My ATCs: Proud of Where I Live (Some of Them)

I made these ATCs while making ATCs for a swap with a theme of “Proud of Where I Live”. I got on a roll (as usual) and made more than I needed for the swap. Here are SOME of the ATCs that I made with that theme. I don't have time to finish uploading scans so I'll just share these for now.





1. These two were originally one piece cardboard, 5 inches across and 3.5 inches high. I made this collage of scenes from Connecticut USA which I found in an old tourist book for the state of Connecticut.

After the collage was done I sliced it into two ATCs.

It looked kind of boring so I applied a top coat of clear UTEE to give it a raised, smooth pebbly texture. That does not show much on the scan.

(Sadly, the person on Swap-bot to whom I sent the ATC on the left to reports that the envelope never arrived. Groan!)

2. The next ATCs were made trying a 'new to me' method which I learned from the book "Artist Trading Card Workshop".

However the stamp that I used on this is a design that I designed myself. I also hand carved the stamp out of rubber. This was the first hand carved rubber stamp I've ever carved from rubber, I made it last summer.

These all started with hand painted backgrounds of acrylic paint on watercolor paper.

Next I did two things with UTEE. First I rubber stamped the image onto the card with the clear embossing ink.

Secondly I applied random swatches of the clear embossing ink onto the card.

Next I applied the UTEE and melted it with the heat gun and let it cool.

Then I applied a layer of acrylic paint on top of the entire card and let it dry completely.

Next using a hot iron with scrap paper on top, I ironed it to melt the UTEE. The paint that was on top of the UTEE areas was moved off onto the scrap paper.

This is how they ended up.

In the below ATCs the heart image inside of the state of Connecticut is visible.


For these two I used some Anita's brand acrylic paint which is not what I usually used. I found that when I applied the heat gun to the UTEE it changed the color of the yellows and greens to something I didn't like. I don't plan to buy any more Anita's brand paint in the future, if it is not stable under heat then I'd prefer my usual brand of inexpensive acrylic paint (Folk Art).

Can you see how the bright pastel yellow turned orange-ish? That is what I mean.


Some people are asking me what UTEE is. It is an abbreviation for "ultra thick embossing enamel". It is made by Ranger, in the Suze Weinberg line. This is the Ranger website with a description and a photo of the UTEE product.

Here is one website with information.

Here is more information with photos showing how to use it.

I made some others but don't have time to upload those scans.

The extra ATCs have been swapped away in other non-Swap-bot trades. So I don't have any of these left. That is why I need to make new/different ATCs to send to the one person who says that my envelope never arrived.

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