How to - ATC's

An ATC is an "Artist's Trading Card".

ATC's are miniture works of art and are usually made on card stock but other materials can be used i.e. heavy paper, acetate, wood, metal, canvas etc. The art on the card can also be done in any media i.e. pencil, paint, watercolour pencils, oil paint, beads, stamps, pen, ink etc. etc.

The only rule in producing an ATC is its size. An ATC should measure 2.5 by 3.5 inches in size (64 x 89 mm), the same size as other collectable cards.

ATC's usually have written on the back of them the artist's signature, date, the title and contact information i.e. email address.

ATC's are traded and not sold. Many people now make ATC's and swaps are going on all over the place and are great fun to take part in. If you would like any information about any ATC swaps that are happening, please contact me. I can be contacted on my email address which is in my profile or leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Special Days

Its a very special day in our house today. It's Ski's 7th birthday. My, where has that time gone. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was lying in the hospital bed with a newborn in my arms. We now have a stunning, leggy, cheeky blonde on our hands who is 7 going on 17 !

This is the card I made for her.

To make her card I used :

Bazzil papers cream and a raspberry pink colour (sorry, I do not know the exact shades)

Glitter card from stash

Flowers from stash with Papermania pearl brads

2 step Cuttlebug butterfly

I made the sentiment on my PC

The image is a fairy clear stamp from The Stamp Boutique.

I had seen one of these images before and one called "Flower Girl" and instantly fell in love with them but I couldn't find out anywhere who made them. While blog hopping last week I was amazed to see that I had landed on the designer of these gorgeous stamps blog ! The designer is a very talented lady called Sally-Anne and her blog is "Love to Doodle" . Sally-Anne not only has stamps made of her designs which are available through Sprial Whisper but she also sells downloads from her blog.

Crystal heart and ribbon from stash

Wishing our very special girl the best Birthday ever and we hope that all your wishes and dreams come true our darling.

Love you all the World, Moon and Stars forever and ever,

Mummy and Daddy (and Fizzy of course !) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Taking it easy

I thought that for a change this week I would enter a challenge. The challenge I have entered is on Elzybells Blog and is their first DT challenge. I have only just discovered Elzybells stamps and I have fallen in love with them already.

To make this card I used :

"Sweet Pea" patterned papers by Designs by Krista

Elzybells "Girl on a Swing" stamp. Her dress I paper pierced with the pink patterned paper and coloured her with watercolour pencils

Hero Arts Neutral flowers

Basic Grey buttons

The sentiment I found on the internet and I printed it onto an element in the "Sweet Pea" kit from Designs by Krista

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge # 2 - Feeling Spotty

I made this tag for this week's challenge. I used :

Berry Bright kit from Kaboodle Doodles

Ribbon from Poppycrafts

Papermania gem brads

Spotty Blooms from Joanna Sheen

Dovecraft stamp stamped with Whispers pens and a touch of Stickles

"Firstly, we would like to thank everyone that joined in with the first Kaboodle Doodles challenge ! Looking through all the entries, we were amazed at all the stunning samples you produced !As a thank you to you all who entered the very first Kaboodle Doodles challenge we would like to give the prize of a free download of choice to EVERYONE !! So if you can send us an email with your chosen download from the Kaboodle Doodles Website to kaboodledoodle@hotmail.co.uk, we can get them sent out to you !

Now for the next challenge.......This week here at Kaboodle Doodles we are feeling spotty !! So this week we would like to see spots somewhere on your creation. It can be on the background paper, spotted blooms, a dotty ribbon, or have a spotty element on an image, the choice is yours, we just want to see spots somewhere on your creation !! There is no need for you to use Kaboodle Doodles elements on your cards this week, but any entry that does will be counted twice in the draw !! The prize for the winning entry will be a download of your choice from the Kaboodle Doodles Website.The challenge will close at midnight on Saturday and the winner will be chosen using a random number generator and announced on Sunday alongside next week's challenge.

Take a peek at this week's inspiration provided by the Design Team !!

Have fun creating and we look forward to seeing your entries. Please leave us a link so we can come and visit you and remember you can still enter if you don't have a blog yourself. Just email a picture of your creations to kaboodledoodle@hotmail.co.uk. "

BasicGrey Challenge # 1 - Buttons

This is the card I have made for the very first BasicGrey Challenge Blog challenge which begins today. The theme is buttons.

To make this card I have used :

BasicGrey "Sultry" papers

Sarah Kay image which a very good friend kindly sent to me coloured with watercolour pencils

BasicGrey Buttons

Prima Flowers

You must take a look at the rest of the team's cards, they are adorable and can be seen on the BasicGrey Challenge Blog.

BasicGrey Challenges begin !

This is sooo exciting ! The BasicGrey Challenge Blog is now officially open and running its first challenge. The theme of the challenge is "Buttons".

"Well here it is at long last, the very first challenge for the BasicGrey Challenges blog, we thought we would start out with an easy one for you, the challenge is to create anything of your choice to the theme of "Buttons" :), now they don't have to be BasicGrey buttons so don't panic if you haven't got any, they can be any buttons you have in your stash, just as long as one thing or more on your creation is from BasicGrey then you are all set :),Now for the extra scrummy prize on offer this week for our lucky winner, the winner of this weeks challenge will win a BasicGrey 6x6 Infuse paperpack valued at £5.49, which is jam packed with 36 pages, 2 of each design of rich Garden green, hibiscus pink and coffee bean brown colors, i have this paper pack myself and it really is scrummy :)"

What a fantastic prize on offer this week ! Go on, what are you waiting for ? Get crafting !!

We look forward to seeing all your fabulous creations this week.

Can someone please pass the tissues ?!

Last night was Ski's last night at Rainbows. She starts Brownies next week. Wow, I can't believe how fast time has gone on. Anyway, she had her leaving ceremony last night and I wasn't prepared for how emotional it would be (although I do tend to cry at most things !).

There was a huge rainbow erected at one end of the room and the Rainbows and leaders all lined up alongside the rainbow. Ski had to shake hands with them all and then received a present from the leader, Clover. She then stood under the large rainbow and the Rainbows started singing their leaving song to her. They took her by the hands and she jumped over a small rainbow at the end of the line and was welcomed to Brownies by Brown Owl who was at the end of the rainbow. Well, that was me - a crumpled mess searching for that tiny bit of tissue that is falling apart in your pocket and has been used on numerous things and kids before ! We all have one in our coat pockets ! Go and check now, I bet you have too !!

Ski was desperate to make a card for them all to say thank you so we made this one together.

We used :

Patterned paper by Papermania "Sweet Nothings"

The rainbow was from a free download from Two Peas called "Magic Rainbows"

Paper Nation decoupage sheet

The sentiment was made on the PC.

Meet Mikey !

It was the first day back at school on Wednesday and after the awful Summer weather we have had, we were all looking forward to going back and starting a new year. Not only did school start again but the endless list of birthday parties has started too ! The first thing I was told when Ski left school was "I have a birthday party invitation !"

The difference this time was I knew what I wanted to make and I couldn't wait to get started !

Meet Mikey from Inklebods !

I made this card using :

Mikey from Inklebods painted with distress inks

Little Buddie kit from Designs by Krista

Transparent ribbon and eyelet from stash.

Even More Exciting News !

I suppose by now you are all getting very fed up with me telling you all about my exciting news ? Well, I have one more piece of exciting news to tell you !

I have been invited by Martine to be on the Design Team for none other than the new BasicGrey Challenge Blog !

How exciting is that ?! I can't begin to tell you how proud and honored I feel to be asked and hopefully I'll come back down to earth quick enough to be able to concentrate on my first DT piece !!

The first challenge takes place THIS SATURDAY so please pay us a visit to see what it is and join in.

Have I said how excited I am again ?!

Meet Maisy !

This is Maisy from Inklebods Stamps. Isn't she lovely ? I just love her sweeping hair !

I made this card using the patterned paper from "Blue Skies and Sunshine" Kit from Designs by Krista

The flowers are American Crafts with Papermania pearl brads in the centres.

The ribbon is Anitas and the buttons are Craftime and the rainbow drops were from Lakeland.

The lace is from my stash.

Maisy is coloured using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.