Artist Trading Cards - Wednesday Stamper/Two Tone

Now that I'm working 8 hours a day, I'm fiercely protective of my free time, and I don't always use that time efficiently because I'm spending too much of it deciding what I want to do. Tonight, I want to make ATCs, but I also want to finish a book I'm reading so I can stock up at the library again before the weekend. So I challenged myself to stamp something quick and easy, so that I'll have time left over for reading. The current topic at Wednesday Stamper is Two-Tone, and that helped me narrow down my color choices, which really did save time. For the second ATC, I used mostly scraps (have I mentioned that I never throw out even the smallest bits of leftover paper?). Now, I'm off to finish my book. Maybe I'll get done in time to do some more stamping!

Artist Trading Card - Games

I haven't posted an artist trading card in a while, so I thought I'd play along this week at Think Monday - Think ATC, where the current challenge is games. I honestly don't know why I have pieces of a child's jigsaw puzzle in my house (since all my children are of the 4-legged, furry variety), but somehow they've made their way into my stash of stuff and are therefore fair game for artwork. For this ATC, I roughly edged one puzzle piece with a Krylon leafing pen, and glued a crossword to another piece. The background paper is "Guy's Life" from American Traditional Designs. As always, the folks participating at TMTA have produced some fabulous ATCs, so head on over there and take a look.

Moo Card - Birds

If you love moo cards, you should head on over to Make a Moo or Two, where you can find loads of inspiration in dozens of styles. This week, the challenge topic there is birds. On the moo card pictured here, I've heat embossed a tiny bird in winter white, and simply layered her over some stamped flowers and swirls in cheerful summer colors. As I nearly always do, I've added a bit of knotted ribbon.

Moo Cards - Black and White

Finally, I had time to make some moo cards! I love to work small, and the moo card is probably my favorite format for little pieces of art. The nice thing about moos is that they can stand alone, or can be added to a greeting card or other piece of art. The cards pictured here are for Make a Moo or Two, where the challenge this week is black and white. Here, I've simply done some very basic stamping with black ink on white cardstock, then framed it all up on black cardstock. All stamps and cardstock are from Stampin' Up!.

Christmas in June

The current challenge at Daring Cardmakers is Christmas in June. Not really a tough one for me, because I could make Christmas cards all year long and never get sick of them. I'm still trying to stick with quick, simple cards, and this one was very fast and easy. This time, I thought I'd depart from traditional holiday colors, so I used only black, blue, and white, plus a touch of gold in the ribbon. The background is embossed with the Cuttlebug, and the ornament is stamped with a 2-step stamp. Stamps, cardstock, and ink from Stampin' Up!.

Quick Cards - Daring Cardmakers

The challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week is Quick Cards - cards with a theme of our own choosing, but that take 30 minutes or less to make. Most of my cards are made quickly, so for me this was mainly a matter of deciding which one to show you today. For the card pictured here, I used a 3-stamp set for the basket, and since it's a fairly loosely designed image, there was no need to spend time lining everything up perfectly. For the background I repeatedly stamped a vine across the cardstock - simple! The ribbon is threaded through two 1/4" holes. This card came together in only 5-10 minutes. All stamps, ink, and cardstock are from Stampin' Up!.

Twinchies

Today's challenge at Wednesday Stamper is to use a "twinchie" format for our stamped project. A twinchie is a 2x2 inch square piece of artwork, and I was completely unaware of the term until today. I'm note sure how I missed the boat on twinchies, but here are my first two. I think I'll probably like this size a lot better than inchies. Stamps and ink are from Stampin' Up!.