Top 10 ATCs

 It's interesting to me that some of my favorite ATCs have not been the most popular.  Of course everyone has their own taste and that's a beautiful thing.  Someone recently asked me to make an ATC similar to one I created a long time ago.  When I pulled up the photo I remembered it...it is one of my all-time favorites.  Then I thought to myself, "Hmmm...how many other ATCs that I've done have I kind of forgotten about?  If I had to choose my Top 10..." 

Just for fun I've decided to dig back into the archives, or somtimes not so far back, to see which ones really jump out at me.  The sad thing is that I know that there are quite a few that I never got around to photographing before I popped them in the mail.  Damn.

Okay, here goes...in no particular order just a general Top 10.  

This started out as a baby wipe that I had used to wipe up paint.

Makes me laugh...the Queen zip-lining...love that!

What is it about house-shaped ATCs?  I have quite a collection of them - love them.

Definitely an all-time favorite...I don't know why...the simplicity of black & white?

Interactive...love that and the dimension.

I remember not really wanting to trade this one.

Another Top 5-er.

Makes me grin.

Another one that's good for a chuckle.

So much yummy texture and layers...

Christmas humor - love that!

This one is a little haunting, but I love it.

Hooray for interactive cards!

A recent one that I really forced myself to send off in the mail.  So pleased with how this turned out.

Another Top 5-er!  I love how she's colored.  Wish I remembered how I did that!

Ha ha!  Gotta love a cranky old broad.

Colors, texture, folded bits...yes.

I've done quite a few Washington state, PNW ones, but this one is my fave.

Creepy and wonderful

More creepy and wonderful.

This guy cracks me up.  This one won a contest.

I don't know what it is...the colors?

This was one of my very first ATCs.  I love all the little bits and baubles on this.  Topo 5-er.

Ha ha!   A newer one that was a little sad to part with.  Love some snark!

Okay...I lied.  It is Top 20, but sometimes you've just got to go with it. 

What do you think?  Do any of these really speak to you?  Are you scratching your head thinking, "Well, yeah.  It's okay-y-y-y...".  It's all good. 

Cheers!

Postage Stamp ATCs

 People are so creative with the ways they incorporate used postage stamp into their art.  In the past I've joined a few ATC swaps with this theme.  Earlier this month I jumped in and hosted one over in the Artist Trading Card Community Group on FB.  I made two.

I try to keep my eyes peeled for interesting stamps on incoming mail.  I think this stamp was from the UK.  Cool stamps are a bonus of trading internationally!  Media used on this included: acrylic paint, metallic paint pen, gel pen, archival ink, dye ink, alcohol markers, and Distress ink.

I had a lot of poinsettia stamps that have been in my stash for a long time.  I think I had a hard time getting away from doing something Christmas-y with them.  Love how this one turned out.

It's going to be cool seeing what the other swappers come up with.  Cheers and happy arting!

More ATCs

 I thought I was done with ATCs for a while, but then I found THIS GROUP on Facebook and off I went again on an ATC-making binge.

These two are totally different from each other and probably have no place in the same blog post other than I finished them this morning.

I made the "Sylvester the Seahorse" for somebody who helped me out with a swap I was hosting.  I am sending it to her as a 'thank you'.

I wish I could master the trick of capturing subtle glittery bits with my camera.  The background is colored with Magicals which have a really subtle glimmer to them.  There's some Wink of Stella on Sylvester's head and the circle-y seawood was colored with shimmery watercolors.

This one was created for a swap that required starting with a masterboard.  We cut two pieces from the masterboard and send one to the recipient as well as an ATC made with it.  The group has a Halloween bent to it so I went with Halloweenish colors for the masterboard and a creepy theme for the ATC.  Again, the background has some Magicals to give the orange part some mystery and shimmer.  The bats are covered with VivaGold to make them look kind of metallic.

Am I nearing the end of my current ATC phase?  I'm not sure; there are a few other projects I'd like to work on.  We'll see...

Spring-themed ATCs

 My mixed media ATC Facebook group has a spring theme this month.  I dug around in the stash to come up with these 3...

I started with a large leftover piece of gel printed cardstock which I cut up into three 2.5" x 3.5" pieces.

Next came some stamping and doodling with a white Posca marker.

Next came the 'oops'.  I decided it needed a little more green to be 'springier' so I dripped on some flourescent green alcohol ink.  Bummer!  It was way too bright, but that's okay.

I colored some cheesecloth with green Distress stains and added some rub-ons to finish the background.  

The butterflies were stamped with Archival ink followed by some coloring with shimmery watercolors and some stamping for texture over the top of them.

I punched out the circles from a recycled book page and rubbed some Distress ink around the edges followed by a strip of glittery, viney washi tape.

Wa-la!  ATCs done.

Hoping you have a delightful day and that spring is showing its face in your neck of the woods.

Envelope Mini Journal Days 10-12

 Back again for a peek at my progress with my little journal.

Days 9 & 10 were prepping and finishing a page with a collaged border.  I decided to do the front of the mini journal.

Day 11 was painting bright colors on scraps of cardstock.  Day 12 was repeatedly stamping an image over the colored pieces - pop art style.

Thanks for stopping by!

Collaged ATCs

 This morning as I was happily slurping my latte I came across a YouTube video by Susanne Rose featuring her collaged ATCs.  I was totally inspired to get busy ripping, gesso'ing, watercoloring, stamping, etc.  Here's what happened...

Ripping and gluing papery bits (gel prints, book pages, napkins, stamped things)

Gesso and black watercolor pencil

Neocolor II crayons, paint marker, stamping

More torn bits on top 

I finished them off with some dabs of Stickles glitter glue and sentiment strip stickers.

Not too shabby.  I'll try this again some day.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Envelope Mini Journal

 I keep finding cool, artsy groups on Facebook.  One of my latest group finds is Mini Marvels.  Now a mini marvel can be so many different things...ATC, inchie, moo, mail art, bookmark,...you get the idea.  There is currently a month-long event where we started by creating a mini journal out of envelopes; super easy - you just tuck the flap into another envelope and keep going until you have as many pages as you'd like.  It makes its own binding, too.  Each day the host offers a quick tutorial for creating a background that should only take about 10 minutes to do.  Here's what I have so far.

The mini journal on Day 9

Two double pages collaged and texture added through stencil (fiber paste on the top, black embossing paste on the bottom)

Paper napkins collaged onto background.  Sealed with a matte medium and iridescent medium mixture.

Paper napkins collaged onto background and sealed with matte medium

At this point I decided that I'd better switch to single-page endeavors or by the end of the month I would need 3 or 4 mini journals.

Strips of paper torn from a magazine (thank you, Time magazine!) and collaged onto page.

Cut shapes and glue over strip collage.  I dug through my scrap stash and found the pink piece which already had little arches cut out of it.  Immediately thought of a city scene.

And that's that for now.  Schwoo!  I'll try to post daily to update my progress.

Thanks for stopping by!