Ode to my Mom :)

Hello everyone!

I know everyone is getting ready for Christmas but I thought you wouldn't mind seeing the cute gift I made my mom using the amazing Printers Tray project kit :)

I know it's quite difficult sometimes to find Christmas gifts for our loved ones, especially if they keep telling you they don't need anything! Well, there's one thing they always need : LOVE!

So, I thought I would work on a project to make my mom happy and I know she's going to like it :)

Ok so this is what you might need to make this project :

• this month Printers Tray project kit
• adhesive (I really like this one because it's fast and easy to use)
• Mulberry mist
• Charcoal mist
• Lime twine
• Yellow twine (I can't live without those twines now)
  
• Turquoise twine
• FIVE 2,5x3,5 photos of your loved ones :)
  

First of all, you need to cut twelve 2,5x3,5" pieces of paper into your favorite patterned papers (one piece for each little window).


My photos are a little bit smaller than the ATC's size as I've been having problems with my printer but, in a way, I like it better like this as I managed to mount them on patterned papers and it looks good too.
You'll see that, on another ATC, I used this clear acrylic butterfly as a mask with my Charcoal mist. You just need to use a baby wipe to clean your butterfly afterwards.


Here's a very clean design, not to get a too overwhelm and busy design on all of my ATC's.


For this one, I just cut stripes of papers, glue it on my ATC and sprayed some mist on top of it all. Then you can use a heat gun to make it dry faster, if you don't like to wait (just like me). Cutting the chipboard button can add interest to your design, as you're working in frames.


Those tiny flowers are just too cute for words!


You can use tiny embellishments on your alphas as well.


This is what I was explaining earlier with the butterfly clear acrylic. Doesn't it look cool? Simply outline it with a white pen, write a bit of journaling inside the shape and ta-da!

Here, I cut a flash card in two and work on two ATC's frame at a time, in order to match the design a little bit.

And this is what it looks like in my artroom vintage wall! :) Too bad I'm giving it to my mom because I think it looks great on my black&white vintage wallpaper :D but that'd be the reason to get me another Printer's tray :)

I hope you liked it, girls, that you got as much inspiration as you can :)

Merci! :)

Céline

A Little ATC Action

I've been playing around with ATCs for a few years now, and I must say, to be so simple, these little pieces of art are easy, creative and addictive. An ATC, or Artist Trading Card, is a collectible card, sized at 2.5" x 3.5". They are for keeping, collecting or trading, usually with other artists and crafters.

I love ATCs for many reasons...they are quick and easy, they are a great use of scraps, and there are absolutely no rules. No matter if you're into paint, stamping, doodling or just using up some of your stash, you can make an ATC.

The possibilities are endless when making these, but I usually like to start out in one of two ways - with a blank piece of stiff cardstock or chipboard (the backers that come in paper packs or cereal boxes work great), or by simply using a standard size playing card.

Step 1: I painted my playing card with simple acrylic white paint, like Claudine Hellmuth's Studio paint in Blank Canvas.


I let the paint dry to the touch, but not completely.

Step 2: I sprayed the card with Maya Mist in Turquoise and blotted it dry.


Step 3: Because I wanted to stamp on top of paint and mist, I decided to use a solvent ink like Staz On in Black. I used two of my favorite Studio Calico stamps, Hot Air Balloon and Schooltime ABC Border . I stamped very lightly with both so as to just give the impression of the stamp. I also took a new and yet-to-be-revealed Studio Calico stamp, and stamped right in the middle of the mist. Because the paint hadn't dried yet, the stamp pulled the paint off in all the right places, revealing the red design of the playing card underneath.



Step 4: I added some random bits and pieces from my desk...a scrap of paper from January's kit that I punched with a binder punch very similar to the one in the shop, did a teeny bit of stitching and stapled on a random word.


And that's it! Easy peasy and so much fun. If you want to learn more, there are countless websites dedicated to making ATCs and you can always check out the past posts about ATCs on the blog. I'd love to see yours, so feel free to link 'em up!

an update on the Alisa challenge.

hey everyone.

just a quick note to share a pic of the ATC holder that was sent out to Alisa Henry's family...this is just a SMALL sampling of the ATC's that were made in her memory, and each one holds a quote from Alisa herself. the entire group of ATC's that were received was sent along, and i'm certain that her loved ones will cherish having her words so close at hand.

thanks to everyone who participated...losing a loved one is hard.

but knowing that they were loved helps to ease things just a bit.

miss you Alisa...still thinking of you.

An ATC Challenge In Memory of Alisa

This past month, we lost a friend here at Studio Calico. Alisa Henry was taken far too young, leaving two little daughters, a husband, and parents and family. I didn't know Alisa very well, I'm sorry to admit, so when I heard the sad news, I started going through Alisa's comments on the message board, hoping to catch a glimpse of who she was. While reading her comments, the following thought came to me:

Alisa's girls need to know this side of their mom.

Alisa made so many positive and encouraging comments on the boards, she had a lot of wisdom to share with us. I thought if we passed even a small portion of what she said, her family would be blessed to have access to this part of her life. But how to do that led to my next thought.

Here's the challenge:

Make an ATC card, they are small (2.5 x 3.5 inches), they can hold little nuggets of information, they incorporate the hobby she loved, they are a great way to share the bits of Alisa that we knew to her family. If you are anything like me, you'll get inspired by this art form and want to make more. There are only a few steps that must be followed to make this work:

1. Go to the SEARCH tool on the Message Board page and type in Alisa's screen name "lagsforlisa." This will allow you to see all the comments she made on the message boards, there are 31 pages to be exact.



2. Read through the comments, find something that speaks to you. There are a lot of ones that won't work, but there are many that will work perfectly for this challenge.

3. Pick ONE quote to use and before you start working on your ATC, come post which one you've chosen, so we don't have overlaps. For example, I went to page 30 and found a comment on gardening that she made.


Posted: Fri, Mar 28 2008 at 10:07PM on True Life Stories > Gardening?

I love gardening, too. We are doing our backyard this spring with beds, veggie garden, and little pond. [1.]Don’t forget to plant some things for hummingbirds. These little jewels are awesome, they love things with long tubular flower shapes, especially red. I like to grow Salvia greggii, comes in lots of colors. [2.]Also, I order plants online from Bluestone Perennials, they have a search function you can put in your criteria and gives you a whole list that might fit the bill for you situation. And a one year plant guarantee. Also, call your local master gardeners at the county extension office. They can usually provide a plant list, and planting dates for veggies. [3.]And stop by a plant sale at your local arboretum, talk about get the fever (think reveal night!) And stroll around any yard tours, or just around your neighborhood and see what grows. I like to try what I see, that is why scraplifting came so easily to me! lol.

-
Alisa

From that one comment, I was able to create 3 cards. You only have to make one, but once I got started, I was hooked and kept going. But you should only work on ONE at a time.

4. I'll have a thread going on the message board that you can post your choice to. Give me the date, the board it was posted on, and the thread title. Mine would have been this:

Fri, Mar 28 2008 at 10:07PM on True Life Stories > Gardening?


I'll keep a master list running as to which quotes are being worked on and when they are completed. If you want to do more than one, feel free, but please only after you've finished your current one.

5. When you're done, post them to the gallery and link them to the thread so we can see your beautiful work created for Alisa's family.

6. Send your finished cards to:

Studio Calico
513 East 10th Ave
Bowling Green, KY 42101

7. We'd like to have all cards sent by the 30th of June. This should be more than enough time to put one (or two) together. I'll be encouraging you along the way!

8. If you need examples, back in October of 2008, Jenn Olson and Nik Harper did a week's worth of blogging on this very subject. They had some great links to get you going on ideas. I did mine just a bit different because it's not really a trading card, it's more of a memory card. I think it's OK to bend the rules on this one... Don't forget to read the comments on this post as well, there's a lot of information there as well.

Here are the cards that I made. This concept coincides nicely with my newfound interest in using up what you have. Two of the three cards were made mainly with things I had on my bulletin board or sitting out on my desk. I tried one digitally to see how quickly that would go.





credits: cardstock, Cosmo Cricket, Sassafras Lass, and Studio Calico; tag, Tim Holtz; patterned paper, Studio Calico; rub ons, Chatterbox (wing to wing) and Jenni Bowlin (alpha); paper tape, Anna Griffin; felt flower, American Crafts; gem brad, Making Memories; other, image of hummingbird from the web and Starbucks Pick of the Week iTunes card.

For this one, I created it all digitally and then printed it out. It took me less than an hour to put together.

Digital version created in CS3:



Paper version:


credits: paper, Katie Pertiet Spot Dots; floss heart, Katie Pertiet Flossy Hearts; tag, Katie Pertiet Lil' Bit Tags; stitched X, Katie Pertiet Li'l Bit Tags; (all from Designer Digitals) flower brush, hawksmont Flowers (free from the internet); font, Prissy Frat Boys (free from the internet).






credits: cardstock, Chatterbox; flower, Making Memories; buttons, Foofala; stamp, Catseye Press; ink, Tsukineko; frame, American Crafts; ribbon, Piggy Tales; exopy tag, EK Success; font, Rough Typewriter (from the internet); other, thread and string.

After our first tragic loss of Aleida Franklin, and seeing the outpouring of love for her, it broke my heart to lose yet another friend of our community. An album was created for Aleida's family, organized by a member of our community, judi. I made a page that focused on an interaction I'd had with Aleida that really impressed me. Her desire to make sure she hadn't offended me really stuck with me. I didn't have an interaction like that with Alisa, but I hope that by doing this, you'll be able to share something that stuck with you about Alisa. Please join us in this challenge to give Alisa's family a memory only we can share.

More Resources, More Fun!!

I'm so excited that so many of you have signed up for the ATC Swap! It's going to be a lot of fun to get a teensy little bit of art of in the mail. If you haven't signed up, you've got until 12 Noon PST 10/10 to sign up, we'd love to have you! If you've already signed up, make sure that you keep looking at the first post of the thread, I'll have info and updates there.



I spent a lot of time surfing the web when I first started doing ATC's...for a Mail Art class I took, guided by Shimelle Laine. It was so fun to send and receive art through the mail, seeing a handmade or decorated envelope amidst the bills made my day, every time. I've compiled a few interesting links for you, that just might help you on your own ATC journey!

How to make your cardstock go farther!
ATC Envelope Template
Community of ATC Artists (lots of cool Q&A here)
ArtTrader Magazine

When I first asked for your input about ATC's, several of you shared cards you've already made! Feel free to post those in the Studio Calico Member Gallery, in case people missed them on the blog comments!

Just remember, that as long as you're having fun and your card is the standard size, there's no wrong way!

But, What About...

ATC Storage? Sharing? Displaying? Have you noticed all the companies that are literally tripping over themselves to help with that? 7Gypsies came out with their fabulous ATC Holder that has so many different possibilites, they also have super cute little tins that will hold a few or a few more. One of my favorite things to do (because, alas, I lack the counter space to display them in the aforementioned manner) is to put them in an album, similar to baseball trading cards. There are some really nice archival options available. Maybe you'd rather have them all out to see, what about a shadow box, a cork board or a ribbon board?


Making The Same Card Over and Over? Erin made the comment "I love ATC's too, but have a hard time with swaps where you have to make tons of the same one to give out. I'd rather make different cards." Personally, I don't like making the same card over and over, either. I like each one to be unique and it's own expression. To that end, I like making series of cards. Maybe I make three cards that all have the same theme or scheme-original art that I would consider a series.

The Front? Seriously? The sky is the limit. You can do ANYTHING! Make it sweet, make it silly, make it crazy...whatever you want. Really. Use a stamp. Use some paint. Use your computer.

The Back? It's standard practice to fill out some information on the back of your card. Your name, your email address, information about the card and the card/edition/series number. There's some fun stamp options, you can just write it or you can use or make a digital back that you can save for re-use. (stamp images shown are Catslife Press and LifePress)


A Swap? What's that? All this talk about mini art has you thinking you'd like to make some and then trade it with others? Good idea, you!! Let's do that!! If you're interested, sign in on to THIS post in the forum and I'll match us all up.

Artist Trading Cards!!

It's a new week here at Studio Calico and Nik and I thought it would be fun to talk about mini art. You know that girl loves a mini album...I'm not a mini album master like she is, but I do love those little 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 pieces of expression known as Artist Trading Cards.



Maybe you're an old pro at ATC's or maybe you're new to the whole concept. A little background for you (courtesy Wikipedia):

Artist Trading Cards are individual art miniatures which pass hand to hand. Some sources have credited M. Vänçi Stirnemann, who began trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1997, as popularizing ATCs in the modern era, although modern ATC's can be traced back to portrait miniatures and to a kind of business card popular with Impressionistic era artists.^[1]

Artists have produced miniatures for trade or self-promotion in many eras and places, and the current trend is thus part of this larger context. Historically there were few standard rules or guidelines to art trading cards, and many variances in sizes can be seen in older cards. The standardization in size of baseball cards is credited with creating the standardization in size for art cards. Today the only rule for these cards is their 2.5 by 3.5 inch size (64 x 89 mm), same as baseball cards and collectible card games. There are, however, certain conventions usually observed by those who make and trade these cards, such as the expectation that they be traded, not sold, and that they be created as unique works or small limited editions of prints. Artists generally sign and date the back, and may also include a title and contact information. For many, the face-to-face trading session is considered an integral part of the concept, although others find each other via the internet and trade by mail.

Artist Trading Cards are typically made on a base of card stock. However, ATCs have been created on metal, stiffened fabric, plastic, clay, glass, balsa wood, leather, embroidery canvas, acetate, heavy watercolor paper, and many other materials. The art on the cards can be done in any media: textile arts, pencil, watercolor, acrylic, oil, collage, scratch board, mixed media, assemblage, digital art, calligraphy, beadwork, rubber stamps, carved soft block stamps, pen and ink, colored pencil, airbrush, pastels, and many others - anything artists use.

When I did a forum search on ATC, I see that there has definitely been some buzz about them! I'd love have you link any ATC's you've done...I have a feeling that we might be cooking up a little RAK by the end of the week!

Here's a few links that I'd like to share with you, if you're interested in learning more about ATC's!

http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/
http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html
http://www.atcsforall.com/