Waiting in the wings...

Hello everyone, it's Tuesday and time for a new challenge at Fun With ATCs.  Our theme for this fortnight is Vintage - can't wait to see what you come up with.


There's loads of inspiration from my amazing team mates along with all the challenge details right here.


I've pushed the boundary a bit with my ATC this time around... It is 2.5 by 3.5 inches in size, as required, but it does also have a little roof on - I hope you'll forgive me!


I used the delightful little house frame from the Artistic Outpost set called Whimsical Melange.  I stamped it three times on plain manila card using Coffee Archival Ink, and inked it a little with some Vintage Photo.

I also gave it a coat of Rock Candy crackle paint in places, and let it dry.

Then I inked again, wiping away the surface ink to leave it highlighting the cracks for an aged look.

I hand cut the centres out of two of the images to create frames and layered up my three little arches with some padded tape in between.


To my mind (with its twin obsessions of theatre and crafting), it has the look of a tiny stage.


There's music at the top and footlights at the bottom... definitely a theatre.  Come on, surely it's not just me?!


There are the flats at the side ready to slide new scenery between, in front of the backdrop.

Ah, yes... the backdrop.

Originally, I had a watercoloured version of the station from the AO SteamPunk plate as my background, but I decided it all looked a bit too wishy-washy, so I decided to use up some leftovers instead.











I still had, lying in one of the piles on my workdesk, a spare image left over from one of the fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas.  Linda Coughlin, a.k.a. the Funkie Junkie, offered up a gorgeous vintage freebie image along with one of her inspirational tags.

I had printed it up in several sizes as I wasn't sure how big I needed it for my Toys, Toys, Toys tag at the time.

Now it was time for the understudy to take centre stage...

I could hardly believe it when I found it was exactly the right size!

I recoloured the bunting slightly, using Distress Markers, so that it would tone in with the children's coats, and added a couple of the mulberry paper roses as accents.

So there's my tiny vintage Victorian theatre ATC.  We had a huge turnout for the Red theme last time around, and I'm guessing Vintage might also tickle your fancy... so I do hope you'll be able to play along with us at Fun With ATCs, and at the very least check out the great projects from the rest of the team.












Just before I go, I hope you won't mind if I share a little sneak peek of a project I have over at Artistic Outpost today too... if you have the time to pop over for a quick look, that would be wonderful.


Have a lovely day and see you again soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland!







Theatres are curious places, magician's trick-boxes where the golden memories of dramatic triumphs linger like nostalgic ghosts, and where the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic and the absurd are routine occurrences on and off the stage. Murders, mayhem, political intrigue, lucrative business, secret assignations, and of course, dinner.
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly