Artistcellar ATC Swap

I wasn't sure how many ATCs to sign up for to participate in the upcoming Artistcellar ATC swap, which is being done via Facebook. I love doing ATCs, but the choice was either 5 or 10, so I played it safe and chose 5. Well, I got into an ATC-making frenzy last weekend, and came up with about 30. Not that they were all fabulous...there were some ho-hum ones that didn't make the cut. But I managed to whittle the contenders down 6...I will keep one and mail off the other five. It will be interesting to see what I get in return.

I used the Artistcellar inspirational word pocket stencils...and had a "DUH" moment when I realized they were exactly the size of an ATC. Well, that sure made it easy to work with them! They also conveniently made a good template--not only were they good to trace around for a shape outline, but they are transparent, so I could lay them on top of a larger piece of artwork and see what section would look good cut down to an ATC.

I also used the Jill K. Berry compass rose and steampunk stencils, and layered the stencils on top of each other (after each section was dry, of course)

Thank you to my friend Sonja Hageman, who contributed some of the background paper and fabric. Sonja is a quiltmaker/teacher and fabulous artist who lives in Hawaii. She uses fabric and coffee filters to absorb spills when she is handpainting onto fabric, and then uses the "trash" to wrap ATCs and other small art exchanges in when she mails them out. Sonja's trash is definitely my treasure.