Fun with a box

My husband got a box in the mail yesterday, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it. Not the contents, just the box. A plain cardboard box, that wanted to be painted:



Now it is a much happier box. Why did I want this particular box? Here is a photo of it on its side, with an ATC next to it for size comparison:



As you can see, this box is perfectly sized for storing ATCs. I think I will make it my new ATC swap box for the Technique Junkies swap.

I love shades of blue and green, it is one of my favorite color palettes. Gingersnap Creations is having a "shades of blue" challenge, so I will enter this - lots of people make cards, not so many decorate boxes to put them in.

Zen again

I've really been missing my mojo - I just sat and stared at all my art supplies, and nothing clicked. I finally just pulled out a Pigma pen and a white aTC blacnk, and started zentangling. I'm really rusty, but it felt good to make something.

Watercolor cat

So, I drew and painted this cat (watercolor crayons), and it really wasn't that good, so I made it into a card.

That is the difference between a crafter and an artist. An artist would have thrown it away.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that you can't make a good card with a bad image, no matter how much junk you layer on it.

Inchie cards

Yesterday at a stamping workshop, a couple of the ladies asked me what I do with my inchies. Mostly, I make them to swap, but I also like to use them as card candy. On the Inchie INKlings blog, they have ideas and sketches every week for using inchies on cards. Here is my interpretation of this week's sketch:



You may recognize the inchies from a previous post. I made them for an inchie mingle, and instead of mailing them loose, I tacked them in place (with low tack glue dots) on this card. The recipient can keep the card as is, or remove the inchies for some other purpose, and maybe even reuse the card with different inchies. I love diecut sentiments, they are so easy to use! I have a bunch precut and ready to go. This card fits this weeks Corrosive challenge.

After I made this card, I remembered that I had 3 polymer clay inchies that I wanted to send to a different friend. I decided to rotate the sketch to use three across instead of four:



Once you have the inchies, the rest of the card is a snap to make.

Of course, I like the inchies as is, too. I keep mine in an old pewter tankard, and whenever I need inspiration, I pour them out on the table and play with them until something clicks, either a technique or a color scheme or a theme, and then I scoop them up and put them away for another day. Alternately, I will look at the scraps and stamps lying out from my last creative endeavor, and I will whip up a few inchies to put into the tankard. It's a lot more fun than throwing scraps away, I have a little souvenir of the previous project even if I send it away.

ATC to Card

Sometimes I will make an ATC and decide that it isn't much of an ATC by itself, but that it would make a nice focal point for a card. Three layers later, I have something I like much better. Anyone can add layers to a card; the trick is to make the layers look like they are adding something besides weight.

Does this ATC/focal point look familiar? I was testing the composition for this ATC on a bit of scrap paper before using it on my heavily techniqued background. I like to test out parts of an ATC before I put it all together.