Darkroom Door ATC Swap July 2012

Thanks to all the ladies who came out to my class yesterday!  I had a great time and it was fun to see all the beautiful cards people made.  Last night I had a bit of stamping time after the kids were in bed and I made some ATCs for the July swap at Darkroom Door in Australia.  I always enjoy those swaps when I get a chance to participate and it's fun to get ATCs back from all over the world.

The cupcake ATC is the one I made to swap and I made nine other ones similar to that one using the Sweet Treats filmstrips and companion wordstrips.  The theme for the swap is "For the Ladies", and all the ladies I know have a sweet tooth, so that's how I'm interpreting this theme, complemented by a very feminine colour scheme.  I started with some manila tags trimmed down for ATC size, then covered them with Spun Sugar Distress Stains.  Next, I sponged on some Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord Distress Ink, and stamped on some words in Dried Marigold Distress Ink.  I felt the backgrounds were still a little bare under the other elements, so I sponged on some Soft Lilac shadow ink through a Crafter's Workshop swirly template.  The trimmed down photo strips are distressed lightly around the edges and the word strips are tinted with Dusty Concord ink.  A little tab of ribbon (stitched grosgrain in Groovy Guava) and a black mat completed these.  For the black base I used Heather's new matte black, which is absolutely gorgeous.  International swap participants can choose to send two extra ATCs in exchange for return postage.  I made two extras using some scrap paper I had on hand from blotting up excess Dylusions spray from another project.  The tulip and bird are embossed in black.  The tulip is coloured with Copics and the bird is bleached out.  I added a bit of ground with a gray Copic marker for the bird and clipped out the words, ransom note style and inked the edges.  (Why can't I have such obsessive attention to detail in other areas of my life?  Like balancing the cheque book or making grocery lists?)  For the tulip ATC, I added a flourish stamped in white paint (hard to see - Sauron the Scanner is being uncooperative today) and a doodled border.  Now to get these in the mail and hope they get there in time!

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