Mr. Boston ATC

This ATC (Artist Trading Card) was made for the GOE monthly meeting exchange. I was playing around with a different colour for me. I really wanted it to be red but for some reason it looks more pink. I started off with card stock, overlaid with white & printed tissue. Then I added a Boston postage stamp that I had in my stash & worked water over the tissue until it framed the stamp the way I wanted. I then dry brushed some bronze Lumiere paint for accent & used some rubbing alcohol to remove some of the excess paint so that some of the printed tissue would show through. I put it aside at that point because I wasn't sure it was finished but didn't know what I could do to be more interesting. So the next night I added some random hand stitching and then it was finished. I really love the texture you can get with the tissue. I should know who the person on the stamp is...but sorry I don't...at least not at this point. Maybe someone will enlighten me.

Remembrance ATC

This is an ATC I did for the Group of Eight (GOE) swap. Remembrance Day had just passed when I started painting and I decided that I would do a poppy...but I wanted one that would show the poppy head with no pedals. I just love the dried poppy heads in my garden, so much so, that I don't cut them down. I leave them in the garden to spread seeds for the birds over the winter. I've made made several pieces using them. I find that the actual poppy comes so early in spring that they only last a day and the weather usually takes the pedals off. So as soon as the poppy opens...I take the camera to the garden and snap some pictures. That seems to be the only way I can enjoy them for a longer season and I can prove that yes...I did have some poppies. So this was a "Lest we Forget" remembrance piece.

Burka Beauty ATC

I've already posted a picture with "Village People" but I wanted the ATC to also have a post for itself. I've recently come back from a holiday in Istanbul. A beautiful vibrant city. I've been asked quite a lot about going to a Muslim country as many people have a great fear of what they don't know. Istanbul is a very modern city and not many women actually wear the Burka. At least, I didn't see many wearing them. My husband and I did notice, however, that a lot of the younger Burka wearing ladies had their eyes done up like they were models. I guess if that's all that was showing...then it had better be good...right. lol

This ATC was for the Group of Eight (GOE) swap.

Village People

The Surface Designers had a workshop day the weekend before Thanksgiving. These workshops can be anything you like...no rules...just have fun and be social...I love it. This time one of the members did a demonstration on Self Portraits. Now I've been playing with this idea for a very long time. I keep taking pictures of myself...not a pretty site...so they end up being deleted because you know what they say "a picture never lies"...I have to ask WHY the HELL NOT!! I for one would love some lying in that department. lol
At first it was quite intimidating but I just loved what she had done. She had such fun doing it and I was drawn to several of her compositions. I also just loved the peaceful...non stress of them not actually being self portraits but rather expressions..."green with envy"..."bruised"...my personal favorite. So I sat back and watched everyone for a little bit and started drawing. I'm much braver after I've sketched it...although I'm not a drawer of any kind it just makes me more comfortable with the movement I'll be doing on the cloth under the needle.

So these are my "Village People", of course they're not done. I have to add hair and whatever else to finish them but I just don't like the fact that I haven't posted in a while. It's just so hard to find the time to do everything we'd like to do. They were done with stitching using black thread to give them a more sketched look. Then you add water colour anything...paint, crayons or pencils until you feel that they have enough. Then the next step is to add the hair and embellishments...which I haven't done yet. Now the "Village People" are watching me on my design wall. Thanks Pat, I loved the demo...very addictive.

ATC

If you've been following my blog you'd notice that I've been working on art cloth. I took this ATC sized section from one of my art cloth experiments, hand stitched it, added beads along with a tyvek bead and copper wire. I thought that the texture was interesting. I'm really starting to like working with the tissue and cheese cloth. This particular sample was done with alcohol inks that I spritzed with water so that it ran down the length of the paper. It was quite stiff when complete and perfect for an ATC.

Out of the Bowels of the Unknown Basket

While I was cleaning up the studio after the last surface design submission, I found my sheet protector bits all over my desk. I just loved this long piece that wasn't painted but I didn't know what to do with it. So I gathered them all & put them all neat in a zipped baggie and dropped them into the unknown basket. This is where I keep every juicy little bit of want-a-Be's. I noticed a left over bit of tissue on canvas that had been painted with a rustic red and then it began. The sheet protector bit came out and was promptly painted metallic blue. I cut an ATC out of the tissue canvas and anchored the design with stitch for interest and finally a long awaited maiden try with the Angelina fibers for a backdrop. I was just chin wagging with a group of friends a few weeks ago about all this STUFF that we have in our studios that have never been used. We have to have them but they sit waiting for the day they will be honored. Well that's what was happening to my Angelina fibers. I have bags of the stuff. Not the little tiny bags that you buy now but the original large packages you could buy relatively cheap when it first came about. Now you just get what I call...teaser packs. Nothing you can do a grand amount of work with, just enough to have you needing to go back to the store. After the fiber, I mounted the sheet protector and scuffed it with some metallic gold off my finger.

Stitched to anchor the ATC

Added Angelina Fiber

Painted & melted sheet protector

Sheet Protector ATC

Today I felt like playing with heat.There is a technique in the Creative Embellishment book that I believe I've mentioned before on my blog. I just love this book. Apparently you can sandwich fabrics between a sheet protector and heat it with an iron for a great look. Well I was very unsuccessful with the iron. My iron and I just don't get along. So I left it and started melting some painted Tyvek for beads. Then I thought that maybe I could try the sheet protector technique again using my heat gun. So I grabbed a saved paper napkin from my basket of odds and sods, layered it between a photograph protector and heated it. I didn't want it to be square so I kept melting until the edges got really rough. I then added Citrine Lumiere to the rough edges. I didn't mind the look so I figured my little sample could be my next ATC. For the background I started with a Bristol ATC card. I had some saved paper towel with left over inks on it that seemed to match the flower, so I just started layering paper towel with watered down white glue until I thought that it was enough. I think it was three in total. I'm very impatient so I rolled my paint brush over the paper toweled ATC to take out the extra glue...put it between my teflon sheet and that's when my iron came in handy. I ironed until it was dry. I then added gel gloss medium to give it some shine....dried it with my heat gun and added Citrine Lumiere to the edges with my finger. I think I'll play a little more with this technique. I really want to achieve the look that was presented in the book.

Creative Embellishments

This was the beginning of play. Needle nose Pliers, fun foam and a stamp. I cut the fun foam into a circle shape but I didn't like how the edges looked so I pulled with the pliers until I had the ruff looking edges that I wanted.

Then I heated the fun foam with my heat gun and embossed it with the wooden stamp.

Added a little paint.

Painted the ATC as well for a background.

Then I added some thread goo to one and a background of painted and melted dryer sheet to the other.

Then I thought that adding some of those spare pounded copper pennies to the centre would add some interest &voila some ATC's ready to swap.

The idea for the medallions of fun foam came from the book Creative Embellishments by Sherrill Kahn. I saw the book at a friends house and just fell in love with the way this artist made her pieces glow with paint. I'm just starting to paint so I have just never seen such beauty and certainly didn't know how to create that look. So I thought that I would give a section of the book a try. I can't wait to try the air dry clay section. If you're interested in pimping up your  art work, this is the creative book for you. Just a beginning but I really like the outcome. I really hope you give it a try if you haven't already.