Nature Does Not Hurry - An ATC

Here's is something a little different from me. Well, actually if you know me and my past work, you would not think this is so different. My style seems to have changed a bit lately, but there was a time when most of my work was distressed, shabby, grungy, collage-y, etc. That was before I discovered mice, hedgehogs and little kids with no faces. :) It was kind of fun to do something like this again.

This is also different for me because it's an ATC. I rarely do ATCs. I don't collect them or trade them really. I do like to do them to try techniques, etc. I also do swaps for them from time to time and sometimes use the ones I get as focal points for cards. This one I made for a bee theme swap that my friend Chris is hosting. The only thing I knew when I signed up for the swap was that I love that bee stamp I used and that I wanted to use it. I had no other ideas at all. I figured the rest of it out today when I saw this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge.

The challenge this week is "Let's craft with Tim." The objective was to create something using Tim Holtz products or something inspired by his style. Well, I LOVE Tim Holtz so I came up with an idea pretty easily.

The background for the image was created with Adirondak Alcohol Inks on glossy cardstock. I also used two different colors of Distress Ink on the quote. It probably would have been a little more "Tim -like" if I had torn the quote and made it more distressed looking. I thought I was going to do something different and already had the quotes punched out, so I just left it that way. The image is a collage of three different stamps and is kind of "grungy" looking, which is very much inspired by Tim Holtz's style, even though they are not his stamp designs. I stamped the bees and flower first, then masked them before stamping the background. Finally I added the little antique copper photo turn as an embellishment. Since there was so much other stuff going on, I didn't really want to get crazy with the embellishments and I thought that kept with the overall distressed look of the design.

It was really fun doing this style again. As much fun as I'm having with the "cute" things I've been doing lately, I don't think I'll ever stop liking this look either. I guess I'm just "eclectic". :) Now I need to go make five more of these so I can get them in the mail. Be sure to check out the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog to see how others were inspired by Tim.

Supplies
Stamps: Bee (Magenta); Daisy (Club Scrap); Italian Poetry (Hero Arts); quote is computer generated
Ink: Timber Brown (StazOn); Adirondak Alcohol Inks - Butterscotch, Latte, Lettuce, Copper Metalic Mixative (Ranger); Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Antique Linen, Vintage Photo
Paper: green cardstock; white cardstock; white glossy cardstock
Embellishments: antique copper photo turn and brad (unknown)
Techniques: Alcohol Ink background; distressing; masking