June In My Vintage Room Swaps

These are the swaps I finally completed for the June Swaps I hosted in my yahoo group. I have my June Altered Tag, front and back, my Steam Punk Dad LFB, front and back, and three Mermaid ATCs. The tag and LFB images were cut out and collaged from a 1953 magazine called The Saturday Evening Post. The ads and images in it are so retro/vintage and fun to read and look at. I combined several to create the tag and LFB. The mermaids are ladies from a Lisa's Altered Art collage sheet with their legs cut off, and I use pattered paper and metallic gel pens to create their fins. Miniature seashells, key charms, pearls, jewels, and champagne glass glitter (Stampin' Up), complete the pieces.

Magazine Collage and Overpainting ATCs

Step 1: Cut images, backgrounds, and words from magazines and layer onto ATC sized mat board.

Step 2: Choose portions of your image or background to coat with a thin layer of gesso. Brush on sheer enough to see the original image underneath.

Step 3: Take a fine line black marker or Sharpie to outline the image you see through the gesso layer. Leave "raw" for a textured line drawing look, or color in portions or whole image with markers or paint and Ta-Da!

ATC Christmas Ornament Swap

These are the ornaments I created for the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group's XMAS ornaments swap. I made an extra one to keep for myself because I loved how they turned out. Pom-pom and rick-rack trims, vintage bells, glass glitter and stickles adorn these vintage santas. I used my holiday Tim Holtz tissue tape, Close To My Heart background paper, and some Magic Mesh for texture. I did my best to layer on the Christmas magic, and I love the photo of the ornament nestled in the branches. I think this will have to be an annual swap because everyone did a fantastic job!

Halloween ATCs

These are the ATCs that I created for my Halloween Swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. I used a collage sheet from Lisa's Altered Art along with various trims, papers, stickers, and doo-dads.

Goddess Zentangle ATCs

These are Goddess ATCs that I created for my In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group Gods & Goddesses ATC swap. I used the Zentangle technique for the the first time and enjoyed trying something different and outside of my vintage-feel comfort zone.

Birds, Bees & Winged Things ATCs

Here are the Birds & Bees ATCs that I made for my May swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo group. I love the DCWV Mariposa paper stack...along with some gel medium, prima flowers, some bird cage diecuts courtesy of Ginger's Cricut machine spritzed with my new Smooch Log Cabin Spray from Stampin' Up, other random doo-dads, ric-rack, and lovely bits, and some bird images from a Cosmo Cricket sheet of paper turned into these beauties. I even made an extra for me to add to my own collection. :o)

April Swaps for In My Vintage Room

Storybook LFB front
Storybook LFB back

Glasses/Sunglasses ATCs

Famous Women ATCs

Group shot
Queen Victoria Fact (on back): National Pride connected with the name of Victoria-the term Victorian England stemmed from the Queen's ethics and personal tastes which generally reflected those of the middle class.

Princess Diana Fact (on back): Diana's interest in helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial Award, awarded to youths that show unselfish devotion to causes that were advocated by the Princess.

Jane Austen Fact (on back): Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and beloved writers in English literature.

I was inspired by a piece of artwork in the Winter Somerset Gallery magazine where an artist used images of women throughout history and celebrated them through the piece. I thought this would translate into a fun ATC swap theme for the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. These are my picks for women to celebrate, for no other reason than their images inspired some creativity for me and their stories of power, strength, charity and individuality mark them as women all of us can be proud of.

Birthday Art for Lori

Birthday Card

Altered Blocks

Little Fat Book Page

ATC

Paris, City of Love ATCs

These are the Paris Themed ATCs that I created for my February Swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. The Eiffel tower background stamp is Tim Holtz, the vintage paper is Making Memories, I used german scrap for a border, Stickles, rhinestones and pearls. The lady images were from Luna Girls clip art CDs and googled images. The words "Explore," "Love," "Romance," and "Journey," were done in a Word document, cut out and inked.

Fab 50s ATCs

These are the ATCs that I made for the first ATC swap that I'm hostessing of 2010 in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. It's a 3 for 3 swap, but I was on a roll and now I get to keep one for myself. I googled retro images and came up with some great ones, then I looked for funny quotes to pair them with like I have seen on magnets and potholders in specialty gift shops. It just makes these ladies seem so independent and spunky to put sassy quotes in their mouths. I incorporated a Rock & Roll record, coordinating gem stones, and the print of 1950s drive-in/diner floors to complete the theme on each ATC. I hope I will have alot of participants in this swap...I had fun!

Helen's Birthday!

Birthday Card for Helen (click on the image to see the crackle effect better)

Birthday ATC

Hopefully Helen will not check my blog before Saturday when I can give her these birthday creations. I played with Stickles and double sided tape to make the ATC dimensional. The birthday card features an image that I coated with my new Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in "Rock Candy." Boy does this stuff crackle! I was having pieces of the image start to flake off so I used the Rock Candy Distress Stickles over it in places to hold the image together. It really does its job distressing and it was such a neat effect for the vintage girl.

Secret German Scrap ATC Swap

I almost forgot to post a picture of this ATC that I created for a secret swap I hosted. I included the German scrap of the Victorian girl and gold trim, and the little blue English Cameo as a "thank you" for participating in my Fashion ATC or Altered House Swap in August and participants could choose to keep the gift for a later project of their own, or to create an ATC for the swap. Only a few ladies remembered to do it, but it was fun. Lori and I found the German scrap at an antique show over the summer and it was nice to see some of it put to good use.

Halloween ATCs

These are ATCs that I made for Miriam's Halloween ATC swap for the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. It's outside the realm of vintage and antique-y but I think the cutesy mummy worked nicely on a little card. I pop-dotted just his hands so it would look like he's sleep walking off the paper. The bat brads and various halloween buttons accent the focal point of the mummy. This was a much needed creative break from lesson planning and research.

Faux Frog Prince ATC Series

These are the ATCs that I created for Lori's Royalty swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group. Her only stipulation was that we use a crown somewhere on our ATCs. I created an extra hostess card for her, because I found a cute little quote to build a series on. I used photos from a 1954 year book I bought at the Washington County Antique show a few weekends ago, and I cut two of the frogs out of a vintage game board. The rest was stamped, inked, painted, and heart stickers were added as well as brads, dew drops, and googly eyes for varying frog eyes. This was fun!

Fashion ATCs

"Beauty"

"Fashionista"

"Shoes"

Here are the Fashion ATCs I created for my August swap in the In My Vintage Room Yahoo group. Gel pens, stickers, magazine cut-outs, printed images, fancy papers, and paper punched leaves adorn and layer my creations. I was a little less in the mood for creating this time around--but it may be because after my shopping day with Ginger I'm exhausted thinking about clothes! ;o)