Been working on this ATC swap for the past couple of weeks - just a little bit on the weekend days, as I could. Anyway, thought I'd share! The theme of this ATC swap was love poems made up of found poetry. Found poetry are little snippets of phrases and words that you find in old books. I used a used book I bought at the library's used book sale once - I plan to make an altered book of it someday, so taking a few pages now is no big deal. I just pick words and phrases that appeal to me and I figure I can put them together in some way! This first ATC was meant to capture the joy of those "daddy-daughter" special times - certainly a special type of love!
This ATC had a photo of my parents as the subject of it. I'm not certain, but this photo was taken when they were very young, and maybe even newly engaged - hence, the poem!
And, this one just makes me laugh for some reason! I just love this photo of the 2 couples - i have no idea who they are, but, for me, the woman on the far right as you look at it sort of makes the photo - her expression can mean so many things. I know, technically, this isn't a love poem, so I didn't include it in the swap, but I couldn't resist how the words sort of worked together, her expression, and when I couldn't stop chuckling looking at it sort of pieced together, I knew it had to be an ATC, even if not for the swap!Enjoy!!
This was another ATC (Artist Trading Cards) swap using book pages as the backgrounds for the cards. The first one, above, is of a young man striking a somewhat formal pose - maybe this was to be a formal portrait? It just reminded me of how those types of photos really emphasize the fact that time does fly, and we're only the way we are for a relatively brief moment in time. I used the book page background running vertically - I thought it almost looked like a patterned wallpaper behind him.
For this ATC, I used the peeled paint technique over the book page. I found the old image of what looked to be a little stone cottage. It reminded me of a similar building at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, that was set right along a lovely garden. I added the rose petal that was set in some handmade paper, and decided this would be a rose petal cottage.
And, finally, this piece that seems sort of ethereal to me. This time I used some pastel tissue paper over the book page background. The tissue had some butterflies, dragonflies and flowers on it, very soft. When applied to the background of the ATC, they sort of melted into the background, creating that sort of ethereal feel to me. I added a small image that I had of a botanical drawing of a tulip, and that seemed to add the perfect touch.Enjoy!
Here's some recent art from last weekend. It was an ATC swap, with the theme of Little Houses. I decided to have some fun with this! The above little house used an umbrella from one of the umbrella drinks. Now, I think of those drinks as summertime drinks, so I thought the "little house" would be a summer home. Since I also used dress pattern paper on this ATC, reflecting the sizes that the pattern covered, I thought the summer house would be made to order! A little whimsy!
I liked the feeling of this ATC - a delicate little house and then a nice image of a young woman, who I think of as thinking of her dream house. Kind of a soft dreamy feel to this ATC.
This last ATC was kind of a fun one, too! I found a napkin that had some coffee beans on it, and thought, of course! A coffee house! So, I decided that they would really be doing a great deal on a cup of coffee - 5 cents per cup! Haven't seen that price in years and years!!Enjoy!
It's been a while since I've posted anything, mainly because I have been dealing with other stuff for much of January. But, here are some adorable little love birds from an art swap I did participate in this month. The theme was to have a bird and a heart on the card. I found a template to create some cute little birds and decided to use some sort of patterned or handmade paper for the body, a little scrap of a different color for the beak and a piece of text paper, with a word highlighted for the wing. The first one above, Sleepy, may be a bit of a stretch on such bright paper, but the hearts are of some nice soft designed paper!
The second one, Found, reminds me of how birds will take scraps of things they find to make their nests. The heart locket is a little stamp I have, and I used a piece of (sort of) yarn as the little "chain" thing for the locket. The bird's body is made of baby wipes that i used to clean my hands and brushes from several different colors of paint - kind of a nice soft mix of colors!
For this last little bird, I decided to go with a softer color palette, almost, but not quite a monochromatic theme. The hearts are hidden within the soft green leaves, and the entire piece reminded me of the promise of spring.
The theme of this swap was butterflies. The ATC above uses some book page text as the background. I then applied a napkin that had some really pretty roses and added a gel transfer of a butterfly that I found in a magazine to the very top. Because it's a gel transfer and not the actual magazine image, you can still see the text thru the wings of the butterfly as it sits perched on the roses.
This ATC uses a piece of a music page as the background. Again, I applied a napkin to that, with some rose buds and leaves on it, as well as a little butterfly. I also added a butterfly stamp, just for a bit of balance.
And, finally, the piece I call Butterfly Bling. Again, music pages as a background, but this time I used a butterfly rubber stamp over it. I then colored in the wings, body and added some very obvious antenna with art glitter. I'm not sure why I really like this one, but I do!Enjoy!
December has its fair share of bizarre holidays! December 10th is the Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales - this has to be one of the more unique ones. Why whales? Well, I did a bit of research, and one of the stories behind the holiday is that it is an Inuit holiday (Alaskan native). They relied on whales for food, and it supposedly was their way of honoring the whales. Sounds good, right? Well, again supposedly, the Inuits never heard of this holiday. So, now the thought it this was made up by a calendar company, looking for ways to encourage the purchase of ceramic mugs.....of whales, I suppose!
December 30th is not only Bicarbonate of Soda Day, but also Festival of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute Day. I focused on the Bicarbonate of Soda Day, but I think the background also sort of reminds one of a lot of changes all happening at the same time, which makes it all seem like the last minute! So, I'm kind of honoring both, don't you think?? (tee, hee!)
And, last but not least, is December 3rd, or National Roof Over Your Head Day! This holiday is to be a day to appreciate all that we have, not the least of which is (hopefully) a roof over our heads. No one knows exactly who first founded this day, but I like this sentiment, and hopefully this gentleman appreciates the roof that's over his head.Enjoy!
This was a fun swap to create for! The theme was just winter - anything what so ever goes, as long as it's a winter theme! So, what's more wintry than a snowman! This is actually a napkin that I just put on the ATC, added some text, and some glitter to create the effect of sparkly snow. Just a fun card!
And, of course, what's more winter than Christmas? I again used a Christmas napkin as the background, and then added a vintage Santa and a torn definition of the word Christmas. This one has a nice vintage feel to it.
For this last card, I used a photograph of mine as the background. I then cut out what looks kind of like a window from a template that I had, added a cup of cappuccino or cocoa, text, and there you have it! I thought it created the feel of a winter day, when you're nice and warm inside!!Enjoy!
It's another bizarre holiday month!! This month starts out with an ATC celebrating Button Day on November 16. I painted the background of the card tan, and then pasted some Simplicity pattern paper over it. I then added a couple of strips of actual fabric, and placed the button on top! I really like the vintage feel to this card.
For this card, I decided to go with a black background, just to set things off more. Added a little shopping list and a couple of images of the items on the list and there you have it! Pretty simple, but appealing to me none the less!
I just love this image of a statue at the cemetery in Ricoleta, down in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is just so haunting, I thought she was the perfect depiction of Occult Day, as she seems at times to be very sad, haunting, or for this holiday, kind of scary. The phrase that I found to accompany her image is "I have gone out, a possessed witch haunting the black sky, braver at night."Enjoy!
As you might guess, apples were the theme of this swap. Rather than just making ATCs with apples on them, I tried to think of apples in a different way. Did you know that mojitos came in the flavor of apple? I didn't.....but I do now! 
And, finally, probably the most popular use of apples (besides just eating them) - apple pie!! Yummy, yummy! I love to bake apple pie, but then, there's just Jeff & me to eat it, and that's not very good for the waistline! 
This ATC swap's foundation was to use napkins that we received in a previous napkin swap and create from there. One of the napkins I received had the US flag on it. I found the image of the man in a magazine, and just added the postage stamp to it. How can we not celebrate freedom when we contemplate it? 
This was one of my favorite ATCs. The flowery napkin is the background. I then used a transparency of a postcard addressed to Paris (complete with postage) and a vintage image of a woman I imagine would have sent the postcard complete this little piece of art.
Another favorite! The napkin was one of Christmas ornaments. I added the vintage image of Santa and the definition of Christmas, and here's the result. I think I may use this as my Christmas card image for next year (I already have this year's done!).Enjoy!
Welcome to the latest ATC swap! This one involves blackbirds and sheet music. I couldn't resist taking advantage of the title of the piece of music (above) and expressing it as a dilemma for our little blackbird friend!
And do blackbirds really sing in the rain.....or is that just Gene Kelly??
And what lovely lady doesn't like to be serenaded by her favorite blackbird? Enjoy!
Another month of bizarre holidays! It's October, and of course, folks think about Halloween, but there are other bizarre holidays! Actually, Halloween isn't even on the bizarre list. However, the day before Halloween, it's National Candy Corn Day!
And, here's another irresistible day - who hasn't felt so frustrated from time to time, you just want to scream? Well, if you ever have, October 12th is your day!!!Enjoy! (but no screaming, please!)
