WOYWW # 211 Home is where the ATC is

Wednesday  is finally here...the day to peek into all the creative desks around the world. Pop by Julia's at Stamping Ground if you would like to take a peek as well...but be sure to leave her a comment as she hosts this whole snoop!

Finally got home from the lake and my mailbox was very full of tiny envelopes, arty envelops and some large envelopes...What's a girl to do but rip them open!!! Aaaaahhhhhh!
None of this home and heart business ...today for sure...Home is where the ATC is.

Here they are, in all their glory. I have placed the envelope beside a couple of them as the envelope is a work of art too! I still have one to fly across the pond, but I must say I am delighted with these teensy works of art on my table.
Here they are individually:

First is Marit of Marit's Paper World. Not sure if you can see the lovely black stitching...but it is very effective on this ATC. The envelope was a fab surprise! I have put her business card over my address!

Next up is Neet  of Hickydorums who drew my name...Hers is a surprise too, as it has two sides and a gorgeous shimmery envelope to protect it.

Here is the flip side

Now we have Sandra of Sand Castles In The Air. She sent one of her first forays into Zen with colour. I chuckled at the bristol board protector she tucked into her envelope! I have set her ATC on the board to share it with you.

Buttons at Pushing The Right Buttons sent this lovely inky, embossed ATC. It has glimmers of metallic verdigris.

Ria  of Ria Gall sent this cheery hot air balloon. It has such a feeling of motion!

Caro at  Caro Crafts and Life sent this fun jeliplate creation...It has a very sweet poem she penned just for WOYWW4   (on the back).

Vickie at Crafting Vicky sent a purrfic hug with this sweet kitty. She has a wonderful stamp on the back to record the deets!

and Sarn at Stamping for Pleasure sent this lovely inky ATC with one of my fave images on it.She surprised me a sweet little fancy folded card I spied on her blog. now I have the pattern to create my own...Once back from England, I want to start making fancy folded cards. .

Now...I am closing with a very scary photo indeed...a photo of my desk like you have never seen it before. I am packing up stash for the lake...trying to do card and scrapbook kits to take. I had to haul out a ton of junk...no, no, I mean treasures...to kit them up! In the meantime, there are envelopes from the ATC swap that need addresses put in my book, stamps that need given to the family stamp collector, cards to finish up, treasured stash that needs put away and  a basket of stamps that need recorded and filed away. Phew!

Just in case you missed anything...here is a close up of the mess!!!

WOYWW 209 ATC's the unveiling

It is time again to join Julia over at Stamping Ground for another week of WOYWW. Come peer into the heady world of just what is on creative desks...desks of crafters all around the globe!
Last week was so much fun. So much energy, and camaraderieship was evident as I worked my way through the blog roll. I tried very hard to visit every desk...but only got around to 125 blogs!  I had some difficulty with a couple of blogs who didn't allow me to leave a comment unless I signed up to be in someones circles.

If I missed you I am sorry...it took all week to visit who I did manage to get to. I saw so many fabulous ATC's. I learned that special stamps exist to record the deets (who knew!) and learned that some people (you know who you are)  created very lovely holders to protect their ATC's in the mail,.and then made their envelopes into works of art as well!

Now we have 12 months to plan our next ones. I sent off my very first ATC's...I had never taken part previously as I was up at the lake with no internet last year.
I was so lucky the dates worked for me this year and I learned a lot about what to do next time and also what not to do!!!. I think mine were a little too contrived and would like to try something more "Arty" next year! I know it will be fun to plan them ahead!

I made eleven ATC's in all. I had two themes and within each theme the ATC's were quite similar..with a few slight differences. Alas, I did not take a pictures of them all laid out! Silly me, I popped them into their envelops and mailed them off. tout suite! I have one of each theme that I managed to remember to photograph...perhaps some people I sent to may take a picture of what they received.

I managed to make my ATC's with scraps of old scrapbooking projects and stash I alrady owned! That made me happy:)

My first smaller theme was WOYWW4 Creativity Blooms. I made 4. Here is a sample.. I stamped a flower on the back of the teensy envelope.

I learned a couple of things as I made the bloom series
1. Do any finely detailed stamping  on your background before embossing it!
2. Large stamped words look better stamped over the embossing.
3. After embossing the backgrounds get a bit crooked...they look a bit askew.
4. Smooshing and swirly those small pieces of paper through TH Distress stains make your finger very mucky!
5. Smooshing and swirling makes the back of the ATC backrounds mucky!
6. Cutting another ATC and glueing the two layers together gives a nice clean back.
7. Inking the edges of the glued layers helps hide the join line of the layers.
8. Investing in some thin surgical type rubber gloves would be a wise investment.
9. Investing in an ATC details stamp would be a lovely luxury but downloading a free version and running the backs  through the printer BEFORE you glue them together would be a good alternative.

I am entering the Bloom Series ATC in the following challenges
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets.
2. Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
3. Kraft Journal - Make it Monday ; Clean and Simple - must use kraft


My second theme was WOYWW Spans Sea to Sea. There were different types of seahorses used on these...There were a couple of really pretty silver delicate looking ones...yep, you guessed it...they were the ones that escaped B4 I thought to take the camera out.
Instead, I have this sample...

On this series, I was reminded of something I already knew...that often Canadians, and most often a certain lady with concussion related problems, take instructions very literally. Julia mentioned that if you could work WOYWW4 into your card in some way, that would be great.
 I think I kind of took away from my ATC's by hand writing this onto the pattern of the embossing folder... I was not happy with the look so gave my ATC's a liberal dose of sparkly shimmer spray to try and tone it down.
I finished inking and spraying and realized that I was just stuck with it on them and needed to just live with it.
I turned them over and started drawing the lines for the details...then it hit me...I didn't need to draw it on the front as it was in the deets. Duh!

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my foray with ATC.s. I really liked making them and am planning next years already!!!

P.S.  I will be away 2 weeks visiting my Mum and then up to the lake. Won't be able to open my mail or access my post for 2 weeks so will show the ATC's that I receive on June 19th.. Just don't want anyone to think I am being rude in not thanking you for so long...

I am entering these Sea inspired ATC's in the following challenges:
1. Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets...my ATC backs and fronts as well as the little pieces of kraft cardstock  were all  made from my snippetts drawers.Hope they qualify Di...I am trying for that lucious water droplets so need all the entries I can muster this busy week!
2. Crafty Sentiments Designs - Something fishy
3. Gingerloft Challenge - Critters of the Sea
4. Papertake Weekly - Aything goes