by the sea chunky ATC

I had never heard of a "chunky" ATC before until I read about it on Lisa Busch's Collage Stuff Blog -go there to check out just one of her beautiful samples. Lisa owns a business called "Collage Stuff" where she sells wonderful collage stuff!  I often find just what I might need for a project and also, collage items that inspire me to start something new! I recently learned from her that a chunky ATC is a variation on a trading card made on a wood block, 2.5" x 3.5" x 3/4" wide. This was a one-for-one swap, sending directly to the person Lisa signed you up with. Here is what I came up with -a bit of my creating process. First some gathering . . . I have collected lots of lovely shells living in Florida!

 I did not have to, but decided I wanted to paint my block white. I got my blank chunky wood ATC from Collage stuff. They are high quality pre-sanded blocks.

I used Goop glue (E6000) to secure the various shells. The little gold sequin stars I got from Collage Stuff, the pearls were a broken bracelet. The dictionary page came as a gift from Lisa with my last order -perfect!

Now my chunky ATC has shell "feet"!

For the back, I wanted a business card that had a copy of "Shell art" already on it. (ATCs I created for another swap) but Lisa wanted the back arted up too, so I stamped various images on white tissue paper using permanent ink. When adhered to the block with matte medium under and over, the tissue paper melts away. Only the image remains!

From the side . . . 

From the top!

The front, from the top. The crinkly wire wrapped around is from collage Stuff.

That was sure fun to do! Thanks, Lisa for the inspiration and organization.

My chunky ATC is in the mail as of yesterday, swimming it's way to Andrea in Texas. I have already received a beautiful chunky ATC from Gloria - what a great swap!

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

  ~ Chinese proverb