Monthly ATC Swap

I've recently jointed an ATC swap on the cricut mb. Each month we have a theme and sometimes a challenge. For July the theme was favorite season and the challenge was to use only patterned papers. For August the theme was any tv show and the challenge was to use only black and white. For September the theme was a day at the beach. And for October the theme was Halloween and the challenge was to not use white, black or orange.

July ATC: Favorite Season: Fall


For this ATC I picked a beautiful autumn themed paper with leaves and in shades of red, orange and yellow. I then used perfect pearls to stamp the word Autumn to the side in copper. I added a leaf shaped rhinestone and a tim holtz fragment with a leaf stamped onto it.


August ATC: Any TV Show


I had a hard time figuring out which TV show to use but finally decided to use "The Addams Family". The photo I picked shows each member of the family snapping their fingers so I cut out the word snap from the Cricut Cart Animal Kingdom in 1/2" and pop dotted it onto the ATC. The background paper is black glitter cardstock.


September ATC: A Day at the Beach


For this ATC I cut a lounge chair from Life is a Beach Cricut Cart, used a mix drink umbrella and added flip flop shaped beads. For the sand I used cut pieces of sandpaper. I pop dotted the sandpaper for a dimensional effect.

October ATC: Halloween


This ATC was the most time consuming of the ones I've done so far. I decided to do an Iris fold but didn't have the cut outs so I had to cut each bat out with an exacto knife, not very fun! Then I did the Iris Folding in a dark purple and a coordinating purple print of lavendar and purple dots. This looks rough but they took me forever to finish!

Newest Knitted Hat!

In between working on a calendar layout swap I've been knitting hats, this one is intended as a Christmas gift for my hubby's 95 year old grandmother, she loves hats! It is knitted on a knifty knitter with YarnBee's Cameo Bulky black yarn, very soft and silky but fibrous. I wanted to add a brim but the material wouldn't let me, made it difficult to see the loops.

New Hobby!

Well, I'm one of those people that like variety with everything. I can't eat the same thing over and over and I can't do the same thing over and over, lol. I love scrapbooking and working with paper but I decided that I needed to pick up a different craft for variety. I've read and seen so many cute projects using the knifty knitter (another provocraft item :)) that I decided to give it a try. I picked up the set of looms at Walmart and in my spare time (between work, scrapbooking and being with my husband) I made my husband a camo beanie. It took about 3 1/2 to 4 hours but I'm very pleased with it, he even said he'll wear it! I'm currently working on a black hat for my grandmother, she is a hat lady!

New ATC Back!!!!

I'm excited, I've been looking on ebay for a stamp that I liked for the back of my ATCs and finally found one. It is actually a lot of 2, but I really like one, the other is ok. I received them in the middle of doing my vintage ATCs and started using them for the last 2 groups. Here is a picture of what they will look like, I used Tim Holtz's Fire Brick Distress ink for this one. It is so pretty, with a fairy woman and flowers!

Groups 2 and 6 of the Vintage Xmas ATC Swap

Here are my next 2 atcs for the Christmas Vintage ATC Swap on the cricut MB. The first one is for group 2, I chose the song "Winter Wonderland" which coincendantly is also the name of the ATC! I used a light blue glitter paper for my border and printed a vintage photo of birds (maybe robins?) on an icy wooden fence. The picture is bordered with holly and mistletoe and the phrase "A Merry Christmas" is on the photo. I added red microbeads to the bottom bunch of holly berries and clear microbeads to the fence post, to simulate ice. It is hard to see in the picture but it really glistens like ice! I also added a dark ribbon and a silver button that I also decorated with red microbeads.\
The second ATC is for group 6 and I used the song "Let it Snow". This ATC is titled, "Winter's Child". I embossed some black cardstock with the snowflake cuttlebug folder and popped a vintage image of a beautiful girl in the snow. I then added some I-rock heat set embellishments in pink, green and blue around the picture.

Vintage Christmas ATCs

I've joined GrammaP's Vintage Christmas ATC swap on the Cricut MB. Each group has 2 christmas songs, and you have to create an atc based on words from the song, a memory, etc.
For group one I chose the song "Jolly Old St Nick" and tried a new technique. I bought one of Ranger's watermark resist ink pads and a pretty stamp I had seen at HL of a vintage santa. I stamped the vintage santa on white, glossy cardstock and then sprayed Olive Green glimmermist onto the stamped image. The stamped image resisted the ink and I was left with a green atc with the white santa showing through. This was not as easy as it sounds because I tried 3 different ways to make the resist work with various inks and had little luck until I tried the glimmer mist. I added the red, gold and green beads because their colors and shape made me think of vintage christmas ornaments. I called this ATC "Kris Kringle".

For group 5 I chose the song "Mistletoe and Holly" and printed a vintage picture of a bell with mistletoe and berries that has "A Merry Christmas" printed on it. For the background paper, I again tried a new technique. I read in an idea book that you can take paint sample chips from Home Depot or Lowes and use them for ATCs. So, I went shopping, lol. I found some really pretty 3 tiered red paint chips and cut them so that the lines were diagonal, I wanted the suggestion of candy canes. I cut out the bell image and popped it on the background with foam dots. I also added a gold ribbon at the top of the bell for some pizzazz. Then I added some bottle green skittles at the top for an accent. This ATC was named "Mistletoe Christmas".

By the Number ATCS

I joined JeanP's by the number ATC swap on the cricut board. Each person chose a number between 1-25 and then were assigned a theme based on that number. My themes were innocence, patriotic, playing the melody and bon voyage. I had a hard time at first coming up with my ideas. I never like to do the expected, although sometimes I do (lol). When I think of innocence I think of sweet children and cute animals but that was too generic so I googled innocence images to see what would come up, nothing. Then I googled the word innocence and found the song, "Innocence" by Averil Lavigne. I think of pink as an innocent color so the concept for my "Innocence" ATC was born. I used pink background paper with music notes and added an image of Avril Lavigne with the chorus from her song. I also added pink, frilly ribbon to her image and 3 small pink pearls.

I decided to find songs for all of my themes after I did Innocence so for Patriotic I used the song "Angel Flight" by Radney Foster for my inspiration. This song is in tribute to all members of the US military, especially those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. If you haven't listened to it I would look it up on youtube, it will bring you to tears. I printed a photo image of a C-130, the types of planes used and popped it up on a background of white feathers. I added a tag at the bottom "Angel Flight" held on by blue brads. At the top I adhered a silver dog tag with the word Remember written on it. The background paper is some patriotic paper I found that has the statue of liberty, let freedom ring, flags, etc on it.

For playing the melody I decided to use the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band. I found an image online of the devil laying the golden fiddle at Johnny's feet and thought it was perfect. The background paper is orange with smoky gray tendrils throughout. I added a popped sticker of a fiddle and bow to complete the look.

For Bon Voyage, I again went outside the box. I know that "bon voyage" is french for good journey, my friend (meant to be a long journey) but I didn't want to do anything travel related. I found the song, "The Long Goodbye" by Brooks and Dunn and decided this would work. I wanted to emphasize the broken heart and the distance between 2 people who fall out of a relationship. The background paper is from DCWV photo stack, featuring raindrops but I thought it could also be tears. I added a broken heart image from the Indie Art cart and placed over all alpha beads spelling out "Au revoir mon ami" which is french for goodbye my friend.

This was fun but challenging! I can't wait to see everyone elses ATCs!