First ATC and Scrap Stash Sunday

Hello! I recently signed up for an on-line collage class. I've been drawn to collage art lately and thought I would take a class for some tips and tricks etc. If you're interested, here is the link to Collage Coterie. There are downloadable instructions and lessons, as well as great digital art. I have saved a bunch of files but haven't actually used any yet. Here is my project for the first class, to make an ATC (artist trading card). ATCs are 2.5 x 3.5" and this is the first one I made! I could get addicted to this size of project. It's a really fun size - big enough to fit things on, yet small enough not to be inimidating.

For this lesson I was supposed to be thinking about size, so I'm not sure enormous butterfly and teensy child demonstrate my grasp of reality. (Or perhaps they actually do!) I think I do like the proportions on this ATC. I liked it well enough for it to be here anyway, and I'm learning so we all have to start somewhere, right? Right.

A few details: I started with an ATC-sized base and glued down some French poetry (tore up my first book!) and decided to incoroporate some scraps so this could be my Scrap Stash Sunday project too. I had some more "fake washi/yuzen" paper from my failed attempt to stamp my way to Japanese paper heaven. This was a scrap that was well suited to tearing into tiny pieces (in fact it narrowly escaped this fate early on in its creation), being covered in ink and gesso and stamps. This paper is on the far left, and there is also a scrap of paper that I tried spritzing glimmer mist through lace (second from left) and a scrap of Stampin' Up paper from a winter kit to make ornaments (third from left). I put some gesso over to unify and mute the colours, then sponged over some distress ink and what appears to be particles of black paint from my craft sheet. Must be time to clean craft sheet. (Once again, this is why I prefer vintage/grunge stamping!) I stamped a flourish (josephinekimberling for Impress) in Olympia green Versafine over top, as well as a little border (Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous) on the left side and bottom. The child is clipped from a paperwhimsy.com sheet of vintage photos. The butterfly is another scrap on my desk from yesterday, so I sponged it with Distress inks in yellows and pounced Vintage Photo ink through sequin waste. I am addicted to sequin waste now. After an extensive search through a local store, I finally got my hands on some. They even sent me up to rootle through the Christmas decoration warehouse in a fruitless search for sequin waste. My kids loooooved that. (not.) It was funny to see my little 4-year old scanning the aisles muttering "sequin waste, where is sequin waste". Anyway, I have 2 yards now, which should set me up for a long time of happy sponging and dabbing. I fiddled for quite a while with wire clippers, needle nose pliers, tiny beads and copic markers to achieve the end result of butterfly antennae that look extremely vintage (translation: somewhat mangled). I felt the whole thing needed a sentiment, so I added a Dymo label word. I am quite pleased with my first attempt at an ATC. Onwards and upwards!