July ATCs - Ribbon

Here is my ATC (Artist Trading Card) for the month of July - our group has been having a lot of fun with these monthly challenges. Without really planning it, I have ended up using a flower photograph in each of my ATCs so far. I think I have started a "series" and will try to continue to use my flower photos for the rest of the swaps (unless I get a better idea!).

The theme for July was "ribbon" - it was my turn as hostess which means I chose the theme when we set up the group and also that some of my trading partners sent some extra goodies with their swaps this time - thanks to all of them for the surprises. You can see a photo of this month's ATCs on KER's blog (Karen is our organizer).

Earlier this month, we had been to Newport, Rhode Island to visit some relatives and I took photos of the amazing hydrangeas we saw while we were there. Here is the original image



I cropped and did some photo editing (light adjustments, focus enhancement, etc.) and this is the photo after editing



I love working with my digital photos and I particularly like the way you can take an ordinary picture and turn it into something special - here are a few more I took that day



A wildflower (cornflower I think) at the park - original shot above and cropped and edited below



and one more set - the original is first



and here it is after I worked on it a bit!



I use the Creative Memories Memory Manager software to organize and edit my photos (you can see info about this software on my CM website linked in the side column).

But back to the ATCs - I had decided to do something with lacing ribbon through the card and I designed a .cut file for a scalloped and punched 2.5 inch by 3.5 inch card to prepare for this month's swap. I cut these first in a yellow green cardstock but I did not like the way it worked with the photo so I went with a lilac textured cardstock which blended nicely with the photo. I cropped and printed the photos in a size small enough to fit in the center of the card and not block the lacing holes.



Above you can see the ten cards before adding the ribbon.

I had a hard time deciding on the color, width and lacing pattern for the ribbon and made a shopping trip to check out the possibilities. I finally settled on a bright green grosgrain ribbon in a thin (1/8 inch) width. Below you can see some of the variations that I tried (the red ribbon was for sizing purposes only - it was never a potential choice!)



I finally settled on a double "X" on the front with the ribbon tied in a bow on the back - here is a close up of the back of one card.



I had to be sure to start on the correct side and to keep the lacing consistent with the ribbons crossing in the same way on each card - once I figured out my pattern it was easy to complete the cards.

Here are the finished ten cards - front



and back



The .cut file I designed was done in Plantin Schoolbook because I was doing enough to fill an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I found that with so many circles and welds this takes a long time to preview and cut so I deleted the cards on the bottom half and did a set that fits on a 6 x 12 mat. I have not changed the file to George - if you do not have Plantin Schoolbook you will have to replace the shapes with identical ones from George to cut this (you can create a second page, preview and keep preview as background and then place the elements according to the original design).

Eight scalloped and punched ATCs

Four scalloped and punched ATCs

Here is one more pretty picture for you. (love those hydrangeas!)