a little birdie told me….

Bee ATCs

Hi! Thanks so much for dropping by.

Have you ever made artist trading cards or ATC’s? Do you know what they are? I first heard about them a few years ago and did a bit of investigation into what they are and what their purpose is. I made a few and swapped a couple times, but since my crafty friends weren’t swapping, my interest dwindled.

However, Elizabeth Craft Designs just came out with a new set, ECD ATC Special Kit. I don’t have it yet, but it has inspired me to revisit the small format. Here’s what I learned about ATCs:

The only “rule” for Artist Trading Cards is that they should be 3.5 inches tall by 2.5 inches wide – the same size as sports trading cards and playing cards. Swiss artist M. Vanci Stirnemann initiated ATCs in 1997. Now trading, known as swaps, can be found around the world. Creators use all types of art media as long as their cards can fit into a standard size trading sleeve because many collectors store their cards in sleeves. A trading card that is sold is called an ACEO for “Art Cards, Editions and Originals”, but otherwise it is the same as an ATC.

The back of an ATC will typically include the name of the artist, date created, title of the artwork, artist’s contact details, and series number. (sources: tinteddy.com and strathmoreartist.com)

Knowing those few limitations, I’m joining in on the fun.

Two of the cards before adding the White stamp-die to the back

For the base of my ATCs I used the Elizabeth Craft Designs Postage Stamps Dies. The second largest stamp-shaped die is 2.5 inches wide but about .25 inches too short. So, I used the partial die cutting technique to cut the die on three sides (left photo) then repositioned the die farther down but within the previously cut grooves adding .25″. I cut the die-cut again, cutting the fourth side and making it 3.5 inches long (middle photo). The photo on the right shows the extended length compared to the original die-cut size.

I stamped and embossed yellow 2.25″ x 3.25″ paper with the honeycomb stamp then cut it with the dripping Mason Jar die to create dripping honey. I popped that up onto a black 2.25″ x 3.25″ rectangle, added part of a gold honeycomb die-cut, a small bee, embellished it, and splattered with gold watercolor.

The second of my ATC designs has the honeycomb embossed on black paper and I used a large bee. A bit of flowing honey is “dripping” from the corner by using of a piece of the dripping Mason Jar die again. “Love is Sweet” is heat embossed with white and gold splatters represent pollen over these small cards. So, two fun designs using the same products.

Thanks for reading along. I hope you’re inspired to make some ATCs. Want to trade?

It would be great if you’d leave a message and I’m happy to answer questions.

Happy Crafting!

Supplies
Postage Stamps dies, Elizabeth Craft Designs #2026
Honeybee stamps, Elizabeth Craft Designs #CS300
Layered Honeybee, Elizabeth Craft Designs #2024
Mason Jar Special, Elizabeth Craft Designs #1862
Journal Phrases 1, Elizabeth Craft Designs CS294
Mason Jar Special Stamps, Elizabeth Craft Designs CS230
Mini alphabet stamp set, hampton art
Warm Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter, Elizabeth Craft Designs (on wings)
Zing! Clear embossing powder
Quickie Glue Pen, Sakura
Metallic gold watercolor

Falling Leaves Spinner-Slider

Hello Autumn

Hi. Thanks for dropping in.

I love trees and leaves and I really enjoy using those in my cards. Creating a falling leaves effect seemed like a fun challenge.

I painted red, orange, and yellow watercolor paint onto my media mat and spritzed it with water (first image). Then I pressed watercolor paper onto the paint repeatedly until there was color over most of the paper . It was allowed to dry, then I repeated the process until I had some interesting blends and splotches of color (image 2). As you can see, the process is not pretty. Remember not to mix warm and cool colors or you’ll end up with a muddy brown mess.

I used leaf dies to cut from the most interesting areas of the dry paper. A bit of brown blended along the edges (image 3) helps give the leaves some depth and contrast from the background paper.

I cut the slider from my background paper twice to create two sliding tracks. One was cut shorter using a partial die cutting technique. Then I laid the cut paper over my card base and set-in and glued only the pieces that had been cut out.

I adhered the birdhouse to the card front, then added thick foam tape on the back making sure not to interfere with the sliding elements. The white slides were added and it was adhered to the card base. Then the watercolored leaves were glued to the top of the slides using a small dot of Glitter Glue. While it was drying, I carefully moved the slides within the track to make sure they weren’t glued down.

Once the sliding elements were dry, I added leaves and other details around the birdhouse.

I hope you get the feeling of falling leaves from this card. Is this something that you’ll try? I’d love it if you’d leave a question or comment. Thanks for visiting!

Supplies
Elizabeth Craft Designs* Floral Foliage 1 SKU #2087
ECD* Turkey #1905 (leaves)
ECD* Rustic Winter paper #C013
ECD* Watercolor Palette #WC01
My Favorite Things On the Move Slider
My Favorite Things Spin & Slide Discs
Waffle Flower Water Media Mat

Halloween Shaker and Slider

Hi and welcome. It’s All Hallows’ Eve. Will you dress up or hand out candy?

Traveling has kept me from posting recently, but I have made some things to share.

I made a few cards among other things. This one was made with a die from Elizabeth Craft Designs’ Halloween Set 1. Although it’s from a Planner Essentials set, the die fits perfectly on an A2 card. The scarecrow is painted with watercolor onto Soft Finish Cardstock. Doesn’t the Halloween themed sequin mix really pop against the black background of this shaker card?

Here Distress Oxide was blended on Soft Finish Cardstock then the slider element was cut out. The witch was made with three layers of black cardstock to strength the broomstick for the slider element. Be sure to keep the sequins out of the witch’s path and blocking the sliding element. Ask me how I know.

This A2 card is essentially like the first card, but without the shaker element. Glue was applied with a fine tip over the spiderweb, then glitter was sprinkled over.

This slimline base was made much like the other, but mica spray was spritzed over the top before adding the graveyard elements. The headstones are two of the same die cuts overlapping. Tiny bits of headstone were cut-off off or altered to help the two pieces look more varied.

These were all a lot of fun to make and I hope they’ve inspired you.

Until next time. Happy crafting!

Supplies
Elizabeth Craft Designs Planner Essentials Halloween Set 1
Elizabeth Craft Designs Planner Essentials Halloween Set 2
Elizabeth Craft Designs Planner Essentials Halloween Set 3
Elizabeth Craft Designs Slimline Adventure Edges (grass)
Elizabeth Craft Designs Watercolor Palette
Elizabeth Craft Designs Soft Finish Cardstock
Tim Holtz Moon Mask Stencils
Distress Oxides: squeezed lemonade, carved pumpkin, candied apple, villainous potion, hickory smoke, and black soot
My Favorite Things On the Move Slider Channels Die-namics
My Favorite Things Slider Elements
Picket Fence Candy Corn Sequin Mix Plus
Wendy Vecchis Pearl Mica Spray

The Happy Dapper Snail

Hi. And welcome.

This dapper snail looks like such a cheerful gentleman.

Oh my! Isn’t this snail die the cutest?! It’s just so cheerful that I couldn’t resist (didn’t try) adding it to my shopping cart.

I made three slimline cards using the new Elizabeth Craft Designs Snail die, Florals Minis and Pretty Pastels papers. All have a similar layout, but different color schemes and sentiments.

The snails were edged with a bit of Distress Oxide and a coordinating light, fine tip, water based marker was added within the embossed swirl of the snail’s shell to enhance the detail.

I cut and shaped the mini flowers then added a touch of matching Distress Oxide ink at the tips of the petals. The ferns and leaves add even more interest.

Doesn’t she look like she’s meeting a friend for tea?

I would make my day if you’d leave a comment.

Thanks for dropping by,

All listed supplies are from Elizabeth Craft Supplies
Snail #2063
Florals Mini’s #2044
Stitched Indented Rectangle #1697
Bugs and Kisses stamps #CS316
Pretty Pastels paper #C014
Slimline Adventure Edges #1925

Gel Print Journal Page

Hi! Welcome to my page. I made this art journal page for the ECD (Elizabeth Craft Designs) Planners & Journaling June prompt, “pastels”.

I haven’t used my gel plates in a long time and this seemed like a fun project to play with them. To start, I cut paper masks using the ECD Stemmed Flowers dies. Then I applied blue, and a bit of green, acrylic paint to a gel plate with a brayer and placed the flower masks over the paint. The print was pulled with mixed media paper. I like the way that the masks created white silhouettes on the background.

I cut Canson watercolor paper with flowers and leaves from the Florals Mini’s set then painted the blooms purple with watercolors.

Do you ever use your dies in reverse? I didn’t want all of the flower stems to look exactly the same, so, I used one of the stems flipped over. The die on the left (above) is lying face-up while the die-cut on the right is upside down. Since the edges of the upside down die look “rough”, I used a nail file to sand the grain of the paper toward what is now the back. It isn’t perfect, but it really helps to smooth the edges.

After I painted and then glued the flower stems in place, the effect was too busy and none of the flowers stood out. Adding orange dots to the centers of the top flowers helped to create some variety and interest in the top stem of flowers. That also visually separate them from the flowers underneath.

The boxed Journal Phrases are a playful way to add sentiments and helped to ground the flowers so they didn’t look as if they were floating. And, that’s all there is to it.

Thanks for dropping by! I’d enjoy it if you’d leave a comment.

Supplies
ECD Stemmed Flowers
ECD Florals Mini’s
Journal Phrases 1
ECD Watercolors
Canson Watercolor Paper
Gel plate
Acrylic paint

Beauty and the Bee

Hi. Thanks for dropping by! This art journal page is for the Elizabeth Craft Designs Planners & Journaling May prompt to use a teabag.

The pretty Earthy Girl stamp was inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and stamped onto the opened teabag. Since Distress Ink can be used as watercolor, a water brush was used to blend the ink into the stamped image. More ink was added as needed. I used gel pens in pastel colors for the purple flowers, greenery, and lips. The gel pen was surprisingly vibrant and easy to use on the thin teabag.

I used a black pigma marker to add curls in her hair, outline the eyes, and enhance the eyebrows so the image was more distinct.

The large bee from the Everyday Elements Collection was die cut from vellum, gold glitter paper, and pink Bellarose paper. Aged Ivory was embossed around the wing edges to strengthen and highlight the wings.

The die cut doily was heat embossed with a thick layer of white embossing powder. Then bronze embossing powder was added around the edge and and also melted. Didn’t the white and bronze blending together create an interesting effect?

I used the tab from the teabag as a template and cut a new tab from kraft cardstock. I applied black Copic marker and stamped “Art” on one side and “The Story” on the other side. Then I re-threaded the teabag string through the newly stamped tab.

I pressed a piece of watercolor paper onto diluted Vintage Photo Distress Ink. When dry, I cut it to fit my Square TN Planner. The elements were then arranged and adhered onto the page with double sided tape and Art Glitter Glue.

Thank you so much for reading along. I hope this sparked a new idea for you!

Happy crafting!

Supplies
Earthy Girl stamp by Elizabeth Craft Designs
Layered Honeybee dies by Elizabeth Craft Designs
Bellrose Pink Paperback by Elizabeth Craft Designs
Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel by Stampendous
Versamark Ink
Collorelli Gel Pens

Tip: I was surprised and happy to see that a stamped teabag still looks good flipped over and used on the backside. The ability to use an image facing either way opens up some fun options.

A Crate of Watercolor Flowers

Hi and thanks for visiting! This sweet little Mother’s Day project has very few supplies (for a change).

Soooo. Please don’t judge me, but, I save trash.

I try to hide it, but apparently my family knows and occasionally they’ll leave interesting paper, string, or containers for me – things that most people would consider trash. This cute 3″x4″ Vermont Creamery box was definitely not going to see the inside of the trash can at my house. I’ve had it for several years just waiting for the right project and I’m so pleased with the outcome.

I used the Elizabeth Craft Designs Stemmed Flowers set to cut a minimum of 6 of each stem from Canson Watercolor Paper. Each stem needed to be two layers thick for strength to “stand” within the box. I painted the front of half the die cuts and the back of the other half using watercolors. After the paint was dry, I glued the unpainted front and back of matching dies together with Art Glitter Glue. This way the flowers could be alternated with some “backs” and some “fronts” facing the front of the box to alternate the direction and look less repetitive. The flowers are also pretty from any side.

Originally my little cheese box did not have the two slats. I cut the two slat pieces from flat disposable chopsticks that I had (more good trash). They were glued in place with Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue. These were added so flower stems could be added in the middle of the box to fill it.

I glued stems to the front and back of each slat for depth.

A bit of kraft paper grass (more of my stash being re-used) covers the bottom opening. This project is now ready to give to my mother for Mother’s Day.

Thank you so much for visiting. Please leave a comment or ask questions.

Happy crafting,

Supplies
Elizabeth Craft Designs Stemmed Flowers dies #2027
Canson XL 140 lb watercolor paper
Watercolor set by Elizabeth Craft Designs
Small box or cheese “crate”
Art Glitter glue
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue

Pop-Up Bouquet

Annette Green’s Release

Hi! I’m Di. Thanks for dropping by.

When I learned that Annette Green was creating her first line of stamps and dies with Elizabeth Craft Designs, I was so excited to get it all. I already admired Annette’s beautiful creative album and card designs. Well, I was not disappointed! Her bee-inspired line, Everyday Elements, is fantastic!

I started with a 5 x 7″ kraft card base and added blue Reminiscence patterned paper to the inside. A large doily and circle large enough to cover the hole in the doily were cut from text pattern paper. I glued the doily over the circle then cut it with the My Favorite Things Pop-Up Surprise Die.

I adhered the pop-up doily to the inside of the card centering it with the card fold. Hopefully this will be a fun surprise for the recipient!

The smaller, hidden pop-up allows more flowers to be added to the empty space.

I fashioned a second pop-up element from a 2″ by 3/4″ piece of the text paper, folded it in the middle, and folded 1/4″ tabs to secure it to the card base.

This pop-up was adhered between the card base and the doily so that it is hidden.

I cut multiple of all of the Stemmed Flowers dies from watercolor paper. I painted some of the die cuts with Elizabeth Craft Designs Watercolors then glued two layers together to strengthen the die cuts.

Hint – when watercolor painting, the water can cause the two glued dies to pull apart. So, the top die should be painted prior to gluing the two layers together.

The stamped and fussy cut bee seems to hover over the flowers.

I really enjoyed creating this spring bouquet with this wonderful new line. The stamps leave a very clean image and the dies cut well.

Thank you for reading and I hope you’ll come back soon. Di

Supplies:
Stemmed Flowers Dies #2027
Layered Honeybee Dies #2024
Large Doilies Dies #2019 from
Honeybee Stamps #CS300
Happy Stamps #CS299
Watercolor Palette #WC01 from Elizabeth Craft Designs
Elizabeth Craft Designs Reminiscence book 4
Elizabeth Craft Designs Reminiscence book 5
Pop-Up Surprise Die from My Favorite Things

Paper Flowers, Paper Frame

Hi! I’m Di. Thanks for dropping by.

Today I’m sharing a project using all Elizabeth Craft Designs products.

I’ve had the Shadow Box Frames dies for awhile, but this was my first time to use them. Happily, the frame went together really easily. If you need help there is a good tutorial on the Elizabeth Craft YouTube Channel.

Most of the flowers & greenery were die cut from white Soft Finish Cardstock. Distress Ink pads were pressed onto a kraft mat and spritzed with water.

Then I pressed and dragged the cut shapes into the diluted ink until I got the desired color. I repeated the process with each color. The variation in color and the water spots are interesting and add texture.

When the ink was dry, I spritzed a few flowers at a time and shaped them with a ball stylus.

The basket was cut from two shades of brown cardstock with the darker color placed behind to create a shadow. I used a blending brush to apply brown Distress Oxide Ink to the edges of the basket for shading.

After all of the pieces were cut and colored, I assembled the project using Glitter Glue, Uhu Stic Glue, and Glue Dots.

After these photos were taken I removed the small fallen flower and placed it on the lower right side of the basket (not shown). That helped to balance the composition. This was a slow project, but I enjoyed creating it. I hope you like it. Thanks for staying until the end!

Happy crafting,

Supplies (all dies are Elizabeth Craft Designs)

Shadow Box Frames
Easter Basket
Florals 16
Ferns
Stamen Flowers
ECD papers
Uhu Stic Glue
Glitter Glue
Various Distress Inks

Saint Patrick Cards

Hi and welcome! Just a quick post using stamps and dies from several companies to create a couple of Saint Patrick’s cards. I had fun looking through my stamps and dies for anything that could be used for these: a witch’s cauldron for a pot of gold, bubbles for gold coins, a file for a card base etc.

The Elizabeth Craft Designs File Folder set 1 is a perfect size for an A2 card base. The beautiful background paper is from an ECD Reminiscence Book. The Leprechaun was made with the ECD Gnome die set, but his hat was made with a Lawn Fawn set. The rainbow, pot of gold, and mug of beer are all from My Favorite Things sets.

A pot of gold and a mug of beer. What more could a leprechaun want?!

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you and wishing you the Luck O’ the Irish!

Products:

General File Folder #1982 from Elizabeth Craft Designs
Gnomes #1922 from Elizabeth Craft Designs
Slimline Adventure Edges #1925 from Elizabeth Craft Designs
Witch’s Cauldron from My Favorite Things
Once Upon a Rainbow from My Favorite Things
Pint Sized from My Favorite Things
Hats Off to You From Lawn Fawn
My Lucky Charm From Lawn Fawn