Happy Birthday Sis!

Each year my sister and I exchange birthday gifts and among all the packages...we promise to have at least one handmade item.

We both usually start collecting unique finds throughout the year for each other. I had found her a gift from an antique store in Mountain Home last year and she also found me an item from the same area during the same time period. Funny how that worked out.

My sister made me all kinds of goodies which I will post at a later date. She is so very clever!


The gift I made were ATC's that are personal for her. I forgot to scan them before I mounted them into their frame.

The letter "A" was Zentangle inspired on Arches Text Wove. I watercolored the background before making the design. I added red rhinestones for bling.


This ATC shows my sister in a "Back to School" picture that my dad had taken. I cropped out everyone else. I added butterflies and a sentiment of "Fun & Funny".


I had made ATC's using Dada poetry a couple of years ago and this particular one was in my collection. The background is a photo of the farmhouse that was our Great Grandparents and the woman is a great great aunt.

I thought the poem was perfect for the photo!

I used antique buttons to embellish the ATC.



I collaged this ATC and specifically selected the words that best describe how my sister views life!

She loves lace so I added a border with tiny little pearl drops on top.




This ATC is one of my favorites that I made. I used dyed fabric that I made when we were together last year over July 4th. The photo is also when my sister was about three years old. I am sitting next to her on the couch however, I cropped myself out of the photo. I added bits of fabric scraps and lace behind the photo...wrote the sentiment and added three black rhinestones.


I really love how this ATC turned out! I used a vintage card button where there was one button left. The red frame was part of the card and it was the perfect size to fit our mother's school photo!

I then framed this onto black card stock and then the final mount was white card stock.



I saved this bit of quilted fabric from my sister's friend when I was on a retreat last fall in DeSota, Wisconsin. Her friend Eileen delighted me in showing me all kinds of stitches that her new quilting machine did and then she gave me a good chunk of goodness.

I sewed on top of the quilting the antique buttons that my sister loves a lot. A blanket stitch borders the ATC.





A playing card is the background for this ATC. I collaged a napkin on top, added the quote and bling. Gel medium was used to seal the card.








This is another part of Eileen's chunk of goodness that she gave to me. I sewed the "dream & play" tiles and sewed three times around the ATC.






This is a photo of me when I was three. I went with the cowgirl theme!



Tim Holtz showed me how to make tiny wire bird nests at one of his classes last year. I made a whole bunch of these at the retreat last year with my sister so I knew I wanted to make a card where I could use one of these nests as an embellishment.



I've had this transparency forever so it was time for me to do something with it! Using it on this ATC seemed perfect. I sewed the transparency onto the background paper. Inside the keyhole is text that says "secrets".

A matching key is attached with ribbon at the top.