A New ATC Club

I joined a new-to-me ATC (artist trading card) club Sunday afternoon at the Ink, Paper, Rubber store in Overland Park, Kansas. It's been awhile since I've done any major paper crafting, so I felt all thumbs. I've been doing serious genealogical research on my third great-grandparents and have recently returned from a trip to Lincoln, IL  where I  spoke about their family to the Logan County Historical & Genealogical Society.
This month's theme was "my favorite things" and we were to bring 3 backgrounds finished in any way we liked, however, the website did not say "atc-sized backgrounds," so I brought 3 finished 8.5" x 11" cardstock backgrounds to be on the safe side (in peach, turquoise & purple) and was madly scrambling to cut them down to size at the meeting! I also thought the color theme had to be on each background, but most of the ladies brought single colored pieces of stiff, heavy paper. Oh well, live and learn! *smile* Still, I enjoyed myself and met five very nice ladies!

Here's the atc that I made to trade. My favorite illustrator is, as you know Mary Engelbreit, so when I saw this black and white gingham duct tape with cherries on it, I had to have it! The stamp is from ME Ink (wish it had a matching die to go with it; my rough cut did not please me) that I purchased at Michaels, but I'm not sure what brand the sentiment stamp is as it was in a box of rubber stamps a girlfriend was giving away. And the bee brad was from a package that I purchased at a scrapbook convention.

Here's the cards I received in turn. The turquoise one on the bottom left is an atc-sized booklet with images of her favorite things inside. Click on the photos to enlarge if you want to see details.

The first atc club I was a member of for awhile here in the metro KC area (Candy Worner's "All About Scrapbooking" Westport store), did the swap in the first half of the meeting, then someone taught a background technique in the second half of the meeting, however, this club does something called a "Jam." We were to contribute those 3 finished backgrounds for this part of the meeting and everyone tossed their unembellished cards to the middle of the table. Each were to sign the back of their cards first as the background maker (ie. Dolores J. Rush -- background).

We were not allowed to work on one of our backgrounds. I know this as I reached for one of mine and got scolded for it. *grin* We were to add 1 to 3 embellishments to each card and throw it back into the center of the table after we signed the back with the things we added to the card. After the third person added their bit, the card was considered finished and collected. We continued until all the cards were finished, then each card was lined up on another table and each of us received three turns to draw a number to choose a card. I grabbed one of my backgrounds so that you could see how I made mine. I stamped peachy orange swiss dots first, then pounced on turquoise ink through a checkerboard stencil, and ran a purple inked rolling clay tool "stitch" across the top. You know, (*wink*) layers! I brought the same colored ink with me to do edges if necessary.

 

Mine is the on top with the cute little girl and bling that was added to it. It was hard to choose, because there were so many nice cards to pick from. In addition, one of the gals. . .

 threw me 4 more of her cards from their previous swaps, but I was prepared as I brought my notebook with leftover atc's from previous swaps as well and she took what she wanted. She was delighted with a troll atc that I had one left of. She told me she had troll dolls when she was younger as I did. I had to have that troll stamp when I found it in a bundled cello bag at a thrift store.



And now I know the upcoming themes from July to December. July's theme is: "Happy Endings" and the Jam colors are pastels & silver; August is "By the Sea" and blue, green & tan; September is "Asian" and red, gold, & black; October is "Circus" and yellow, blue, & red; November is "Architecture" with grey, brown, & metallic; and December is "Interactive" with red, green, & white.

Walmart, Are You Listening?

I am really bummed! Last night I went into my local Walmart store to pick up some double-face tape to renew my supply for crafting and for a shoebox party that I’ve been invited to this week and guess what I found? No Scotch brand dispenser refills in the yellow box! Nada! I have a cute little weighted pink & white dispenser that matches my portable crafting bag and the only thing I could find was a itty-bitty clear plastic dispenser with a tiny roll up in the scrapbook section of the store for $5.00. I spent a little more than that on a package of 10 rolls in the box of Scotch Magic Tape. I will admit I am a frugal, thrifty, cheap, bargain-hunter, whatever you want to call it, soul. That’s one reason why I shop at Walmart.

They have been remodeling some of our Walmart stores around here and when I sent my husband after tape, he complained he couldn’t find it, so I thought it wasn’t getting restocked because of the redo, so I’ve been trying to stretch my supply until the remodeling came to an end. Doesn’t everything end eventually? But now I’m desperate and down to one roll.

I not only hate the idea of spending my husband’s hard-earned paycheck on one of those $5.00 dispensers, I can see if a person doesn’t use much tape, only having the one plastic dispenser stashed in the junk drawer, but as a card-maker and scrapbooker, I use a lot of tape and like having the extra refills on hand. Yes, I could buy the tape-runners, but they are almost as expensive, however, I’m tape-runner challenged and so I don’t like them particularly! And then I can’t get around the idea of having those little clear plastic dispensers being thrown into the landfills because they cannot be recycled. That is, not unless they are made of corn-based plastic.  At least the cardboard boxes the tape comes in can decompose.

I like Scotch brand by 3M too. Double-faced tape from the dollar stores and glue sticks aren’t worth the money you spend on them. I don’t like throwing my money away either! They are the unsticky sisters and I don’t like watching my creations fall apart.

Walmart and Scotch, are you listening? I want my Scotch Double-Faced Tape Dispenser Refills in the Yellow Boxes back! Please consider stocking them again! I NEED THEM!

Hey Readers Out There = If you feel as I do, please visit Walmart’s Customer Service  and Scotch to complain!

Maybe the store buyers don’t know tape is our stock and trade and we don’t want to spend BIG BUCKS on little itty-bitty dispensers! Thank you! Sigh. . .

Update from July 11, 2011: When I tried to find my double-faced tape elsewhere, I was told there was a Scotch tape gun, so I went looking for it. Michael's was selling it for $36.00 and it was HUGE and unwieldy in my hand. Needless to say, I did not buy it. Recently, I found a smaller version at Walmart, which is an improvement, however, we still have to refill them from the little plastic tape dispensers.  It also has a sliding yellow safety button on top  that works a cutting blade underneath. Those serrated teeth on most tape dispensers make good knuckle graters! LOL!

I really like the packaging from this new tape-runner too. *wink* I was able to glean some grey plaid tag board which will make an excellent Scottish card background and the clear packaging which I can cut down to use on a shaker card or to die cut  a small stencil!

 

 

 

 June 3, 2015 Update: I received a Michael's coupon in the mail and I went to use it before it expired. Guess what I found? My near-by Michael's is carrying both the dispenser tool above and the Scotch brand double side tape refills in the box!  YIPPEE!  I picked up a 2-box shrink-wrapped package for $7.99.  Michael's also carries the throw-away dispensers for $5.99 a piece, so I saved a little by buying the boxes.