Stop! Wait a minute, Mr. Postman...!

Look at what I received in the mail yesterday!! A little envelope filled to the brim with miniature masterpieces! OMG! I was just about to burst with excitement as I ripped into it, like a 3-year old on Christmas morn. What did I find inside? Well, 9 of the cutest ATCs you ever did see :D

The Hero Arts hostesses ("hosti", as some of the followers have dubbed them) over at the HA Flickr Group Pool organized an ATC swap along with some of the Hero Arts designers. This swap was HUUUUUGE!! It involved not only avid followers from the United States, but also Canada and several countries overseas, as well. I'm sure it was no small feat for the "hosti", so I want to thank them for organizing, informing, and rallying this giant crafting family to participate. The "hosti" were also tasked with the enormous chore of breaking the participants into groups, receiving the ATCs, sorting them out, and sending them to their respective group participants. HUGE, I tell you!!

I hope my group doesn't mind (and if you do drop me a line and let me know), but I am posting pictures of the treasures I received in my ATC swap group. These pictures do not do these works of art justice. These ladies are uber-talented!

TOP PICTURE -

Row One:
***A beautiful butterfly ATC by Sandy Frio, accented with lovely stitching around the edges and pearls on the butterfly. Gorgeous!
***A layered masterpiece by Joshua Jiraffe Designs, with so many lovely details including a darling tiny tag to say "hi".
***A wonderful paper-pieced ATC by Tanya Caudill, who created her own superb patterned papers with Hero Arts stamps.
Row Two:
***A breathtaking creation by Ashley Marcu with layer after layer of fabulous detail.
***A fun, whimsical ATC by Dusty Penny (aka Joy) featuring a fabulous paper-pieced mixer and a bit of stylish bling. Love it!

BOTTOM PICTURE -

Row One:
***A sumptious ode to Autumn by Stampersuzz with delicate white hightlights to accent the trees and a carefully placed bit of twine to finish it off. It looks like a tiny painting!
***A lovely Autumnal palette created by Vicky Martindale with lots of beautiful tiny details. Just gorgeous!
***A fabulously clever layout by Gina Van Vliet featuring a a wonderful layered flower and a delightful tag. So cute!!
Row Two:
***A lovely little creation by Kerry Wills that imparts a terrific message "live, laugh, love" in such a stylish manner. Perfect!!
***This is my ATC and as you can see, I couldn't resist adding a bit of bling and throwing on some glitter glue around the edges.

Thanks ladies for sharing your fabulous art with me! I will treasure these always :D

Twisted Christmas: Part 1

It's the beginning of November and Christmas is already nipping at our heels. Have you thought about your Christmas cards yet? Well, I wasn't quite ready to put Halloween to bed, but by the same token, I wasn't quite ready to start working on Christmas either. I thought, why not do a couple of transition cards to combine the two holidays. I love the whimsy of Halloween and the glitz and glitter of Christmas, so I picked a few Stampotique images to carry out this theme. Here's the first of a two card class that I will be teaching at China Phoenix 2 in November.

The first time I spied this snowman (the stamp name is Global Warming) I knew I had to have him and he and I would grow to be great friends! LOL! The background I created by first stamping a Hero Arts snowflake background in Frost Dazzle Versamark ink on white cardstock and embossing in clear embossing powder. Next, I swiped Faded Jeans and Peeled Paint Distress inks on a craft sheet, misted it with water, and laid my embossed white cardstock on top to pick up that wonderful blotchy color. It didn't matter if it came out a bit messy, as that was even better for my card theme. Then I stamped my snowman on a separate piece of white cardstock, colored him with Copic markers, added dimensional glue to his scarf, hat and buttons, added glitter glue to highlight his body, and set him aside to dry (about an hour). After he was completely dry, I trimmed him out added some foam tape and attached him to my card. I would have sworn I had a rubber stamp that said "The weather outside is frightful...", but alas, I didn't. I ended up computer generating it for the inside of the card, because I was totally sold on that little phrase and nothing else would do :)

He makes me laugh every time I look at him ;D Stayed tuned tomorrow for part 2 of Twisted Christmas.