Flying Artist Trading Cards for Happy Little Stampers

     Hi! Look, another post! That makes it twice this year, look at me go now.  It's the ATCs for Happy Little Stampers that are inspiring me. Who doesn't love making ATCs? They are small and non-threatening, but you can  make them into a series, which is what I did for the February challenge.

     This month the challenge is:

Yes, Fruity! You don't see the fruit I used? It's because my fruit is the color of the paints. I do not have any stamps or papers that I could find in my stash that I wanted to use. I did have some paper, but I did not like the results I was getting.  I took a new approach and decided to pull out my old Dylusions paints. I used Cherry Pie, Tangerine Dream, Squeezed Orange, and Fresh Lime paint on the  background of my cards.

     

     The articulated doll was a free download from The Enchanted Gallery if you want to play around with one also. I was inspired to put the labels on the body parts from another paper doll I found while I was searching for a free pattern.

     Come on over to check our examples and make some fruit themed Artist Trading Cards for the challenge at Happy Little Stampers. If you prefer you can also make Artist Trading Coins.

    

I'm doing stuff with Happy Little Stampers!

     I'm not sure what I've done, but I decided to join Happy Little Stampers to get my butt back in gear. I believe that I shoild be ab;e tp handle an ATC or a set of them once a month. ;)

Thanks for letting me come play with you guys!

     The ATC challenge for January 2020 is MASCULINE. 

     I pulled out my favorite boy stamp and created this ATC for the challenge. It felt really good to make something. I should do that more than once a year! Please have a look at this month's Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge, and thanks for stopping by.

All The Strong Pretty Ladies

Today brings you sketch #344, designed by teammate Debbi, at Tuesday Morning Sketches.  Sketch 344 is a lovely, simple design that would go with any project that could make.

Instead of making a card, I made a trio of ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) with Graphic 45's A Ladies Diary.  Every piece of patterned paper that G45 makes has fun images to fussy cut and use on something else. The rub-ons are from Tim Holtz and Basic Grey.  I gave the ladies strong sentiments instead of just using words such as "beauty" and "grace."

               

If you want to play along with our sketch this week, we are being hosted by Di's Digis.  There may be a prize for you!  You have until Sunday, March 27 to enter this week's challenge.   Please stop by and visit my fellow Tuesday Morning Sketches crew!

Debbie

Jenee 

Kris

Jessi

Melissa 

Patti

Wanda

Thanks for visiting my blog!

I'd like to enter my ATCs into these challenges:

Addicted to CAS: Code Word Delicate

I think my ATCs are delicate looking and they are pretty clean and simple for me!

Crafty Calendar Challenge: Mum's Day/Special Woman

Frilly and Funky:Make it a Trio!

Wood ATC and a Gelli Plate

Artist trading cards are always fun to make.  I find that working in a small size is challenging.  The hardest part for me is covering up my background.  Backgrounds can stand on their own.  When you select the right elements, that's when the magic happens.

Here is my finished project, four ATCs lined up.

The first thing you're going to notice is that the heads don't match.  I only had three kids heads. I chose the illustrated head to go on the fourth card.  Don't worry, I have added "the heads of children" to my next shopping list.

What I want you to know about this set of ATCs is that they are made on wood from Unique Laser Designs.  And they were so easy to make!

First, gesso your wood.  Gesso is your friend.  It primes your surface and makes your paint appear more vivid.   Then apply your base color to the ATC.  I used a bright green.

While the gesso was drying, I used my die cut machine to cut several pieces out of old greeting cards.  Thick glossy cards make excellent reusable templates for several projects.  Just don't tell that relative that sends these cards how you use their store bought mementos.  (If you don't make your own cards, support your local crafty person!)  And if either of these options are not available in your home, file folders are the next best thing.

I decided to used my Gelli plate to make the background of this ATC set.  I then used my die cutter to make a template to use on the Gelli plate.

For the next layer of paint, I had chose orange.  I applied it to my Gelli Plate and set down my ATCs.  When I pulled the ATCs up, I saw orange.  Too much orange.  I spritzed the ATCs with water and then wiped the centers clean of the orange, just leaving a bit of orange around the edges.

I opted for pink instead.  After seeing how the paint transferred to the ATC, I also decided to use the "ghost image" on the ATC.  I put the pink paint on the Gelli Plate, put on the die cuts, then peeled them back off.  Then I placed the wooden ATCs onto the Gelli Plate.  The result was a finer, less blobby transfer print.  

This is how the ATCs looked after the Gelli treatment:

I was thrilled with the result and wanted to keep them the way they were.  I convinced myself to go on with my project.  Using black ink, I grunged them up a wee bit and inked the edges of the cards.  

After searching through my stash, I found colorful rub-ons.  I applied these to the four cards.  

I finished the ATCs off with the collage heads, flowers and the ULD word blocks.  Here are the individual ATCs.

Brave

Dream

Hope

Joy

Unique Laser Designs products used:

ATC set

Brick Wall Stencil

The words blocks are the bricks from the stencil!

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Your visits are always appreciated!

Together Artist Trading Cards

Over the weekend I decided to get to know my PanPastels better.  I wanted to make some of the velvety smooth, color intense backgrounds that they can achieve.  

I used the pastels with embossing ink with stencils or rubber stamps.  I double stamped the images on the orange ATC, first with embossing ink and clear embossing powder then with black Staz-On over the clear embossing.  This was followed by adding details with white paint.  The next layer was a coat of Prima's Color Bloom Spray in Pearl White.    

I had read that using the Color Bloom Spray over the PanPastel would set the pastel.  I'm not sure if this is true, because I think I just made a sticky mess.  I let the cards dry over night and they were still sticky to the touch, which I combated with a layer of matte gel medium.  I added the embellishments with the gel medium.

Here is my result of my playing around.  The first image shows how I stamped over the resist image.  This one was a bit further off than I intended, but I wanted to show doubled image.

Then the finished cards.

The stamps I used are from the Five Nostalgic Couples from Rubber Dance.

 Thanks for stopping by!

ATCs for Swapping at Scraps of Darkness

Just thought I would share these ATCs that I made for a swap.  Anyone can join in for the monthly swapping!  You can find Scraps of Darkness on Facebook here!