Wrapping up the ATC swap

Dear Shayne,
Fair warning: I am now about to bombard you with photos. Ready?

I have finished that ATC swap I was in on craftster so here are the final cards I sent out, plus the holder I sent.

The theme request for this first one was "Vintage hats, purses & shoes." Everyone else made her super-old Victorian style cards. I am a dumb-ass and interpreted "Vintage" to mean 40s/50s. So this card stands out like a sore thumb in the rest of her collection. Oh, well. The cool thing about this card is that it's also a little book, although I didn't scan a photo inside of it. I don't know why. Perhaps it's that "I'm a dumb-ass" problem. I got the idea from an article in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. The "spine" of the book is along the bottom of the purse. The book is about... I don't know... 8 pages. It was cute (if I do say so myself).

This next one was for a theme of "Myth & Magic." I don't know why, but I immediately thought of The Magician tarot card . I have a spare tarot deck that I got as a promo item (???) at a convention I went to once. (Yeah... weird.)

So I used that card as the base, and then cut up a little book I have on Tarot for the smaller tarot image. The explanation of the card was cut from the little tarot guidebook that came from the deck. I burned the edges and may have exhibited a little too much "self-confidence" in burning (those are the words I nearly burned entirely off). Oh, well -- it's got that "handmade" look, right? Heh.

Here's one that I was totally stumped on but I ended up really liking. Her theme was "Zetti." (If you don't know what that is, click that link and check out Teesha Moore's site. Go ahead. I'll wait.)

I found this theme to be overwhelming, since there is so much possibility with it. But the chick I was making it for owns goats, so I used that as a starting point. I have a butterfly stamp that I used to make the wing and I sort of free-handed the crown. It was a little plain at that point, so I put the "joy" tag on the bottom. He seems joyful, doesn't he? I know I would be if I could fly... that would be so coool. Wouldn't that be cool? I would totally love that! I have these flying dreams and they're so vivid... oh, wait. Where was I? Oh, yeah. ATCs.


The final card for the swap had the theme of "Old Blues Musicians." This is also the person I had to make a holder for, so I was pretty burned out on this theme by the time I got to her card. I ended up doing something totally goofy, but here it is.

I took images from a Bessie Smith song called, well, you can figure this part out, but it's called "You've got to give me some." The images are a "peckerwood" (woodpecker), cream, steak, sugar lumps, and lollypops. They refer to well, er, um... read the lyrics for yourself here. Ahem! And people are shocked by lyrics today -- I guess the imagery of yesteryear is a bit less graphic, but still... pretty raunchy! So that's how I came up with that card. It's a mystery to anyone who isn't familiar with the song, but the person I made it for is, so it works.

As I mentioned, I also made the ATC holder for that same chick. I feel like I might have screwed her with what I made, but, well, here's what I did. The actual original requirement for the swap was a "book" to hold the ATCs in. Early on, I asked her if a non-book holder would be okay with her and she said that whatever I wanted to make was fine. Whoops for her!

As the swap went on, I kept seeing all of these incredible cards and thought about how nice it would be to display them (as opposed to tucking them away in a book). So I made her a little display case/shrine type thing.Here's a bit of a side view.

On this side, we see Bessie Smith, one of the musicians she specifically mentioned as a favorite. Inside the display area is a map of Mississippi. There are widely various arguments about where the Blues originated. This is one opinion. I don't really care if other people disagree. I needed to get the holder done, so Mississippi it was.

On the other side of the holder is Robert Johnson, another musician that she mentioned (he's from Mississippi!) (It's hard to write that word without thinking of the sing-song-y way of spelling it.)

You can also see my random music-y notes embellishments inside... I was kind of desperate with this theme, as the Blues is really not my bag.

The entire time I was making this, I thought, "Oh, good. I can take photos of the ATC I made being displayed inside of the box." And then I promptly sealed that ATC in an envelope before taking photos of this thing. Smooth. So here is a picture with the lovely "Sample ATC" standing in. Sexy nice.

I really love making these boxes. They're strangely satisfying to make and they come out really sturdy. I learned to make them by using these kits from Paper-Source (of course). I highly recommend the kit if you've never made a box before -- the instructions are great and they pre-cut all of the boards. I cut my own boards now, which is cheaper and more adaptable, but also a pain in the butt. I've made a couple of other boxes this past year, but that's another entry for another day.

At the bottom of the holder is a drawer for the ATCs that are not on display above. Here's a photo of it with the ever-lovely "Sample ATC" inside. Yeah... cause you might understand what a "drawer" is or how it works... (this post is going downhill now, isn't it? >sigh<).

The final photo is the top of the whole thing. I found this great quote from Ralph Ellison (click it for a larger version, if you want to actually read the quote).

Of course, I didn't actually learn my "Just Leave It Alone" lesson (did you really think that I did?) with the earlier card and added the swirly stamps at the very last possible moment. For the most part, I like how they turned out, but I totally biffed one of them on the top of the box. It looked horrible. So I slapped that little heart sticker over it. Not sure that it really works, but... 3am? Needs to ship the next day? Right. Done.

Whew! I'm relieved that this swap is done, but... of course... I've already signed up for Round 2. Soooo... I'm off to make some fresh ATCs!

love,
kelly