Sweet Artist Trading Card

This is the final of 3 ATC’s I made for the swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I belong to. It is my favorite of the 3 that I made. I'm also using this an entry to the Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge for transparencies. :)

Again I started with a scrapbook paper background. The image is an inkjet transparency made from a vintage photo, and I used Mod Podge to adhere that to the background, just adding some along the back edges. I added a torn piece of contrasting paper near the bottom of the ATC, along with a butterfly photo image. In the top left corner I added a paper flower with a bronze/copper metal brad. Then I finished the whole thing with the alpha stickers that spell out S-W-E-E-T.

I love this ATC! It was really difficult to send it off to someone for this swap. I almost didn't! But I finally caved and mailed it to its intended recipient, along with the other two I'd made. So now my  little ATC art is in the hands of other creative artists across the country.

Friends Artist Trading Card

This is another of the 3 ATC's I made for the swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I belong to.

For the background I used scrapbook paper, which I distressed just a bit using distress ink. For the image, I used a vintage photo that added to fabric by doing a gel medium transfer. It gave it a pink hue, which actually I didn't realize it was going to do, but I went with it. It also made it sort of translucent, which I really liked. After I applied that with some Mod Podge, I added the black ribbon and ric rac. Then I punched a hole on either side of the top of the ATC and added metal brads. I finished it off with a paper flower embellishment, and the word F-R-I-E-N-D-S.

Dream Artist Trading Card

This ATC is one of three I made for a recent swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I joined recently.

I began with the background, which is a piece of scrapbook paper. Then I found a nice vintage photo fairy that I had on hand. I liked how there were hearts in her fairy wings, so I incorporated hearts into the overall design, using a heart punch to create some paper hearts. I also added a gem to the front of her dress for some sparkle. I added another butterfly and also a rose for some more color and balance, and the D-R-E-A-M letters too. I finished it by using some distress ink on the edges for that lovely aged look.

Friends Plaque Altered Art

One of my best friends from high school sent my new granddaughter a beautiful handmade quilt a few weeks ago. I was so touched by her beautiful gift that I knew I wanted to make her a special gift in return. So I made her this altered art plaque.

The plaque itself is plain pine wood. I painted it with watered down pink acrylic paint. Then I used a text rubber stamp to create a background texture on the freshly painted plaque. After that it was just a matter of adding a vintage photo, stickers and other embellishments to complete it. I also used a gold paint pen to add a little outline for depth around the plaque.

I really love how this turned out and I had a wonderful time making it. Knowing that it was for Lori, I put lots of love and care into it. That's what friends are for, right?!

Time Hang Tag

My second project of the day was for the April challenge at Scraptivate, the theme of which is Time. I almost always like to use vintage photos in my altered art, so I found a cute one of a little girl that I thought would make a perfect fairy.

I started with a large, plain white hang tag. Then I added some texture using a rubber stamp that has a crackled paint effect. I was lucky enough to find this rubber stamp at an antique store (of all places!) for only .75 cents...so you know I could not pass that up! I used a butterfly sticker to turn my vintage photo into a little girl fairy.  I added a paper tag that has a clock on it and the word "time," and embellished that with a brass brad. And I added some smaller butterfly stickers and a glittery flower sticker. Then I finished the whole thing off with some fun star buttons and a satin ribbon.

Not bad work, considering the migraine that was working on me during the process! It was a productive and creative day in the studio at least, and as Martha would say, that's a good thing.

Dream Bookmark

Even though I've been fighting a nasty migraine off and on since Tuesday (at 1am!), I was determined to get into my studio today and get creative.  It wasn't as fun trying to work with a migraine, but I was glad I did it anyway. The first project I finished was this new altered art bookmark, called Dream.

The background was created using my favorite text rubber stamp on a plain white bookmark. I added a vintage fairy, some stickers, including the butterflies for some color and texture. Then I added the fabric print flowers using a brad.  And I finished it off with some alpha stickers to spell out the word, Dream, and brown satin ribbon.

Michael Jackson in Shades

All week long I've been working on a new celebrity painting in oils. I've been wanting to do Michael Jackson for awhile. Finally found a couple of photos I wanted to work from, and this one is the result. The first animated photo below shows the painting in process from start to finish. This is the first time I've taken photos of one of my paintings in progress, so thought it would be fun for this. The second image is a static image of the final results.

I really love how this turned out, especially considering this is the first time I've done an oil painting in almost 3 years! It's not perfect, but I love it anyway. And it's taken me a long time to learn to stop dinking with a painting at a certain point...otherwise you can just go too far and mess things up worse (and that's exactly what happens when I don't stop when I should)! I'll be doing another painting of MJ too, using a photo of him from a different time period as a reference. He's going to have curls in that painting. Hopefully I'm as pleased with that one when I'm finished as I am with this one. Curls are not easy! Wish me luck.

3 of Hearts ATC

I happened across a couple of decks of playing cards in my studio the other day. After some careful consideration, I decided they were the perfect size with which to make ATC's. So this is my first ATC creation using a playing card, the 3 of Hearts.

I had such fun creating this one...used a big text rubber stamp for the background, and distressed it with Distress Ink, of course.  Got a great vintage fairy photo from Art Chix Studio , which was a great website to find, BTW. I was doing a search for my blog after creating it and found that site first. LOL They have some really great stuff for altered art and mixed media artists.

Anyhoots, I also added another butterfly image, to match the vintage fairy. I added some black ribbon to create some extra interest, and a red heart button to replace the heart I covered up with the fairy. I also added some heart brads, a sticker that reads, "kind," and a black button.

I had so much fun with this that I think I am going to alter the entire deck of cards, making ATC's out of every single card! That will be a nice little set. :o) But for now I'm back to the studio, working on a Michael Jackson painting for my celebrities in blue series.