Day Eleven – Seeing Stars

Continuing with working on my June artist trading cards for Saturday, I cut out the patterned and layered tissue papers from yesterday. I chose a kraft brown cardstock for the backing. It's easy using Sizzix die #656332 for cutting several cards with rounded corners.

Then I tore the cut out cards with the two different patterned papers roughly on a diagonal to be combined, gluing them to the cardstock with Golden matte medium.

Next I began trying out some ideas with stencils, distress ink and some fabric and washi tape. I had previously stamped a vintage image of children with a flag for a July 4th holiday theme of red, white and blue. Then I hand colored three image variations, scanned and re-sized in Photoshop to fit ATC size better. Finally, I printed a couple of sheets in color. I'm liking the way the elements are coming together. Tomorrow I'll finish assembling which is the fun part.

Day Nine – Come Tuesday Morning

My inspiration today came from getting up early and doing things on a weekday I couldn't do when having to go to work. I went to Tuesday Morning on Tuesday morning! However, I didn't find any great door buster deals when the doors opened at 10 am. But I did discover that they moved to a new building with another Daiso Japan next door. At TM, I found some Sizzix embellishments from the Moroccan line by Dena Designs at a greatly reduced price. These will go nicely with some of the dies and stamps I already had, pictured, for cards, ATCs or jewelry. From DJ, I bought a small notebook to start "The List" of short and longterm projects and goals. Then onto Office Depot to get some more Really Useful Boxes which were buy 2, get one free, to continue my organizational project from yesterday.

Day Eight – Break's Over

Boxes to Die For

It's Monday and time to get something done. Organizing is doing something creative. It is also necessary in order to know what art supplies I have and where to find them so I'm not wasting my creative time and energy looking for them. Mine have gotten a little out of control... Well, a lot really.

So I spent today pulling newer dies out of boxes and bags to make sure they were catalogued and put away in clear plastic containers I had purchased for the purpose. At some point, I felt quite overwhelmed. I was trying to convert some older containers to the newer ones but found that not only would some not fit but I didn't have enough empty ones. But little by little I was able to group like sizes and types together. I was still left with a cardboard box full but will go buy some more tomorrow. Then it should be easier to put the rest away. I found I like to use these wonderful containers from "Really Useful Boxes" available from Office Depot and Staples. The long rectangular boxes made for CDs/DVDs are just the right size for Sizzix Bigz, Originals and Embossing Folders. They stack nicely, with the lids being raised without any funny indentations in them to prevent closing. Smaller boxes are good for medium Sizzlits, smaller dies and inkpads.

Happy Easter ATCs

Artist Trading Cards made from various die cut shapes, embellished with gel pens. The bunny topiary was covered with embossing ink, then dipped in beach sand and green enamel embossing powder and heated. Then repeated with just powder and highlighted with distress paint. Trimmed toothpick was stained with distress ink and glued to back. 

Mermaid ATC

I recently joined an Artists Trading Card group and this is the first one I made for the swap for August 2013. These are 2.5 x 3.5 inch artist trading cards that you make several of and trade with other artists so then you have a collection. I made 25 which was way too many for this group but I'll have some left to trade another time or with other groups. I also found out that I didn't have to make them all the same but it's ok to. The theme was "beach." Without getting to technical, I used some recycled materials such as Pendaflex file folders that were being trashed at the office, aluminum soda cans both die cut to card and tag shapes. Rubber stamps, ink, embossing powder, markers and gel pens were used for images. The recycled metal die cut tag frames inset with mermaid collage elements were finished off with Glossy Accents by Ranger. Pearl Paint beads completed the string o'pearls.

House To Die For

Fun with Sizzix dies and a Vagabond.
This started as a test run to create a set of cards inspired by the decks I had as a kid, that were designed by famed California designer Charles Eames. I used an ATC die to cut the shapes out of double-sided patterned cardstock, then hand cut identical slots on the ends of each card. As an after thought, as long as I had the Vag out, I cut some more shapes using the Artful Dwellings die from leftover paper as I hadn't tried it yet. I started putting the cards together to form a structure to see if my slot measurements would work. Losing myself in the fun of it, I had built a new modern "house of cards" complete with arch and steeple shapes before I knew it.

As a child, these two card sets, one large and one small, were probably the single most influential creative "toys" I played with. They imprinted my young brain with patterns, colors and aesthetics that have contributed to forming career and design choices all my life. I have my Mom to thank for that due to her interest in Eames and selecting these for my playthings, young and uncoordinated as I was.

My memories of them were recently refreshed when Mom and I went to the California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way" show at LACMA. Our main purpose that day was to see In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, where works by Frida Kahlo and others were on display. The CA show was a real bonus featuring furniture and textiles by Charles and Ray Eames and other iconic designers as well as interiors, graphic design, housewares, appliances, Barbie & Ken with the first Dream House and even a full size Airstream trailer! Alas, the gift shop was sold out of the medium sized reproduction set of cards but they can still be ordered online from LACMA or Eames Gallery.

The gears in my brain have been whirring ever since though about making my own custom set. The possibilities are many... think of a custom set of photos for a family member separated by distance, a set with images and words of encouragement, an artist's portfolio, limited edition sets. The proportions of the ATC shape may be slightly different but worked well. While I can't publish the exact measurements of the slot locations due to possible copyright infringement, it's easy enough to Google images of the cards and figure out something similar.