Scrabble Charm

This week, in addition to working on my house and other ATCS for swaps, I've also been making altered Scrabble tile charms. After a few practice tries, it turned out to be a pretty simple undertaking.



I sanded the front, back, and sides of the tile and then painted the whole thing a pretty metallic green color. For the front, I collaged the boy and his hat on a piece of scrapbook paper cut slightly smaller than the tile itself and glued the whole thing to the side with the letter on it.

I outlined the boy and the paper with a gold metallic gel pen and added small punched out stars on the back so it wasn't plain. After drilling a small hole, I coated all sides with a good couple coats of varnish, letting it dry between coats (the longest part of the whole process).

After it was totally dry, I made a bead dangle and attached it with a jump ring. I also included a lobster claw clasp so it can easily be attached or removed without opening the jump ring. I wrote my name with a ultra fine pen on the bottom edge of the tile where it wouldn't really be seen.

That's it! My initial mistakes included covering both sides of the paper (which was then ruined every time I drilled a hole) and attempting to work with the tile when the varnish wasn't totally dry. Other than that, they were fun to make and I can't wait to see what goodies I get when these get swapped out.

Finished House

Well, as promised, here are photos of one of my finished house cards- inside and out. I just added some German Scrap border, the woman's picture, words and a tiny gem. I wasn't quite happy with it, though, until I added a bit more in the window area.





I know, I know-the scans are crooked. My scanner is pretty cheap and so cannot scan straight no matter what I do.

Simple House ATC

So, I joined a swap on ATCards.com with the theme of houses. I've seen some gorgeous cards on there (some of which are listed in my Wists) and while I want to be able to make cards like that, I decided to do something different. I wanted a card that looked like a house, but opened to reveal what was inside. I started with a 3 and a half by 5 inch piece of card stock weight scrapbook paper (like this crossword puzzle print).



I folded it in half lengthwise and marked a triangle at the top to cut out for the roof. I also cut the front triangle off so the front is a square and the back is the house shape.



I then unfolded the card and glued a coordinating paper to the other side, being careful to use a bone folder to re-fold the card so it closes.



That's it for the basic card. I went further with these and covered half of a paper slide mount with another coordinating paper for the window and edged the whole card with red stamp ink for contrast.



Now all that's left is to add the images I want in the window and any other embellishements and they will be ready to go.