Saturday, November 27, 2010

Canvas ATC

I'm in a Canvas ATC swap on Art-Ventures. I painted a gessoed canvas with blue acrylic paint mixed with acrylic glazing medium. Used a Sizzix Embossing folder, to emboss the canvas, colored the raised areas with Super Sparkle Lumiere paint and cut the canvas to ATC size.
Painted another piece of gessoed canvas with Super Sparkle Lumiere paint on both sides. Embossed with a Cuttlebug Embossing folder, rubbed the raised areas with a light blue oil pastel and rubbed in with my finger. Punched out a large flower shape.
Colored the edges of the canvas background, the canvas flowers and the round image with silver metallic pens. Colored the edges and raised areas of a paper flower.
Assembled all the pieces together on the canvas background.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Book Study - Phone Book Paper

On NGS group we are doing a study of Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week's section is "Phone Book Paper". Not only are these papers free, they easily absorb paints and glues. Glue card stock to the back of a page of phone book paper. Cut out the piece and brayer the paper down to adhere well to the back.
Mix acrylic paint and glazing medium to the front of the card, and wipe off the excess paint. Bernie recommends using a baby wipe, I used a paper towel.
Bernie suggests adding a second color layer to add some depth. I mixed q. azo nickel gold with glazing medium for my second layer, adding more color to the bottom and sides.
Once the background dries, add collage images of your choice. I used Souffle pens to add designs to the border.
I painted another bit of a phone book page with yellow acrylic paint and cut out flowers with a die cut.
Used a permanent black pen to add details to the "souffle" words, to help them stand out. And added a cut out vintage image and the die cut flowers.
I made another phone book page background by rubbing on assorted Distress Inks.
Added some collage elements to create this ATC:

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Easel ATC Swap

On DCI group, we have a construction ATC swap: Easel ATC. This type of ATC is meant to stand like an easel, so I wanted all sides to be part of the "story". I started with glittery black card stock, cut it 7" x 2-1/2", scored at 3-1/2" and 1-3/4" from the first score line. This is the back. It has the theme and swap info on it. My theme is inspired by the song "Let's face the music and dance".
Choose a vintage image from the Internet and printed it on a transparency sheet. Colored a sheet of music with shimmering mist gold (brushed on as the spray nozzle is clogged). Adhered the transparency over the music sheet.
Cut out a 3-1/2" x 2-1/2" piece of the same card stock and adhered the image to it. Cut out the flourish and letters from metallic gold card stock with Cuttlebug dies and added a small red rhinestone. This makes the main ATC front.
On the non glittery side of the long back, adhered the top of the ATC front to the top short flap. On the bottom half, adhered the same gold metallic card stock as used in the embellishments on the front. Used a music border punch on the black glittery card stock to create a "stop" to hold the easel in place.

For mailing, this ATC folds flat and the main ATC front is on top. Hope this makes sense.

Book Study - Gesso & Magazine Images

On NGS group we are doing a study of Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop", and this week we're doing the section on "Gesso and Magazine Images". Bernie says this is a wonderful exercise for those intimidated by facial studies for paintings or drawing. The magazine image is used as a guide, allowing you to get feel of drawing a face.
Cut out a magazine image and adhere to a card base. Lightly paint gesso over the image using a dry brush and a crosshatch motion. This softens the image, while allowing you to still see the image.
I added more gesso to the images I did not want to show through on my card.
After the gesso dries, use a fine-point pen or marker to define the area you want to bring out. Add extra details to the image and background that you desire.
I used acrylic paints to fill out the image and background:
When the paint dried, I re drew the lines with a thicker marker. Then added the other details to finish the ATC.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Book Study - Magazine Paper

On NGS group we are studying Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week is her section on "Magazine Paper". This technique uses old magazines and catalogs to create art, by cutting up the images and by painting and writing over them, creating something very different from what they originally were. Bernie has two great examples in her book that she made and a dozen others by contributing artists. I'm not sure I changed the bits that much, but it was a creative exercise that I would try again
I don't get many magazines, so I cut up a travel brochure.
Layered sections of the magazine paper to cover the card, adhering the pieces with gel medium. I used an orange gel pen to highlight some of the ribbons on the twirling skirt. Darkened the edges of the card with dark Distress ink.
Stamped very lightly some wavy lines below and on the skirt.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Hands ATC

Annie chose the theme of "Hands" for an ATC Swap. I decided to focus on hands as an instrument of love & affection. I altered a picture of my grandchildren holding hands, made it black and white, and cut out the photo in a heart shape, mounted it on several layers of black card stock to give it thickness and lightly colored the edges black. To make the photo "stand out" I decided it needed a rich background for contrast. Ran a dark red StazOn ink pad over the surface of decorative embossed card stock.
Cut out the ATCs and colored the edges with dark brown StazOn ink.
Cut out the words from a dictionary page and glued to the photo. Layered the photo over gold gossamer ribbon. Punched two smaller hearts out of black card stock that had been sprayed with metallic inks. Sewed on some beads to finish the ATC.