ATCs are fun

Welcome to my 40th blog post!

Here is an ATC I made at last month's ATC Night at Vox in Midtown.

I made a checkerboard background by pressing some tiny ink pads directly onto the paper. All of the images and the border on the bottom are from ARTChix Studio.

Check out their weekly art challenges here.

And now for something completely different...

This is my first Artist Trading Card (ATC). I was feeling just a tiny bit stressed out about the big craft fair weekend that I will be having next weekend (May 2nd & 3rd). Frankly I was overwhelmed. I had about 15 pieces that needed to be finished, as well as a a bunch that needed to be priced and carded. I had so much to do, I actually made a list. (Those of you who know me, know how I feel about lists.)

Well...I craft to relieve stress (which is why I have so much to sell, hehe), but the thought of making more jewelry made me a little more stressed (gasp). So I was trying to clean up my paper area, when I picked up my bag o' images and (many from the ARTchix Studio) and an ATC kit fell out onto my lap. I had purchased it some time ago for inspiration in my bottlecap and domino designs but most of the images where too big. (In the past I would have given the stuff I can't use to my daughter, but she doesn't live that close any more.)

So anyway...I thought I would try out the ATC kit. It had a bathing beauties theme. This is what I came up with. I don't know if the scan really does her justice, but you get the idea. I had a hard time keeping the glitter to a minimum. I painted a little bit of glitter on the star fish and let the rest of the sparkle come from the blue shell border on the bottom.

Just to let you know, I figured out how to turn her into jewelry anyway. I scanned her so that I can change her scale and print her out and put her between glass and turn her into a soldered pendant. But this way, I can keep my original ATC as inspiration. By the way, I have begun a second collage, called a twinchie (2" square), that actually has a jewelry theme. I'll let you know how it turns out.