ATC's - Garden Statues

Here are the finished Artist Trading Cards for the California Art Girls swap. This month's theme is "Garden Statues". I wrote a bit about the process in a prior post. I sent them off today to the swap hostess.

But i did want to share how they came out. I mentioned making them hinge somehow but rejected that plan when i could not decide what to put underneath the flap. You know, like something of "significance" to make it interesting. So instead i used pop dots to raise up the statues to give the cards a 3-D effect. I found garden related phrases in a book and cut them out and glued them on. I then randomly smeared rub'n'buff metallic paints to give a verdigris finish to the stone. I love how the shadows fall on the background.
I finished off the backs with a garden image torn from a magazine ad and a butterfly sticker. People wonder if you "have" to do the backs. You don't. But hey - why not put something there besides your name, so that it will be just as much fun to turn it over and look at the other side. I created a simple label on the computer with the swap name and the number of the set, ie 1 of 6, 2 of 6, etc. I have seen other ATC traders do that and thought it looked so professional, like limited edition prints! I added a touch of colour to the labels with cat's eye stamps. Nothing i hate more than when WHITE computer paper stands out on a collage. PLEASE always make it blend in to the background - so it doesn't scream BRAND NEW WHITE COMPUTER PAPER, especially on a vintage sepia tone collage.
Ok - rant over. I shouldn't tell you, but in my early altered book swapping days, i often added colour to the prior person's work - when i thought their elements looked too incongruous. It takes about 5 seconds to dab a bit of an ink pad direct to paper, or to swirl on some glaze. Or splash on some of Aileen's super fab Color Mist sprays.

ATCs in progress...

I have a project due to create 6 ATC's (artist trading cards) for a swap with the California Art Girls this month. Here is my progress so far. The theme is Garden Statues. I chose two images from my stash - not sure where they came from - but i suspect they are images from a cemetary. Well, hey, they can be quite garden-like and beautiful!

I printed them on matte photo paper in multiples - 9 of one, and 4 of the other - since the sizes were different. I cut them out and edged them with cat's eye ink pads to remove the white edges.

Next i had to choose a background. Well - what better than my supply of Martha Stewart Living magazines to find a beautiful garden background. I selected two images from two March issues - the big Gardening issue. (i store my Martha's by month - so they are easy to grab when let's say i want a stuffing recipe - grab the stash of Novembers) I scanned them on my all-in-one but used a piece of paper to frame the section i wanted. This would save waste later. Then i printed out 8 copies of the background images. My printer automatically asks me whether i want one image per page, 2,3,4 or 9 - in corresponding sizes. Otherwise i would have no idea how to do this!Now i have the background and the focal point image - but how to attach it? Since the statues cover so much - i think instead of gluing them down i will create a hinged flap so you can peak underneath and see the flowers and trees.Well that's as far as i got.

In the meantime here are some random images. First my husband alerted me to yet another stunning sunset - like the hills were on fire. The picture honestly doesn't do it justice.

This other image is a bit of bragging. At what a good housekeeper I am. NOT. In fact these are all the abandoned vases that my husband found filled with dead flowers that accumulated on the deck all winter. He used one of these for the rusting project shown here.

He cleaned and scrubbed and ran them all through the dishwasher and set them out on the hearth for me to see. So you see I am bragging about my sweet husband! Don't they look so clean and sparkly? Just waiting for some fresh picked flowers....oh sweetie??