ATC Swap

A few years ago I was doing a few swaps on the Cricut Board and the last one I did, which was inchies, I got burned.  You had to do 100 inchies and then you would receive 100 different inchies back.  Well, the gal who was doing the swap not only kept all the inchies that were sent to her, but all the postage money.

That was it for me until I went to Roni's blog (see Blog Sidebar Ink Stains) & did some swaps while we were full-time Rving.  I love her challenges & her blog.  There is always something new to try.

Now that our Swaps for the Summer are in, I want to share them with you techniques & products I used:

 



This is my favorite.  It is a mini-painting, mixed media.  I have painted several larger ones using the same techniques.

The base of this ATC card is canvas ATC paper I bought at JoAnn's.  It comes in a pack of 10 which was great because I painted 6 of these. 5 for the Swap & I always make a set for Roni.It is a lot of work conducting a Swap so it is a Thank You gift to her.

I used acrylic paints for the background, real sand & very small shells for the beach, Studio G letter stamps & Shrink It.

SURPRISE...the seagulls were cut from white Shrink-It with my Cricut using Life's a Beach cartridge.

To get the right size for whatever canvas I use, I took a tip from Tim Holtz and made a Shrink-It ruler.

If you have never heard of a Shrink-It ruler, this is how to make it:

• Cut a length of Shrink-It.  I made mine 8" x 1".
• Using a sharpie, make & label inches, half inches and even 1/4" if you want.
• Punch a hole in the top of the "ruler" before you bake it according to manufacturers directions.

It may come out a little wonky, meaning not exactly straight, but it will help you to know what an inch of shrunk plastic will look like if you cut or punch a 1" shape or letter.