SPOILERS!! Swaps on Swap-bot

Hello! Hello! Here are some of the swaps that I have just mailed out as of 10pm this evening. I am glad that I decided to go ahead and make a run for the post box, cause the light in my van had been left on. Tomorrow we are taking a trip to visit family, and the day would not have started off good if we had to go buy and replace our van battery. YIKES!! So, I was very glad that I decided to mail this stuff off. 

Me, when I had decided to make a mail run at 10pm;)

Below is the first swap that I had joined on Swap-bot since my long absence from that swapping site. This ATC started off neat....but I am in the the mood for.....and have been in this mood for a long time...the mood of messy. Not too messy, but mixed media messy. It is hard for me to stop adding things. Sometimes it turns out very nice, and other times I get to a point, and I'm like, "Okay, Vanessa just stop!!!" I got to that point with this ATC. The swap was Black Friday ATC Swap, and it did allow one other color besides black and white. But, if you keep scrolling, it doesn't end up with really any of that pretty blue it started with. 

Very base of decorating ATC.

The very base paper is from a gelli print on black paper. I love gelli printing and can spend HOURS doing it. Then below I had stamped some stitched lines on tissue paper over the butterfly punched part. It's not the punch outs but the strip that is left over after punching the butterflies out. 

Still see some of that lovely blue.

Now is where a little "messy" comes in. I used some gesso to lighten up the areas I was gonna journal on. Then I wrote in my sloppy handwriting...not sloppy enough though. I want it so sloppy that you can tell it's English, but not really what it says. I did write on the note to my swap partner what it said. Though, thinking of it now, I don't think I remembered what the top part said, so I am not sure I wrote that. Anyways, it will get somewhat covered too. 

"Trust somebody. Just fly spread your wings wide and let go!"

Below is the finished product....duh...anyways....I did add some white to the butterflies, then some gelato black to the border part of the butterflies, also around the edges of the ATC...framing it a bit. Then added some watered down gesso in random places. I did do another sewing stamp for the boarder too. At that point, I NEEDED to be done. Not sure if anyone else ever feels that way when they are crafting. I don't know why, I just have a hard time not adding anything else to my crafts. It is easy to keep adding in mixed media type stuff, but when I do greeting cards, I have to plan them out a little more;)

DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE

And here is the gelli printed envelope and note for my partner. I did about 50 of these the other night. Just randomly adding up layers....sometimes I do like to color coordinate, and other times I just like to add and add until it looks good....just see what happens. Sometimes I get lucky fast and other times it takes a bit of layers! LOL!

The decorated envelope and note card to carry my ATC to my partner;)

With the two swaps below I have tried to reuse some envelopes that I had saved. The swap calls for bubble wrap envelopes....and I could hardly get them closed. I had to take out the green roses in the second swap down there because they would not fit in the envelope. I glued them shut by glueing printer paper on one side and folding it up over the other side to glue, like it was a flap. I painted the envies and used a medium to reinforce the "flap" plus protect the addresses, and...well make them look a little better. 

So, I have stuffed a whole bunch of stuff in these swaps. Most of it is from my stash. I have sent about 6 of my handmade greeting cards between these two swaps. I will have to post about them at some point. I have probably about 200 stashed here in my room, because I just love making them.

Hope my swap partner likes these things!

Swap to my 2nd partner via: Swap-bot.com

The two pictures below are of 3 of my swap-bot swaps. The envelope with the white dots is for a friendship book swap, so it's packed with some lovely booklets for her to sign and pass on. The other two towards the lower part of each picture are the two swaps above packed up, painted, sealed, and about ready to go. They are only missing stamps at this point. 

3 Stuffed envelopes.

I just rubbed some white gesso over the areas that I wanted to add the addresses, and it worked out nicely.

The front of the same envelopes.

These 5 envelopes have 1 ATC in each of them. The swap is called, 5/5 December ATC USA (not Christmas). I had a fun time with these, and have about 10 more that I made at the same time I was doing these. I usually make a whole lot of them with these multiple ATC swaps, so I can have some extras to trade. Or if I end up just not liking what I made. I cannot bring myself to send someone something that I would not like to receive. If I think it's ugly, it's not leaving my craft area until it's got about 100 more layers! lol!

Yep! You guessed it....its gelli printed!

This ATC was unknowingly specially made for one of my partners. This lady had on her profile that she liked anything Nutting dolls, and Tim Holtz. Well that is what over half this ATC is made of, so yea, I knew this one would go to her;)

I paper pieced all the parts of this girl...did some splattering,  base  paper is gelli print, couple butterfly stamps, and gelato black to lightly go over the edges and around the girl.

Okay, so this next one was my personal favorite. I have actually kept some ATCs that I make and ended up loving....this was almost one of them. I just love the background. I didn't want to cover it up too much so I just added the heart, and glazed it with some triple thick something.....first time I used that stuff....I guess it's like glossy accents, but not in a squeeze out bottle. 

My favorite for this swap!!

This next one has a gelli print base, then a mixed media stamp. I also added a map tissue paper, and did some flicks of white water downed paint or gesso. The Alice in Wonderland Rabbit was a printout form some images I bought off Etsy.com. I just fussy cut him out....then I went around the boarders with the black gelato. 

Below is another one like the other heart ATC. This one is a little darker. I did a lot more gelato shading, but still allowed the background through. I added layers of blue, black, and white, then added the really thick glass looking gloss to the heart.

Sorry its side ways. 

This one was neat, and the most "different" from the rest. The background is a gelli print, then some stamping, and some other pieces of gelli print torn and glued on. I added the two flowers by stamping tissue paper and then matting it on. I went over the whole ATC with the thick clear glossy stuff that I used on the hearts above. I loved it. I also stamped over the glossy stuff, then sealed that with some varnish...only cause the glossy stuff dries slowly and I was wanting to get these in the mail tonight. When I stamp over any medium, especially if it's glossy, I feel like it needs a layer of something over it to keep it from rubbing off, smearing or whatever.

That thick glossy stuff, gave it some dimension.  Ok, so I will have to use the actual name of the product if I put another item on here after having used that stuff....goals! lol;)

Here it is....that stack that went to the little metal box near the ice-cream shop;) I felt so much better now that all these are sent off. And the postage, I added an extra stamp on all of them "just in case". I probably won't do that all the time...obviously, but its been a while since I have mailed off like this....and I guess I just needed my mind at ease.

On their way to their new peoples!

Thanks so much! I can finally publish this...I am not sure but maybe I will start posting a separate post for each swap. Hopefully I will have this blogging thing down at some point.                           Have a "good one"!!