Altered Playing Cards

Here are some ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) that I made for a swap with the online group I belong to - www.atcsforall.com. The theme for this swap was to alter the face of a playing card. The rule was that at least one corner of the playing card had to remain visible. For each card, I first sort of painted over the playing card with a brown/copper color. I didn't try to cover the complete card, just sort of tone down the white of the cards. For the above card, I then applied some cool napkins that had ferns or palms on them, making sure to leave that corner visible. I then paged thru some National Geographic magazines I've inherited from Jeff and found this great shot of a tiger's eyes, just the right size for this ATC. Just fyi - ATCs are only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" (which just happens to be the size of a typical playing card!). I call this one "Jungle Kitty".

For the above ATC, I printed this photo of mine. It's actually a photo of some trees in winter reflected in a pond at The Morton Arboretum, when we lived in IL. I printed the photo on some dress pattern paper, which is what caused the dotted line on the ATC. I took advantage of that to put the verbiage on the ATC. There's something about this ATC that strikes a cord with me. I think the trees look kind of ghostly.

This ATC is just such a fun one. I took a napkin that I had that had the words "Coffee Bar" on it, along with a fancy coffee machine. You can't really see the coffee machine, but it's there in the middle of the ATC. There was an empty space just crying out for something to be there, and as I paged thru an old magazine of mine, looking for (I thought) a cup or cup and saucer, I saw this woman in an ad for, I think, carpeting or something. Anyway, she just sort of reminded me of how coffee drinkers seem to love that brew! I'm not a coffee drinker myself, so if I got this wrong, sorry, coffee drinkers!! It just shows you that I don't know "Jack" about coffee (sorry, couldn't resist!).

Enjoy!