ATC inspired by Claudine Hellmuth

This week's challenge over at the CropStop Challenge Blog is to make an Artist Trading Card (ATC) inspired by Claudine Hellmuth. This was definitely a challenge for me because I've never made an ATC in my life!! Not only did I have to look up what an ATC was, but then I had to look up Claudine Hellmuth. She's been featured on many shows including Martha Stewart. Fortunately for me, there were a lot of YouTube videos and information that came up when I did my search. Here's a link from her Martha Stewart appearance.

One of the things she's known for is her photo collages. They kind of have that 1950s vintage paper doll look to them. She also uses canvas and acrylic paints on a lot of her work. You can buy her products at CropStop here. Her acrylic paints come in 15 colors, but can be mixed together in different combinations to produce over 51 true colors. The colors do not become muddy when mixed together, which is AWESOME! Check out her color-mixing video here.

Here is my first attempt at an ATC (these little babies are small...they only measure 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"):

I used canvas with a triple coating of Gesso (this is basically a white primer for the canvas so the paint goes on smooth and bright). You can purchase Claudine's sticky-back canvas here. For the blue, I watered down some acrylic paint and used Claudine Hellmuth's paint brushes to spread the acrylic across the top. I didn't have any green acrylic paint so I used my Apple Green Prismacolor Marker for the bottom green area.

The stamps are all CTMH (True Happiness D1365 & Wishing Star D1333). I used Black Staz-On ink to stamp the images on an extra piece of canvas. When you stamp on canvas it doesn't produce a very crisp image because of the ridges in the canvas, so I took my Copic Mulitliner SP-0.1 and went over the stamped images. Then I cut them out and glued them to my ATC.

I took a photo of my son, reduced the size on my copier, and made a black and white copy. I used tracing paper to trace his clothes, keeping the lines simple like a paper doll. I photocopied the tracing paper image onto white cardstock and cut it out. I cut out the face from the black and white photo and glued it to the traced cut-out.

I colored his clothes with Copics B02, BV23, and Colorless Blender. For the skin parts I used E51. I used Sweet Pea Flower Soft for the bouquet of flowers, and just used a Green Sharpie to draw in the flower stems. To give my ATC some dimension, I used pop-dots to raise the paper doll off the ATC.

I hope this inspires you to try your hand at making an Artist Trading Card. Here's a link I found that goes over the general rules for making and trading an ATC....yes, there are rules! Now....go make one of these little treasures and link it to our challenge at CropStop for a chance at winning! Also, don't forget about the 10% discount code located on my sidebar for the CropStop store....they ship fast!!

I also want to say a big thank you to all of you for stopping by my blog and leaving me love! You guys are always so kind and your feedback is so inspiring and uplifting!

Hugs,
Rosemary

CropStop Creative Team Debut!

Today’s my official start date as a member of CropStop’s Creative Team, woo hoo!! And to top it all off they are showcasing projects from each Creative Team member on the CropStop Challenge Blog. Every Thursday a new challenge goes up on the blog and you have until the following Wednesday to link your project. The winner is announced on Friday and wins an AWESOME prize! We also pick some projects to receive our Cream of the Crop Award (and you get a blinkie to add to your blog)! And don't forget about my 10% discount code located in my sidebar!!

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge by Gloria Stengel. Here's the sketch:

I knew I wanted to do something special since it was my very first Creative Team project. I decided to make a 12-drawer Easel Card Dresser. The Easel Card on top follows the sketch for this week’s challenge.
I followed this tutorial here to make the matchboxes and sleeves. However, when I was making the matchbox sleeves, I realized the measurements on the tutorial were a little off. I cut my sleeve panel 7 5/8" x 3 2/16", and scored my sleeves at these intervals using my Scor-Pal (I measure and mark my lines with a ruler and then use my Scor-Pal): score at 1", 3 5/16", 4 5/16", and 6 5/8".
I glued 3 matchboxes with sleeves on top of each other using Fabri-Tac glue. I usually use my Scor-Tape for the entire project, but I was running low so I had to use glue to put some of it together. This, of course, takes longer because you have to wait for the glue to dry. :(

For the embossed side panels, I cut a piece of white cardstock 5 2/16” and scored at 1” from both ends. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder. I glued that piece to one side of the 3-stacked matchboxes. After that dried, I glued the stacked matchboxes onto the bottom 6x6 chipboard piece (following the tutorial). Then I added glue to the tops of the matchbox sleeves and pressed the top chipboard piece into place (pushing the matchboxes inward with my hands at the same time to keep the top of the matchboxes from spreading outward).

For the front drawer panels, I glued rectangle pieces of pink cardstock and then layered white cardstock, embossed with Swiss Dots, on top of the pink. The little drawer pulls were little wooden knobs from Hobby Lobby. I painted them pink with Anita’s Baby Pink Acrylic Paint (about 3 thin coats).
For the Easel Card, I used Ballerina Tilda. I colored her with Copics and did my shading with chalk. I added Star Dust Stickles to her dress and tiara and added a small pearl to the middle of her tiara. I used Scor-Tape to put the Easel Card together because it’s really strong and holds like nothing else!! I generally use it for all my layered cards and 3-D projects! The white panel behind Tilda is embossed again with Swiss Dots. The white and pink cs are both distressed with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. Then Cotton Candy Stickles were added around the edge of the white embossed cs.
The light pink rose paper came from my stash. The pink paper with white dots is from a Tim Holtz paper pack. The lace ribbon is from The Paper Studio. The flowers and pearl swirl accent are from the Recollections Boutique Fleur line at Michaels. The mini pink roses in the corners are from Wild Orchid Crafts.
On the bottom part of the Easel Card, I punched out the sentiment with the EK Success Real Estate Sign Punch. The sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set and embossed using VersaMark and Zing Pink Embossing Powder. I edged the punched shape with Cotton Candy Stickles and sponged Worn Lipstick Distress Ink all over the embossed sentiment. The sheer ribbon is from my stash, but CropStop has some really cute sheer pink ribbon with ruffle edge here. The border on the white cs was made with a Martha Stewart Border Punch. This punch is currently not in the store, but you can view other MS punches here.

Here's a side view:

I hope you enjoyed my very first CropStop Creative Team debut project. I spent a lot of time and love putting this together! Don't forget to head over to the CropStop Challenge Blog and link your project for the weekly drawing, and good luck!

Hugs!

Rosemary :)

Angie's Distress Ink Blog Candy

If you haven't heard of Angie from http://www.scrapgirl-angie.blogspot.com then head over to her blog right away because this gal is amazing!! Not only is she an expert card designer, but she's especially talented at coloring with distress inks.

To top it all off, she's offering a free membership to her Distress Ink class as some amazing blog candy here!


The candy ends Feb. 13th and the winner will be announced on Feb. 14th, so head over there right away and enter! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because I sooooooo want to win this!!

Hugs,
Rosemary :)

CropStop Creative Team & Discount CODE!!

I have great news everyone that I can finally announce.......I am now an official member of CropStop's CREATIVE TEAM!!!! I am soooooo excited and let me tell ya it's been tough keeping the secret!! You can see the announcement with the list of wonderfully, talented CT ladies on CropStop's blog here. There are 6 new ladies joining the current team (see my sidebar for the CT blog links). You can also participate in CropStop's weekly challenges for a chance to win some prizes!

The other great news is that I get to offer all of you a code to get 10% off your orders at CropStop.com....WOO HOO!! The code is CTRB-01 and it's on my sidebar too! Now go....well wait until you see my post and leave me some love, haha....then GO straight over to the store and check out their awesome products.

Today, I wanted to show you one of the cards I submitted for their Creative Team Call based on a sketch by CropStop's Sketch Artist, Gloria Stengel.

The black cardstock is from Recollections. The map paper and red cardstock came from my stash. I tore it all along the edges and smudged Vintage Photo Distress Ink around it to give it a weathered look. I stamped swirls on the cream dp behind Tilda and used the Martha Stewart French Scroll Border Punch on the black cardstock (love the elegance of this punch!). I handwrote the sentiment with a Versamark Pen and embossed with Stampendous Gold Tinsel Powder.
The flower was cut out from a piece of dp in the DCWV Once Upon A Time paper stack. I covered each of the petals with a lot of Glossy Accents and went along the edges of the petals with Star Dust Stickles (my fave!). I wanted it to look like a jewel. The pearl center is a button I had in my stash (I cut the back off and then glued it down). I took gold ribbon cording from Michaels and wrapped it around the paper to look like a necklace that Pirate Tilda might find in her travels. Everything is raised up on pop-dots...Pirate Tilda, the paper frame around Tilda, the sentiment, and the flower!

I paper-pieced Pirate Tilda's shirt and head-wrap from red paper (I don't have any red Copics....a problem I plan to fix this year, haha). I love that you can paper-piece clothes to get the color you want. I used my black chalk to shade her red dress and head-wrap and then cut out the pieces.

I colored her boots and flag with Copic BV23 and shaded with black chalk. I added Glossy Accents to her boots to make them shine. I used Copic E51 for her skin and shaded with some tan colored chalk around the edges of her face, arms and legs. Her cheeks got a light coating of red chalk. I colored her skirt and the band in her head-wrap with Copic Black and then added Star Dust Stickles.

Here's a side view so you can see the dimension:

I can't wait to start creating cards as a CropStop Creative Team member for the various challenges we are going to have on the blog. This is something I have been wanting for a long time and am so blessed to have this opportunity!

Much love to you all for all your continued support and wonderful comments!

Hugs,
Rosemary