ATC For the First Time

Hello, I'm glad you stopped by to see my ATC's I've made for A Vintage Journey's Challenge #13 A Little Touch of Tim ATC's Only.  This is my first time making ATC's although I have owned Tim's ATC Bigz die for years.  That's what I love about these challenges...they challenge me to try new things! If you think this post is long, just go to my post titled "Plan B" and you'll be thankful this is so short.

When I first laid out that tiny little surface on my craft mat, I just stared at it.  I really had no idea what I could do on such a small piece of cereal box with the rounded corners (yes, I cut up my husband's cheerios box he threw into the recycle bin this morning).  I knew it was going to have to be something for Halloween, because now is the time of year that my mind turns everything my eyes see into something for my favorite holiday.

 I started by cutting my cereal box into the ATC's with my die, but ended up using that for only one of the six that I made. I'll be honest with you here; this one is NOT an ATC.  I thought I had cut the scrap of cardstock out, only to realize when it was COMPLETELY made, that I didn't cut it down to the correct size, and it was too late at that point.  But I like how it turned out so I took a photo anyway.   I re-did it using an ATC sized piece of cardstock (all were cut from Tim's die). Just for fun, see if you can find at least five differences other than the size and the shading.

I don't think it came out as well, but I like what I did on this with the tombstones and the extra bat. No that is not guano, that is smoke from the chimney of the house stamp!  The tree wouldn't fit, nor would "Come if You Dare".  The house and the tombstones  stamps are ones I purchased at a yard sale, so I'm sorry I don't know who made them, but I love them.  Bats are Martha Stewart and Oct. 31st is from a  Hobby Lobby store brand set. The moon is a mask I made using a circle punch (used both the negative and the positive). All images stamped with Archival and all coloring done with Distress Ink.smoke 

The ATC above is cut from a piece of white cardstock.  I was anxious to work on these and didn't want to wait for gesso to dry on the cereal box ATC's I cut out.  I'll use them later...I'm already hooked on these little crafty things, and they won't go to waste! I used a TCW stencil (creepy tree) I spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and did some reverse stenciling. When dry, I distressed with Faded Jeans and Black Soot Distress Inks and applied Seedless Preserves Distress stain with a baby wipe (I don't have any Seedless Preserves DI).  The images are from Martha Steward and Hobby Lobby, stamped in Archival.

The tree stenciling shows up better in this shot.

My third one is similar in that  I used the reverse stenciling that I did in the one above, but I cut my ATC first from watercolor paper. I used the same color DIs and the purple stain wiped on with the wipe.  I dragged my edges through the leftover spray from spritzing my stencil.  I got the faded areas along the top and bottom by accident (well, the bottom was by accident and then I TRIED to reproduce the effect on the top edge-Ha! I spritzed it with a little TOO much water) when I lifted my paper and it started to run. I think it looks like soot-pretty cool!

I blasted this dry with my heat tool and stamped the images (Martha Stewart (crow), Hobby Lobby (sentiment) and unknown yard sale stamp--love that skeleton) with Archival ink.  I had some corners from an upcoming ATC cut which had Texture Paste and  Crackle Paint on them.  I stained them with coordinating Distress Stains and added them to two of the corners.

Next up is one of my favorites.  This has the most wonderful leather-like soft texture to it, so not only is it nice to look at, it has a lovely hand as well.

This is the one from which the corners came from on the previous card. I started with plain white card stock, smeared texture paste all over it, like spreading peanut butter on bread, and allowed that to dry, while I worked on others.  (I'm not showing these in the order I made them--I think each one got better as I got on a roll.  By the way, I accomplished a lot while making these--I did 5 loads of laundry, and tonight while uploading the photos, I folded and put away those 5 loads.) Next  I dabbed and swiped on various Distress stains and again, allowed it to dry.  Then I stamped Tim's Stamper's Anonymous images from Trick or Treat with Archival ink. This is one happy skeleton!

Next up is my very different ATC--I just wanted to try everything on these.  I really just happened to have this scrap of vintage dictionary page on my work table.  So I built my card around that.  The dictionary entries are carrion and carrion crow. The definition is gross--look it up if you can't see it and are interested--it's quite Halloweeny.

There is a background to this, but  just does not show up in the photos.  It is the same TCW tree stencil spritzed with Glimmer mist and reverse stenciled onto white card stock, then dried.  I Mod Podged the dictionary scrap on my background.  I layered it with an acetate transparency I had in my stash and attached it with Tim's Tiny Attacher. I love this tool!

The feather was attached with the Tiny Attacher.

I added a feather across the bottom.  This is a real feather; it is very old and very creepy.  I found it and others, which I regretfully threw away, in a box of  vintage dolls I picked up an estate sale about a year ago. I save everything! (Sorry for the blurry photo.)

I stamped Tim's Regal Flourish in purple Staz-On, painted Tim's Idea-ology numerals with silver Distress paint and topped off my card with them.

Last, but not MY last forever, is this cute little ATC--I had to do a cute one as a counterpoint to the one previously noted.  This one I did make with the cereal box, as originally planned. 

After I die cut my cereal box, I ran it through with Tim's Regal Flourishes Texture Fade, then distressed it with Distress Ink.  I rubbed on a variety of metallic rubs--the upper left corner is sparkly antique gold but does not show up in the photo.  I can't add another photo at this time to show you, since my daughter has to do some trick to get my photos to upload  from my phone to hers to the computer. And she's in bed now.  One of these days I'll get that straight with the people over at the phone store. I digress...This is one of those cards you have to move around in the light to catch it's real beauty.  Lastly, I stamped the background with Tim's Regal Flourish.

The owl and jack-o-lantern are fussy cut from a card a friend gave me.  I toned them down a notch with Walnut DI and added  yellow and orange Stickles-don't you love those owl's eyes???

I cut out a computer generated phrase and inked it with Distress.  I added the trim from my stash and popped up the embellishments with foam tape.

Well, this has been so much fun!  I really appreciate the opportunity to play along at A Vintage Journey in their Challenge #13 A Little Touch of Tim ATC's Only.  And I appreciate you stopping in to have a look; I hope you'll take a minute to comment on my lovelies.