Bonjour French Country

One of the things I love about art is the ability to travel through time and space on our creative journey. I hope you'll join me today on my journey au campagne francais. As Willa Cather wrote in My Antonia, "Sunflower-bordered roads always seem to me the paths to freedom."

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I am always inspired by the Altered Pages website where you can find adventure or nostalgia waiting for you whether in collage images or the fantastic paper they carry such as French Country from Graphic 45. I am using this line and sunflowers as the basis for some ATC's I am making for a swap I am participating in.  Altered Pages carries both the 8 x 8 pad with many different images and the 6 x 6 pad of more subtle backgrounds.

I recommend the coredinations card stocks as an excellent base for ATC's, but if you are looking for something sturdier, the eco-boards are wonderful also! You will see why I love coredinations in a minute.

I started by embossing my black card stock using an embossing folder in a  die cutting/embossing machine. If you don't already have one, see the tools section of Altered Pages for the Revolution, with its small footprint and retro chrome styling it's a real find at a great price! After embossing, lightly sand the top to emphasize the pattern. I also went over it with a yellow gelato which doesn't show up that well in the photos. I adhered some elements from the French Country papers and embellished with my sunflowers, some twine, and some dragonfly brads from my stash.

For the finishing touch I framed each ATC in gold glitter. Now I have 4 done and 6 more to make for the swap.  You better head over to Altered Pages now to get your Graphic 45 French Country before it sells out! Until next time--

Gia