ATC Tutorial

 

The Magpies Nest offered up some beautiful digital sheets in exchange for tutorials using her collage sheets. Here are my first two, using this collage sheet from her etsy shop. The colors are rich and the images more crisp than my photos.
 

Supplies needed: collage sheet, scissors, playing card or ruler for correct size of ATC, lace, background papers, flower, small tag, gel pens, glue, ribbon, and hot glue
 

1. Cut background papers for front and back of card. 2. Glue only the front paper on.
 

3. Glue front image onto front background paper.
 

4.Get all air bubbles out. 
 

5. Use gel pens to embellish the flowers, vines, children and any other details you want to pop.
 

6. Attach tag and add bow with a dot of hot glue. 
 

7. Cut a 3" piece of lace in half and hot glue to the bottom and top of the ATC back.

 

See how only a tad bit shows. So that's it. Easy peasy. Next you will need to sign and date the back of your ATC. Have fun! Remember to go check out Magpies Nest . She has some awesome collage sheets. I will be using some more of her graphics for more fun tutorials, so check back often.

Free Vintage Image Thursday

This photo is of my mother and her parents. My grandparents were so classy. My mother is still so elegant. Poor mom had to put up with her mother always getting her a perm with her red hair. God love her. Mom still has resentment issues over that. lol  This image is free for you to use in your artwork for sale or not but please do not sell the image, itself. Thank you and have some fun.

Free for you to use

I have a children's book from the late 1800's that has some wonderful illustrations in it. A few years ago I scanned this one into my computer and added the "Be a doll and get well". I thought it suited it perfectly, pun and all. ;D You are welcome to use it. Click on image and when it enlarges, you can right click and save. Have fun!

ONE WORLD ONE HEART GIVEAWAY

I am participating in One World One Heart hosted by Lisa of A Whimsical Bohemian . I participated last year and it was so much fun!! I met so many wonderful bloggers through this event from all over the world. So if you'd like to take a ride on my Magic Carpet, just click on the link above and off we go to visit over 650 blogs. All having giveaways!! Whoot!! The winner/s will be chosen on February 15th by the Random Number Generator. Stop by on Thursdays for FREE Vintage Image Thursday!

Here's what I am giving away:

 

I created this piece titled, "Homage to a Loved One for Artist Class and I am giving it away for One World One Heart. For every 100 comments I get, I will add another giveaway item. Good Luck!!

All you have to do win is 1. Have a blog. 2. Leave a comment (I must have a way to link back to you or leave me your email.

Artist Class Participant and Discount Code

Artist Class begins in February and will remain open for 3 full months. This class is made up of some wonderful tutorials for all of the things you see in the image above. There are 12 fabulous artists contributing to this online class. You can join in at any time. Look at all of the fun things you can create! Each tutorial is presented in a blog post with downloadable links to free images and graphics. Click on the photo to check out the registration.Artist class is $59. but Mary is offering my readers a $10. discount by using this code: artandinspirations.  (all one word)

Vintage Wedding Guest Book

I just finished a Vintage Wedding guest book for a sweet bride-to-be. Her colors are light pink, ivory, silver and a darker mauve.  She needed a place for at least 200 people to sign. She wanted lots of vintage lace and everything to look old. So here are a few of the 20 pages.

Free Vintage Image Thursday

This is Sidney Crockett Painter 1837-1890. One of my husbands relatives. I am not sure how he is related but isn't he handsome?. You may click on him and right click to save after it has enlarged. Use it in your art work for sale or not but please do not sell the image, itself. Enjoy!

January's Paper Swap

I was involved in the Paper Swap hosted by a lovely blogger by the name of Lewendula of Woven Letters. She hosts a different type of paper swap every month. February's swap is up now for sign ups. Hop on over if you want to join in the fun. It is an international swap, which makes it even more fun.  This month I had the honor of swapping with a very generous and lovely lady by the name of Sylvia of Studio Sylvia. She lives in Australia. She sent a parcel that was like Christmas. Look at all of these goodies! It was a Card swap and she tossed in specially made papers from Germany that she embellished with some wonderful sparkly colors and stamps, etc.

These are so pretty with the antiquing she did, the torn edges, the stamping and decorated envelopes. 

A closeup of one of the embellished papers. Isn't it gorgeous?!

These are the mini cards she included. I love the reds and the flowers. So sweet. 

Look at the watercolors and the stamping and the glittery sheen. It is hard to see that part, but trust me in person it is wonderful. Thank you again, Sylvia! Sylvia has an etsy shop where she offers her papers & jewelry. Visit her blog to see what she is up to.

Pocket Full of Sunshine Art Challenge

This is my submission for this weeks Art Challenge at Inspiration Avenue. The theme was "Pocket ful of Sunshine". This is my interpretation of the theme. A black and cream theme with bursts of color in the gorgeous butterflies and the yellow flowers. Then on an antiqued piece of 140 lb. cold press water color paper I wrote "Create your own pocket full of Sunshine". This is a shadowbox measuring approx. 9"x11". It will be for sale in my etsy shop later this evening.

And the winner is....

And the winner of Homage to a Loved One is...#4 which is La Dolce Vita . Congratulations, Caterina! Send me your address to tlsprinkle@yahoo.com . I am so proud of myself. I actually learned how to do a screen shot, as seen above. If you click on it you will see the numbers better. Doing the happy dance! Have a lovely Saturday night. 

A chance to receive some free supplies

Maggie over at Magpie's Nest is working on a special project that could mean free collage sheets for your artwork. Hope on over to check it out. I will do it, if chosen. It looks like a lot of fun and her stuff is so great! You'll see. She has all sorts of goodies in her shop to get the creative juices flowing. Go have a look for yourself. Her shop is full of wonderful goodies!

FREE Vintage Image Thursday plus Amaryliis

This is a vintage photo of my Grandfather. I'm going to guess this is from around the 50's.  Wish I knew for sure. Anyway, this image is Free for you to use in your artwork, that you sell or not,  but please do not sell the image, itself. Have fun with it and if you'd like to share what you created with any of my images, leave a link so we can ooh and aah over it.

This is the amaryllis my mother-in-law gave to me at Christmas. It was a stalk in the soil and then each day it got bigger and bigger until pop all the beauty came out and greeted me in one morning. I had to snap it quick before the lighting changed or someone knocked off a flower or something.

Winter Wonderland ATC for Inspiration Avenue's Weekly Challenge

For the Weekly Art Challenge on Inspiration Avenue, the word was "Wonderland". So with it being so cold and snowy here, this January what other than Winter Wonderland popped into my mind. So I created this ATC (Artist Trading Card) for the New Year. It says Happy New Year 2010 under the snowflaked vellum. The under layer is a silver paper and the back of this ATC is a white handmade paper that has been printed with silver vines and flowers. So pretty. If you would like to see all of the other submissions and possibly join us in the future for some artistic fun, than stop over to the Inspiration Avenue blog. Each month there is a giveaway to one lucky participant of the weekly challenges in that month. Some really great stuff is given away.

Blog Makeover, Free blog backgrounds, tags, etc. Plumrose Lane

A very sweet lady I know and fellow etsy teammate just opened up a second etsy shop called Plumrose Lane selling some gorgeous graphics that go along with the free blog backgrounds she offers. She also does custom work and that too is listed in her shop.  She will be adding some other goodies in the near future.  Her new blog, named the same, Plumrose Lane is gorgeous and full of all sorts of goodies, so if you have a moment go check it out. The background you see here on my blog was a freebie and I purchased the header from her for $7. What a deal, right? I love it. So colorful and with such beautiful elements. She has tutorials on how to add each of the elements she offers, so it is really user friendly.

Go give her some blog love. She is a really sweet lady! You will certainly find some inspiration there.