My ATCs: Gesso and Magazine Image Technique

Here are the six finished ATCs all made with a "gesso and magazine image" technique which I learned about in the book "Artist Trading Card Workshop" by Bernie Berlin.

I made these for a swap on Swap-bot. These have flown to my swap partners in California and Australia.

How did I find the time to make these with summer busy-ness? I did the work in stages.



Twice while watching television with my family I multi-tasked by flipping through magazines and tearing out pages which I thought would fit well onto the small ATC size.

On another day I narrowed down the selections making sure the image would fit onto the small canvas size. I then adhered the image to thin cardboard (recycled food boxes usually). They were left for a few days to dry thoroughly.

Then I applied the gesso (white) and let that dry for a number of days.

On another day I used a Sharpie marker to outline what I wanted to highlight.

I then was busy and not home much. One day I woke up earlier than everyone else and sat down in the quiet house to paint with acrylic craft paints.



Some of these have straight paint. Some of them I painted then wiped it off a bit with my finger or a dry paintbrush as the color was not sheer enough. I used a paintbrush and also other times painted with my fingetip. I also used the end of the paintbrush dipped into paint to make round circles for some of the eyes.

The face-ATC below is my least favorite.



Okay, now for the jewel-encrusted skulls!



One thing I want to explain about the skulls is they are what seems to me to be odd pieces of jewelry. They are goth-inspired jewelry and each costs over one thousand dollars! They were three dimensional and cut out of jade or something like a sculputure then they were encrusted with real gems. I found them bizarre looking and though they would make a different subject matter than always using women's faces.



As I mentioned earlier I learned this technique from the Bernie Berlin book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". I am enjoying making ATCs with techniques in this book.



Technorati Tags: artist trading card, Bernie Berlin, Artist Trading Card Workshop, collage.

Me In August 2007

Here is a picture I took of myself earlier this month. I figured I needed a new photo on my blog and there was a challenge on the Creative Mom Podcast to take a portrait of ourselves by holding the camera in one hand and snapping the photo.

It was a spur of the moment thing. Not much makeup, hair "as is", etc. This is the real me, summer style, with sun-bleached hair. I took it the evening of my older son's tenth birthday, on a whim when I went to grab the camera out of my car. So here I am, mother of a double-digit child, the 40 year old me.

In case you noticed a change, last month I decided my hair style was not flattering so cut off three inches. I am back to short hair after a bunch of years with longer hair.

ChristineMM Book Review: Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap by Bernie Berlin

In December 2006, North Light Books has published a book authored by Bernie Berlin called “Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap”.

This book serves to teach techniques for making artist trading cards. Actually the techniques taught in this book can cross over to other mediums such as larger works of art such as larger collages, can be used in altered books, in “decos”, to make postcards to use in mail art and in many other applications.

I have a feeling that due to the legal issues with copyright violations, many techniques and materials currently used by many ATC swappers are NOT covered in this book. I’ve been swapping ATCs for nearly two years and so many of the ATCs I’ve seen do not use these great techniques. While thinking about the ATCs I have seen I realized that many would not be accepted for publication in a book due to copyright violations. Therefore what we have here in this book is largely based on either antique images (photographs) whose copyright has expired or whose source cannot be located to ask for reproduction permission OR the art is completely original to the artist’s hand. There is some rubber stamping in here as well.

Since entering the world of mail art and artist trading card swapping, and being a member of online discussion groups I’ve learned a lot of different techniques yet this book has taught me even more new things. It is not a re-hash of the common techniques that are already available on the Internet for free.

There are many examples of artist trading cards made by a lot of different artists which I really liked. The author does have some of her own wonderful ATCs in this book and the inclusion of so many other artists’ work in addition, is also appreciated and inspiring to me.

Each technique has many examples of the finished ATCs made by different artists. There are directions for each technique as well as photos of the steps in the process. My only complaint is that I was a little confused sometimes as the directions sometimes have two or three steps combined into one paragraph with one photo which shows only one of those steps. I would prefer that every step be separate and that a photo depicted each step. Also sometimes the final card is not shown, we have just that last step with it “in process” to use. It would have been nice to see that finished piece for every technique.

Overall the book has given me a lot of inspiration and ideas just by viewing the finished ATCs of all the contributing artists as well as teaching me so many new techniques. My couple of complaints are minor.

The book is laid out very well and the photography is stunning.

Regarding the style of the artists, it runs the gamut. This book is full of all different colors and many different techniques. It is not the same-old, same-old nor is it full of just the latest trends (thank goodness). At the back of the book is a listing of the contributing artists and their contact information and websites (if applicable). One could spend hours just viewing the websites of these artists and that provides yet more inspiration and eye candy.

The book also has a short history of ATCs and brief information on how to do mail swaps. There is a listing of Internet swapping sites as well. (I would add the new and growing Swap-bot.com site as my personal recommendation.) There is also a list of resources for supplies and tools for making ATCs.

Since purchasing the book I’ve tried a bunch of these techniques and had a lot of fun trying them out. As with all new experiments, there is some trial and error, some mistakes are made and some lessons are learned, that is all part of the learning curve. I can’t wait to try even more of the techniques and I plan to host some ATC swaps based on the techniques taught in this book.

If you are already trading ATCs and want even more techniques to try or just want to own more eye candy inspiration, this book is a must-buy.

So go play, make some art and have fun! Then go do some mail art swapping and have more fun with that!



Technorati Tags: artist trading cards, ATC, Artist Trading Card Workshop, Bernie Berlin, mail art.

Making ATCs for Swap "Magazine Paper"

Today I made some time to make some ATCs, in between doing other things. I had also spent a couple of hours making some for this swap, two days ago. I have a deadline approaching for an ATC swap with a theme of using magazine paper as the major source material for images and words. That is one of the techniques in the Bernie Berlin book "Artist Trading Card Workshop".

I had fun getting into the art groove the other day and again today. I have twelve completed ATCs with the "magazine paper" technique now.

After I scan them and put my contact info on the back I will send them out to my swap partners, probably tomorrow.

Making the art was fun and knowing I am close to finishing one project with a deadline feels good too.

I'll see when I can squeeze in the prep work to share the scans of the ATCs with you here on my blog.

You can read my book review of Bernie Berlin's book here.

PostSecret Mini Movie

This week instead of posting the usual scans of postcards, PostSecret is featuring a mini-movie (it is under five minutes long). We are encouraged to share this mini-movie, so here you go.

Warning: Contains some mature themes.

Unknown: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the last of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Unknown”.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Uncertainty: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the ninth of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Uncertainty”.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Confusion: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the eigth of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Confusion”. This one is ideal for the second-step in the book’s process which is to use these pages as a base for journaling, that is, to write on top of the artwork which was created.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Tell Me What Will Happen: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the seventh of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Tell Me What Will Happen”.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Overwhelming: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the sixth of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Overwhelming”.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Change: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the fifth of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope, titled “Change”.

In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

So Much To Think About: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the fourth of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope. In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

Look In, Look At: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the third of ten mixed-media collages I made in July 2007 as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope. In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.

A.C. Moore Coupon Rule Change

Well this stinks. I just noticed that this weeks A.C. Moore coupon has added more things that cannot be discounted to their list. In the past it was the one or two very expensive die cutter machines (that I don’t own nor want), so I didn’t care about that restriction.

This week they have added magazines as one more thing that can’t have the coupon applied. That is a problem for me. For the last two years, I was using that coupon to buy Somerset Studio and also the Somerset Studio Gallery and Somerset Workshop publications. Since the Workshop is priced at $14.95 the 40% or 50% coupon was a huge help in making those publications affordable for me. Also the price to buy it at the store with a 40% or especially the 50% discount made the cost lower than the subscription price. Also since the regular SS magazine costs $7.95, the 40% or 50% discount was nice to get!

In the past I have not been able to find SS Gallery or SS Workshop at Michael’s Craft Store to buy with the coupon. The regular issues of SS are not in large supply at Michael’s so often I can’t find them there at all to purchase, and was forced to go to A.C. Moore.

On another side note about finding these magazines at a discount, Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores don’t let teachers (and homeschoolers) use their educator discount on any of the magazines they sell. This includes the Somerset Studio Workshop, which in content, is more like a book as it is a book of “how to” instructions that can be used with children. Oh well, it was worth a try.

I guess if I want to get the magazines at a discount now I’ll have to buy a subscription. And I have no prospects for buying the SS Gallery or the SS Workshop, for a discount.

Or I wonder if A.C. Moore’s Moonlight Madness sales on selected Sunday nights that give 25% off everything in the store that is not already on sale would still apply to magazines?

I am so disappointed by this change in the coupon. Sigh.

A.C. Moore still publishes their weekly coupon online. You can find the most recent coupon by doing a Google search for “AC Moore weekly coupon” and the link will come up. This is good for people like me who do not buy a local city newspaper on Sunday so we don’t have access to the weekly sales flyer in paper form. The A.C. Moore website also has their full sales flyer online to read from home.

Michael’s Craft store accepts competitor’s coupons but they must be from the actual newspaper, they don’t take the A.C. Moore coupon that you print off from the Internet.

Links
Info about Somerset Studio publication

Info about Somerset Workshop publication

Info about Somerset Studio Gallery

Technorati Tags: A.C. Moore, A.C. Moore coupon, Somerset Studio.

Happiness: My Mixed Media Collage

Here is the second of ten mixed-media collages I made about a week ago as part of a guided exercise in the book Kaleidoscope. In a nutshell we were told to assemble certain types of art materials and then I followed the directions on what to do, but they were vague such as “paint five surfaces” and “write one word” and “scribble with a pencil”. I was forced to work quickly and without the time to put much thought into what I was doing.

This is a fantastic book which is actually a collection of previously published articles from art zines. There are many different authors who wrote the articles in this book. There is also a lot of interesting art contained in the book, again, from many different artists.



Technorati Tags: mixed media collage.