Bunnies and Eggs ATCs

I made ten of these Artist Trading Cards for a swap group I participate in each month. Our theme was "Bunnies and Eggs" and I thought it would be fun to make the cards a bit interactive.



I found this pack of transparent overlays on sale in a store near my sister's house when I visited her last month. I didn't have a specific plan for them, but I knew I could use them! There are 10 different styles of transparencies in several colors along with some coordinating papers.



The transparencies ended up playing a big role in the creation of my ATCs There are five eggs that move freely inside the window formed by a cardstock frame that has a pink gingham design transparency adhered to the frame.



I chose a decorative cardstock that is green with glittery dots for the top of the cards - it is from the Nana's Kitchen DCWV stack. Once I had the frames cut, I applied 1/8 inch Scor-Tape on the backs around the inner edges of the frame. I wanted to be sure that the frame would have no gaps between the cardstock and the transparency.



I cut rectangles of the transparency at 2 x 3 inches, peeled away the paper on the Scor-Tape, and applied the transparency to the Scor-Tape. I originally tried a pink striped transparency but I decided the gingham was less distracting and worked better with the dotted cardstock.

I used my ATC frame file again to cut frames from heavy watercolor paper. (Here is a LINK to a previous post where you can find that file). I did have some trouble with the cutting because it was hard to keep the paper stuck down securely for the multi-cuts so I ended up using a bit of masking tape to keep it in place. I think the bumpy texture of the paper causes a problem - I have had a similar issue with textured cardstock when I place the heavily textured side face down on the mat.



I stacked the frames together and adhered them to each other. I tested the depth and ended up cutting three layers of frames so I could be sure that the eggs had room to move around inside the "box." On my first trial card, I adhered the rest of the pieces (top and bottom) to the top and bottom of the frame stack with some eggs in between. I found that the eggs could get caught by the rough texture of the inner edge of the stacked layers.

I decided to cover these inner edges and make them smooth. I used some aluminum duct tape cut to the proper lengths to line the inner edges. This works very well as it is slick and smooth so the eggs can bounce off it. It also bends and burnishes easily around the interior of the frame.



I chose five styles of glitter cardstock to use for cutting the eggs. The eggs were ovals that I "squashed" a little using the Design Studio controls. Above you can see the mat with the small pieces of glitter cardstock in place.



Here are the eggs after cutting, I use multi-cut "2" when I cut glitter cardstock and set my blade on 6 at pressure level 4. I cut plain backs for the cards from heavy water color paper and adhered the stacked and aluminum tape lined frames to the plain backing rectangles.



I chose five different patterned eggs to place carefully in the "tray" formed by the card and the stacked frames.



Then I adhered the transparency lined decorative top to the stacked frames.



I punched some white glitter bunnies using the two different Martha Stewart bunny punches and making sure that the bunnies were facing in the proper direction (since glitter cardstock is one-sided you can't just flip the bunnies to make the punched shapes fit your project).



These cards ended up having five layers - the top with the transparency adhered, three frames adhered together and a bottom plain back. I needed to finish the thick edges, so I inked them in pink to go along with the Spring theme.



Here is one more close view of the finished card. When you shake it the eggs dance around inside the gingham window. I had a lot of fun playing with them - I hope my swap partners enjoy playing with these too!