Crafty Friday #10: Alice in Wonderland and Steampunk ATC

Below are two more ATCs I made for a swap. 

The Alice in Wonderland image is from one of the Studio Azul kits I still have in my stash. It is actually black and white and I colored using watercolor pencils. I also attached an embossed image and on the side, I sprinkled Stampendous Mica Flakes.

This is my second version of a steampunk ATC. I cannot remember if I have a photo of the first one. I just love gears so when I saw there is another steampunk ATC in swap-bot, I did not have second thoughts of joining. Look at the 5 centavo coin i added to the embossed clock. I am also falling in love again with heat embossing. I have to revive my old embossing powders by mixing them to different Stampendous embossing powders (Shabby white and/or aged copper). It really gives a different texture to chipboards. I have few more projects where I used embossing powders which I will be posting in the coming weeks.

Happy mail day

Today I received 4 mails from my partners in swap-bot. I still have to open them, but I am pretty sure they will make a great addition to my growing collection of ATCs

Crafty Friday #9 - Vintage Tag

Here is the photo of a tag I worked on for swap. Perhaps I should also have a happy mail day post to highlight what I receive from the post.

It was created using patterned paper, washi tape and book pages adhered to a cardboard. Distress ink is applied over the paper and after drying, different vintage images are randomly stamped in the tag. To finish off, I randomly applied embossing ink on the edges and pour embossing powder randomly.

Crafty Friday #8: Someone stop me

I always keep telling myself to stop signing up for any new swaps. Well I did, for a week. But after I got all my from my partners and amazed by their works of art, I am hooked and kept on signing up.

Here are few more ATCs and handmade postcard for my previous swaps.

Crafty Friday #7: It's raining ATCs

Yay! Crafty Friday is running on two months and it keeps on coming. I am thankful that I discovered the world of ATCs which gives me a break from creative rut. I made these ATCs for the swap in Swap-bot, but soon I hope I can make ATCs just for fun and for the sake of art.

Crafty Friday #6: Watercolor pencils

I am glad I joined ATC swaps. Pushes my creativity and allows me to bring out those tools from the box and finally put them to use. Yes, I always have this feeling that I should use them sparingly but in the end not using them at all. But now, since I joined swaps, I am taking them out of the box, try them on and explore my creative side.

I used to join only those swaps that are easy for me, but since I have been playing around with watercolors, this time around I picked the ATC watercolor challenge. Several ATC had to go to the trash before I finally got the groove of using watercolor and watercolor pencils and became satisfied with my work. I have seen a Donna Downey video about making poppies and she does it with a breeze. And true enough as I tried it. I never realized I can do this - I can draw and paint!!!

Mini Album Swap

Here are the pages for my mini album swap. I hope Cecil will appreciate these simple pages.

First Page, three pockets on the side and one at the top.

Second Page, left side space for photo, right side can be space for photo or journalling.

Third Page a photomap on the left side, plus a pocket which can be used for additional photo or journalling.  Right side is a pocket envelope for additional photos or journalling.

Fourth Page - left side another page for photo and pocket for photo or journalling and right side, tiny album for photos and journalling plus pocket on top.

Last Page, left side, a pocket inside a pocket and right side is a place for photo.

Crafty Friday #4: Swap-bot - Postage Stamp

This was sent out almost two weeks delayed due to the recent flooding in Manila and over various parts of Luzon. The requirement is use a scenery postage stamp for ATC. Good thing I was able to receive a mail with a postage stamp from a place in Brunei. I used mask and structuring medium and stampendous frantage fragments, distress inks and came up with this ATC. Hope my partner likes this one.

I am now getting addicted to swap for three things: 1) Gets me excited to wait for the mail because I am getting something other than bills; 2) Postage stamps from all over and last but not the least 3) I am receiving something that was created by an artist in other parts of the planet.

Crafty Friday #1: Swap-bot: ATC swap

I will be starting another series in my blog for the crafters out there. My Wais Wednesday series has been ongoing for the past 8 weeks and so here is another one (though I hope I can still revive my CD Art Thursday series in the coming weeks).

I recently joined a swap group called swap-bot. This is a fun group who does a swap of almost anything - from postcards, ATCs, smash/junk journal items to teas, pens and what-have-you.

I usually sign up for ATCs, postcards and smash/jubk journal. Although shipping is a little heavy on the pocket, it is a way to connect with others and at the same time keep the postal system alive. Thanks to technology, gone are the days of snailmails and penpals. These were replaced with the internet and other electronic media.

Here are two of ATCs mailed for the butterfly theme. Both are butterfly themed except that the second one is a glittery butterfly per swap requirement.

The ATCs are very simple, I just run through a patterned paper in an embossing folder, distressed with distress inks, punch a butterfly. To customize for the glittery requirement, I just applied embossing ink, glue powder and glitter and voila, two projects completed.

Grungy Tags

These tags are going to be mailed this Friday for our local swap group. We have been swapping tags, ATCs, mini album pages, junk journal for the past months.

For June, our theme is Alice in Wonderland. I made a heart and crown tags based on the Queen of Hearts character. And of course a She Art version of Alice.

I love enjoyed working on these tags, trying out new mediums and incorporating new techniques. I like the way it progresses from conceptualization to execution. Putting medium on top of another to create layers. It is all messy but full of fun.

I used watercolor, acrylic paint, viva inka gold, liquitex modelling paste, craypas, tim holtz stamps, stampendous mica fragments.

Love month

February being the love month, our swap group with PinoyScrapbookers decided for a love themed tag swap. I have started receiving the tags since last week, but I got to send out mine only yesterday. Here's a sneak of what I made. I used water color paper, neo caran water colors, gel medium, prima flowers, unity stamp, embossing powders, mists, ali edwards stamp. Lace or ribbon, glitters or beads/blings are required for the project. There are 9 participants, including myself, so made 9 of these.