ATCs

A new experience in the small world of

 ..... ATCs ..... 
Artist Trading Card
 

A bitty little piece of art no larger than
2-1/2" X 3-1/2". 

I was asked to trade ATCs for a Poe theme.  Debbie has a Poe collection of ATCs and liked one of my Raven postcards.  She wanted it to be fabric.  So I made this one.

That is such a small space to work in.  My 4X6 postcards are looking quite large now!  I really did not enjoy trying to be creative with fabric in such a small space.

 

And, without going into details, I was not a very cooperative ATC trader.  Having not traded them before, I wasn't familiar with the procedure.  And not liking making the fabric one, had not made matters any easier for Debbie.  She is a saint for sure.  

 

I wanted to see how making an ATC with paper would go.  I don't know whether this falls into a Poe theme, but it is my interpretation in a paper ATC.

 

 

This paper ATC I quite enjoyed making.  I included it with the fabric Poe Raven for Debbie to make up for being such a shit about this trade.

 

Then of course I wanted to send it all in a decorated envelope.  After going the extra mile to be so difficult, I really had some sucking up to do! 

 

 

These craft envelopes have proven to be challenging to decorate.  It's hard to add bright color to them.  But I thought the darkishness would go well with the kind of Nevermore theme I had going.

 

And here's the beautiful ATCs I received from Debbie.

 

A Silk Fusion (what gorgeous color) and a tri-fold Raven.  How clever his wings fold in and out.

 

It seems Debbie wasn't disappointed in the end,  but it must have been frustrating for her trying to work with ornery ole me.  And I've learned my lesson in trading ATCs... like, not to do it anymore.  LOL 

 

xxx

Annie  

  

Altered Dictionary - W

Our new letter for the Alpha Challenge is

W

with the twist to add circles in the background.

 

I've chosen the word write.

My style for altering my dictionary doesn't have painted or inked backgrounds, so I had to find a way to work a circle into my word illustration.

 

 

 

I wish I had drawn the circle with a finer pen tip.  But once it's drawn, there's no going back.

 

I discovered I like using tracing paper for the images.  I like the transparency of it and it keeps the addition of bulk down to a minimum.  On the other hand, for an image with lots of cuts, like the written word "write", it was difficult to keep it under control once it had glue added to the back.

 

More Alpha Challenge and altered dictionaries for the letter W can be seen here at The Craft Barn

 

xxx

Annie

Altered Dictionary - R

This fortnight's letter for the Alpha Challenge is R

and my word to illustrate in my altered dictionary is

 

Rouge

 

 

I stamped the face stamp and added rouge to her cheeks and all was good.  Then I tried to do something with the word and definition and turned the whole thing into a disappointing mess.  I really wanted to rip the page out and make it disappear.  But, I wasn't going to do that, so I set out to fix it.  It's better.  That's the best I can say about it.

 

xxx

Annie



Art Calendar Journal - April

No foolin'...my
Art Calendar Journal for

APRIL 2013

is ready for marking what's fun in each day. 

 

I'm glad I made the decision to switch from traditional monthly themes to FUN monthly themes. (This isn't really a theme is it?  But it was fun!)  This was even more fun than the first 3 months. 

 

I love this little bad girl.  I see her as me...not at her age...I was 23 before I became her.

 



And these are the wannabe bad girls...

 

I'm so excited to fill in these blocks.  I do hope some worthy fun happens! 

 

March started as a bit of a struggle to squeeze fun into a few of the days.  Those are the days I practiced making inchies.  And some days had a bit too much fun packed in.

 

 

May there be many FUN days in April!

xxx

Annie









Altered Dictionary - P

This fortnight's dictionary letter is P

 

I really wanted to choose postage, but since I just did mail, I kinda wanted to take a little different direction.

I chose...

 

........... Perch ...........

I love birds too.

 

 

 

It took me a few days to decide on how I wanted to illustrate this word.  This game is getting tougher for me.  If I were doing this project on my own, I would most likely choose a word based on some inspiration.  However, being told which letter to work with is not so easy.  I suppose that's why it's called a "challenge"!  LOL

I found this fun striped pencil in a magazine and it just had to be included in my altered dictionary.

 

 Simple but fun.
 

xxx

Annie

Envelope Art

Decorated Envelopes

are just the best mail one can receive.

 

Well, that's as far as I'm concerned it is.  My postcard mail art has led me to wanting to play with arty names and addresses.  After posting a couple of first envelopes on flickr...

 

 

... Carol found and led me to the blog of Jean Wilson, pushing the envelopes  Jean's envelope art is phenomenal and the ultimate inspiration.  Jean has the talent to design an envelope based on the design of the postage stamp.  I couldn't even begin to do that!  I just add the postage stamp as added envelope decoration.

 

 

 

 

It was Jean's blog where I was shocked to learn that you could place a postage stamp almost anywhere on the envelope!  Can you believe it?  I always thought they HAD to be in the upper right corner.  Carol's envelope was my very first moving of the postage!  FUN FUN FUN!  And scary too.  There was a brief visual of the post office slapping a big ole red inked stamp "undeliverable as stamped!"

 

 

And I dared to do it again! 

 

It's kind of a bummer blocking out names and addresses to protect the innocent.  That takes away from the effect as a whole, but, it can't be helped.

AND THEN!

SO AWESOME! 

Carol oh, sweet Carol, sent ME an arty envelope!

 

 

And that's how I know this is the best mail to receive!

Thanks so much, Carol!  That was an AWESOME Mail Day!

 

Wishing everyone a Good Mail Day!

Annie



It's Tags Now

 

I just love tags!  But I always struggle with making them.  However, I think I lucked out this time.  Lucky for me, other people create wonderful art.  And then they produce it for retail sale so that I can purchase the use of it.  I still struggle with putting it together, it's a process of one step at a time over a few days.  Just to make one tag!

Life Is Good

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz stamps, unknown stamps.

 

Beautiful

7gypsies paper, woman image from a stamping magazine, Hampton Art alphabet stamps, various other unknown stamps.

 

Back of Beautiful

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz rubber stamps and other unknown stamps.

 

Dance

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz Stamp, unknown stamps.

 

And then they came to a screeching halt!  I continued to have some starter ideas, but further inspiration for those eludes me.  They now sit aside waiting for what comes next with them.  It will come...eventually.

 

 xxx

Annie

 

 

 

Cancelled Postage

They aren't just for collecting!

 

Cancelled Postage Stamps

are for art too! 

 

I love postage stamps and mail art.  Some family members collected postage stamps in a previous life, so there are lots of cancelled postage stamps nearby that I've been rather afraid to touch.  But, amazing what you're willing to do while wearing brave girl panties.

 

I wanted to first make a red bird postcard with red stamps.  I am shocked at the minimal number of red stamps I could dig up.  Well, I didn't want the first project to wreck up the only red postage I could find.  And there were plenty of blue stamps, so I made a blue trial bird first.

 

 

Oh boy, was that fun!  So on to the red bird.  I found the pinkish purple Happy Birthday stamp for the wing because I was going to send him as a birthday wish to Carol.

 

 

Oh, but I love him so!  And with only two more red stamps found so far, I could not let him go.

 

Then there came the butterfly.

 

 

And then came some postage people.

 

 

For me, these represent the child in all of us, no matter our age. 

 

 

This idea came from another artist.  I struggled to figure out how to blend the stamp with the body, and shear determination got me to where I wanted to be.  The other artist did not seem to be willing to share her secret, so I worked out what works for me...finally.

 

The technique needs some practice, but it's been great fun adding adult heads to children's bodies by way of postage stamps.   And some famous heads at that! 

 

Gosh, I sure hope I don't glue, chop, color or sew a rare $100,000. valued postage stamp.....yikes!

 

 May today be a Good Mail Day!
Annie

Altered Dictionary - M

This fortnight the letter is M for The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge.  But there's a twist this time.  Our word must be chosen from only words beginning

 

Ma-Me

 

You know I had to choose Mail don't you.  I like to search out less common words, but my love for mail art and Good Mail Days wouldn't let me get past the word.

 

 

"Private Mailing Card" rubber stamp and colored pencil, "Cancelled Post Mark" rubber stamp, Zip Code postal stamp, Par Avion Letecky stamp, typewriter image and my Dear Friend letter is hand written on tracing paper.

 

It was challenging though.  This junior dictionary is so full of illustrations and sometimes they get in the way of art.  LOL  I had to camouflage a man wearing chain mail (armor) and hide a large ear of corn (food mainstay).

 

 

 

Have a Good Mail Day!

Annie

 

 

Art Calendar Journal - March

My art calendar journal for

 

--- March ---

 

is ready for me to document the pleasantries of my days.  And no unpleasantries if I can help it.

 

 

I originally planned for this first year, to go with all the traditional colors and holiday themes for the months.  But I struggled with March so much, that I have completely switched horses for most of the rest of the year.  Because this project needs to be enjoyable.

 

 

Needless to say, I will be happy to move on from these traditional designs.  But I still LOVE this project!

 

February is all filled in.  It was a month that was surprisingly overfull of fun crafting for so many days of the month.  That did not make me unhappy at all! 

 

 

 I could stand a bit more variety of fun, but this satisfied me well enough for now.  I decided to write in the blocks with "mostly" only red, pink and violet pens.

 

Have a lucky March!

Annie