Monday, October 24, 2011

ATC Swap

These are ATC's that I just made for a swap that I'm participating in.  ATC's are Artist Trading Cards.  People trade them, sort of like baseball cards.  Only prettier.  :)  They are the size of a standard playing card, 2.5 x 3.5".  They are supposed to be traded, never sold.  :)
I'd never done one before.  The third one down, in fact, Music Makes the Heart Light, is the first one I'd ever done.  Some people think they're too small to work with.... too confining... they like a big page or canvas to work on.  Others love this little size, because it's less intimidating....not so much space to fill.  I can see both points.  Probably depends on your mood at the time!  :)  This last two weeks, for me, these have been the perfect size.  It does mean having smaller images on hand ("inchies" work well) or being able to print out images that you love - in a smaller format.



This "Boo to You!" one was made for my friend, Jana, who is hosting the swap.  It's up to her to gather them, spread them all out and randomly choose (without looking at the images) however many (if you put in two, you get two back; four, you get four back, etc.......)  for each participant and get them all mailed back to each person in a timely fashion.  I knew that Jana had originally wanted the theme to be Halloween, but we realized we'd run out of time... by the time people got them done and mailed to her, Halloween would be long-gone.  So, then, we decided to make the theme "open"... so, you could do anything you wanted!  But, I knew that Jana wanted Halloween ones, but also Thanksgiving ones... so, I did one of each for her, because I couldn't decide!  :)
I tried some new background techniques on these.  Another great thing about the smaller size.... it's not too much of an investment - either financially, physically or emotionally - because the area is so small!  That's not to say that it didn't still take a lot of time.  I'm not quick about these things.  Of course, I have other things I'm doing in my life, but even when I carve out time to do art and don't have too many interruptions... I only get one done a day...maybe the start of a second one.  But, I never got two completed in a day.

Anyway, they were loads of fun to do... I look forward to doing more!
I hope you enjoy looking at them!

Happy Fall and Happy Halloween!!
      ~   Teri

Monday, October 10, 2011

My own book - Victoriana

This is my own book, which five other people worked in. I did these three things - the title page, the sign-in page and the tags and then sent it off. It went to Oregon (about 15 miles from me), Western Canada, Arkansas, Minnesota and Maryland. It was so fun to participate in...what a journey, for my book and myself.
This first picture is the title page. Now that I have it back, I want to add more to that spread. I also still have to do the front/back covers.

This is the sign-in page. The dark-brown paper creates pockets, for the sign-in tags to go into.
These are the tags. Each participant signs one.... their name, where they live and the date is appreciated, but people can do whatever they choose.
Some people sent a little "gift" to the next person who they were sending the book to....that was fun, too. I got several little packets of goodies, because I was the hostess of the Round-Robin.
Now, a different group, that includes some of the same people, are working on an ATC swap. ATC's are Artist Trading Cards. They're always 2.5 x 3.5" and they are never to be sold...only traded. They're just a little piece of art. Here's a great site that has three pages of ATC's, so you can see what I'm talking about. Be sure to look at all three pages! Incredible work here!!
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/atcnov03.html
I'll be doing the swap, so that means I need to make two ATC's, to swap... and one for the hostess. I'll post those after the swap is over, so the participants don't accidentally see them ahead of time.
Happy creating!
~ Teri

"The Beach".... my first Round-Robin book!

This was the first Round-Robin book that I did. The theme was There's No Place Like Home. I immediately thought of "the beach". I grew up on the beach.... I mean, I lived one mile from the beach, so I spent a lot of time there! The beach culture is completely different than anywhere else. Especially the culture in Santa Cruz, which is where I was.
I found that sweet scrapbook paper with the little huts, surfboards, guitars and bikes and just knew I had to use it in this spread! I loved the colors and the look of it. So, I used it to start from....chose my colors of paint accordingly. I made a little pocket out of it, where I put an accordion-style folded paper, talking about where I grew up and why I chose the beach. Then, I added those beads.
Such a creative process doing this kind of art!
Enjoy!
~ Teri

The second Round-Robin book

Here's the second book. It belongs to my friend, Jana, and her theme was "Questions of Love". I had a lot of fun doing this one. Once again, I didn't really know where it would lead... I just knew that I was going to include actual questions of love, like "Can you live on love alone?" "Is Love the greatest gift of all?"
I'd been thinking that I was going to incorporate fabric into her book
....then, I noticed, on the inside front cover, that she had used a fabric that was in a collection that I had just used for a baby quilt, so I decided to use one of those fabrics in her book. It's inside the little door.

Yep.... All You Need Is Love.
~ Teri

My third Round-Robin book

Here's the third book that I did. The theme was "Magic". I did "The Magic of the Muses".
This was the first book (or anything!) that I put gesso on and moved it around with a "credit card" to create texture. I loved how it turned out! Then, I started putting acrylic paint on. Oh, but first I used some masking fluid to mask over some words that I wanted to keep, from the original text of the book, and not have to worry about painting over. I had a wee problem, though... I had so many layers of paint on there, that I couldn't find my spots of masking fluid! I found a few, totally intuitively. Was afraid to peel up the paint on the rest of them, just in case I was in the wrong spot... then, I'd just have a spot of roughed-up paper. :( So, I left them alone. But, it turned out all right, anyway. I was pretty happy with this one.
Oh, the magic of the muses....where would we be without them?
~ Teri