Chicken ATC's

 The topic for the March ATC swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana is "Chickens."  I found a chicken image I liked from Dear End.  Then I ordered PET stickers from Amazon for the background.  I didn't think it through when I ordered those stickers or maybe I thought it through too much.  I was thinking I could layer the stickers and make a really detailed background, but they didn't layer well and they were super shiny and left very pronounced edges.  So, I didn't layer them and I dabbed (to make a texture that I hoped would help conceal the edges while muting the shine) clear gesso on the background.  This is how they turned out; still with issues, but not as bad as at first:

Wreath Artist Trading Cards

 Here are the Artist Trading Cards I received from the December swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana.  The topic was "Wreaths."

From Laura Bartlett:

From Emma Diaz in Sonoma County, California:

A canvas from moonberryhomestead:

From Mim Bowman in Brown County, Indiana:

And from danlin3927:

Thank you, ladies!  Wonderful wreaths!

Snow Days ATC's

 The January theme for the ATC swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana is "Snow Days" --  appropriately, considering the weather.  Again, I didn't get good pictures.  And I didn't have much energy to be creative -- some people say that a ticket or a stamp in the background is not creative at all, but I like it.  I like it a lot.  So that is what these Maremi SmallArt images have for a background.  The backgrounds are Ranger inks, Sizzix dies, and Stampers Anonymous Stamps all from the Tim Holtz lines.

Fingers crossed they like them!

Wreath ATC

 Here is my ATC for the swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana.  The theme was wreaths.  The picture isn't very good, so you can't see that the balls and berries have Glossy Accents on them.  The image itself is embossed and then colored with gel pens.  The snow is dimensional with a little glitter. The sentiment along the bottom was not the same on all 6 cards.

I hope the recipients like them!

Monster ATC's

    These are the monster ATC's that I received from the swap at Wishful Thinking in Nashville, Indiana.  

From Cynthia Derhard in Hope, In.:

From Karen Walla in Gilbertsville, PA:

From Marilyn Ruther in College Corner, Ohio:

From Laura Bartlett:

This last one is from Danlin3927:

Artist Trading Cards Frankie Series 1

 The October ATC swap at Wishful Thinking in October is "Monsters," so I decided to do the most popular monster ever - Frankenstein's monster; in this case little Frankie.  Made with Sizzix die: Costume Party 665555.  They are all pretty much the same except for the verses that came from the Tim Holtz Ideaology Halloween booklet. 

The other verses I chose were:  "I heard footsteps behind me"  "a laboratory"  "A Strange Visitor"  "sometime in the middle of the night"  "he gives me the creeps"  "charged with foreboding"   and the one here "the creature obsessed me"    

I hope my swap partners like them!

Stampotique Artist Trading Cards

 In the Monster Series 2 set of ATC's, I was experimenting with masking an image and then printing the background with a Geli plate.  The image is from Daniel Torrente's line at Stampotique; the verse is from Stampers Anonymous.

Mintay Halloween ATC's -- Witches (and a raven)

 Images from Mintay Halloween 2024 book:

And the raven:

What next?

Birthday Package

 This is the birthday crafts that I sent to a friend back in June.  

The card was made with a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and Ranger's Tim Holtz embossing glaze.

I used all sorts of die cuts and ephemera for this memorydex card:

Was this Echo Park?:

A die cut of a little girl in a bee costume for the Queen Bee:

Packaged to go in the birthday box:

I hope she liked it!

Mintay Halloween Trading Cards - Monsters

 These were made using the Mintay Halloween Book 2024 images. The backgrounds are a combination of collage, cardstock and Distress Inks.

Halloween Wall Hanging

 I made this little wall hanging for Angelina at work.  

It has a distress ink background. 

The Sizzix die sets used to piece this together were:

Moonlight 666386 for the moon and bats.

Mr. Bones 665554 for the skeleton and large tombstone

Vault Fright Night 666684 for the small tombstones and the wispy clouds

Graveyard 666383 was used for the fencing and flowerpot.

Gate Keeper 664734 was used for the large gate Mr. Bones is walking out of.

I hope she likes it!

Winnie the Pooh Artist Trading Cards that I received.

 Here are the wonderful Artist Trading Cards that I received from the swap over at Wishful Thinking.

I love the colors and the attention to detail on this first card made by Marlene Miller of Columbus, Indiana.

This adorable Pooh was made by Sue Ann Heilers.

And this little pearled beauty was made by Mim Bowman of Brown County, Indiana:

This next piece of inspiration was made by Susan Steele of Cambridge City, Indiana:

And this last classy little card was made by Michelle Earls of Shelbyville, Kentucky:

Now, I am going to add all these beauties to my collection.  Thank you, ladies.

Artist Trading Cards -- TriggMo Bird Series

    The point of these cards was for me to practice making Distress Ink backgrounds.  I don't have a lot of Distress colors, so a lot of them are very similar.  I topped the backgrounds with TriggMo images.  I don't know if these actually qualify as ATC's, but they are the right size; so, that is what I am calling them.

Be True to You

Mood

I was trying to get the background to match the yellow/brownish circle around his eye -- couldn't get it quite right:

Mannerless

I can't help how I look.

It's always the innocent looking one.

Crazy

Sergeant

Drinker

Fab

Sorry

I had a lot of fun experimenting with the distress ink backgrounds.  I hope to do it again soon.