ATC Blues for Paper Traders

 

I joined a new Yahoo trade group recently, called Paper Traders. It's always a little scary entering new territory, with new people and new rhythms, but I really missed trading ATCs, and some of my old groups fizzled.

I have really made a shift in my artwork in recent years--I started out as an art quilter in 2006 when I bumbled onto a Quilting Arts Magazine in a bookstore. Since I had always loved sewing, art, and was for many years a fabric designer, I was hooked. I made a lot of art quilts, journal quilts, quilted postcards, quilted ATCs and various fiber projects. However, after living with neck and shoulder damage for overdoing my fiber work (from cutting through thick layers of cloth and batting with a dull rotary cutter, and painting directly on fabric using too much arm & shoulder pressure) I gradually switched to paper.

For me, paper is actually a lot easier to handle, it doesn't shift like fabric, usually doesn't bleed or fray, and you can still stitch through it if you want.

This trade required, in addition to the predominant use of the color blue, three layers. I was a little baffled because I never really consciously thought about how many layers I was or wasn't using. When the creative bug strikes, I go with the flow and what happens, happens. So, I had to really think about layers.

These pieces (I made 6...3 to trade and 3 to keep) started with a good quality heavy Japanese watercolor paper. I applied molding paste through a swirly Retro Café Art stencil, and when dry, painted the whole thing with shimmery Lumiere acrylic paint. I used a turquoise, then wiped on some indigo Lumiere. After the paint dried, I cut 6 atcs. I added layers of paper strips: vintage magazine text, French antique handwriting, and Chinese newsprint.

Embellishment was added in layers: first a brass Chinese "coin", attached with a brad. Next I added gold dots with dimensional paint. Each card got a tiny inspirational word, which was printed on clear Avery mailing labels. Last, I wanted more texture, so I punched a hole and added a blue grommet.

1960s-Inspired Verdigri ATCs

When artist Sonja Hagemann suggested the color theme of verdigri for the January Arts in the Cards ATC exchange, I had to look it up. Well, it is a very cool color, and a very creative prompt. Think of the Statue of Liberty or old copper pennies and you get the idea—the special green-blue that copper gets when it is weathered.

I am in the middle of a huge project—selling our house and moving to smaller quarters— so I had 17 years of accumulation to go through over the past few months. (If anyone wonders why my last blog post was December 2012, now you know why!)

As I was going through the top shelf of my bedroom closet, I found an old glass jar that at one time had some air freshener in it. The jar wasn’t very special, but the top had a pretty floral design cut in it, so I saved it.

For the verdigri cards, I used the jar top as a stencil and applied printmaking paint to watercolor paper. I quickly sprinkled rust-colored enamel powder, and zapped it with a heat gun. I used a combination of two different Lumiere paints to get the verdigris color, then gave it an aged effect with several stamps using Tim Holtz Ranger distress ink in vintage photo. I added some gold dots and gold edging, some chalk and paint here and there to intensify the aged effect. Even though I started with a cookie-cutter 60s shape, each card came out very different, yet they make a distinct group.

Up-cycling Coffee Sleeves into ATCs

Cousin of recycling, up-cycling is taking something most people would throw away and using it again, but making something better than what it was to begin with. In that thought, I have been collecting cardboard coffee sleeves that have a cool design embossed in them, really pretty gum/candy wrappers and used coffee filters/tea bags (minus the grounds/tea).

I made some ATCs (artist trading cards, 2.5" x 3.5") this weekend out of my upcycled materials. I painted coffee filters and coffee sleeves with Lumiere acryllic paints and cut them into off-kilter strips. I did a random, abstract multicolored painting on the coffee filter, and cut it into wedges. After pieceing them together, I added little pieces of gum wrapper and stitched.

I liked the effect so much that I started cutting bigger pieces for a larger up-cycled work.