8... I mean, 39 and 40 (number 8s)

Guess what the theme of this swap is.... go on, just guess!

thirty-five to thirty-eight: an attempt at vintage

I wanted to try making some "vintage" ATCs. Well. Mucking the paper up with coffee to age it was really fun. But it was all downhill from there. And there's not really too much vintage about these, I guess. Oh, well; I'm just not good at paper crafts. But no problem... more Zentangles and fabric ATCs to come :)

33 and 34: more altered Zentangle ATCs

More altered Zentangle ATCs. I liked these ones until I held them up next to the ones I did a couple weeks ago. For these ones, the original Zentangle was less intricate, has more white space I think, and it show after the cutting and pasting.

31, 32: dog and owl

Today's ATCs: a doggie ATC for a dog lover, and another owl ATC for an owl lover:



I love how the dog turned out. Apparently, FESPAkutya (the blue dog) liked it too, because he wanted to be in the picture :) The owl, on the other hand... he was supposed to look sleepy, but the more I worked on him, the more drunk he became. I still have time to stick a bottle under his wing, what do you think?

29 and 30: Awful, Terrible, Crappy ATCs 2

I think I've created a monster. There were the original Awful, Terrible, Crappy ATCs (below) for the original swap. I showed them off in this thread over on swap-bot. People liked them. I started a second Awful, Terrible, Crappy ATC swap. More people uploaded pictures... more terrible ATCs were being made... gah. What have I done? :)

Anyway, here's my newest crappy ATCs:

The truly funny thing is that my original intent with the awful ATCs was to use up some of the hideous stickers I've gotten as extras. Well... I've made 4 awful ATCs, all sticker free....

24, 25, 26, and 27, 28

These zeros are for the final of the Numbers ATCs swaps.

The ATCs below... well, they're not my best work. I won't say that I'm ashamed of them, but they're so hideous that I didn't want to give them their own post and have them hogging space at the top of the page!

Feast your eyes on these lovelies:

Awful, right? I sure hope so; they're for the Awful, Terrible, Crappy ATCs swap. Some wonderfully awful elements that you might have overlooked: the globs of glue on the first card... and the glue seeping through on the second. The ripped edge and shoddy size of the green one. It's a used envelope, by the way. The tape? The sparkle-sparkle of the blue stars? The way the plaid is skewed?

Okay, I admit, I had fun making these... way too much fun, actually. I was actually giggling like a madwoman. I do apologize to the very nice people who gifted me the plastic hearts in the first card, and the lovely fabric in the second: sorry to do such atrocious things with your nice gifts!

22, 23

Gah. A couple days ago I posted about an ATC that I enjoyed making, because the finished ATC looked quite similar to how I had imagined it.... these were just the opposite. I didn't really enjoy making them and I don't really like them now.

I don't know what it is I dislike about this little owls... okay, they're cute enough, but something just isn't working for me here. Maybe the drab colors? Lack of colors - I mean, not enough different colors? I don't know.

Anyway, one of them is destined for this swap, and the other is a tag.

19, twenty, 21

I had so much fun with the altered Zentangle cards (ahem: Altered Zentangle ATC swap on swap-bot.com) a couple days ago that I wanted to make more:






And, since I now have a quite good supply of little tiny Zentangled bits and pieces, I plan to do a few more ATCs like this one:

... and eighteen!!

I realized that I had to make one extra #9 ATC for a private swap. This is my favorite of the set. I don't really know why it is that sometimes my Zentangles just "work" and other times, not so much.

15, 16, 17

Number nine ATCs for this swap, of course. The first one is so weirdly lumpy...

13 and 14

I had a bunch of Zentangles that were either unfinished, or I wasn't happy with how they turned out. So, since of course I'm unable to throw anything away, I decided to chop them up and make some ATCs out of them. It was a good way to use them up, and I'd like to play around more with different tiling options.

The blue base is card stock, so it was pretty solid, but the pink is a weird paper/plastic wrapping paper, so it was flimsy. I added more Zentangle scraps to the back to make it a bit stiffer:

twelve

I saw this Lighthouse swap on swap-bot and was inspired. I'm not actually going to join the swap, but thanks for the idea!

I love how this ATC turned out. It's very simple, and a bit lonely. I like the idea of creating a scene using just a few scraps of felt and some floss; it's something that I'd like to do more of.

9, 10, eleven

Number 8 ATCs for the "Numbers ATCs - 8" swap on swap-bot. The black 8 and the off-white background are felt; the gray is... something fabric. Maybe cotton?? I don't even know where it came from. Again, the backing is stiff paper (I've been rationing out the last of my Timtex...)

I like the way these turned out - surprisingly, they turned out exactly the way I pictured them before starting. But I always get nervous when I'm doing anything "shabby chic" or "rustic". I mean, I myself know just how perfectly distressed the gray fabric is.... but I always wonder if my partner sees that, or if she just sees plain old shabby.