Three ATC's

Was feeling artsy...

 Using up scraps....

Cool Art Teacher

Little J came home from school last week telling me that she was trading cards at school. She said her teacher wanted them to do this. I was confused. Usually trading cards are banned from school especially during learning time. 

Tuesday evening she shows me this....

AH! Now I understand. 

They are making ATC's!!!!

How cool is that! Her art teacher got them started making the artitst trading cards then encouraged them to trade with their classmates.

It was interesting that she didn't realize that I also made these, although it's been a while.

  I pulled out my collection to show her that I traded them with artists from all over the world. 

We decided to make a trade ourselves.

 

Cleaning inspiration

Over the weekend I started picking up my art space. Putting it back to rights after a shameful amount of time of just moving enough stuff to get a few inches to work within. 

Of course, as I was sorting through my piles of papers, I found a blank ATC background ready to use. The stamps where also within sight so...this simple ATC was born.

Next I found this raven image and knew that I already had a pre-painted page in my Playtime AB that would likely look pretty good. When I have extra paint on my palette I paint it onto a random page in a book. Waste not, want not.

Lastly I grabbed my Nature book from the AB 101 class my friend Elizabeth taught several years ago. If you are interested she is currently teaching it again

...for FREE...

on her blog.

I'm not thrilled with the outside edge. I may go back and cover the dots or make them a little more subdued. 

I'm hoping to get my art space completely cleaned up and show some "shameful" before and then clean after photos soon. I have a knitted dishcloth order to fill before I can commit anymore time to my art. Totally forgot that they were needed by next weekend!! AGH!

Found text ATC

Sometimes I grab a random page torn from a book to give me inspiration. 

That is when my quirky sense of humor takes over....

What I did BEFORE summer vacation...

Today is it....then it's 24/7 kid time for 3 months. I can't complain. I am lucky to be at home. There is always that adjustment phase for everyone though.

I made a couple of quick ATC's just to prove to myself that I could still create something.

I also put together sets of my photo greeting cards for the teachers and assistants.

Illustration Friday: Warning

When I saw the topic for Illustration Friday this week I knew I had the perfect ATC.

ATC storage

Yesterday, I ran across someone asking about ATC storage. Some people use trading card sheets in 3-ring binders, others have them in baskets and so on.


I have several storage methods.

My first option was to use this very old photo album. It was in rough shape. I decided to make it my own by stamping and painting randomly on the pages for visual interest. I used photo corners to attach each ATC. The thing I like about this album is that you can see the backside of the card through the opening.

This book filled up rather quickly so...

I came with with my own storage option by creating a book that can have my ATC's upright whether they are made in a portrait or landscape style. This was very important to me. Once again I use photo corners to attach the ATC's so they can easily be removed to look at the back.
I wrote a tutorial when I created a second one.

I recently acquired this vintage wooden cheese box for the sole purpose of housing my ever growing collection. I tend to put ATC's that are thick, uneven or heavily embellished in the box. This box sits on my desk right by the computer so I can hopefully be inspired daily.

Do you have an ATC collection?  How do you store yours?

A couple of ATC's

Notice the mistranslation on the fortune... it  made me laugh. Of course I didn't notice until AFTER I glued it down.

More ATC's

I'm on a roll...

I can't seem to stop making ATC's!

It's a great way to use up scraps!!

ATC's just for fun

I felt the need to make something... ATC's seemed like the perfect choice since they are small and make it easy to use up scraps.

Joy of Painting ATC swap

A relative of my mother-in-law is hosting an ATC swap that is right up my alley.

I love painting!

The swap is 3 for 3. Not being able to settle on watercolors or acrylics, I did a set of each.

Weird Science

ATC vs Inchie

Until I had one of each set side by side I hadn't realized how small an inchie really is!

ATC: 2.5 x 3.5

Inchie: 1 inch square

This is my second inchie ever. I don't really care for the size but keep trying.

ATC's and a painting update

I made a couple of quick ATC's yesterday.  The sewn one was a forgotten work-in-progress. It had fallen behind some stuff on my ever shrinking workspace. Time to clean and organize again I fear.

I also did some more on my painting.  I should have stopped before adding all the green. Of course, I didn't take a picture at the previous stage.

I may scrap the whole thing and gesso over it.  Or maybe some molding paste. For now it will sit off to the side waiting for me to decide

A few ATC's

Just for fun...

Unrequited Love ATC swap

This swap sounded kind of fun. Not your typical over the top Valentine business dripping with sap.

Snow ATC

Just a quick ATC using mostly scraps and trash.

The substrate is a waffle box. Book text for background. The "snowflakes" are bits cut from tablecloth I cut up to use as doilies in my lawyers bookcase. The metal is from around the neck of a wine bottle. I had to print backwards, which is no easy feat for me, with an embossing tool to make the word SNOW. I lightly grazed the raised metal with Staz-on ink to give it definition.

Three ATC's on Jan. 3

New ATC's

Just because I felt like playing...

Summer of Love ATC swap

These were so fun to make!!

I started with an 8.5x11 sheet of periwinkle cardstock. With an old credit card, I spread out some orange and yellow craft paints.

After that was dry, I used rubber stamps, more paint, markers, and stencils to create lots of background interest.

When I was happy with it I cut 9 ATC's from my full sheet of cardstock.

I free handed a VW bug to make a template then cut little bugs out of discarded book pages. Paint and marker were applied in a very loose manner.

I punched wheels from black "handmade paper" ...I put that in quotes since it was actually store bought. I then used little flower sticker for some fun hubcaps.

The part that I love the most is the genuine VW key attached to each one. I grew up with tons of Volkswagons. My dad and his friend would buy them cheap, fix them up and resell. Sometimes they would just part them out. Dad never threw out anything so I had just enough VW keys laying around to give these ATC's just a little extra punch!