My ATCs: Various Themes

This first ATC was created a few months ago. Someone was hosting an ATC swap in which we could use only the comics to make an ATC with. Although I didn't participate in it, I challenged myself to use some Sunday newspaper comics to make an ATC with.

The Harry Potter image was a goodie bag that one of my children came home from a birthday party with. There is a paint chip there as well. The word "score" is from junk mail trying to sell use tickets or season tickets to see the New York Yankees.

This next ATC was inspired by collage papers from Autumn Moon. The owner of Autumn Moon contacted me as she owns one of my ATCs from a swap. She was beginning her business and offered to send me some of her new collage sheets if I would make some ATCs from them so she could put my ATC images on her website if she desired.

I was looking at this image of the woman and I thought she looked a little like she had the devil and an angel inside of her at the same time. I looked through some postage stamps that I had from that starter kit that Kenmore Stamp sells for $2 (500 stamps for $2). I chose a background which I had painted previously with acrylic craft paints and a stipple brush. I made a packing tape transfer out of the collage sheet. I selected the stamps that showed the woman as both a pussycat and a tigress (or is that a leopardess?).

I didn't think the ATC was finishe so I didn't send it in to Autumn Moon. For months I kept it in a box of what I consider to be 'partially done' ATCs. However last week I decided it was good just 'as is'. So here it is.

I was reading "The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery" by Karen Michel and was inspired to make paper doll chains out of newspapers. I used The Wall Street Journal financial papers to make men. The paper dolls were adhered to a background which I had painted with acrylic craft paints and a stipple brush a couple of months ago.

My brother purcashed a home from an artist two years ago. She was already moved to Manhattan and very busy working. She asked that my brother throw away a whole basement and garage full of clutter that she had saved. My brother offered me some of it. She had art instruction books and art school textbooks. There were books on making homemade greeting cards (from back when it was not a mainstream thing to do). There were some finished handmade greeting cards. There were some new, expensive papers also. These origami cranes were amongst the things she wanted thrown away, as they were part of a homemade greeting card. However last month the cranes fell off the card which I had not yet used. I decided to put the cranes onto an ATC background and call it an ATC.

I made this background using acrylic craft paints and a stipple brush.

I considered putting the number "2" on this but left it as is.

I particpated in an ATC challenge swap in which we were to use ONLY elements from a box that something came in (food, products, whatever). The below images were cut from an action figure box of a Pirates of the Carribbean toy.

I had a very hard time making this ATC as I could not get the composition right. I finally ened up with this and liked it so much I decided to keep it.

The purple background is another hand painted background of acrylic craft paint applied with a stipple brush to a food product box.

This originated when I saw the image of the woman in a Dover children's book mail order cataglog and realized she was just the right size for an ATC. I cut out the image.

The background paper (would you believe) is an envelope which contained junk mail. The company was trying to sell us a luxury condo in a resort community. The paper had great texture as well as pretty colors so I saved it for possible use in the "junk mail' ATC swap. I made this long after the junk mail ATC swap was over.

With a 50% off coupon from A.C. Moore craft store I bought a square shaped die cutter.

One night while watching TV I went through a UNICEF mail order catalog and cut out these images.

Last week I used a brown tinted acrylic craft paint and added a cream colored craft paint. I applied the paint with a junk mail credit card sample. When it dried it looked more like a dusty rose, which was different than what I was trying for, but anyway...

I applied the images in a grid like pattern to the background.

This was originally one piece. When it was finished I sliced it into two ATCs.

I was doing an ATC swap for Valentine's Day in which we had to use an image of a heart somewhere on the ATC. I found this little girl in the Dover Publishing children's book mail order catalog and clipped her out. I placed her on a background of a handmade paper from India purchased at A.C. Moore. The greenish background is actually a brochure from junk mail, yet another luxury vacation home place.

(For some reason we are on some mailing lists for medical doctors and they think we are also of retirement age. We get mail addressed to my husband as an M.D. My husband is NOT an M.D. We are no where near retirement age and to boot we are not in the market for a retirement home or to purchase a second home in a luxury golfing community in South Carolina or Florida or Costa Rica.)

Lastly I thought the card was missing something so I added these four little flowers which are rubber stamped with a stamp by HeroArts (they came with an alphabet set).

While decluttering my paternal grandmother's house I came upon loads of new gift wrap. This was from the late 60s or early 70s. I knew it was perfect for making ATCs with. I adhered the gift wrap to a base card of a recycled box. It was very bright so I added a top coat of a custom tinted acrlyic glaze paint.

I was then stuck on this and didn't know how I could embellish it further. I let it sit for months in the 'not done yet' box. I then declared it done and let it free by swapping it out.

The important thing about this is that I had a lot of images to choose from and I carefully chose a section of the paper which looked good on an ATC and had a nice composition and a good flow to it. Some people might criticize this for being an 'easy' ATC but I think that sometimes it is not about being heavily embellished or having dangling things off of it, or chunky things glued onto it, but rather carefully choosing images and having a good composition.

The colors were also very cool and so typical of the early 1970s.

This was another in which I was trying to use comics in the ATC in some way. The piece of envelope and stamps is from an ATC swap I did with someone in the Netherlands.

This ATC was yet another when trying to use colorful comic strips to make an ATC with. Here is another used stamp and envelope piece from an ATC swapper. The phrase "All new..." is from a tourist brochure to the P.T. Barnum Museum. The little letters were sent to me by an ATC swapper. The dollar bill is play money which came inside of a birthday party goody bag that my kids received. The Home/Away piece is from the New York Yankees junk mail brochure that came in the mail.

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