Making ATCs again

A few years ago I made a lot of ATCs, even traded them, because,

you know--they are Artist's Trading Cards.

The other day I felt the urge to make some.

Here are two sets I made at one sitting.  Video below.

Wild & Crazy Guys

The conclusion of our series,

Men in the Mixed Media World.

Today's group are some

Wild and Crazy Guys!!

With the exception of one,

the captions for each card

was selected from the same page of

either a magazine or old novel.

In the case of this first one,

I used the entire quote just as it appeared in the book.

The formal dialogue and the vintage picture

 were a perfect match.

This one was also a quote taken straight from the book.

This caption was created by linking two phrases:

This caption I admit I had to go in search of:

This caption was pieced together from a

phrase and random words all found on the same novel page.

I promised some 'characters'  in this post and 

hope I didn't disappoint.

These dudes always make me chuckle.

I hope you did too!

Manly ATC's

Continuing our discussion on

Men in the Mixed Media World  

(I totally made that up)

I present to you the following masculine ATCs:

THE TRUE GENTLEMAN

A DECENT OLD BOY

THREE VERY MANLY MEN

THE SINCERE LOVE-LORN

and

A COMPLETE MYSTERY

These fellows were all created during my
"Found Poetry" phase.
I was having fun matching up printed
words and phrases 
to bits of  artwork.

You simply must tune in for the next installment with

some very 'interesting' characters
where I really had some fun!

Man up

You don't see a lot of men featured in this art genre.

There are plenty of Victorian ladies, children, butterflies and roses.

You see birds, fairies, and the occasional kitten.

But the menfolk are a bit more rare.

Why is this?  I cannot say.

Rugged and masculine can be

just as artistically appealing

as bluebirds and sunflowers.

But I will almost always reach for a feminine theme,

maybe because it is just easier,

 me being female and all.

These carpooling gents make me smile.

Some of the gentlemen in my ATC collection:

Almost a tutorial

I just love tutorials. Step-by-step photos, You-tube video, you name it, I love them.

I however don't do them. There are several reasons for this:

1. I usually have no idea what I'm going to do when I start.

2. I rarely ever do the same thing twice.

3. I forget to take pictures of the process along the way

4. I have no idea how to do a video.

5. Even if I did #1, #2, #3, or #4, my methods are so unorthodox, nobody would be interested. (unless to laugh and point!)

Besides, I prefer to just amaze and astound with my sheer wizardy!

(As in bumbling and thumping behind the curtain, crash, rattle, a puff of smoke, and viola!)

In my quest for knowledge, my thirst for tutorials, I found another interesting background idea here. (In case you want a real tutorial.)

It was kind of like going through a cookbook for a new recipe and discovering you have everything in your pantry.

I had all the materials for this project.

I even thought to take a picture of the backgrounds before I embellished them.

Here they are completed. I guess this is more of a before & after rather than a tutorial, but hey--I like those too! It's a start!

Sunday evening creations

Marie might need some eggs to go with that cake.

The background image is from one of

Itkupilli's fabulous collage sheets.

This ATC background is made with a piece of music,

gessoed then chalked.

Next came some stenciling with a dry brush.

Triangles and numbers were stamped across the top and bottom.

This is my take using the techniques in this post.

This little mailboy came from the

Saturday Image Bonus #53 at

Paper Flowers.

Digital Divas

I am finding digital art especially enjoyable when we are away from home.

Because my laptop goes just about everywhere I do.

(what....your's doesn't???)

So when I pack it, I pack all my digital art supplies too!

How perfect is that?

Newspaper flowers

When I did this post, I intended to add the link to where I first saw the newspaper flower. I forgot....

Then I thought I would just do a follow-up post when I made the next flower. I didn't.....

Now that I've made more of them, it seems past time, but better-late-than-never, to include some linkage to this tutorial......

....because I really like making them, and you might want to make some too. And Julie's tutorial is much better than mine would be.


P.S. Phone book pages work well too!

Finding the words

Found poetry: collecting random words from a book page and assembling them into poetic phrases.

These are two ATCs I did for a swap coming up in October.

Never say Never

....but I never thought I would find myself doing digital art......and enjoying it so much!!

These ATCs are all done by clicking, dragging and tweaking in photoshop.

It is great fun. These are my first attempts.

I know I have only scratched the surface as to what can be accomplished digitally.

Never pass up the opportunity to try something new artistically:

You never know what you might be missing!

I didn't over use that word, did I?

Never!!

Found Poetry

As I mentioned in earlier posts, I've been in a bit of a slump lately, but happily, the downer streak seems to be coming to an end.

I joined a swap in my online ATC group. The theme of this swap was Found Poetry, where we are to take one page from a book, and cutting out appealing words, create random little poems.

Without previewing it, I plucked a page from a book I plan to alter and began snipping words and phrases that caught my attention.

When I begin to assemble them into poetic thoughts, I saw an age-old story, yet a familiar story: my story.

Maybe you see your story too.

From birds to butterflies

My R&R didn't produce as many projects as I had anticipated. It finally dawned on me after a couple of days that it was because, even though I had the essential supplies with me, they were out of their usual position in relation to the work area. Creating involved too much hunting. I finally broke loose when I had rummaged through my stuff enough to make a mess of it. At least I knew where everything was and it was in easy reach.

Do you find that you are a creature of habit when it comes to your artwork? Not to be confused with tidiness--I craft like a nest-building bird on steroids. I seem to cross over from 'muse' to 'mess'. But even with that, the paints are here, the brushes sit there, stamps in these drawers, ink pad in this basket. Oh, I often lose something that was just in my hands, but it usually turns up when I ruffle a few feathers.

There comes a time when the piles are just too chaotic and I have to clear the table and start over. But come to think of it, it usually takes a few sessions of hen scratching to rebuild my nest and get back to some serious making.

So is that a sign of creative madness or just a disturbed mind?

I think on our next trip, I will just toss my supplies in the air and see what happens. (As I ponder with a giddy glimmer in my eyes.)

Eggs and Nests

While recreating, I have enjoyed the extra time for creating. These ATCs are for a "Egg & Nest" swap. It was a little hard to let a couple of them go, but I know there will be good things in the return.

Paging Dr. Seuss

These happy little ATCs are the result of more of my semi-sleeping inspiration.

I hope they give you a good chuckle.

These little piggies have already been posted, traded and mailed:

This little piggy needs a hard hat:

And these little piggies will dance all the way home!

Inner Sight

My media of choice is obviously collage. I enjoy it for many reasons: the paper, the cutting, the layering, the manipulating of images I find pleasing into a whole piece.

That being said, I am also a doodler, but I've never applied that trait into my art so much. Why? I don't know.

Sometimes when I close my eyes at night, especially if I have just come from my art table not long since, I see designs on the blank screens of my eyelids. The card above is one such image that I purposely detailed, committed to memory and recreated on paper the next day.

I think I shall call it "Inner Sight".

Wishful thinking

We are baking here in Texas. 100+ degrees every day. These blues look cool and refreshing in contrast to the melting sun and dry heat.

This card has some embossing on the background. The faux pearl drops are accented with a little glitter.

The next card is very textured and dimensional. After gluing the cord, dots and other stuff to the card, I gessoed the whole thing a couple of times. Next I painted it with white acrylic, applied crackle medium, and then blue acrylic. The crackle didn't behave like I wanted it to, so while the blue paint was still wet, I wiped it off. This is the result:
This was an experiment that came to me as I was listening to Mozart. The CD cover notes: "Music for Creativity and Imagination" I guess it works--I cranked out 9 ATCs this afternoon.

Living on a caffeine high

A friend and I share the same fondness for a

fresh pot of Maxwell House.

For her birthday this week, along with some specialty flavored blends,

I made these cards for her.

We had some laughs and then we had some coffee!

*Cheers*

Happy Birthday, Danielle!