Vintage Christmas ATC

I've decided to try my hand at making some ATC's (artist trading cards). My first ATC has a Christmas theme and uses Basic Grey papers and embellishments along with a photo of little, old me sitting with Santa Claus.

I chose a corrugated cardboard background that has been distressed with Tim Holtz' Walnut ink. The patterned papers and embellishments are all from Basic Grey. The photo was originally in colour so I converted it to black & white and then lightly inked the edges and across the front to give it more of a vintage feel. I particularly like the flower embellishment as it feels like leather - great texture. I imagine that I'll end up adding the ATC to a card base at some point - don't you think it would make a cute Christmas card?

Challenges:
Basic Grey - anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - use 3 design papers
Crazy 4 Challenges - anything but a card
Divas by Design - festive
Eclectic Ellapu - vintage
Jingle Belles - sketch 
Just Keep On Creating - anything Christmas
Live and Love Crafts - anything Christmas

Getting zipped

Last week I found a zipper laying on the floor of the laundry room. Of course I didn't throw it away, instead thinking to myself "how can I use this on a project?" Well, I decided to try my hand at an ATC.

I only had the zipper pull so I started by creating a zipper strip out of embossed paper. I then attached stars to some coated wire and inserted them so that it would look like the stars were shooting out of the unzipped pocket. Oh, and just in case you aren't already horrified impressed by my use of garbage reclaimed materials, the backing for the ATC is scavenged from a MacDonald's Happy Meal toy package. I am the Queen of Cheap! And now I must go shopping .... LOL.

Challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge - "M" for metal
• Blogger's Challenge - embossing
• Crafts & Me - anything goes
• Crafts 4 Eternity - anything but a card
• Craft Us Crazy - anything goes
• Crazy Amigo Challenge - anything goes
• Papertake Weekly - anything goes with optional metal