Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Feeling Groovy - Sixties ATCs



The theme for our most recent ATC swap was "the sixties." (Meant to relate to the decade in the last century - not the age of the participants(!)

The first thing that popped into my head was the Simon and Garfunkel song "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" which was on their 1966 album "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme." If that song brings back memories for you too, you may enjoy this entry in Wikipedia. If you want to hear the song - here is a You Tube LINK.

I decided to create this card using mostly digital art. I wanted a tie dye pattern in bright colors for the background. I could not find any of the many tie dye shirts we have purchased for our sons over the years in order to photograph one and create my own "paper," so I applied a gradient in yellow and orange (the two colors my husband said he thought of for the sixties) and then added a crinkly texture. I wanted hot pink involved so I cut the actual ATC card at 2.5 x 3.5 inches from hot pink cardstock and layered my digital designs on top of the cardstock.



I used the "Peace" font from dafont.com for the words "Feeling Groovy" (I just couldn't bring myself to drop the "g" - lingering effects from a strict ninth grade English teacher!). I filled the words with another "psychedelic" color combination - which was actually from some digital paper in the Creative Memories Hannah Montana Digital Power Palette Addition (here is a LINK to see that paper).



On the backs of the ATCs, I used another fun font called "Bell Bottom Laser," also from dafont.com - I just loved the "Peter Max" look to the letters.



I added some "skittles" in the corner because I thought they looked like water drops (and the song is about a bridge after all - or is it?!). I had originally planned to used these little "Love" cuts which are from the Home Accents cartridge, but they didn't work into the design - so I just put them in the individual sleeves when I sent the ATCs to be swapped - maybe the others in my group can use them for something! They reminded me of Robert Indiana and his iconic "Love" sculpture, which was also created in the sixties



Here are my finished ATCs just before mailing. If you'd like to see all the great ATCs the rest of the group made, you can check them out on KER's blog (Karen is our organizer and does a great job of posting all of the cards each month).

(Whew - I think I have set a record for the most links to other sources in one of my blog posts - and there isn't even a .cut file to link!)


A NOTE ON THE VIDEO: Thanks for all the comments and your patience with any technical difficulties you have encountered. I am a bit overwhelmed by the response - over 750 views of the video since I posted it yesterday afternoon. I will definitely do more and I have also stepped up plans for the online classes. Most people seem to be able to view the video easily, though some have had trouble getting the sound loud enough - it could have something to do with individual computers and their settings. I will keep trying to work out any problems but it may be beyond my ability to make the videos work for everyone. I will have another one ready to share either later today or on Friday.

4 comments:

  1. I received both of these questions via email this morning so I thought I'd post a comment in case more people have the same question...

    Diane,
    Great card! I was wondering did you use a digital program to cut the letters or do you use SCAL? I love your work and get so much inspiration from you.
    Thanks,
    Donna

    Good morning!
    I am new at this so it may seem like a silly question but I don’t know if I don’t ask, did you cut the letters out by hand or is there another way that I’m not familiar with?
    You are an inspiration and I love your ideas.
    Thank you for being kind enough to share!!!
    Linda
    I guess this just goes to show how effective digital scrapping can be! The letters are not cut out at all - just printed with a heavy shadow applied in my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus software. It does look like you could pick them up off the page doesn't it?!

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  2. Wow, I thought they were cut too. I visited the other blog and loved all the different ATC card. As usual awesome job. TFS!

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  3. You sure surprised me with the way you did your letters. I also thought you had cut them with SCAL even though you never mentioned that. Thanks for sharing your cards.

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  4. Wow Diane,

    That is really groovy. It brought back a lot of fond memories of that time.

    Where do you have more info abut the creative memories plus software. I've tried several times to learn photoshop elements, but if I don't have step by step-look and do, it just won't happen.

    Thanks for your fab shares :)

    Carmen

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I love to hear from the people who read my blog. I moderate all comments to keep spam off the blog without making you decode the squiggly letters so your comment may not appear immediately.