Merry Christmas to all! I made this group of ATCs for Julia for Christmas, using a neat Pink Paislee stamp set and matching rub-on set from last year, and these sweet little children with their packages from an old French postcard image. We are having another lovely snowy Christmas (although this year the roads are passable), we’ve made rather merry this evening at my house and tomorrow I will deliver these ATCs wrapped in tissue to Julia at her house when we unwrap and feast and party some more. (I have until then to figure out how to attach them to each other so they stand and display the images–I think maybe paper hinges on the back and a thread of ribbon that ties them together when closed.) Blessings of the season to you all. Ding ding ding!!
I do so love poinsettias, especially the lush dark red velvety ones, but I never have them in the house at Christmas because they get all spindly and die no matter what I do to them. So this little cutie had to suffice for my poinsettia decoration this year. I made her for a swap and can’t wait to see what I get back. Ding ding ding time is getting closer every day!
For our same local Christmas swap from Julia. This one is a cutie!
My ATC for our local swap group for this Christmas. We haven’t undertaken a mail swap in a long time so I volunteered to host a 4-for-4 swap with a Christmas theme, and we had 14 swappers! It was great fun. I sent the swaps and an extra bonus giftie back to the swappers about a week ago and have gotten lots of positive feedback. Our next in-person swap is January 29th and maybe after that I will try another mail swap–a spring theme, perhaps? We should all be sick to death of winter by then. But right now I am enjoying the holly and the lights and the snow–and just need my sisters to start their “ding ding ding” thing to really go into holiday overdrive.
Julia”s Christmas Cutie from a 2009 Christmas Swap–she has the right idea!
Julia’s Vintage Santa from the 2009 Swap. Isn’t he charming? I have a few more holiday cards to post from last year, and then when all my swaps get to their destinations this year, I will post the 2010 Christmas ATCs I have been working on. I think I have enough to say Merry Christmas all next week with a different image each day. We have snow and ice now, so I am getting into the spirit more and more.
Remember the Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen song “Sisters, sisters, never was there such a pair of sisters” in White Christmas? My sister Julia is one of my very favorite ATC artists; she found them first but we have been making ATCs together since 2005. I have a wonderful collection of her ATC art and she agreed to let me share some of her art here. This is her “Blue Christmas” ATC from the same swap that had me in glitter overload last year. Julia uses a lot more stamps than I do on her ATCs, which I really like, and is a lot more restrained (apparently she got the the suble gene–obviously a recessive gene in my family lineage.) When I see her art, I always wonder what I was thinking when I glued the last 17 rhinestone swirls to my card. Oh well. Aren’t these sledders cute? Enjoy.
A December 2009 ATC for a wonderful year-long monthly swap that I have been lucky enough to be part of for almost three years (can you believe that, Kris?). I may get down in the art doldrums sometimes but I always finish my monthly 9 swap ATCs because I may lose my place–a terrible fate! I used several variations of poinsettias, including printed ones from Hero Arts, to make the blossom, and the beautiful face is from an apple image on a Halloween sheet from Cemerony on Etsy. I love Julia’s digital art so much. My apologies for the blurry image but I just am not a good scanner. Enjoy.
My ATC for a Christmas swap called “Blue Christmas” last year. Underneath the lovely Victorian image I used a laser cut snowflake paper that I colored with GlimmerMists, added snowflake border edges punched from glitter paper, and then more glitter on her cape hood and shoulders. I had fun but I’m afraid it answers the question: “Can you really ever have too much glitter?” with a yes. I’ve been working on using “subtle” as a more appropriate mantra ever since.
It doesn’t seem possible that an entire year has almost passed since I last posted, but a friend found my blog today and urged me to post more and I realized that I actually had some ATCs to share. Some are from last year and some are just being created in my very cluttered, never-will-get-organized art space but I am making ATCs again and having a blast. This is my 2010 version of the “Vintage Santa” swap for a Yahoo group. I held my breath that my friend Jan would use the same image (we are apparently psychically bonded when it comes to images) but I have just seen her lovely Santa on line and we missed this time. Whew! The hardest part of this ATC turned out to be the bitty strips of raffia that I had to cut apart and rebind to make the broom. It was everywhere! And why does Father Christmas have a broom anyway?
Tug Hill Artist ATCs 