Sweet Stamps Guest Designer: ATC Card

The Challenge
This week's challenge theme at Sweet Stamps is ATC (artist trading card). It measures 2.5 x 3.5" and is a mini work of art. It can also be layered onto a card. Here is my contribution as a guest designer.

The Card
I go to a monthly ATC trade at my LSS, Pages from the Heart. The owner calls the customers her Peeps and there are Peeps decorations throughout the store. For the SoCal Shop Hop she had an Easter basket with a Peeps chick outfit you could wear for the photo op. Here is our ATC group posing with the Peeps Easter basket during one of our trades.

So when I saw this Bunny Peeps stamp set, I just had to use it for this month's ATC trade. It was just too perfect.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment in white on white cardstock. I cut out some tiny clouds as a mask and dabbed on some ink to create the background. Here is a peek at my process. 

I made 16 cards and passed them out to my peeps. For more information on this card, please see today's post at Sweet Stamps. To see all the other designers' card and to enter this week's challenge, please see this post. There is a $20 prize for the winner to use at Sweet Stamp's online store so enter your ATC this week. 

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:

Cards und More: #89 Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments Designs: Anything Goes

Loves Rubberstamps Challenge Blog: #69 Sentiment on Front

Thanks so much for hoppin' by,

Sweet Stamps Guest Designer: Butterflies

The Challenge
This month I am thrilled to be a guest designer with Sweet Stamps. I love working with their red rubber stamps which gives a much cleaner edge than clear stamps. They have weekly and monthly challenges, so there are 5 challenges a month if you'd like to participate. The challenge theme this week is Butterflies. If you have a project which features butterflies, then link it to this post at Sweet Stamps.

The Layout
For my butterfly project, I wanted to make a layout with butterfly patterned paper. I stamped my own background using just one stamp (Bold Medium Butterfly) in a variety of colors. To keep the emphasis on the colorful butterflies, I faded my photos prior to printing them. For more details on this layout, please visit Sweet Stamps' blog.

The Supplies

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Papers: My Mind’s Eye

Chipboard Stickers: My Mind’s Eye

3-D Stickers: My Mind’s Eye

Alphabet Stickers: Doodlebug Design

Brads: My Mind’s Eye

Wood Shape: Studio Calico

Stamp: Sweet Stamps

Date Stamp: American Crafts

Ink: Prima Marketing, Stampin’ Up

Pens: Copic

Glitter Glue: Ranger Ink

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More!: Anything Goes

Flutter By Wednesday: #251 Anything Goes with butterflies or fairies

Thanks so much for flutterin' by,

My New Design Team

I wanted to share with you all that I am part of Paper House Production's new design team! They carry a lot of products for scrapbooking, gifts and home decor.  I'll be working with their scrapbooking papers and stickers over the next several months, and I can't wait to show you all the projects I'll be creating. I'm so excited to be a part of this creative team. 

Come by and meet everyone on the team!

Christine Meyer

Dana Tater

Grace Tolman

Joann Jamieson Larkin

Susie Bentz

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

A Fishy Wall Hanging

The Project

I made this framed wall hanging of my nephew, Fisher, eating fish for the first time. His reaction was a happy thumbs up. Since his name, the food and baby shower tag (orange fish) are all fish related, I chose an underwater theme. 

The Sketch

Today is my last day as a guest designer with Sketches in Thyme. I was given this 2 paged sketch to work with. A great way to design a horizontal wall hanging is to use a 2 paged sketch as the base. 

Variations on Sketch #121

• I only had 3 photos of Fisher instead of the 6 photos in the sketch. Also for a wall hanging, I wanted larger photos. As a solution, I took the larger background patterned paper block and made that the photo block.
• I took the row of photos and made that a strip of patterned papers. 
• I used a tag from his baby shower as the journaling and moved that to one corner as an embellishment cluster. 

The Details

I had a picture frame meant for a collage of pictures. I used an X-Acto knife to cut out the central portion of the mat so I ended up with just one central rectangle. The rectangular space was much wider than 12 inches across so if I used two pieces of paper in the background, there would be an obvious vertical seam. My solution was to make my own background design. I sprayed some Dylusions Ink Sprays in blues and yellow on the cardboard backing that was already in the frame. I then painted on a wavy design with some blue craft paint. 

To build upon my background, I placed the photo block on top. Then on top of the photo block, I added a row of 1" squares. Like with tiling a floor, I found the middle of space and adhered the squares starting from the center. That way the squares would end up evenly spaced on both sides of the frame. 

Here is a look at the title section. 

Here is a look at the journaling cluster. I used some clear pearls for air bubbles along with adding some smaller dots with a Pearl Pen. This set of fish is from a different company than the ones by the title, so to unify them, I later added some goggly eyes to these too.

Supplies

Frame: Columbia

Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants, Little Yellow Bicycle, My Mind’s Eye

Alphabet Stickers: Colorbok, Doodlebug Design

Felt Stickers: Sassafras, Just Brads & Eyelets

Brads: Just Brads & Eyelets

Jewels: Kaisercraft

Craft Paint: DecoArt

Ink Spray: Dylusions

Ink: Prima Marketing

Dimensional Ink: Pearl Pen by Viva Decor

I'm entering this in:

Simply Create Too: Challenge #44 For a Child

Crafts-Too Challenge You: Summer Days, Beach Colors

Five Simple Things: Inspire Me Fridays #117 Anything Goes

Thanks so much for swimmin' by,