ATC Love!

Good Thursday all my crafty friends! Lately I have been seeing A LOT of ICAD and ATC creativity and swapping.  Last year, I was involved in several tag, ATC, ICAD swaps and plus several challenges and that was coupled WITH my fulltime job and my part time job when I get home at night!! LOLOL Well, I had a full plate to say the least, so this year, I bowed out of a lot of the swaps due to changes at work and at home and I just needed to steel back some of that time.  My girls are growing up so fast and I don't want to miss out on valuable time with them, especially when they ask to spend more time with you (they are teens)!!! LOLOL All that said, I do miss a lot of that fun swap time!  Maybe next year!

So in light of all that, I decided to have some ATC fun last night. I like doing ATC's because you can do one or you can do many at one time!  I like doing a grouping and then changing each one up a bit. So that is what I decided to do last evening.  

I started by putting a layer of gesso on the cards and then I pulled out my Neocolor watersoluble crayons and just went to town laying down color randomly on each card. I love Neocolor crayons, but I must confess, I am still learning how to get the best use out of them. I am sure that I am not working them to their fullest potential, but I'll get there. Until then, I quite liked the color that turned into the backgrounds for each card.

Recently I actually won a prize on Artiscellar after I entered into a pool! I laugh at that because I NEVER win anything! I have won a couple of times over the years that I have been crafting, but you know you have to enter EVERYTHING in order to get that ONE win! LOLOLOL But hey, it's usually NEVER an issue because it's a great excuse to visit all the yummy crafty sites that I love and salivate over their products and HOPE I win something! :) LOLOL So what a blessing when I found out I won this awesome Halftone Dots Series stencil set that has been featured lately on a couple of different craft sites! Yippee me, right???

So I decided to pull out this great little set and use it with just some of my acrylic paints! I had fun, but let me just say, I DID NOT do the stencils justice! If you go look at how they used them and how they turned out on their artsy pieces, mine looks nothing like them!!! LOLOL But, I had fun and I will just keep at it until I get it right! LOLOL

In the end, I liked what I had done and think they turned out pretty fun! I added some further textures with some background stamps and sentiment stamps using Archival inks.  You can't tell a whole lot in these photos because of the lighting and the not so great camera on my phone, but hopefully you get the picture! LOLOL

I've mentioned before that I live in Georgia and for the most part, I enjoy living here, but if I had my druthers, I would be back in Santa Fe, my heart! But some of the things I do love about Georgia are the lovely greens, florals and fruits that can be seen and had here!  My father in law has grapevines and blueberry bushes galore on his property and he is such a sweetie and allows us all to come and pick until our heart is content! Naturally, I am happy to oblige! LOLOL

Yesterday my youngest and I went over for a good ole blueberry pickin!!! We had a ball....well us and the airplane size mosquitos that also live here in Georgia! LOLOL We had fun, she and I, but one thing I kept noticing was that my bag seemed to be more full than hers! When I called her out on that score, she said, "mom, they are so good!" LOLOLOL So needless to say, after I filled mine to the brim, I had to confiscate hers and fill it! She didn't seem to understand that she was supposed to put as many in the bag as she did in her mouth! LOLOLOL She is just the cutest thing! :)

Well, my lovelies, I think that's my share for today! I hope you are being blessed of the Lord today and are making plans for a SUPER weekend! We will be cleaning up and stocking up the camper for our 4th of July camping trip we have coming up next week! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Blessings today! :)