An ATC swap and a card swap!

This first image is the ATC I have made for a swap I am in with one of my groups, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/craftycardcreators/ . The ATC was 'A for " and we made what we wanted for the A. I chose the old staple, 'A for Apple'! The ATC is actuallystraight...it looks like a slice was taken off the top right hand edge in this pic!
For the background, I used a previously stamped cardstock with gold flecked crepe paper glued on at an angle. On top of this I glued cut out apples and the sign with apple on it. I used my Cricut for the other letters.
This card is for a swap I am in with http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ARTHavenCreations_Friendships/ . It is for a monthly drawing...the chosen winner gets to have all the cards entered...pretty cool as there are some great entries already! For my entry, I first made the silver bar on the left hand side of the card. I covered a piece of card with clear embossing ink and dipped it ink side down in sterling silver UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). Then I heated the UTEE with my heat gun until it melted. I repeated this several times until I got the silver thickness I wanted. While the UTEE was still hot, I pressed a seashell border stamp into the UTEE and left it until it cooled. (Before stamping the border in, I covered the stamp in the clear embossing ink for easy release). I then trimmed any overflowing excess around the border edges. The green/blue background paper on the card was corner trimmed with a punch, then glued down on the card. The mermaid was stamped on silver paper with dark green ink and clear embossed. I then cut around the image. Then I stuck the image to the same cardstock as the card, and trimmed around the image once again. This was glued onto the background paper. The silver bar was taped down with red line tape. I then added some glassine silver shell stickers as accents. Hope you enjoy my two latest creations! :D