Take life joyfully, tools of the trade, caran d'ache crayons, or my first ATCs ~ it was truly difficult to choose a title for this post.
I first read about the verstility of caran d'ache crayons in the Summer 2006 issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors in Misty's article called "textured backgrounds for collage". I was so pleased to find the article as I'd discovered Misty's website shortly before and was totally blown away by her art.
When I read about her pleasure with the caran d'ache crayons I thought, "I have some of those". They were stashed in a cupboard for about the past ten years. I used to sell Jocus toys and these crayons were loved for their premier qualities for face painting. I'd forgotten about the crayons until I saw them again in Misty's post about "a few of my favorite supplies" on Inspire me Thursday. And so I pulled them out. I've used them only a tiny bit on these pieces but can hardly wait to have more time to play with them. I agree. They are excellent tools.
The gold pen in the middle is a gel pen I discovered in the house also. I can't find my most favourite gold pen. I think it fell behind a dresser. The modpodge is versatile. I use it for some of my gluing and I used on these ATCs to brighten the scanned images of our daughter.
I forgot to include my old credit card. It has been always handy for the backgrounds after my dear friend Nancy posted about "quick and easy backgrounds". And of course there are other uses for the card (artistically I mean).

YES, my very first ATCs are completed. I love doing them. Hopefully I'll have my etsy shop opening soon. My fave is "It's OK baby."