Recycle Materials Artist Trading Cards

I just got back from spending a few hours with my artsy friends.  These ladies are very talented and today have come up with more ideas than I can conjure up myself.  Today's theme was "recycle" and we were to make Artist Trading Cards (ATC) with mostly recycled things to swap with each other.  Artist Trading Cards are made by artist to trade with other artists.  The concept is similar to trading baseball cards, in fact, they're the same size.  

This card is a Crafty Chica Product Line

It's not just fun and games, though.  Today we had a serious conversation about what exactly were we, as a group.

Are we just random innocent ladies who love to craft, hot glue gun in one hand a brush in the other?  

Are we a group of artists who are addicted to paper crafting? 

OR

are we, gulp......A CULT! ....GULP!....

Well, thankfully, we all agreed that we do exhibit signs of addiction....'com on, I KNOW you have skeletons in your closet too, in my case, it happens to be paper in my closet.....tons and tons of paper, hahaha, but we are in no way......a cult!

Well, now that I know I'm not in a cult, I can go on with my blogging, whew! 

The first ATC card is a technique that Ally Sanchez taught us.  You take a paper bag, crimple it up and use shoe polish (the paste) to rub on the paper, fun and easy.

 Next is Pat Esteves, she used the packaging of something she purchased. It's a thick clear plastic packaging.
She embossed a Hello Kitty and added some glitter and a paper flower.  To make the flower, she cut the paper in a spiral and rolled it up. 

next, is from Florentina Rivas, Tina.  She used corrugated paper from packaging, the stem was made from the wire wrapping of a bottle of wine....niiiiiiice.  She used recycled paper for the flower using Tim Holtz, Tattered Flower die, you can find it here.  She used Gold Glimmer Mist, you can find that here.  

 next is Carmen Mazzola.  She used various packaging materials, including bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard, tissue, twigs, pine cone ends and various shells. 

The next one is from Kim Lamos.  She used a Pepsi can to make the bottom of the cup cake.  The top of the cupcake.....you're not gonna believe this.....she used paper made out of elephant dung!!! oh yes my friends, this takes the prize as far as recycled materials.  I tried to scratch and sniff but, trust me, it does not smell...at all!  you can read more about this paper here.

The next one is from Virginia Binion, Jinnie, a pretty little flower made out of a recycled book and tinted with a brown ink pad.  Love the color combination on this one.

The next one is from Cheryl Shoats, she used a soda can to cut the Tattered Flower from the same die as Tina above.  She used butterfly die cuts embossed to give them texture.  I loved that she used the colors of the soda can and incorporated it in her design.

next is Rose Rodriguez.  She used bubble wrap...genious! to mimic the bubbles under water.  She used little die cuts for creatures under the sea.  The red netting is from a bag of oranges...cool! the algae was cut from a green plastic bag.

Lastly, this is the card I made to trade with the ladies.  I used a cereal card board box as my base.  For the background, I used pages of an old book.  I used the inside bag of a POP's cereal to cut the cage using Tim Holtz die, find it here. I strung a lace ribbon through a soda pop cap.  The metal heart is a small paper clip bent forwards to create a heart.  The butterfly was made using a recycled take-out plastic container.  To get step by step instructions on how to use this plastic, go here.   I used blue ink around the edges for dimension.

And that wraps up our group's recycled ATC cards.  I sure got a ton of ideas from these ladies, I hope you did too.  If you would like further instructions on a technique discussed here, please send me an email (see my profile) and I'd be more than happy to go over it with you. 

Have an awesome day tomorrow, thanks for coming by!

Paper Bag Album

I'm back!! Thank you all for your emails while I was gone.  I've been away from my computer enjoying the sun and everything else Summer has to offer.  I wasn't planning on being gone this long and I miss all my bloggie friends!!

 

I've been busy lately, taking card making classes to learn new techniques and I'm really excited with all the things I've learned so far, I cannot wait to post tutorials.

I've also been spending more time with my Crafty Friends and wait 'till you see what they've come up with.  Misty Grosse, my most awesomest and creative crafty friend, got all the girls together last Sunday for a potluck and she showed us how to make a recipe paper bag album inspired by Kathy Orta of Paper Phenomenon.  She makes the most awesome albums out of ordinary paper bags.  I'm not kidding when I say AWESOME!!! --- thou wilt not believe thy eyes!!  

Here's the link of her tutorial that shows you exactly how to make this fabulous album:
Kathy Orta Paper Bag Tutorial
 
Misty re-created this album to hold recipes in a Hawaiian theme and then taught us all how to make it.  It can hold at least 50 recipes, if not more.  It's got pockets EVERYWHERE!

here's the front:

   

 and the inside pages, every single page has a pocket:

 

funny how I didn't notice the sandal all wonky when I took the picture

 

Since it was also a pot luck, we all brought a dish to share with everyone.  Robbie, one of the ladies, made this delicious turkey salad.  You have got to make this for yourself, super delicious!!

 

 

 

look at the "bite", how cute is that! it was done with a scallop paper punch

 

besides all these little pockets everywhere, you can store recipes inside the paper bags

I just love this little album, can't wait to make some more.  At first I was going to give it to my sister (I hope she doesn't read this) but then I decided to keep it pour moi, para mi, for me.  Wouldn't they be cool Christmas gifts??? and I definitely have to make one for Halloween!!
Hope you're having a cool Summer!!

Domino Art Display

Sometimes I get asked to work on projects for a certain Holiday, months in advance of the actual Holiday.  Today I had to work on a Halloween project and, although I love Halloween, I couldn't get into the Halloween spirit.  It's kind of like trying to sing "Sad Eyes"....you know the one, ...."sad eyes turn the other way, I don't wanna see you cry".....during a rockin' pool party! hahaha. 

After I finished my Halloween project, I needed something to get me back to a summer mood and to do that,  I decided to make these little art displays I had been meaning to make for months.
Here's what it looks like all finished, it's the little display that's holding the card: 

here's what you'll need:

a metallic leafing pen, alcohol inks from Ranger Industries and a felt pad, dominoes, plastic buttons:

you'll also need:

a hot glue gun, StazOn ink pad or any permanent ink pad, a rubber stamp

First, spread the alcohol ink onto the dominoes

Next, stamp your rubber stamp image with your permanent ink pad:

use your metallic leafing pen and run it all around the dominoes, you'll end up with two dominoes that look like this:

remove the plastic shank from your plastic button (back part of button)

use your hot glue gun to glue the dominoes together, then hot glue the button on top:

and in a short time, you'll have created this:

use it for your Artist Trading Cards (ATC's).  On the one below, I used a small gear instead of a button

it will display your pictures too:

It can also be used to display your greeting cards.  I made the one below with scrapbook paper, use Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the domino:

I even made one with duct tape! AHA!! MY FIRST DUCT TAPE PROJECT!

check out the pretty design on this duct tape.  It's so nice that they are thinking about us crafters as they're designing new duct tape, it's not just boring gray anymore. 

so there you have it! a quick and easy project to display those special pictures and art.  I made a dozen of these to give away to friends along with an ATC card.  

I'm sharing this project at the following linky parties:






Hope you're having a great day! thanks for coming by.

Easy Picture Pendant Tutorial

I almost had a heart attack today when I opened my computer armoire to write this post.
It was ALL CLEAN!.  No stickies anywhere, no notes, no cd's all over the place, no memory cards, no lists of things to do, no project samples for future blog posts.......NOTHING! as I gasped and stared in bewilderment at my empty space, I faintly heard a little voice behind me saying, "mommy, mommy, I cleaned your desk for you, aren't you happy?"  the words sounded to me  like this, "mommy, mommy, blah blah blah TRASH blah blah blah TRASH blah blah".  Such scary words coming out of a little angel's lips.  He cleaned out my desk alright, my little trooper, by throwing everything away......yesterday.......on trash day.....sigh.  I was going to run out to the landfill, but then I remembered......... I'm not a crazy person.  All this happened while I was out.  How did my husband not notice, is beyond me (between you and I, I think he was napping on the sofa while all this was going on).
Gotta love those special moments.  Once I came out of my coma, I hugged the little one and said thank you! and tomorrow......I'm buying a lock and key! LOL.

I have this cute little pendant tutorial today that I made.  This is a perfect gift and it's so easy to make, you won't believe your eyes.
Here's what the finished pendant looks like:

Isn't that cute?

 Here's what you need: Scrapbook paper, silver plated bail, one inch glass pendant, light grit sandpaper

you can find the bail here and the glass pendant here

scissors, Glossy Accents (arts and craft store),

E6000 Glue (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart)

First, cut the paper to size one inch by one inch.  Apply Glossy Accents to the flat side of your glass and spread with finger.  Place your scrapbook paper face down on top of the Glossy Accents and burnish (press) the paper with your finger so that it lays flat on top, this way you won't get air bubbles.Let this completely dry for a couple of hours.

Once  it's dry, take your sandpaper and carefully rub your four sides on the sandpaper:

Once that's done, you'll have clean edges.  

You can color the back of the pendant with a Sharpie or leave it as is.  The one on the right in picture below has been colored in with a black Sharpie:

  Once that dries, give it a couple of hours, squeeze some Glossy Accents on the back of your pendant.  This protects the back of the paper. 

The back will look like this once you squeeze Glossy Accents, it stays in place, it doesn't run:

Here's a side view of the back with the Glossy Accents:

Let it dry over night. 

Once it's dry, take your silver plated bail and add a little bit of E6000 glue to adhere to the back of your glass pendant:

You can also use pictures but you'll need to print them on a laser printer first.  Here's some more I made in just a few minutes time: On the one below, I used scrapbook paper and a rubber stamp:

This next one was from a post card with dozens of little Frida Kahlo pictures:

Scrapbook paper, copies of photographs minimized to one inch by one inch, your own art work, rubber stamped images....the possibilities are endless!

Stay tuned for a special giveaway coming this Friday June 10th!