Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

Creative Expressions are looking for a design team, and as part of the process have set a 'Calling Card' challenge.

From their website:

The challenge is called... Calling CardThe only requirements of this challenge are that you create a project that includes rubber stamping of some sort and that an ATC is featured somewhere in the piece. Other than that the challenge is completely open to your interpretation! 

I had a great time with this challenge - as the state of my kitchen table can attest!!

What I used:

Paper - 7x7 square base card, pink, green, black and purple Core-dinations, small scraps of colour for tickets, chipboard (or cereal box!)
Shrink Plastic
Inks - Archival, Versa Mark, gold pen
Stamps - Tim Holtz 'Fairy Tale Frenzy' for Start/Ending, Tim Holtz  'enjoy the journey', Creative Expressions Tickets, Creative Expressions Vintage Illusion set for train
Die - Spellbinders Elegant Posts
Mask - Special Touch of Mica Compass mask
Eyelets (1/8 gold, 3/16 purple), screw brad and split rings

I've ended up with a card I like to think of as "Steam Punk goes Pastel" which features a hanging ATC (Artist Trading Card) with one of my (current!) favourite 'true-isms' "No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."



Making the ATC
I started with the ATC and cut a piece of purple Core-dinations card to 2.5 x 3.5 inches and lightly sanded it.

I stamped 'enjoy the journey' (a Tim Holtz stamp) using Versa Mark before embossing with a clear superfine embossing powder and a heat gun.

As I wanted the ATC to 'hang' on the card I added two purple eyelets at the top and then got to work on the embellishments.

I love love love a bit of shrink plastic so stamped my Tim Holtz 'start/ending' quote on a piece of white shrink plastic with black Archival ink.  I left the ink to dry (resisting the urge to hurry it along with a  heat gun!) before punching a hole in each of the corners.  Now I let the heat gun do its magic and was once again a 10 year old enthralled as the little piece of plastic melted and twisted and turned and looked ready for disaster before.... poof...it's a flat shrunk quote!

As the holes shrunk (obviously) I made them a little bigger so the 1/8 eyelets would fit in.

I used a gold permanent ink marker to colour the edges and add a thin border before applying a layer of Glossy Accents.  At this stage I recommend putting the piece somewhere far away from clumsy elbows and inquisitive fingers (mine) to dry completely before glueing onto the bottom right of the ATC.

To add a bit of colour to the ATC I stamped and cut out the 'Inspire/Create/Hope/Dream' tickets from some coloured cardstock.  I punched a hole in the corner of the tickets, attached them together with a screw top brad and fanned them out before glueing them to the card.

Making the Base Layer
The base of the card is 6.5 inch square of green Core-dinations which I embossed with a compass mask before sanding.

I then sanded a 6.5x4 inch piece of pink Core-dinations card and stamped the train from Creative Expressions Vintage Illusion set.

Making the Hanging Post
The hanging post is made from two Spellbinders Elegant Posts dies which I joined together to make the full shape.

Because I wanted the posts to be very sturdy so the ATC could hang from it I really needed chipboard (which I didn't have) so I improvised by using a Bran Flakes box (I expect any cereal box would work!) and cutting each of the posts 4 times (I didn't emboss these layers).  I used a sponge to apply black ink to each layer (so the edges would be black) before gluing the 4 layers together.

I then cut a final layer of the posts from black Core-dinations card which I did emboss.  I glued that  layer on the top and now had a very sturdy post!!

To finish everything off I used split rings to attach the ATC to the hanging post.  I wanted the ATC to hang freely so I attached the hanging post to the base card with Pinflair (I didn't put any glue on the ATC itself).

Put the finished piece onto a 7x7 square card and you're done!!