I need some help!

I'm looking for some volunteer help! Here's what I need... An original ATC card from you so I can use it for rewards on a fund raising site: http://www.whenyouwish.com/ProjectDetails/Home/854

If you can help me, please let me know!  jayme at atcsjr dot com.

My clay Starry Night

As promised, here's my process.  Pictures just don't do this justice - it looks so much better in person!

First, I made the scene out of fast drying clay:

Then, after it was dryed out (it took a bit longer than I expected, probably because it was so thick), I started painting it with acrylics.  Here's the first go at it, before I had to let the paint dry or risk messing it up:

Here's the final version of it:

And a few of the close ups next.  You can begin to see in these three photos what I can see here sitting before me:

Quick! Break out the Clay!

I'm creating an ATC out of clay.  I like the idea and that the media gives texture and depth.  Since I'm doing a Vincent Van Gogh inspired piece of art, it was ideal, so I didn't have to put on thick layers of oil paint to get the same effect as he did.

I built the clay up in some places and used a toothpick to carve into the base in other places.  Over all, I'm really pleased with how it's turning out!  With most traditional clay, you have to do your masterpiece, then take it somewhere and get it fired, so it's bisque (hard) and paintable (or glaze-able!).  Myself, I'm too impatient for that.  I want to get to the next stage as fast as I can!

With that in mind, I used Crayola's Air-Dry Clay (you can find that in the ATCsJr store & I'll get a little kickback to pay the expenses ATCsJr incurs - I think I'll get around 15 cents per purchase of this product). It's pretty awesome stuff.  As you can see from the image, it's a no baking clay!  That means, you get to make your art, then leave it over night.  After the 24 hours, you can come back to it and paint it to finish it up.  No trips to a kiln for firing!  No cooling off period!  No waiting for a week after you've created your masterpiece!  It's awesome!

Paint with acrylics, oils, or tempura paints and you're all set!  I think you could even color it with sharpie markers, if you really wanted to.  :)

100 ideas for ATCs

Over at Turbulent Mess Maker, there's a list of about 60 (if you read the comments) ideas for ATC cards.  She challenged her readers to make a list of 100 different themes for ATC cards.  I figure I can do that, so here goes!

1. Monochrome
2. America
3. Only black and white and one other color
4. Dogs
5. Cats
6. Dragons
7. Fairies
8. Tree Spirits
9. Rainbows
10. Toes!
11. Noses
12. Trees
13. Mountains
14. Water
15. Fruit
16. Vegetables
17. Winter
18. Summer
19. Spring
20. Autumn
21. Grapes
22. Hats
23. Masks
24. Spiders
25. Foxes
26. Sprites
27. Grypphons
28. Fog
29. The coast
30. Music
31. Birds
32. Harry Potter
33. Cliffs
34. Gold
35. Rings
36. Bugs
37. Happiness
38. Dried flowers
39. Wolves
40. Moon
41. Sun
42. Planets
43. Dreams
44. Mermaids & Mermen
45. Dolphins
46. Giraffes
47. Wind
48. Leaves
49. Fences
50. Barns
51. Owls
52. Boy Scouts
53. Camping
54. Wildflowers
55. Webkinz
56. Feathers
57. Native American
58. Irish
59. Other worlds, not Earth
60. Eyes
61. Inner Spirit
62. Tea
63. Smoothies
64. Fire
65. Alice in Wonderland
66. Blue & Purple
67. Pink & Purple
68. Red & Purple
69. Play time
70. Wheat fields
71. City-scapes
72. City mouse, Country mouse
73. Self portrait
74. Thumb-things
75. Eggs/Nests
76. Tubs
77. Based on a Haiku or Poetry
78. Teddy bears
79. Swinging
80. All recycled materials
81. Hands
82. Lighthouses
83. Boats/Ships
84. Underwater
85. Zentangles
86. Frogs
87. Origami
88. Peacocks
89. Picnics
90. Iris
91. Blackberry picking
92. After the style of a famous artist
93. Heavens
94. Aurora Borealis
95. Old world navigation
96. Windows
97. Zippers
98. Dragonflies
99. Magic
100. Steampunk

Whew!  That was both harder and easier than I thought it would be.

ATCs on the Cheap

ATCs are a really great choice for creating some art pieces.  You don't get overwhelmed by looking at a huge white canvas when the canvas is about the same size as your hand.  :)  However, purchasing the little cards already cut to the right size is *expensive!*  With that in mind, I'm always after new ways to find materials to cut my own ATCs out.

Yesterday, I was at Fred Meyers (a store sort of like super WalMart that aims to answer all your shopping needs in one stop).  They were taking down the previous week's sale posters and I asked if they were going to toss them.  When the answer came back yes, I requested a couple.

I didn't do my math correctly, so I ended up with a lot of material to recycle in the bin.  Here's what I got from the first poster:

I did better on my math with the second poster and only had about an inch (length-wise) of bin recycle material.  But the great part is I've got a pile of ATCs about an inch and a half thick now!  And it's great material for cards because it's heavy!

I'll have to either gesso the shiny side or stick a label on it in order to put my information about the card on it, but I think I can handle that; especially since I've got a whole BOX of mailing labels I purchased at a second hand store thinking I'd use them somehow for ATCs.  Hahaha!

ATC Creation Process

I've been working on a 3D sort of ATC today:

It was a fun process, too!  I used recycled material throughout the whole thing.  The top piece is made from the top center of a #6 plastic clam shell that our Russian cakes came in.

I used Sharpie markers to make my design.

Then I cooked it in the toaster oven!  Yup, ~275 degrees (F) for about 6 minutes on the parchment paper seen in the picture above.  It shriveled all up and curled around itself.  I had to flatten it back out a little and put something heavy on it to sort of get it to lay down again.

Then I covered a recycled cardboard ATC card (I just cut it out from the bottom of small package) with this flashing leftovers:

Then I put a neat little design in the flashing and lined up the plastic:

I used E-6000 glue to fix them to each other and added a few final swirls to the metal bits...  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

I call it Emotions.  The depth and movement, darkness and light...  It's even got a well in the middle of the plastic - a well of emotions.  :)

Winner Takes All game: Dogs

This month's WTA (Winner Takes All) game features Dogs.  I love dogs and often doodle comic strips about them in my journals.  A few years ago, I was doodling Dogs into famous art works, like Michaelangelo's "Creation of Man," Leonardo DaVinci's "Vitruvian Man," and a few others.  Then we went over to the local school and used chalk to put them all over their sidewalks.  It was a lot of fun, but I'd never done one of those as an ATC until this game.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

I chose to do a spoof on "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer.  This is a picture of the original:

It's striking and the way the girl is looking at you evokes some pretty strong feelings, don't you think?  The colors are pure and you can almost feel the fabric.  I think it's the contrast between the humble everyday servant clothes and the pearl, however, that made this painting as famous as it is.

Here's my  version of it, "Poodle with the Pearl Earring":

I used oil pastels, water colors, sparkly water colors, and micron pen (just for the eye details) to get it done. Where it's certainly not to the standard of the original, I am most pleased with how it turned out.  I wish you could see it in person, as the scan just doesn't do it justice.  The "pearls" on my Poodle are built up water color, so they're 3D and that makes them really stand out.  So, it's not a lifelike Poodle or anything, but it does sort of evoke the same feeling as the original.  I probably should have added more shading to her back, but it's difficult to know where to stop that with fur!

I was going to make this with a black poodle, but decided that probably wouldn't work so well with such a dark background.  It would have to be named something more like "Floating Pearl Earring," then.  Hahaha!

Apparently, our family of artists were all seeing spots this past weekend.  I started drawing my "entry" for the monthly contest, Black and White, with just dots:

Then, as I was working with my Mom, Christine, I noticed that she was doing her WTA Cat in dots, too!

Daphne was with us this past weekend and, where I don't have her piece of art, I did overhear that it was also largely created of dots.  There must've been a telepathic thought, "Let's do dots," floating around in the air, because none of us talked about it with anyone else.  We just all did dots!  lol.

Paint Chip Art

I was looking for an alternative to the expensive ATC cards I've been purchasing.  I tried cutting up larger sheets of paper, which works out well, but does nothing for the environment.  What I found was paintchips!  They're free (as long as you don't take too many at a time) and they're a great weight for making ATC cards.  Most of them are a little bit bigger than the 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" allowed, but it works out that you can cut them down!

So, I got the Martha Stewart paintchip from Home Depot (I grabbed about 10 of them in different colors).  I painted Gesso on the paint chip first, so the other paints and markers I wanted to use would stick to the card.  

It works brilliantly!

On the back, I used mailing labels to cover up the paint chip details so I could write in my own ATC details.  Works wonderful.  Great save for the environment, great save for the pocket book, and cool creative use of what's available for free out there!  :)