Red and Black ATCs, Springtime in Paris ATCs and more art!

I did not make all these ATCs today but I did finish them this evening. It started with the April ATC swap on the MailArtbyDesign Yahoo group which had to be black and red. So I started off making a background with a red/black fabric, layered it up with Timtex and free machined it with a swirly pattern. I then looked around for either red or black images to use and found an Artchix Studio sheet full of very glamorous ladies all in black and white. So I added those and immediately the cards took on that je ne sais quoi quality I associate with all things French. I added french lettering from Altered Pages, Divasdeste and a quote from a French book (toi que etais la plus belle = you, who are the most beautiful one). I finished the cards off by machine zigzagging them onto a watercolour background and adding black beads around the edges.

As I had loads of the background left, I looked to see what other swaps were on my list and on the CChix Yahoo group the upcoming theme was Springtime in Paris. So I made my next set (only 3 for this swap!) adding images from both the Eiffel Tower and the Moulin Rouge together with more text: Paris (Altered Pages), We'll always have Paris (www.europeanpapers.com) and "la vie est une bonne chose" ( life is a good thing). I painted the ladies' lips bright red with watercolour pencils and also added this on the other cards I had made above.

Still enough left to make my 54th ATC in my 100 ATC project, called Au Revoir (Altered Pages) and an Eiffel Tower charm.

Finally we heard who we have to mail our 4 x 4 Square art piece to on the MailArtbyDesign site this month. The theme was wings and this is my contribution called Ivory Gleam. The background is one of my fabric collages. The lady comes from a shop (Blackberry Designs) on Ebay who sell images for decoupage. I layered it with gel medium, stuck it on and then added gel medium on top. It looks as if it is waxed and I'm very pleased with these sheets. Added a pink German Scrap at the top (also bought on Ebay) and added a quote from an old book. The pink wings are from Artchixstudio. Finally layered up the piece with watercolour paper using zigzag stitching and added beading around the edge.