My First ATC Challenge

I also make ATCs (artist trading cards), and I found an ATC challenge blog, Wicked Wednesdays, so i am going to try that.

This week's challenge is to do a Full Moon ATC, so here is my entry:

I call it Crow Moon. (My husband pointed out that I should have called it Raven Moon, because my last name, Corby, means "raven," but I've already written Crow Moon on the label, so that's that.)

The moon is punched from DCVW glitter paper. I punched a corresponding hole in the black cardstock and fit the moon into it, so it would lie flat and smooth.  I fussy-cut the tree and raven from a Recollections stamp. It was quite a production.

I wondered if it needed more, but no, I like the stark look of it.  Rather Halloweeny I think.

If you can't tell, the card is propped up against the front of my Macintosh computer.  I couldn't get a good shot of it lying flat.  I never knew the Mac had those air grilles on the bottom.  The camera catches thing the eye does not. :)

Kraft Cards for Challenges 2

Here is a second card for CFC 76 -- Kraft On.

This card uses no stamps at all - just stickers.  These stickers are from PSX. They were a free gift with an order from, I think, Addicted to Rubber Stamps.com, and have been in my stash for FOREVER.

If you have been following my card-blogging at all, you can probably tell that this country, quilty style is not my style at all, but I thought these stickers went well with the kraft cardstock. And I am trying to use more things from my stash. (Frankly I need to make some room.)

Also, I was planning to submit these last two cards to the Waste Not Wednesday challenge, but I find it has been discontinued. :(  Does anyone know of a challenge for using up your old stash?

So that's it for CFC this week. We'll see.

Kraft Cards for Challenges

Here is a card I am submitting or the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge 76.

The CFC challenge is to use kraft paper, and since I just bought a pack of kraft cards, it was a natural.  These copper foil leaves have been in my stash for forever.

This card took a couple tries to get good. Here is the first one:

I had just bought these leaf gems at Michaels, so I was eager to use them.  And I heat-embossed the sentiment in gold, but it does not show up well on the kraft paper. That, plus, the black tree, the gold sentiment, the different colored leaves -- it's too much.  (I'm not submitting this version of the card for the challenges, just showing it for illustrative purposes.)

So I started again, with the copper foil leaves. And as I did, I suddenly decided I liked the single leaf falling better -- it was like a statement, the last leaf of autumn falling.

But the first version of that card I stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia, and didn't get a great impression of the tree. The final one, above, uses Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the tree (Which is Recollections) and the sentiment (Annie's Attic.) The leaf sticker is also Recollections.

I will have another kraft card in the next post as well.

CFC 75 -- Over the Edge

Here is my submission for the CASual Friday Challenge # 75 -- Over the Edge.  The card should have an element extending over the edge of the card base.

Looking at the submissions so far, I saw a lot of butterflies and hearts, so I wanted to try something different, more graphic.  I also wanted to use my new Hero Arts Neon inks. So this is what I came up with. I fussy-cut the pink flower to hang over the edge. Fussy-cutting is a technique I quite like -- I think it gives dramatic results, but I don't use it much because I really don't have the patience.

If you like the sentiment to be vertical, you could also present it this way:

And here's a close-up:

I'm pretty happy with it. We'll see.

CASual Friday 74

Whew! This card may look clean and simple, but it was a nightmare to make! It wore me out.

It is for CASual Friday Challenge 74.  To use a heart.

I will write more about it tomorrow. Right now I just want to get it up onto the challenge. Whew.

Here's another view.

UPDATE: Here's what happened.

I wanted to make this card as CAS as I could, and I wanted to play around with my new favorite Designer Woodgrain stamp from Hero Arts, to make a card suitable for a man, or a couple. I could see it in my mind so clearly, the crisp white card with the crisp red heart impression.

I cut a heart shape out with my Cricut and used the leftover paper, the negative space, as a mask to stamp the woodgrain stamp onto the card.  But I couldn't get a clean impression through the mask!  I tried five different times, and it never came through.

Then I turned the inked stamp face up, lay the mask on it, and lay the card on the mask, and rolled it with a brayer. That got a clean impression, finally! -- but I could never get it lined up right. It was always off-center.

So finally, completely frustrated, I took one of the clearer, but hopelessly off-center, impressions, fussy-cut the heart and stuck it on another card.  It was the best I could do.

And the card does have a little bling on it, because my cards always have to have a little bling on them. I love bling.

So that's that.  I have never had such a hard time trying to create such a simple card.

WCMD 2

Here's another card I made fro World Cardmaking Day.  I had to photograph it flat, as it won't stand up, being round.  I hope you can see all the tiny gemstones on it.  This wreath is another Hero Arts stamp I wanted for a long time.

Here is the sentiment inside:

This will be a birthday card for my Mom. (Don't worry, she's a total Luddite, she'll never see it. She doesn't even know I have a blog.)

World Card Making Day

Here is a card I made for World Cardmaking Day, which was yesterday.  I had liked that Hero Arts Silhouette Grass stamp for a long time, so I finally went along and got it.  This is emboss resist with the Tim Holtz Seasonal Summer Distress Inks, Moved Lawn and Salty Ocean.

I was going to put the sentiment on the inside, but when I was done it seemed to need something, so I put a Jennifer-McGuire style banner on the front.  I like how it turned out. I may submit this to the Paper Crafts magazine WCMD blog contest. We'll see. The yellow is supposed to evoke the sun shining down on the fields of grain, ripening them for a bountiful harvest.