A Change!

Hello again...

I have shared the cards with you almost daily for a while so thought today I would share something different

This may appeal to you – but I know lots of people who just do not like them!

So what am I talking about?

ATC's – Artist Trading Cards

They are just like mini card toppers with only TWO rules – the 1^st is they can NEVER be sold – no matter what!!! and 2^nd they have to be 2.5” x 3.5” (6.5cms x 9cms)

You can do anything at all to them – you can work on card, board, wood, plastic, acetate – in fact whatever suits you!

Many online groups run organised swaps – so a theme is chosen and you make and send how ever many the swap require to the host with a SAE and you get the same number back! Once you get them back its up to you what you want to do with them...

Personally I pop mine into 9 page pockets and then into Lever Arch binders – mind you I must have around 30 ring binders full now – but I love to sit and go back through them now and again and its amazing how many ideas from the mini works of art I have used to make my cards!!!

So because I am addicted to making and swapping the atcs I find whenever I have an idea I make one or more – so last night when I couldn't sleep I decided to have a play – and I am delighted with the results too...

To start with I made the 3 Union Flag set a few days ago using the scraps left over from the So Patriotic card I made – I am in a swap so these will be used for that … one swap less to think of!

I did a set of 4 ladies – 2 were full length and 2 were faces – I started by cutting a sheet of mount board into atc size, then used my wonderful PanPastels to colour the background in shades of lemon to peach to orange to light brown to mid brown – the colours seem to offer an old look somehow.

Then I stamped the images using a Memento Rich Cocoa Ink Pad and also added a single word stamp to each!

For the close up faces I used a white gel pen to scribble a frame around them just as a highlight!

For the full length designs I stamped the image and a word, used the white gel pen just to highlight lines here and there randomly and then inked up the stamp and stamped onto a 2.5cm square of stampbord tile highlighted to match the main image then stuck it over the same part of the stamp using pva glue – once that was dry I covered the tile with glossy accents!

Just to add bling I added a brad to each of the 4 atcs...

The stamps I used were: the full length ladies were from Clarity Stamps and the faces were from Inkylicious Stamps

Because I was so pleased with those I decided to try with a Clarity Stamp – it was a forest of trees – so as with the ladies, I cut the atc blanks from mount board and coloured them with PanPastels – but this time I did a Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter – so coloured to suit the seasons – and when I stamped the trees I chose an ink pad to reflect the season too!

Once the stamping was done I added spray glitter to the top part of the Winter to represent icy days – the spring had sparkle around the bottom for frost – the summer had yellow sun in the top right corner...

And finally I stamped the season onto a piece of thick white card using the same colour ink pad as I used for the trees – these were cut close to the word, coloured with the PanPastels and then stuck across the tree stumps on double sided pads and finally covered with glossy accents!

And that's it for today – as I said at the start – so of you will have enjoyed this as you like the atcs whereas some will have not read so far down as they are so not your thing!!!

But I enjoyed making them – enjoyed sharing them with you – and will enjoy eventually trading them!!!

Thanks for dropping by

x