July ATCs for Swap Group

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! The card crafting club, For The Love of Cards, through Facebook has moved onto its August events, so I'm sharing what I made in July 2022 with you. 

Alphabet Letter C

Beach/Tropical life

Red Rubber Stamp

All in Artist Trading Card size. The copper and the beach  were a tad over due to size of accents. 

Top to Bottom: Beach Life, Red Rubber, Letter C things

Coppery "Hi" dazzle (Paper Wishes website); copper sequins, copper Chrysanthemum, and a layered flourish die-cut stick-on with a coppery bronze flower all arranged onto mirrored foil and then on a kraft cardstock base. ( c is also for cursive; curves; circles; ....)

Another mirrored foil and kraft cardstock base and backdrop with blue scrap strips to simulate/faux water, tropical layered parrot stick-on, and a wood die-cut palm tree that's been painted brown on the trunk and green marker with a top layer of green glitter paint pen to add more shimmer. Definitely a tropical island beach scene! 

Teal cardstock for a different base and then easy make with an old sentiment red rubber stamp and 3 different stickers. The stamp is designed with the top and bottom swirled borders. Easy peasy. 

Challenge blogs and other Facebook groups to share besides "For the Love of Cards" group=

A. We Love To Create challenge blog; anything mixed media goes; 

link= http://welove2create.blogspot.com/2022/07/wk-8-craft-card-making-scrapbooking.html 

B. Shopping Our Stash challenge blog; almost expired; "She Sells Seashells..." {MY beach life ATC has the tropical island vibes with the parrot and palm tree}

link= https://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/2022/08/sos476-she-sells-seashells.html

C. Use Your Stuff challenge blog; about halfway; Nature is the theme; {I'll link the beach life/tropical island ATC}

link= http://useyourstuff.blogspot.com/2022/08/454-nature.html

D. The Four Seasons Challenge blog; August 2022--Summer; {I'll link the beach life/tropical island ATC}

link= https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/08/august-anything-goes-summer.html

E. Inspiration Station challenge blog; Mid-August 2022; Photo Prompt "Jump In"; {The photo makes me think of the middle ATC with the parrot and palm tree; watery travel destinations;}

link= https://inspirationstationchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/08/inspiration-station-challenge-inspired.html 

F. The Seasonal Cardmaker group 

G. Mixed Media Creativity group

H. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls group

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Crafting in the USA heartland and gotta brainstorm about what to do for August events I signed up for (Letter D and Birds).

Becca S

owner of Heart's Quest and FarmQuest challenge blogs

and 

design team members of these challenge blogs: Ally's Angels, Once Upon A Time, Mix It Up, Merry Little Christmas, My Time To Craft Christmas, and My Time To Craft -- :)

ATCs made for club swap June 2022 event theme commitments

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! With increasing design team commitments, getting 2 challenge blogs started, and babysitting for 2 month old honorary granddaughter I decided to only commit to 2 ATC theme swaps for June 2022 with For the Love of Cards group/club in Facebook.

The themes are Alphabet Letter B and Camping. Letter B features a bunny with bear stamp and lots of blues. Camping features this stunning patterned cardstock from Craft Consortium with some twine and a wood fish die-cut mini clothespin clip. "Things You Can Encounter While Camping" was my thought for using this particular cardstock print out of the paper pad. :)

Alphabet Letter B= bunny, bib overalls, bear, blue

Camping= Things you might encounter while camping= bear, fish, cabin/ranger station, trees, lake

Easy but cute--each in their own way. 

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Challenge blogs and Facebook groups for sharing and linking up=

A. For The Love of Cards club/group in FB; June 2022 events

B. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB;

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

owner of 2 personal paper-crafting based blogs:

Becca's Heart for Creativity and Becca's Heart Quest for Love and Country Creativity 

and

2 challenge blogs: FarmQuest and Heart's Quest

design team member of MTTC and MTTCC

and also as of July 1: MLCC challenge blog and MIU challenge blog

August 1: Once Upon A Time challenge blog 

August 10: Ally's Angels challenge blog

 

ATCs made for May 2022 event commitments

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! It's really good for my mind and soul to venture into other paper-crafting and mixed media kinds of creativity! Case in point--the May 2022 events for a greeting card or ATC only club. "For The Love of Cards" is a Facebook group that merged out of a similar group that had closed a couple months ago. Two of the members wanted to continue the format with a new name and they desire to keep it a small group. About 14 members currently with a limit of 25 is the roster. The 2 administrators created 13 events for May and I signed up for three. Since items were for swapping, I couldn't reveal until recipients had received. 1 of the 3 was delayed somewhere for 2-3 weeks!!!! So that's why this is getting posted in early June.

The 3 events are: Alphabet--Letter A; Road Trip; and Pastels with all three of these being ATCs. With lots of DT and blog owner commitments, too, plus several family birthdays and Mother's Day, I've decided to just send the 1 required ATC to my swapees. 

Group pic:

Event #8 is Alphabet Letter "A": I have this really old apple stamp so the upper half was pressed onto green ink and the bottom half onto red ink pad and then stamped onto the apple green paper. Because the green on green doesn't show well, I used an extra fine detail black pen to outline the stamp. Underneath, an acorn stamp was applied with black ink onto the white cardstock which due to the size of the apple stamp and the requirement parameters of ATCS, there are just bits of acorns showing. I wrote the repeating sentences to give it that school flashcard look. 

Event #2 for May 2022 is called "Road Trip"= I happened to have the perfect sticker and the black and white striped washi tape makes a good faux road. Writing in the classic kid travel question was a must! :)

Event #3 for May 2022 was Pastels; an old scrap of pastel looking frosting sprinkles was placed in the middle; the washi tape is part of "The Keepsake Kitchen Diary" collection by Lily and Val for Hampton Arts (2018); the alpha tiles are from Freckled Fawn; the wood pineapple was bare and I used a yellow marker on it however it is looking pretty intense when scanned. 

That's it! All three are very different approaches to the 2.5" x 3.5" size restrictions yet they are good interpretations of the themes. It will be very interesting to see what creative twists and spins have been done by the crafters who have my name as their partner. 

Challenge blogs and FB groups where these will be shared:

A. For The Love Of Cards group/club in FB; there are still spots available if you're interested; there are 2-3 card events/swaps each month and then about 8 or so ATC event/swaps, too.

B. Use Your Stuff challenge blog; #449; Anything Goes; linking #3 Pastels ATC

link= http://useyourstuff.blogspot.com/2022/05/449-anything-goes.html

C. Mixed Media Lovers challenge blog; just started 2 days ago; I'll link #1 letter A theme ATC

link= https://mixedmedialovers.blogspot.com/2022/06/challenge-14-mixed-media-lovers.html

D. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB

E. Paper, Paper, Paper & DT Calls group in FB

F. Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge blog; June; anything mixed media goes; I'll link #1 letter A ATC which has 2 different stamps, handwritten sentiment sentences, and outlining of the focal stamp. 

link= https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com/2022/06/welcome-to-creative-artiste-challenge-83.html

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

of

Becca's Heart for Creativity blog

also

Becca's Heart Quest for Love and Country Creativity blog (planning on changing the title....)

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog

FarmQuest Challenge Blog

and design team member of

My Time To Craft challenge blog

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog

and soon to be DT member as of July 1, 2022 of

Merry Little Christmas challenge blog and

Mix It Up challenge blog

:)

Circle It Themed Artist Trading Coins for a swap

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! My creative mojo had a bit of a speed bump for a group April 2022 event. For the Love of Cards group in Facebook is a private group that still has a few membership spots available. The 2 admin moderators want to keep the group limited to 25 members because of swapping our projects. 

I joined in late January when the group was called Card Crafting Club. About 8 weeks ago, the CCC owner/administrator decided to stop the group. So 2 active members agreed to continue under a new name. 10-13 events are offered each month and you can make greeting cards for a few events or ATCs for most of the events. For April 2022, I signed up for 3 of the 10: black and white, circle it, and finger painting. Each of these will get their own posting.

Today's focus is "Circle It". Since we were only to do circles I switched the ATC baseball card size to a 3" diameter coin, also known as an ATC. 

For the three that I made (2 will go to my swapee and 1 will be kept to send to a relative or friend), I used a small combination of embellishments and some kind of marker/glue/paint.

Red glitter glue dots are adding extra geometric patterning on this Artist Trading Coin. The jumbo red circle sticker has been in my stash forevermore! and the light sandy color base is recycled packaging!

I didn't notice that 1 of the snowflake stickers shifted and covered a gem dot when I placed this face down on the printer scanning glass plate. sigh....light green glitter paint pen dots are creating the border design for the snowflake Artist Trading Coin=

The 'don't forget' Artist Trading Coin focal sticker started as a jumbo speech bubble odd shape that I just trimmed off the triangular point part! For the outer edge border, there are groupings of red glitter paint pen and light green glitter paint pen dots and red gem dots onto light gray cardstock 'coin'.

This blog posting will be published when the group swapee has shown that they have received her 2 ATCs in the FB group site. EDIT= It took almost 3 weeks for her to receive it from Illinois to Florida!! Crazy! She just got them on today, Cinco de mayo! Yesterday I got my May event ATCs made and have to get those mailed now! Hopefully they don't take 3 weeks!

1. already shared today in the FB group, For The Love Of Cards

2. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB

3. Mixed Media Lovers challenge blog; #13; started May 3rd; any mixed media projects

link= https://mixedmedialovers.blogspot.com/2022/05/challenge-13-mixed-media-lovers.html

4. Crafting Happiness Challenges blog; #123; May 2022; anything goes

link= https://craftinghappinesschallenges.blogspot.com/2022/05/123-may-anything-goes-always.html

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<3  *  <3  *  <3  *  <3

Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

member of For the Love of Cards group in Facebook

and owner of 2 challenge blogs:

FarmQuest and Heart's Quest; HQCB has an extra page option challenge for Valentine's Day cards, so check that out up to the start of May 13th; FQCB will have an extra page option challenge for Thanksgiving Holiday cards from May 14th-May 27th. Check out the regular theme challenges, too. 

and design team members for these 2 challenge blogs:

My Time To Craft and My Time To Craft Christmas

Finger Painting ATCS for a group swap

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog!!! Well, I can't believe I signed up for a finger painting event in a card making group but I did!!! It was one of 3 events for April and the last one for me to tackle. Literally, tackle. Extreme reluctance because I haven't done much painting of any kind for at least 6-7 years and then it was probably 25 years before that since the prior time. I have several relatives on each side of my family who are very talented in their painting, which might account for some of my resistance. 

I used white cardstock for my paint surface and light sage green cardstock base, 3 acrylic paints, and 1 gold tempera paint, and a small section of waxed paper as my paint palette. Oh, and then a fine detail point black pen to add in some structural lines for the tulips as well as signing each one. A black stamp pad was used to ink the white cardstock edges. That's it. Just some messy dabbing, streaking, swirling kinds of motions using 4 fingers, not the thumb. 

My results:

The above shown set are being sent to my 'swapee' in the FB club, For the Love of Cards.

The set shown below will either be kept or mailed to 1 or 2 special people...

What do you think? 

This was not my comfort zone but I'm just going to have to spend time dabbling if I want to build my confidence. There's also the fact of being my own worst critic. sigh....

Facebook groups or a few challenge blogs were I can link this post are:

1. For the Love of Cards (greeting style and ATCs only) club/group in FB; currently 14 members, I think, with a limit of 25. April 2022 event. Swap exchange.

2. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; small private group started by me; if interested in joining, please let me know; currently I've been the only one to do the sharing but would love to have others who would like to share when they used more than paper/cardstock for a project....

3. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB; encourages usage of inks and markers for adding color; 

4. Crafting Happiness Challenges blog; May 1st start date; AG

link= https://craftinghappinesschallenges.blogspot.com/2022/05/123-may-anything-goes-always.html

5. Mixed Media Lovers challenge blog; May 3rd start date; any mixed media project

link= https://mixedmedialovers.blogspot.com/2022/05/challenge-13-mixed-media-lovers.html

6. Get Creative Challenges blog; May; use flowers; [my tulips ATC is the one to showcase]

link= https://getcreativechallenges.blogspot.com/2022/05/ch-111-use-flowers.html

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

also owner of 2 challenge blogs:

Heart's Quest & its current extra page challenge of Valentine's Day Cards 

and

FarmQuest & on May 14-27, FQCB will have an extra page challenge of Thanksgiving Holiday Cards

Black and White ATCs and a card made for swap

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! Back 2 months ago in February I was invited to join a small card crafting club in Facebook that makes either greeting cards or ATCs. Each month the administrator/moderators create 10 events and to stay active in the group you must participate in at least 1 event each month. I signed up for just 1 event in February then 2 events in March, and now 3 events in April!!!! The same admin prepare the swap partners' list for each event. Group ownership took a change and then a name change occurred for this private group (was Card Crafting Club and now is For the Love of Cards). 

This posting is to share the Black and White event. I first decided to tackle making an ATC and then decided because they're little that I might as well make 4. However I'm only showing 3. 1 was personalized so I'm not showing. 

The 2 with the color puffy alphas are not going to my swap partner. Haven't decided who these will be sent to, so it's nice to have something extra made and ready to mail. With the event being black and white ONLY, the ATC with black 'hi' alphas is the one being mailed to my assigned club member. 

ATCs in black and white=

Some design and vendor notes: 

a. ATC size is the 2.5" x 3.5" dimensions

b. black and white buffalo check/plaid paper is from The Paper Studio/Hobby Lobby

c. the 2 paper washi tapes are Pen + Gear

d. cording and alphas are stash items; and also the cardstocks

 and then since I like to do more, I made a black and white greeting card to also send to my assigned swap receiver --

confession: I was a bit stumped for awhile! I didn't want to use the same things used on the ATC yet I was doing some hard thinking about what do I have that can be used...

Design notes: Hot Off the Press gingham paper--it is black--really-- on the left; an adult coloring book piece is shown on the right with some areas filled in with black marker (excited about finding this in one of my paper boxes!!!); 1/4 of a doily tucked under the Heidi Swapp tag; I outlined the 'say what' that was on the tag then stamped the "Thank you". I also added a clear gem, a label sticker wrapped over the top, and a jumbo white paperclip with a sheer ribbon that started as white but I streaked black marker on to get the faded black look! So after all items came together, I'm actually pleased with the results with this large flat card. I think the black base is 5"x 7".

Hopefully my For the Love of Cards group swapee likes these. Now I have to get busy and make something with circles on it and then I get to do one with finger painting! Messy playtime! 

This swap event of black and white was a good mental challenge for me. I was having some brain scrambling trying to figure out how to have texture, layers, varying scale in the patterns, and enough visual contrast of black and white. 

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challenge blogs and other Facebook groups where I'll share the card or the ATC:

a. Make My Monday challenge blog; Use Washi Tape theme requirement; [my ATC has 2 different tapes used on an angle; NEW follower

link= http://mmmchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/172-use-washi-tape.html

b. Crafty Calendar Challenge; April 2022; Anything But Square; [rectangle= for both; will focus on ATC]; NEW follower

link= http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-challenge-anything-but-square.html

c. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends challenge blog; April 17th; anything goes

link= http://lilpatchofcraftyfriends.blogspot.com/2022/04/180-all-dressed-up.html

d. Paper, Paper, Paper & DT Calls group in FB; sharing site for crafters, DT members, challenge blog owners....

e. For the Love of Cards group in FB; this black and white ATC and greeting card for one of 10 events for April 2022; I've signed up for 3 of the 10....

f. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; ink outlining around the open alphas on the tag, ink stamping, ink/marker to add black to the white ribbon, use of paperclip; on the ATC= use of cording, washi tapes, vinyl alphas

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

these are not for a DT commitment or for either one of my own new challenge blogs

Owner:

personal crafting blog= Becca's Heart for Creativity

challenge blogs= FarmQuest Challenge Blog and Heart's Quest Challenge Blog

2022 MTTC April 8 #479 Springtime Insects Theme DT card

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! The 2 featured cards I've made are showing butterflies, my favorite insects! I've heard the quote many times calling butterflies as fluttering flowers or flying flowers! The complexity of color and design in their wings and how graceful they look has always fascinated me. So when as a DT member I learned about this theme, I knew I had many to choose from out of my stash. 

My Time To Craft challenge blog #479 theme is Springtime Insects.

Released on April 8, 2022 at 12am CST/6am UK and will be open for participants until April 21, 2022 at 12am CST/6am UK.

link for #479= http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/mttc-479-theme-is-springtime-insects.html

Card #1= Pink and Black It's a Beautiful Life Birthday card

Card #1 design notes:

1. base is black, top-folded, 4.25" wide x 5.5" high, Pen + Gear

2. pink background panel, Astrobrights/Neenah

3. pink and white stripe panel, pink with white Xs, and the white with pink scallops, Mint Berry paper pad from The Paper Studio (this is my 2022 selected papers to bash this year; read earlier posts made in late January and early February about this)

4. the pink tonal floral strip and the featured sentiment journal card that was trimmed down are from My Mind's Eye, a collection I bought several years ago

5. embellishments: pale pink crystal gem, message stamp, black ink pad, and the corrugated backed butterfly are all stash items; I took off the corrugated butterfly layer and stamped it black in order to disguise the kraft color since this card also fits for a Pink and Black card swap challenge that only allowed white as an additional neutral

Card #2: Hello and Happy Birthday card=

Isn't this lovely! I'm glad I kept the color combination simplified. When I started assembling items to make this, I thought I wanted the base to be a pale peach/blush pink or to go to a bold orange but the chocolate brown won the dilemma!

Design notes for Card #2=

1. brown cardstock base is about 6" wide and 4.25" high; 

2. the pale green and white floral cardstock; Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio

3. the olive green and crinkled copper/bronze specialty paper are scraps; cut as 2" squares

4. the white hello is a 'dazzle' from Paper Wishes website

5. the butterflies, amber heart crystal gems, sentiment stamp, black ink pad; stash items

6. an aqua/teal blue marker was used to add outline contrast to the thin font lines of the stamp used to make 'happy birthday'

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other challenge blogs and FB groups for Card #1

A. Creative Moments challenge blog; theme= for a special lady; all 3 projects are/have been sent to women; the pink and black was for a card club swap with all women members....

link= https://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.com/2022/03/creative-moments-challenge-232-for.html

B. Seize the Birthday challenge blog; Card 1 has some stripes in the pink and white diagonal background cardstock, so it qualifies for the topping option

link= http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2022/03/seize-birthday-235-stripe-it-up.html

C. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; 

D. 100 Pattern Papers Challenge group in FB; cardstocks from the Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio were used for this card

E. Card Crafting Club [has closed since I started this draft; 2 moderators started "For the Love of Cards" private group] in FB; Pink and Black card swap was a Feb 2022 event; another pink and black card was made for the swap; this 2nd one shown above was made at the same time but not revealed until this MTTC challenge 

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other challenge blogs and FB groups for Card #2

a. The Four Seasons Challenge blog; April 2022 is open to the 25th; anything spring season; Card 2 has the butterflies and the pretty sage green and white field of wildflowers patterned cardstock

link= https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-spring-challenge.html

b. The Crafter's Cafe Challenges blog; current March 15 monthly challenge is still open; theme=use some flowers; Card 2 has the pretty sage green and white floral/field of wildflowers patterned cardstock

link= https://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/15-march-283-use-some-flowers.html

c. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB

d. 100 Pattern Papers Challenge group in FB; 1 cardstock from the Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio was used for this card; I was able to use all but about a 1/2" side strip of a full sheet that this paper pad stack with horizontal print layouts have...the remaining sheets and scraps are my 2022 goal to bash this year!

e. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls group in FB

f. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB; sharing site

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ATC--"What's buzzing?"

A few design notes about the ATC/artist trading card:

1. typical ATC size of 2.5" x 3.5"; thick kraft cardstock for base

2. the white with spring green Moroccan tile patterned paper is very old Colorbok bold print photo mat paper pad

3. the green and gold chevron stripe 'tag'--what's shown is only about half; the flower and bee are stash item embellishments; I just got a bunch of tag sets and I've already forgotten who the vendor is on this...sorry

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The ATC will be shared in 2 FB groups:

a. For the Love of Cards group; private greeting card and ATC making group; this is not for an April event but will share the ATC photo to the group

b. Homemade Card Making for Beginners group in FB; sharing site

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design team members:

My Time To Craft challenge blog

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog

Personal paper-crafting blog: Becca's Heart for Creativity

Owner of 2 challenge blogs:

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog; Color #2 challenge is open to the wee hours of April 13th

FarmQuest Challenge Blog; Theme #1 challenge is open to the wee hours of April 13th, too