Midsummer ATC

I made an ATC specially for my 100 ATC project today for no other reason than that I long for Midsummer. Today had all the seasons in one day with the exception of summer (snow in the morning, springlike sunshine midday and rain in the afternoon) and I can't wait for the summer sun and heat. So I created a little ray of sunshine using my new Midsummer stamp from Alphastamps.

As soon as it arrived I thought back to my June collage which I made for last years' Journal Quilts. It has been completely used up but fortunately I had scanned the collage into my computer before I started cutting into it so I can re-use it by printing it out on various media. For this ATC I printed out the image onto watercolour paper which is specially made for inkjet printers (from Crafty Computer Paper) and I cut the ATC shape out of the bit which has text about Midsummer celebrations as well as a Toile de Jouy image and a landscape with trees.

I then stamped the Midsummer stamp onto a transparency using blue Staz-On ink and layered it over the background, making sure the face landed somewhere where it would be clearly visible. I then cut out half the sun (from an Alphastamps Sun ribbon). This is a bit of a hazardous undertaking as the ribbon is woven. You HAVE to iron on interfacing to the back of the ribbon first to stop it falling to bits when you start cutting the image out with your scissors.

Once cut out I used the iron-on interfacing to add it to the card. Again you have to take care as your iron should not come into contact with the transparency (it would melt clear away and damage your iron into the bargain!) I beaded around the sun face with yellow seed beads.

Finally I zig-zag stitched around the edges with gold metallic thread and a zig-zag stitch.

It's ATC no. 86: Midsummer.