Free Play Day at THRIVE! March 28th, 2015

Seriously ... Who doesn't LOVE Artist Trading Cards?

Those little 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" mini works of art for trading or keeping (never sold).

We'll be having a FREE play day at THRIVE in Waterford, Michigan making ATCs! Stay for an hour ... stay for the day. I'll be there from 10 am to 5 pm, providing light instruction and all the materials you'll need.  But, feel free to bring your own magazines to cut up or any other materials you'd like to include or share.

I'll bring lots of samples of ATCs to show ... I'll even bring some journals for you to look through.

All I ask is that you register so we know how many seats to have available.  You can do so by emailing me, leaving a comment below or you can leave me a message on FaceBook.  Hope you'll join us!

Tarot Card ATCs

The ATC group I belong to has decided to make a deck of Tarot cards. The face cards were divided among the group and I received "The Hermit" and "The Wheel of Fortune". My plan was to make transparent cards where only the black outlines really showed up. This didn't work quite as I had hoped and they turned out rather translucent as opposed to transparent. However, they do look pretty much the same on the back as on the front, but in mirror image. It was a fun project, but much more time consuming than I anticipated.

"Circles" Artist Trading Cards

I belong to a local Artist Trading Card group that meets once a month. Next month the theme for our ATC swap is "Circles".

Round Robin ATCs

Soon I will be sending off the remainder of my contributions to the Hawaiian Round Robin I have been a part of. I decided to make up packets of Artist Trading Cards to include with the spreads I will be mailing. These are of my favorite pages I made for this project and can be seen below.

'Clear" Artist Trading Cards

... And a few more "clear" Artist Trading Cards ...

"Pink" ATCs

The local ATC group that I meet with monthly will meet again this coming Wednesday. This month's theme for our ATCs is "Pink". To make these, I took a few sheets of gold and soft pink patterned paper and cut them into strips, glued them together and sewed on top of the seams. I then cut them down to size (at a slight angle), sewed on a few sequins, backed them with heavy card stock and sewed around the edges. Later, I felt they still needed a little something so I added the gold metallic dots with black edging.

JournalFest 2011 - Journal

This page was done in my "Woodlands" journal, a themed event journal specifically for JournalFest 2011. To see more photos of this journal go here. As with the spread I did yesterday (previous post), I have decided to photo copy the page and turn it into ATCs for trading. This is the first event ever that I have had time to make "trades".
... And now back to rechecking my packing. Again, first time ever, I have room left over in my suitcases ... rather worries me, I must be forgetting something really important.

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This year at JournalFest I will be teaching -
The "Ambrosia Journals" and "Into the Crypt"

The Ambrosia Journals

I did a journal page in my new Woodlands themed journal. While the Ambrosia Journals are not necessarily appropriate for the theme, I had a desire to work with the bright colors and the style. That led to Artist Trading Cards made from the page. I know that "copies" are often frowned upon by true ATC enthusiasts, but I do like working this way. I take a photo of a journal page, have it copied, mount it on box board and then go on to further embellish or sew around the edges of the ATC. It's a very satisfying way to work as I find it very difficult to work on the true size of an ATC. 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" is far too small for these tired eyes to work on.

Artist Trading Cards

This month's theme for the ATC exchange group I belong to was Halloween/Fall. Shown above are the backs of my cards. I made this logo a few years ago and had several assorted colors printed out.

Here are the fronts of the cards, which certainly didn't photograph well at all. They are made of candy wrappers with fine gold metallic netting sewn on top. In between the layers are sequins and plastic spiders.

Zentangle ATCs

I meet (when I can) with a small ATC group once a month that usually has a fun little project we all can work on during the meeting. Last week Diana Hirsch supplied us with the official Zentangle "tiles" including a pen and demonstrated several patterns of Zentangle. I love that they are exactly ATC size. Apparently there are 109 official basic patterns, each with their own name. Seems to be more to it than just mere doodling ... who knew?

ATC Card Holders

I belong to a small Artist Trading Cards group that meets monthly. Usually there is a small project planned. This month Norma Johnson brought supplies for us to make these wonderful little ATC boxes. I added a bit of decorative tape to mine after coming home. Lots of fun!

"Numbers" ATCs

"Numbers" Artist Trading Cards for tonight's monthly ATC group meeting ... and of course they are Lime Green.

Asian doll ATCs

These Artist Trading Cards have a photo of an antique Asian doll that my Mother has. It has to be one of my favorites in her collection. Yesterday I discovered a new product (new to me anyways).... Transfer Foil. I have no instructions or examples so I just started experimenting with it on some ATCs. I am truly smitten with the possibilities of using this material ... there is so much potential and I will be experimenting with it a lot. I am thinking this would be a good technique to add to my "Over the Edge" workshop next month at Small Studio Productions.

"Spirits" Artist Trading Cards

The local ATC group I belong to is meeting in a few days. This months theme is "Spirits" to be interpreted any way we see fit. I have chosen a vintage image of a women with tarot cards. You really can't see it well in my photo of the image, but she has several pictures of deceased loved ones hanging around her neck. I believe she is attempting to channel them with the aid of the cards. The small photo on the upper right hand corner of the ATCs is Alice Liddel (The REAL Alice). If I were to channel a spirit it would be her ... there are several questions I'd like to ask her.

A few loose ends

I really try so hard to finish up projects that I start, no matter how small. These are a few ATCs that I started last week and have just now had a chance to complete. They are simple but I find them somewhat appealing.

Arches swap and ATCS

I am participating in my first ever Arch swap. I was so excited about it that I decided to make 2 different pages and some matching ATCs. Quite awhile back I started an Arch shaped journal (Although much taller than the pages shown above) with a strong Renaissance flavor. These arches were inspired by that journal. Now that my interest has been rekindled in the original journal I may have to go back to it and work on it some more. If I am so inclined I will upload some photos soon. The pages shown above are 4" wide and 5 1/2" tall. The ATCs are the standard 2 1/2" X 3 1/2".

Artist Trading Cards

.... and the last of the Artist Trading Cards for awhile. Far too much fun, but far too little time to indulge in them any longer....

More of my Trading Cards can be viewed here.

"Recycle" Artist Trading Cards - Version 2.0

These worked out SOOO much better than the last batch. Many thanks to Jan and Elizabeth!

"Recycle" Artist Trading Cards

I belong to a small local ATC group that meets once a month. Next month the theme is "Recycle" and this is what I came up with. In the past I have have seen some rather interesting things on-line done by fusing plastic grocery sacks together. I had a lot of trouble getting the layers to stick together. They either just bubbled up without fusing or completely melted. I am sure my problem has to do with finding the correct temperature. Even though my ATCs are done, I am still interested in learning how to do this technique correctly, it really has some potential. I think I'll continue to experiment with it later on today.

Faber-Castell Artist Trading Card Kit

This just came in the mail from Faber-Castell. I am honored to have several of my ATCs shown in this kit. It's just chock full of their outright delicious supplies. Everything you need to get started making Artist Trading Cards along with great instructional cards.