despite its small size and uncomplicated nature, making this ATC did not come easy to me.  I thought it would be a snap, very quick and easy.  But I hemmed and hawed over it for hours, tweaking this, changing that.  This is what I finally ended up with.  Not sure but what it needs to be tweaked some more, but I flat ran out of time.  So much angst over a few little bits of paper, ribbon and buttons - LOL!

Anyway, this awesome new Button Boutique set by Papertrey Ink and the matching die were absolutely perfect sized to make an ATC.  I started with a kraft base and stamped it with Chocolate Chip ink.  I took a doily and sprayed it with a mixture of water, Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls and just a tiny half drop of Vintage Photo reinker.  I was going for a cream color for the white doily and it actually worked. I found 4 brown buttons and affixed them to the button card with glue dots.  Then dyed my seam binding with Rose Romance reinker.  I've had some polyester twill kicking around my workstation.  I purchased it thinking I could use it like the cotton twill, but didn't like it.  But it worked beautifully to make two tiny ribbon flowers with.  I've also had this teeny tiny clothes pin on my desk which became a perfect embellishment.  I grunged it up a bit with Vintage Photo ink, applied a little German glass glitter in gold and a large pink rhinestone.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages set and the little tag was cut with a spellbinders tag die.  Most of the beads on the stick pin are from the SU Pretties Kit.  That's pretty much all I can tell you about my ATC, but if you have questions, please let me know.

Hope you will be joining in the ATC fun over at Our Creative Corner.  Be sure to stop and see what the rest of our design team has made for this challenge!  Have a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by.







Challenges Entered:
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Buttons
The Shabby Tea Room - BINGO (buttons, flowers, glimmer/glitter)
TuesdayThrowdown - Anything But a Card
The Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Sparkle

Gently Distressed

Thanks for stopping by today to view my sample for the weekly Our Creative Corner challenge.  We have a relaxing challenge for you this week.  At least we hope you will be relaxed when you finish your project for our challenge.  Our host, Sarah Gough, challenged us to De-stress by Distressing our card that we made following the OCC sketch.  You know, I almost always scissor distress my edges, right?  Do you believe I didn't do that for this challenge?  Yikes, I was so into the sketch that I forgot all about the distressing requirement.  Fortunately I always ink distress my edges so that allowed the card to meet the challenge requirements.  I almost ripped it apart and started on it with my scissors, but my team mates weighed in and nixed that.  So here is my very gently distressed card.

I saw the previews of this new Button Boutique stamp set by Papertrey Inc. and absolutely had to have it.  The website said it was being released on February 15th, so I checked the site at 12:00 a.m. on the 15th and sure enough it was there for purchase.  So I splurged and bought the stamp set and three coordinating dies.  I think I will be able to get quite a bit of use out of this sweet vintage set.

The Dets:
Paper:  Very Vanilla, MME Bella Bella and polka dot by Pink Petticoat, adjusted the color in PhotoShop Elements so it coordinated with the MME paper.  The coordinating solid colored mat was created on PhotoShop Elements also to match the MME paper.
Stamps:  Button Boutique and Birthday Basics from Papertrey Ink
Ink:  Blue Bayou, Antique Linen distress ink
Accessories:  Creative Memories corner rounder, lace doily cut with a Spellbinders' Scallop die, lace, ribbon and chipboard buttons made with Papertrey dies Buttoned Up 1 & 2 (scroll down to the bottomof the page)

That's it on the details.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Love hearing from you all and thank you so so much for continuing to support me.  I hope to see your beautiful distressed card following our sketch over on the challenge blog this week!

Challenges Entered:
The Shabby Tea Room -  Buttons and Bows
The Pink Elephant - Buttons, Lace, Ribbon
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Birthday
Stampin' for the Weekend - Monochrome
Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Shabby Chic