Have You Ever Made an ATC?

An ATC is the short form for an artist trading card.  

What's that you say?  Well it's a small piece of artwork usually approximately 2.5" x 3.5" that you would place on the front of a greeting card as the focal point. 

Now why am I talking to you about these cards?  Well one of our customers asked us the other day if we would organise an ATC swap. We've done this in the past and a number of people have thoroughly enjoyed the activity, so Pauline was wondering if others would like to participate in a Christmas ATC swap. What do you think?

Pauline has kindly made some samples here and although they are not the traditional ATC size, we could decide to be non-traditional in our swap with our sizes. 

You can see how they would make a beautiful focal point on a Christmas card can't you.

 

How it works is that once you've decided to participate, you contact us and sign up to the swap.  You will be required to make 10 of your ATC designs all the same and bring them into the store by a pre-determined date.

Once everyone has their ATC's in, we will sort them and return to you one of your ATC's along with 9 different ones made by others. 

What you submit to the swap should be of high quality and something you would be happy to have on the front of a Christmas card you would send to a friend or family member. 

So if you're interested, please get in touch with us and we will get things underway.

We've had a number of people calling the store this week about all the All Day Christmas Card Classes, as well as the Mega Crop Weekend.  Hopefully you have looked at the dates and begun to organise your time for whichever of these you are interested, because once we announce registration I know the dates will quickly fill up.

For any of you interested in the Mega Crop and getting organised for it, here are a few free sketches that you can download from Creating Keepsakes.
As you begin to plan for your Mega Crop weekend, this blog post from earlier this year is worth another read.  Just scroll down a little way for some great tips on getting organised for a scrapbook weekend.

Did you register as a vendor for the Garage Sale at the store?
There's still a couple of days left to move on that if you want to wean or refresh your scrapbooking/card making "stash".  If you chose not to be a vendor, then don't miss your opportunity to be a customer.
Believe me there's some good "stuff" that's already been brought in ready to be sold on Saturday.
That's this Saturday August 17th, at the store on Wellington Street from 9 am to 5 pm.        And remember the early bird gets the worm.

For those card makers among us, perhaps you would like to take up Pauline's challenge and become involved in the ATC Swap.  Don't be discouraged if you don't understand how it works, just drop into the store and we will go over it all with you.

I've often thought that I'd like to add some beads to a piece of knitting, but the thought of adding the required number, whatever that may be, to the yarn before I even start to knit has always put me off. 

However.........the other day I came across this tutorial that shows a quick and easy way of adding them to your garment as you knit..........

YAY I may even try this.  

The photo above gives you some insight into how it works, but go to the website for clear instruction.  

Also click on their link below the tutorial to find hundreds of free knitting patterns for you to download.

I found this one that I thought would suit my cousin beautifully. She feels the cold and loves to wear shawls. 

With a few added beads it could be dressy as well.

Here's the link for this shawl pattern.

You simply have to click on the download button to get the pattern by PDF.

Here's a link to some free fonts that you may like to download.  When you have a Silhouette Die Cutting Machine and can cut any True Type Font with it, then you can never have too many fonts in your library.

And last but not least, here's a word that you can use on either a greeting card or for a title on a scrapbook page. Simply right click on the word and take it into your program of choice to print it out. 

Great font for colouring too isn't it.

Until Later....Happy Crafting

Lilian