ATC Cards for July Challenge

Deb Prewitt at Blue Twig Studio has a monthly ATC Challenge. June's ATC challenge was eyes and the ATC's really captured my attention. They are so unique and beautiful. Depending on how many ATC's are returned each month, Deb picks 1-3 winners and the winners receive a portion to all of the ATC's for that month.

I've belonged to a couple of ATC groups here in AZ over the past few years. The first one had about 12 people in the group and we voted on a theme each month. You had to make 13 cards (one for each person and one for the store) and we traded cards. It was fun and creative. The group disbanded when the store we met at closed. Last year, I joined another group for a time that had about 16 members. Making that many cards each month took too much time, with everything else on my schedule, so I ended up dropping out of the group.

With Deb's encouragement, I decided to try join her ATC Challenge. The really nice thing with this group is that I only need to make one card to enter! I think I can handle one card! After all it's only 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size! That's just a tiny piece of artwork! 

July's challenge is birds.  I made 2 different ATC cards and mailed them off to her. I mailed them off a week ago, but didn't want to post them before the deadline to have the cards turned in. These are the cards I made.

Before I really knew exactly what I wanted to create for a "bird" ATC card, I started off using yellow, orange, pink, red and a touch of blue watercolor to create a background on mixed-media paper. I added salt before it dried to add some texture.

First try at a watercolor background on mixed-media paper.. 

I decided to create birds silhouetted against the moon on one side of the card, with a saying "Indulge your imagination in every possible flight" on the other side of the card. I tried to add a white moon to the above background, but it doesn't show up. Save it for another month!!!  I got a piece of 140lb watercolor paper and started over. I used blue, indigo, and black to create a background and then lifted the paint to create a half-moon on one side of the watercolor.

Watercolor background with salt texture on
140 lb watercolor paper. 

Finished ATC card. Watercolor background.
Black Prismacolor pen size 0.01 was used to
create the birds, Multicolor brush style
Prismacolor pens were used for the saying.
 

 I had a better idea what I wanted to do for a second ATC card. I started with mixed-media paper and painted half of it in watercolors with blue and greens.  I again added salt to add a bit of texture.The other half the card is covered with black card stock on which I drew a feather design drawn with several colors of Souffle pens. Then I added a 3D sticker of a bird perched on a birdhouse to the blue background. and an envelope with a card in it with a saying, "My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather."

Finished ATC card. 

Finished ATC card showing the saying that
the envelope contains. 

Back of ATC cards.

Both cards have the same thing on the back for a label. I've seen others who use a stamp for the ATC label, but I've never found one to buy, so I just hand-label all of them. 

I hope these are good enough for the group. I've been sick and the month of July got away from me before I realized if I didn't get something made, I would never get it mailed in time for Deb to receive them. 

Keep creating!!