Tea for Marie ATCs

There are some swaps I simply can't resist despite the fact that I should dedicate all my time to making quilts for my exhibition coming up next year. The ATC swaps on the Marie Antoinette site are a case in point. This group, dedicated to making art inspired by the French queen, produces wonderful work and I myself love playing with her images so I caved in once again, and joined the Tea for Marie ATC swap. The requirements are that you use an image of Marie herself and for this swap a teacup also has to feature.

Above is one of the cards I made for the swap. In total there are 3 and they are all different but they are alike enough so that this one gives you a very good impression of what they all look like. I made the background specially for this swap. It consists of a fabric-paper collage on calico (muslin) and onto the calico I pre-stamped images from Plate 50 Marie Antoinette by Cherry Pie Art Stamps. The Marie face you can see on the card is from this background stamping. I also added a good lot of sparkle to the collage for good measure.

The teacup is from a sheet of Victorian scrap. It's a modern sheet but made using material from the old archives. Every teacup on every ATC is different. The blue flourishes are made from self-adhesive felt, and the green leaves (a representation of tea!) come from a rub-off sheet. I layered the cards with a fabric backing and added size 11 seed beads around the edges.

I also made one to keep for myself as seen above and it has been made in much the same way apart from the fact that the teacup on this card comes from a paper napkin and the image of the young queen from the Alpha Stamps Young Marie sticker sheet. The text on all the cards is made on my Dymo writer and although I used adhesive tape I also stitched on the text, just to make sure!