We all Scream for Ice Cream

For one of my ATC swap groups this month we had to chose one of two images and use it as the main element of the ATC.





The images were similar - vintage black and white photos of two woman eating ice cream cones or two boys enjoying ice cream cones in the back of a pick up truck.



I chose the image of the two women - they looked like they were really enjoying that ice cream! I used my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus software to work with the digital image for my card. I seem to be on a pink streak lately (some of the pink has been used on projects that you haven't seen yet...). I cropped the photo to focus on the women's faces and adjusted the light levels so their faces could be seen more clearly. Then I altered the color to give the entire image a pink glow.

I added a photo mat in a brown shade pulled from the photo but I used a blur edge so the mat became more of a shadow effect. I applied a pink gradient to the background with the colors blending on the diagonal. Then I placed the word art "Enjoy Life" in the lower right corner - it looked to me like these ladies were enjoying the moment!



I printed these and cut them a bit smaller than ATC size - about 2 3/8 x 3 3/8 instead of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. I then cut proper ATC sized pieces from some K & Co. Valentine's paper - in shades of pink of course! These became the backing layer for the ATCs and I wrote all of the information for the swap along the curves of the floral medallions on the back of the double-sided paper.



I used "fruit punch" Stickles glitter glue to highlight the frosty cold ice cream. The finishing touch I wanted was some sort of embellishment on the right side of the card where I had left some extra space.



I remembered some plastic buttons I had used for a kid's project and, sure enough, there was an ice cream cone style. As luck would have it there were six hot pink ice cream cones and I was making six ATCs. The buttons were not very nice but the size and shape were great so I just had to figure out a way to alter them. I decided to add some "bling."



I used "cinnamon" Stickles on the cone bases of the buttons.



I added more "fruit punch" Stickles to the ice cream portion of the buttons and my rather ugly plastic buttons suddenly looked a lot more appealing. The Stickles filled in the sewing holes on the buttons so they were no longer obvious.



I used glue dots to attach the glittered ice cream cones at just the right spot on each card and my ATCs were finished.



Here are the finished ATCs ready to send to the hostess.


(Be sure to check out the information on the "Mystery Challenge" on the Custom Crops site - here is a LINK to the page. I had a lot of fun completing the challenge and I can't wait to see what my fellow designers came up with - my project does involve a lot of pink! The projects are scheduled to be revealed on Monday, August 17th).