My first ATCs

ATC? What is that? It stands for Artist Trading Card. These are mini works of art which are always made in a standard size of 3 1/2" x 2 1/2". More info can be seen here. I have never been inspired to make any until one of the crafts groups that I belong to decided to have a swap. What drew me in to even try was that they were going to put the participants in groups by skill level; e.g., newbie, advanced, etc. (The participants informed the swap hostess which group they should be put in) Well I joined the newbie group of course which made it less intimidating for me as I felt no one should be disappointed with my creation (I hope not, lol.) and I only had to make 5! (I know, the picture only shows 4 but thank goodness I read through my guidelines before mailing so the fifth one was added, oops.) I decided to make them all the same for my first time. Anyway, I cut my card stock to the appropriate size and then I centered a brass stencil over each card to make the embossed oval. I outlined the oval with a black Marvy LePlumme II marker and I sponged yellow chalk on the interior of the oval as a backdrop for the image. The flower image is from this set . I stamped the flower several times and colored each one using more of my Marvy LePlumme markers. I cut out each flower and added stickles to the centers and petals. I adhered the flowers with dimensionals, added brads and finished by rounding the corners of the card stock.