My ATCs: Junk Mail Challenge

In December 2006 I partipated in an ATC swap on Swap-bot.com. We were required to ONLY use junk mail to create the ATC with.

I ended up making a few extras once I got on a roll.

This first one used a travel brochure which was to tour some European areas including visiting small villages. I love map images and could not resist using this brochure. This is simple collage. The base was a recycled food container box with black gesso painted on it for the background.

"The Art of Time" is a quirky fun ATC made from an American Express brochure. They were trying to get us to use our AmEx points to buy designer watches. I was glad that this woman's face was the right size for an ATC. I got playful with the watch face for an eye. Those are page numbers in the corners, as you can see I went with the odd numbers in a geometric, block type pattern.

"Are You Blue?" is the title of this. The base is a cardstock junk mail piece trying to get us to buy tickets to see an ice hockey game or a season pass or something. The statue is from a travel brochure to someplace in Europe that came in the mail. The used postage stamps are the ones that come on nonprofit agency mailings which are trying to get us to make a contribution to their charity. I selected the stamps as the color blue was so similar and I felt it needed something to fill in those big blue areas. I thought the statue man looked a little sad or too serious, hence the choice to use him here.



Using the AmEx brochure I made a base for this. I was attracted to the various shades or grey, white and black. I then used stickers that came on some other junk mail thing. I turned them so they were alternative direction. I chose helmets with dark colors. There was something pleasing about this composition to me.



"Irish Horseman" is one of my favorites. The background again is from that big AmEx watch brochure. I then had this great Irish man on his horse from another tourist brochure for a group tour of Ireland. (My husband's college keeps mailing us travel brochures for tours for alumni. They are expensive trips. The photos and maps inside them are wonderful for using in making ATCs.) I realized this Irish man and his horse would fit nicely on an ATC then realized the colors matched nicely with the watch brochure background. I needed the horse to be walking on something and used close up images of the designer watch bands to make a road with.

I was afraid that the recipient of this ATC would not like it but she enjoyed it so much she not only thanked me by email but also with a snail mail note!



This "Gala" ATC is the combination of three pieces of junk mail. First there was a very colorful invitation to a charity event being held in my town. The turquois color was fantastic. That list is a list of the volunteers that work on the committee. The word 'gala' is from that brochure.

The image of the dancers is from yet another travel pamphlet of a trip to the Riviera in Maya. Lastly to add more color there are pieces from a request to donate money for the annual fundraising drive for the nonprofit organization "All Kinds of Minds" which provided those bars of color (which is part of their letterhead). I absolutely love this one.



Technorati Tags: Swap-bot,artist trading card, ATC, rubber stamp ATC.

My ATCs: Angel Series

Earlier this month I made this series of angel ATCs. The whole thing came about when I sat in front of the TV to watch my regular TV show before bed but instead took a box of ephemera with me. I looked through it to see if anything caught my eye.

Most of the backgrounds were a hostess gift given to me by a partipant in a swap I hosted last summer. (Thank you Trish S.!) I went through Trish's bag and was inspired. Some of the papers are wallpaper samples and some are purchased collage sheets (from Trish).

I then found a bunch of angel images that I had cut out on some other day in the past. So the idea for angel themed ATCs was hatched.

The main thing I was doing with these is matching background paper colors to compliment the colors in the angel image.

I don't use a lot of charm type embellishments or fibers or beads. If I did I can imagine many possibilities for other ways to use these angel images on ATCs.

Here is how they were made:

I adhered background papers on recycled food or product boxes with Golden acrylic gel medium.

The angel images are from a perpetual angel calendar that was on a wire spiral. I bought it at a library book sale fundraiser sale for $1. Out of that little calendar came a ton of images sized just right to use in ATC making. Although many of the images were repeats, it is irrelevant if the recipients of my ATCs are different people.

They did not seem finished as is so I decided to try the Ranger Perfect Pearls metallic powders for the first time. Some were applied with a dry, clean paintbrush and strokes and others were flicked on from the brush to the surface in 'droplets'. Actually first I put clear embossing ink on the surfact, then the powders then a coat of clear UTEE.

I then used a heat gun to melt the UTEE. If you are not familiar with UTEE it dries like a thick plastic layer. It makes the ATC stronger. The UTEE usually is a little bumpy or wavy, in a smooth way. What the surface looks like is not represented well with a scanned image.

I thought they looked finished so that is that, I proclaimed them finished.

All of these have been traded out. I think I put one in for a map themed ATC swap and another in for an eyes/face themed swap. Others were swapped out in 'ATC art boxes' on a Yahoo Group that I am on.

I have more angel images left over so perhaps in the future I'll make more angel themed ATCs.



Technorati Tags: Swap-bot,artist trading card, ATC, rubber stamp ATC.

My ATCs: SKATING Spell-it-out

I joined a Swap-bot ATC swap titled "SKATING spell-it-out". We had to make one ATC for each letter. It had to show an image and the letter.

I chose to do mine all similar so that if displayed all together they'd look like they belonged together.

The background I blogged about recently. It was leftover acrlyic paint from a project my children were doing. Rather than have it go to waste I put it on watercolor paper with a sample credit card from junk mail.

The images were from a Golden Book Dictionary originally published in the 1950s. I bought it for 50 cents at a thrift shop and it smelled like mildew so it was no good for reading. When it is sealed under acrylic gel medium the odor is sealed in and not a problem for one's health (allergies). The illustrator is Richard Scarry. These are cut-out's from the book (not copies).

The letters were rubber stamped (stamp credit: HeroArts) onto yellow cardstock.

I squeezed time in to do this when I woke up on a Saturday before everyone else in the house.

The first series I loved so much I decided to keep it, so I then made a second series.




Note also I kep the paper in the order it was originally. The paper goes four across, then the next ones start left to right again at the second row. For example the vertical red smeal in Sweater can be seen continuing down in the Indian ATC.

The last two were made with scraps of paper left over afterwards, in an abstract style.

Technorati Tags: Swap-bot,artist trading card, ATC, rubber stamp ATC.

Big ATC Making Day Yesterday

I woke up before anyone else in the family and decided to make ATCs rather than turn on my computer.

I made a set of ATCs for a swap which required us to make alphabet type cards, a card with a letter plus an image representing that letter. We have to spell out a word. So I made all seven ATCs and finished the challenge. But I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to keep the set so made a second set to swap out that were the same technique but with other orignal/different materials. After I get those scanned and when I have time I'll upload those.

I then stopped when the kids woke up and we ate breakfast. A big cleaning and new Christmas toy decluttering of the living room then occurred. We have not yet assimilated the new toys and games into the house, they were all over the living room, what a disorganized mess it was. Then we ate lunch.

Then some guests came over for a while. Then it was time for dinner.

After dinner I spent more time making ATCs. All in all I finished 26 ATCs. I even printed some of the backs for some and glued those on.

Still on the list to do later today, hopefully, is to make the backs for the rest of these and to scan all of them. Then I will prepare the envelopes to mail otu some ATC swaps for tomorrow's mail.

It was really nice to have a day with no appointments. I was home all day long and in a very relaxed mood. Hooray.

It was great to get into that flow mode and to have fun and relax. I had no problems yesterday with creative block. Everything just flowed. I even did some experimenting with mixed results but I didn't get mad or frustrated.

So hopefully soon I'll have more scans of my ATCs to show you.

Backgrounds I Painted Last Weekend

Here are photos of the backgrounds I painted a week ago. They are 11x14 inches in size so I took digitial photos instead of scanning them.

As I blogged about yesterday this was my first attempt at painting using credit cards as the applicator. (They were sample credit cards from junk mail actually.)







I made this pink colored background to use for Valentine's Day themed ATCs. I don't usually do a lot of pastel colors in my artist trading cards.


This last one was done with a stipple brush. I am not a fan of purple at all but there is a purple ATC swap which I might decide to particpate in so I thought I'd use up some of the purple paint that I already owned to make these backgrounds.

Thoughts on Making Art With Children and Flow; Had Fun Painting With The Kids The Other Night

Last Sunday I went to A.C. Moore because they were having a sale on 2 oz. acrylic craft paints, priced at three for $1 (they are usually about 99 cents each). I picked out 15 paints in colors that we have run out of or that are new to us to play around with.

When I got home after having such a bad weekend I decided I wanted to play with the paints right then and there. I asked the kids if they wanted to paint also as it has been months since they painted with acrylic paints. They wholeheartedly agreed yes, they would like to play and make art with me.

I used to do a lot more art projects and kid-centered, “process-not-the-product” art and crafts with my kids. But as my older son got older and both began doing more outside classes we are home less often and stopped making the time for doing arts and crafts, especially those that make a mess such that often the clean up is nearly equal to the amount of time it takes to do the project (which is the type of thing we used to do nearly on a daily basis).

I covered the kitchen table with old newspapers that I pulled out of the recycle bin. I warned the kids that if any acrylic paint got on their clothes we’d have to wash it out while it is still wet lest it stain.

I grabbed some oversized heavy drawing paper for them to paint on. I made a suggestion that they try for the first time, to lightly sketch a drawing in pencil then to fill it in with paint afterward. They did this and they painted away. (In the past they complained that it was hard to ‘draw’ with the paintbrush which was loaded with paint.)

To avoid wasted paint I squeezed the paints out of the tubes for my kids. They either have weak hand muscles or they have poor judgment of measurement, because if left to their own devices they pour out way too much paint then they can use. Although the paints are non-toxic I have read they are not so great to wash down the drain and to put into the environment.

We use the little 99 cent paint palettes from the craft store. I give them free reign to pick the colors that they want to use. They paint with cheap brushes from the craft store. On this night I showed them the difference in painting with a flat brush than a rounded tip brush. They then could use the right brush for the effect they were trying to accomplish. What I do is give them information or a tip and then it is up to them to decide whether they want to use the new knowledge or not. I don’t push or force them. They also have freedom to draw or paint whatever object or abstract painting that they desire; I don’t dictate to them what they have to do.

I ended up so busy with helping them and rinsing wet paint out of a shirt that I didn’t get to do much painting (but I was not angry about it). I made only three large paintings that will serve as backgrounds for future artist trading cards (on watercolor paper).

I then took the leftover paint from the kids and used that to make more backgrounds for artist trading cards. I tried a new-to-me technique of using a credit card sample from junk mail to smear the paint onto the blank paper in random swipes. I actually tried two methods. One was to splatter the paint randomly on the paper and then to smear it. The other was to dip the sample credit card into the paint and to smear it on where I wanted it to go. The result is an abstract painting type look. One son told me that one of them is especially ugly. Oh well. It was his leftover paint that I was trying to use up. (Actually after it was cut up into artist trading card size they looked great, I think.)

Another way to use old paint rather than to pour it down the drain or put it into the landfill is to swipe it on brown paper bags and to use those papers later in making collages. For example smear a bunch of left over blue paint onto the paper bag then later cut shapes out of that and make a collage with the shapes (think: the style of Eric Carle).





I then cleaned up the mess and we got on with the evening.

But then I realized the paintings that were drying on the floor looked a bit different, and suspected that one of the kittens had walked upon it. The purple paint on the bottoms of our male kitten’s paws proved this suspicion. Sigh.

The kids were in their glory, by the way. It made me realize that I need to make more time for making art together and getting into painting with them on a regular basis again.

The Way It Used To Be
Back when my husband was working he used to get home at 6:45pm. I used to time the day so that we’d eat together as a family as soon as he walked in the door. The kids would be antsy and bored a bit by about 5:00pm so nearly every day, I’d pull out arts and crafts at that time. No matter what testy mood they’d be in they’d lose themselves in the “flow” of creativity and they’d become quiet and content. They would make art like that for up to 90 minutes, working independently for the most part; while I played with them then they kept on while I was making dinner. They would use regular old play dough and clay tools, air drying clay, make collages out of scraps and junk mail, or they’d paint or use chalk pastels. We did this for years and it was a fun time for them. However when my husband became unemployed he was home more often and earlier and the whole routine was lost. I will always remember those quiet peaceful times of creativity, when my young children would be calmed by being allowed to experiment and play at making art.

I never minded the mess, I accepted that it would happen and just cleaned it up. At times my kids painted in their diapers or underwear so as to not stain their clothes. Other times they were so full of paint that a shower or bath was necessary to fully clean them up. The only thing they were not allowed to do was to wreck the house with hands full of paint or to take the art supplies out and all over the house. We had simple rules and reasonable limits and we all had a ball working within those parameters.



Since reading a little about the creative process of art making (about adults doing art) and reading about that state of “flow” that artists can achieve, I know what my kids were doing was getting into that flow state on a regular basis that calmed them down and made them happy.

I had not thought about the effect on children’s psyche while making art. Usually when one reads about making art with children it is about ‘art education’ and teaching them things, not about just having a feeling of happiness or benefiting from that wonderful state of flow that can be achieved.

Another negative thing that can happen with the art making with children thing is if the adult, parent or teacher is centered upon a final product and the adult guides or forces the child to make the project. Some of these projects are not fun for the child or beyond their physical (fine motor skill) developmental stages and the child must rely on the adult to do the actual work for them. That is more about making a final product than the process of making something. I am against any project done with young children in which the adult dreamed up the project (or is following directions from a book) and in which the adult basically tells the children step by step what to do in order to make the thing appear in a very specific way that was preconceived by the adult. I don’t think that is always fun for the child and they are not at all exercising their artistic or creative energies in that process. One caveat is that some children like to do projects which have a known result and they may like to follow the necessary steps to get to that end. However that kind of work is not exploring the child’s personal creativity, it is not about experimentation either and it doesn’t usually involve any imagination.

To me making art is primarily about exercising ones creativity and experimenting. I know first hand that some art projects are not pre-planned, they happen and unfold during the process itself. A person can start out with a general direction but often if they go with their instincts as the project unfolds a different result will happen and often, with pleasing results. Even if the final project is not perfect or not liked the person usually learns something about that artistic process or technique that can be tried again later in other ways, to practice, and pleasing results with the end product may happen at that time.

In fact some children get turned off on making art or crafts as they rebel against the overly intruding directions of the adult and also some perfectionist children lose self-esteem if they feel they can’t do the task as well as the adult can do. I suspect this is the reason why most boys beyond age 7 or 8 rarely make art on their own; they often do it only if forced to in school.

I don’t really feel much talent is used when I see an entire batch of work done in a classroom where the teacher told the kids what shape to make, what color to use, etc. This happens not just in public schools but in the Waldorf preschools. I don’t see anything original there and I think that is not the point of making art or even just experimenting with art in a very basic and rudimentary manner which the very youngest of children is capable of doing. One could argue that if the technique is being taught and if exposure to that technique is the goal then that exercise was good. However I don’t think most children are then given additional time to practice and make art with those same materials or using those techniques on their own, allowed to make what they want, when they want, to practice and have more control over the process. In other words they may try a certain technique in art class at school then never do it again. I can list techniques and processes that I learned in school which I’ve not repeated in school or at home, ever again.

If you are looking for a great book that covers this philosophy of art making for children aged from birth through age six, that is about the process not the product, then Susan Striker’s “Young At Art” is the perfect book for you.



I have not yet read the book “Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and I wonder if it addresses young children and flow. From my experience mothering my children and doing creative work with them I can attest that this happens with children as young as one year old, if not even babies.

And also on the topic of flow, I achieve it nearly every time I write on the computer and that is how this blog has come into existence. Since I love being in the flow state I look forward to any chance I can get to write and get into that flow mode. I have only published a fraction of my actual writings. If my main goal were just to write and publish I’d be spending my time editing my old writings. However since the writing and the flow is what I like I will often write 2-3 long entries per day but will only publish one.

Links
Wikipedia entry about the flow state of creativity

Technorati Tags: art and children, teaching art, parenting, creativity, flow.

My ATCs: Celebrate Theme

I was making ATCs for a swap with the theme of "celebration". The theme was wide open and could be anything we would celebrate, celebration in general or it could represent a holiday which a person celebrates.

I made more than I needed so I'd have extras on hand to swap out with other people.

The pink backgrounds started as watercolor paper and several shades of pink acrylic paints (cheap paints from the craft store). I used a sample credit card from junk mail as the applicator. The pink paints were swiped across the paper in random strokes, mixing the colors as it went along.

The purple background is acrlyic paint applied with a stipple brush.

The green background ATC is handmade green paper from India, purchased at A.C. Moore in a one pound package.

Champagne image ATCs
The champagne glass images are a rubber stamp with no brand name on them. They were in the $1 bin at A.C. Moore in the past which then went on sale for 77 cents.

I had trouble with some of the inks. Staz-On worked well once but terrible after one use which wrecked a bunch of cards. I changed to dye based ink. Where needed I went over the original image with a black Sharpie marker. The one on green paper was hand drawn by me by copying the image on the stamp.

I used a gold marker to color in the champagne. The same marker was used to make an edge on the border. The ones that have the word celebrate were hand written by me and are either fine point black color Sharpie marker or gold marker.

Margarita ATCs
The margarita ATCs reminded me of my Mom's night out at the Mexican restaurant where we all drink frozen margaritas and when we celebrate our friendship. I used a rubber stamp from the $1 bin at Michael's. I did not use the word "fiesta" that is on the stamp. I used black dye based ink to make the images.

I used colored Sharpie markers to color in the liquid of the drink and the lime garnishes.

The text on the ATC is hand written by me with fine point black colored Sharpie marker.

Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC, rubber stamp ATC.

My ATCs: Hearts Series

Inspired by an ATC Swap to make ATCs for Valentine's Day I came up with this idea and made a set of nine ATCs for this swap and to swap out in the future in other swaps.

I started with a background paper which is handmade paper from India (purchased at A.C. Moore in a one pound package).

Using two colors of dye inks from "Ink it Up" (cost $1.00 each) and a heart image rubber stamp from Canadian Maple (on sale at A.C. Moore for 77 cents), I randomly stamped the lighter color pink hearts first, then the darker color pink dye second.

I adhered these thin papers to stronger backgrounds, mostly recycled boxes from foods or other items and others were past ATC "mistakes".

That is it, they were finished.

Technorati Tags: artist trading card, ATC, rubber stamp ATC.

I am not used to ATCs coming together so quickly and easily.

Creative Block, ATC Ramblings

Last night I had a small chunk of time to make ATCs. I had creative block. I started working on five.

I gave up and was disappointed that I had a chunk of time free to make art in yet could not do it.

I went to watch American Idol with my kids and did some work in my art journal. I didn't watch the show, I was watching my journal, I listened to the show, and glanced up to watch just parts of it.

When I woke up this morning the kids were still asleep. I finished up those five ATCs. I had thought I didn't make progress the night before but in just a few minutes I did have five finished ATCs.

Yesterday I sat down and went over all my Swap-bot.com ATC swaps. I then checked the ratings and filled out the ratings for the partners who were supposed to send me ATCs. My tally was at 23 swaps sent out and only 14 were received. I posted some accurate ratings which included "no send's" for some people.

I then received an email from someone saying she sent me 3 ATCs on 1/01/07 and that they should have gotten here by now. She gave me a link to her Flickr account that showed the ATCs that she made.

I was torn as she had formerly a perfect rating on Swap-bot.com. However the rating system is what it is, should I not rate everyone, including those who do "no send's". One issue is the question of if the postal service lost the mail.

In today's mail, I received four envelopes with swaps. Some were for swaps that are not even yet at the deadline to send them out, so they are VERY early. And guess what, that lost envelope was in my mail. It was postmarked 1/03/07 and came about 2500 miles to get here. Perhaps the delay was because the front of the envelope was a dark color and the ink was nearly the color of the background (it was a photograph like a magazine page of a beach scene, cool). I bet that ended up not being able to be read by the postal machines and had to go to a human sorting process. From what I had been told in the past decorative envelopes are fine but the address should be on a label that is white and put on the front. I am now curious about this and will ask my postal office staff about this, and I'll show them the envelope.

In any event I changed the rating for that swapper as she did follow the rules and did send on time so that makes the rating a "5" (not a "1"--nothing received). I also emailed her to let her know this.

It was fun to get four envelopes in the mail today.

Tonight I am not sure if I'll go to bed earlier than usual or stay up and finish up some more ATCs.

No Transparency Sheets For Me Today

I have been reading about use ink jet printer transparencies in collage and was interested.

I thought I could use some of my own photographs in their original form or digitally altered by me in either color or black and white.

I stopped at Office Max today to see about purchasing some. The 50 pack was $40 which was too steep a price for me. They also had a 20 pack with 5 free sheets for $26. That was still too steep a price for me.

I would like to play around with some sheets and imagine I’d use less than five. If I was to resize the images in Photoshop I could make them small to use on 2.5 x 3.5 inch artist trading cards and then could fill an entire sheet full, print that off, and use all those images, it seems like a lot of images for the tiny canvas sizes of an ATC.

Oh well.

That is one art experiment that will have to wait for another day.

(I was thinking of using them for ink jet copier transfers as well as to use as regular transparent images as overlays.)

I am not complaining, I have a lot of art supplies already on hand and I can work with those. It is time that I am in short supply of, really. Anyway I just thought I’d share this tidbit about the price in case someone else is wondering what those blank transparency sheets cost!

Squeezing In Art Time

In between the hustle and bustle I have managed to squeeze in some time to make some ATCs. I have not been able to have a big long day of art making which I am hugely craving right now.

Sometimes the creativity is right at the surface so if I can steal an hour or 90 minutes I can get a lot done. Other times (like this morning) I can sit there for a half hour with nothing coming to me.

Also sometimes to drag out the materials is too daunting (I have to use the kitchen table and to clean it up when done). Sometimes I just get on a roll but have to stop in order to clean it up in time to eat a meal or something like that.

I finished making ATCs which I had creative block for: making ATCs out of recycled boxes. Although I had some interesting boxes for backgrounds I had a hard time embellishing them to spruce them up. I also didn't have a lot of collage materials in the themes that jived with the backgrounds. I am not too happy with the results but since these were for a swap that I had already signed up for, they are going out nonetheless.

Swap Bot Results

I joined Swap-Bot.com in October 2006 to do some art swapping.

To date, of the swaps that have closed and have had plenty of time to get here, this is my result.

I have received envelopes from 14 senders.

I have 9 that I have received nothing from.

So that means I have sent out 23 swap envelopes and received 14 in return.

That is not a good ratio.

I am currently hosting some swaps on Swap-bot.com. I have tightened my restrictions on who can join my swaps. I am not allowing anyone with a rating lower than 4.5 out of 5 to join my swaps. If anyone in my swaps does a "no send" they will be banned from my future swaps. When a person doesn't get someone's swap they are supposed to rate them a "1" which will bring down their average.

I guess the only and best way to manage this at this time, for public swaps there, is to be the host of the type of swaps that I want to participate in. Then I can control and ban the bad swappers. If I am a regular and frequent host there I can then keep out the rule breakers and the "no senders".

Swapping art through the mail with total strangers is risky. However this ratio is horrible, so far, and it seems the responsibility level of the players needs to be raised.

Another option is to find a small group of trustworthy people and host private swaps.

I was hoping for easy swapping with naturally trustworthy people but perhaps that is asking too much. Sigh.

My ATCs: Three Abstract Themed ATCs

Here are three artist trading cards that I made using nearly all scraps.

The base is repurposed cardboard from a product container.

The original size was 3.5 inches high by 7.5 inches wide. I made this collage in a long panel then sliced it into three ATCs when I was finished.

The background was hand painted with acrylic paints (done a few months ago for future use).

I then took scraps from the 1.5 inch square collages, other scraps that I had laying around, and a couple of old Valentine stickers that my grandmother had purchased in 1973.

I also used a few cancelled postage stamps that I had received on mail recently.






Technorati Tags: artist trading cards.

My 1.5 Inch Square Collages

Here is the scan of the bunch of 1.5 inch square collages that I made for a mail swap on Swap-bot.com.

I made these in one sitting. Here is some information about how I made these.

The bases were food container boxes which I repurposed.

The background was either text from pages of foreign language dictionaries (purchased for 50 cents at library used book fundraiser sales) or they were scraps left over from other recent projects.

I then adhered either mulberry paper scraps (from a little package purchased at Wal Mart) or tissue paper scraps (from the craft store). The colored paper is what gives these their color.

Some have little images clipped from scraps from other projects. Some of these are junk mail scraps from a recent junk mail challenge ATC swap.

I snipped words taken from yet more scraps that I had laying around.

Some have little circles of tissue paper which are sold for a small amount of money in the party aisle of the dollar store and are supposed to be used as confetti at parties. I liked the effect of using more than one colored circle on top of the other so that they changed color (it may be harder to see these in the scanned image). I also liked using them as a way to highlight the text.

Some of the colorful images are from children's books which were scraps from a recent challenge to use children's book images to make ATCs with for a Swap-Bot.com swap.

Also there are some 1973 Valentine's stickers which I found stashed away at my grandmother's house.

The images of the insects and butterflies are from an old, falling apart insect field guide book (by Golden) which I bought for 25 cents at a library used book fundraiser sale.

Some had edging added with either a Sharpie marker or with a gold marker from the craft store.

All of these are collaged. I did not use any inks such as rubber stamp inks or rubber stamped images.

It was fun to sit down and use scraps to make these.

Everything is adhered with Golden brand acrylic gel medium in soft gloss. This product, when used with tissue paper or mulberry paper, makes the paper translucent.

When I trimmed these I ended up with other scraps which I used to make a set of three abstract ATCs which I will scan and share with you on another day.

Today after scanning them I packed some up to send out for this swap, one envelope is on its way to Australia and the other is going to Montana.

Made 1.5 x 1.5 Inch Collages Yesterday

In between a big family brunch and a New Years Eve party I had three hours to spare. I decided to make some art for a Swap-Bot.com swap. I chose to work on making 1.5 x 1.5 inch collages. I had never done that type of tiny collage before.

It was fun to work on. Once I got going with a general idea they came together quickly. I used my little scrap paper bin to select tiny bits from.

I was thinking the swap was a 5x5 swap and for some reason I thought the swap was with 5 people. I was aiming to make at least 25 collages in one sitting.

Well today I read the guidelines and I have only 2 partners to make 5 collages for. So at that point I had 12 extra little collages.

Then I sat down and made a few more!

I hope to scan them later today when the newest ones are dry.

Then later today the swaps will go out in the mail.

When I upload the scans I’ll share the thought process behind them and what the materials that I used were.

Well that was a fun art project squeezed in between holiday celebrations!

Happy New Year!

Technorati Tags: collage, tiny collages.