So Many Favorites - So Little Time... Designer Crafts Connection celebrates National Craft Month

Hello Friends! Its been a while since I've done some arting -- and since it's National Craft Month I'm joining the Designer Craft Connection to bring you some inspiration using our favorites. It's been a whirlwind since attending Creativation in January and when I have time to play I like to get back to something that got me started in papercrafting... making ATCs {artist trading cards}. 

ATC's are small little masterpieces. One of my favorite ways to squeeze in some arting, try out some new products and using up scraps of this and that. Today I'm sharing this quick little project I made just for myself... an upcycled mini book that is a little bit steampunk and a little bit purple!

I love to create with recycled items and reinvent them by using up items items on my craft table. This project can be made in any colors or theme and is great for the kiddos, too!

This project began with this piece of distressed aluminum tape covered cardstock on my table. This tape is already self adhesive and is wonderful to use in creating steampunk projects and altering items with metal. I use it to make large sheets of distressed cardstock for use on all sorts of altered projects... and ATCs!

It's pretty easy to make a sheet of metal paper. You take a sheet of cardstock or recycled chipboard, then cut strips of the aluminum tape; adhering pieces in an overlapped fashion to cover the sheet. You can be as creative as you want doing this. Use a bone folder to burnish down and press out any air bubbles. Sand and distress surface as desired. Then you are ready to paint, emboss and stamp for a multitude of uses.

My sheet above has a pink smudgy coloring because my roll of aluminum tape happened to have red words printed on it and I removed by rubbing with nail polish remover. I liked the look of it with some red, so I didn't rub it all completely clean.

I have loads of recycled toilet paper tubes set aside for projects. The brand I get is now glue-less to the roll – which makes it that much easier to prep for crafty goodness.

I press the tubes flat and make a nice folded edge with my bone folder.

Using some Ranger Distress Paints, I quickly add some distressing and color to the edges. I just love the dauber tops on the bottles -- they make painting quick and easy. This can be done with chalk inks or regular ink pads also.

I went around the edges of seven (7) flattened tubes with Seedless Preserves and Tarnished Brass Ranger Distress Paints. A touch of color adds a little "POP" of color to the kraft color of the recycled tubes that will be the structure of my ATC holder.

I stack all of the tubes together and one by one added a line of tacky glue down the center and press another on top. You can create these type of pockets in a variety of shapes/sizes with envelopes or paper bags also. These tubes are the perfect size and shape to hold artist trading cards {ATCs}.

I align the tubes and clamp the stack together with some binder clips to dry. When dry this will be a sturdy pocket honeycomb booklet.

I use one of my favorite embossing folders in my Cuttlebug machine and dab with a variety of reds and purple Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks to add color and depth to my distressed aluminum cardstock.

I cut the sheet to size making a front and back covers for my mini honeycomb ATC cardholder. I had a thin strip leftover of the metal paper, so I cut into thirds and used it to add some detail to the spine area {nothing goes to waste}.

I add some embellishments -- a swatch of plum lace which looks lovely layered on top of the metal embossed cover, then some scraps of ribbons, fibers, lace, buttons, bling, found objects and goodies from my favorite stash of metal hardware. I inked some pale pink ribbon trim to match the color palette and altered a strand of pearls with alcohol inks to match too! Voila!

"STEAMPUNK" ATC Traveller

I hope this fun upcycled project inspires you to create. How you create your own? For more inspiration CLICK HERE to jump over to the beginning of the National Craft Month Foil Bloghop with the Designer Crafts Connection!

Thanks so much for visiting! Sb :)