Goodbye ATC

The most recent issue (no. 24) of the ATCquarterly Magazine arrived today. The next issue will sadly be the last and I for one will miss reading the only magazine dedicated to Artist Trading Cards. Appropriately the very last challenge theme is: Goodbye. And that made me think immediately about gravestones (well, I'm fairly obsessed with them anyway). So I used a sunny and bright fabric paper background and then printed out one of my photos, featuring a gravestone in West Linton Graveyard (and if you want to see more, check out my other blog on this subject).

On top of that I added Goodbye (done with my Dymo writer). Along the side I added: "it was so much fun while it lasted", something that I would quite like to see on my gravestone and that would be suitable both for the end of me as well as for describing the end of ATCquarterly!

The edges were finished with dotty Japanese tape and then stitching.

This was my ATC for the previous challenge Dog Days, as it was published in issue 24 of the magazine. You can read how I made it on a previous blogpost here.

Dog Days ATC

The arrival of the most recent issue (no. 23) of the ATCquarterly Magazine also meant that in addition to my Marie spread, the Bird and Bee challenge ATCs were published in the centre of the magazine and as you can see below my card was there too. Read about how I made it here.

Sadly there will only be another 2 issues to go before the magazine ceases publication but that does mean there will be 2 more challenge themes and for the next issue it is: Dog Days.

Well, I never need an excuse to art with my lovelies! I used my favourite photograph of Troi and Rueben (you can also see it in the sidebar), printed it onto butterfly fabric and ironed that onto Fast2Fuse. I ironed a paws fabric to the other side of the Fast2Fuse and folded it over the edges of the front of the card and stitched it down. My trusty Dymo writer was used to add the text: for us every day is a DOG DAY!, which was stitched on as well and then I finished with the paw button.

Marie ATCs Published

Marie Antoinette was the order of today as not only did I receive my returns for the Cream Marie ATC Swap (they were super gorgeous!) but the latest issue of the ATCQuarterly Magazine (issue 23) landed in my mailbox too.

Sadly there will only be two more issues of this mag before it ceases to exist but on the positive side a whole spread was dedicated to some of my Marie ATCs. They were all made for various swaps on the Marie Antoinette Swap site and it's great to see them looking so wonderful in the magazine. I wrote the text but the lay-out was entirely done by the magazine and they did a fabulous job!

Birds and Bees ATC

We were greeted this morning by 4 inches of snow and it kept on snowing during the day with more on the way overnight and tomorrow apparently, which will no doubt play havoc with the plans I had. I felt a bit hard done by this is going to happen on the only Saturday for ages when I really needed to go somewhere.

However such concerns seem totally irrelevant on a day when nature once again demonstrates what she is capable of.

At such times I escape to my art which for me is a healing activity that soothes the soul. I mainly worked on beading a large quilt but found time to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card) for the new challenge theme in the ATCquarterly magazine, which was Birds and Bees. Sadly the magazine will stop publication with the Winter 2012 issue but for the moment I'm looking forward to the numbers still to appear! I'll definitely miss the challenges!

The background of this ATC is a part of one of my fabric-pepr collages and the rest is self explanatory. The bird image is from an Artchix Studio collage sheet and the bee from a vintage encyclopaedia.

Has Spring sprung yet?

Don't worry, I know it will be a very long time before Spring arrives! Having said that, the Yellow Garden book for Scotland came in the mail today so that we can start to plan our garden visits for 2011! At the moment it feels like it will never be warm again outside but the time will come!

But Spring has Sprung is the new ATC challenge theme in the ATCquarterly magazine, and it was a good excuse to make something to warm me up a bit! The resulting ATC ,seen above, has a background of fabric - paper collage incorporating a vintage image. I did not add much more as the image of the mole sticking his nose above ground to check out the temperature and ask the question really said it all. A butterfly seemed appropriate too as a springlike sign.

My card made for the previous challenge theme (Cows) had been published in the new issue too! You can check out how I made this one on an earlier post.

It was wonderful to make an ATC for a change! The good news is that I have finished beading my Spring quilt, but the bad that it's now time to sew on 200 buttons! Ah well, all good fun (even though it doesn't feel like that at the moment!)

Holy Cow

The latest issue (no. 20) of the ATCQuarterly magazine arrived today and that meant a quick check and yes, my ATC for the Outer Space challenge theme had been published. Hurrah! You can see it underneath and you can read about how I made it on a previous blog.

And of course the new theme was set and it is: Cows. I've only ever made one previous cow ATC for a swap but that was quite a rustic one. The words that jumped into my head for this challenge were Holy Cow! No idea why, but perhaps they were inspired by the papal visit to Scotland today!

So I went to work and once again managed to locate the cow fabrics I used for the previous cow ATC. They consisted of a cow fabric as well as a transparent fabric with cows. I'm almost sure they were a gift from someone as I can't honestly believe I bought them. They have proved to be most useful however. The background for the ATC is a machine quilted gold lame fabric to which I glued a vintage image of a church. I added the little cow and transparent bits of another cow, both front and back (of the cow!). The little cow received a gold halo with gold beads. The final additions were the words Holy Cow! (done with my Dymo writer) and a gold cross charm (from Lost Art Creations). The edges were finished with gold satin stitching.

Outer Space ATC

This Friday just gone I received my latest issue of the ATCQuarterly Magazine. Always a pleasure and specially because of their ATC challenge. The editor sets a new theme every time the magazine comes out and in the next issue selected ATCs on that theme are shown and a new challenge set.

You might remember the last theme was Sock Monkey and the ATC I made was published in this issue (no. 19). You can read more about how I made it here and see how it looks in the magazine below!

The new theme is Outer Space and I made life even harder for myself by deciding to use only vintage materials for this in the spirit of the Vintage Gluebook Class. Fortunately I knew I have a vintage (published in 1924) book called: The Book of the Heavens. It's aimed at children (or boys and girls as the author insists on addressing them!) and was part of a series of books called The Romance of Knowledge. It's so stunning to read this book with the benefit of about 85 years of hindsight as the lack of knowledge about the subject in question is staggering and most of this book is not about science but about the myths associated with the heavens. Presumably there was so little actual knowledge available to write about and the stories made good fillers for the book. The illustration I used for the ATC is an original from the book and portrays Cyrano de Bergerac, "who attempted to reach the Moon without external assistance of any kind. He simply went and an old engraving shows him in the act of cheerfully skipping upwards". As you do!

In the background you see the constellations (a vintage image gifted by our teacher Mary to everyone in the Vintage Gluebook Class). I copied it onto vintage paper and everything else on the ATC is original. As soon as I read that our new theme was Outer Space the words "I am so out of it", jumped into my mind (I do occasionally wonder what goes on in there!) and they inspired this ATC. I added the actual text by cutting the individual words from the Heavens book.

Sock Monkey ATC

As most of you know by now I'm an enthousiastic subscriber of the ATCquarterly Magazine. This is entirely dedicated to ATCs, published in Canada, and in the centre pages you can always find the ATCs made in response to a challenge theme set by the editor of this magazine.

The theme for the next issue is Sock Monkey. I have to admit to having absolutely no idea what this could mean and when in doubt I Google it! It slowly dawned on me that a sock monkey is a monkey made out of a sock (what else??!) and not just any sock either. It has to be a red heel sock produced by one special factory i.e Fox River Mills. You learn something different every day, I just have no idea how useful this info will prove to be!

I found patterns of how exactly to achieve this sock-monkey transformation, but the inclination to do so is sadly lacking (not to mention the time required!). Among all the online information, I also found a vintage picture of an actual sock monkey which is what I incorporated into my ATC. For the rest I added monkey faces from a fabric in my stash (honestly, why in the world did I buy that one?) as well as a monkey figure from the Alpha Stamps fabric sheet Linen Books. I distressed this slightly to fit in with the background.

While I was beavering away putting the card together the text just arrived in my head and it was printed out on my Dymo writer. It reads: Just put a sock in it!

Above you can see the published ATC I made for the previous challenge which was The Beatles. You can read how I made it here!

Beatles ATC

My latest issue (no. 17) of the ATCQuarterly Magazine arrived today and to my delight the ATC I made for the competition theme Say Cheese was published as you can see above. You can read about how it was made on an earlier post here

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Of course the new theme for the next issue was also announced and it is: The Beatles. Not a subject I would usually make an ATC for, as I was never really deeply into them. But John immediately stated confidently that he was sure he used to have a tape of their hits. As neither of us ever throws anything out we started a search which lasted for quite a while!!!

Eventually John was proved right as the tape turned up in a dusty corner of a drawer and it did even still work although the sound quality was dismal. I grabbed the cover before John could stop me and ran off with it to my studio to produce this Beatles ATC.

The fabric background was left over from my most recent Journal Quilt and by great good fortune (I call it synchronicity) toned in wonderfully well with part of the cover in question. I stamped some fireworks on acetate to make a transparency and adhered it over the cover by sewing. Size 11 seed beads were also stitched on around the image. The word HELP (from one of their songs!) was printed using my Dymo writer and adhered by sewing. Finally I added some corner element toppers, added paper to the back of the card and finished the ATC by satin stitching in yellow (as in submarine!) around the sides.

Say Cheese ATC

The latest issue of the ATCquarterly magazine is out featuring all the ATCs dedicated to Andy Warhol in the centre of the magazine, including one by me. I've pictured it above as it can be seen in the magazine, and you can read about how I made it on a previous blog post here.

It also means that the theme of the next challenge is announced. and it is: Say Cheese.

For some reason (!) I immediately associate cheese with wine (well, it is a great combination!!) and as I knew I still had a bit of fabric-paper background left with a glass of wine on it, I grabbed it off the shelf and started work on the ATC straightaway. I added a sad, surprised looking clown character ( from Alphastamps Large Theatre Jumping Jacks fabric sheet) as he looked as if he was about to say cheese but was not very happy about it. He really gives the impression of being caught in headlights.

The text that came to me to accompany this image was made on my Dymo writer and transparent, self-adhesive tape. It reads: Just say cheese, and you'll get a glass of wine!

I also added a bottle (in the shape of a charm) and 3 heart shaped buttons for the clown. The card is finished with wine coloured satin stitching

Warholesque Frieda

I recently posted about my ATC being published in the most recent issue (no. 15) of the ATCquarterly magazine and of course that also means that the theme for our next ATC challenge has been set and it is: Homage to Andy Warhol.

As soon as I read the words I remembered that somewhere on my computer I had a program which enables you to make different effects with your pictures but it took me a while to remember what it was called (I am rather fond of that sort of programmes!). Finally I managed to locate it on my hard drive and its name is Repligator.

I have version 6 but have discovered that they are up to Version 16 now, if you're interested. Such temptation and I'll have a look at what you can do with the new version and then probably cave in! Anyway one of the things this program does it give your pictures Warholesque variations.

I decided to use a school photograph of myself (see above) taken when I was about 5 or 6 years old. Notice the hand knitted sweater (my mother was and is a great knitter!) I then played with a large variety of different Warhol like effects till I came up with 4 that I was really happy with. I could simply not decided which one to go for so went ahead and made 4 ATCs for the challenge.

I reduced the images to 2.5 x 3.5" size and printed them onto inkjet cotten fabric sheets (from Crafty Computer Paper), fused them onto Fast2Fuse, and quilted them as shown. I then added little and large heart buttons in toning colours, ironed another fabric onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse and finished the edges with satin stitching, using variegated threads.

ATCquarterly

My latest edition (no. 15) of this magazine arrived today. It's the only magazine as far as I know that's dedicated entirely to ATCs. I'm always jealous of reading about groups that meet face to face to exchange their ATCs as this is still a very rare thing here in Scotland. It seems to be a lot more common in Canada, where ATCquarterly is published. Still exchanging them online is also a lot of fun and I've "met" lots of lovely fellow artists that way, including Ronna, the editor of ATCquarterly.

She sets great themes for the ATC challenges which form the centre page of the magazine and the theme for this one was You are my Sunshine and I'm so happy to see my ATC (see above) is there on the page!

I'm already thinking of a card for the next theme which will be Homage to Andy Warhol!

Full of Sunshine

As soon as the ATCQuarterly Magazine arrives the first thing I check is the theme for the next ATC challenge and it was: You are my Sunshine. What a great theme to celebrate the arrival of Spring and I knew I had just the thing to get me started.

I had saved a part of a fabric/paper collage I made ages ago, cut to ATC size. It features the image of a large yellow pansy. I layered this with yellow felt and then started to think what else is my sunshine. I love the image of the Mona Lisa and found her just the right size on Alphastamps Beauty Queens collage sheet. I added gold heart shaped brad to her head. I also associate butterflies with sunshine and specially yellow ones. This is come from a gift sheet by European Papers. I hand stitched rays of sunshine onto the pansy, rubbed gold metallic onto Mona Lisa's face and added the words: Full of Sunshine from an Artchix Studio transparency. Finally I layered the ATC with watercolour paper and satin stitching around all the edges, with yellow thread of course!!

Apparently my ATC was the first to arrive with ATCQuarterly, I definitely had a Spring in my step for this one!

Good things come in threes

This might be a common saying but it doesn't actually happen all that often, at least in my experience, although today was definitely such a moment. My work was published in 3 different places. My Thistle Symbol quilt can be seen on Placebook Scotland, one of my Artblast cards is on the homepage of the Artchix Studio Yahoo group and my ATC on the theme of More Dollars than Sense was published in the latest issue of the ATCquarterly magazine (issue 14), which arrived today. It can also be seen on their website and you can read about how I made it here. The picture of it in the magazine can be seen above.

A tale of 2 ATCs

Two very different ATCs left the house this week, one in actuality and another one in digital form. The first one was for a one-on-one exchange with a blog reader in Spain who mailed me a lovely ATC featuring a handbag. I took a gamble on what she would like and send her the above ATC entitled: All she loves is love. It's on a yellow batik fabric background which was ironed onto Fast2Fuse and machine quilted using one of the decorative stitches on the sewing machine. To this I added a fabric image (from Alphastamps Stepsisters collage sheet) and a Bondawebbed heart from another fabric. I beaded the edges of the heart and stuck on the self-adhesive flower decoration and I also added a pink heart button to the ATC. The text leaped from the page as soon as I opened my book of quotations. I added some rub-on metallic pink to the paper.

The edges were cut with my decorative edged rotary cutter and the heart fabric was adhered to the other side of the Fast2Fuse. Finally I beaded the edges of the card with size 11 seed beads in various shades of yellow.

Secondly I finally finished my card for the next challenge theme in the ATCquarterly magazine, which was More Dollars than Sense. I interpreted it more literally as More Money than Sense and while in the shower yesterday a whole sentence suddenly winged its way into my head together with Marie Antoinette. The sentence was : She had more money than sense specially after she lost her head.

And today I sat down, found a fabric background already fused onto Fast2Fuse. I stitched on an image from Marie Antoinette and overlaid it with an image from some French currency from that time (Bmuse). The words were made with my Dymo writer and adhered on and then also stitched using gold thread. Marie Antoinette's head (still on her neck, at this stage) was adorned with a crown (LostArtCreations) and an olive green heart brad was added to the currency.

The ATC was finished with olive green satin stitching around the edges.

Troi published

I just received my latest edition (no. 13) of the Canadian ATCQuarterly magazine which is full of things ATC related. They have a new challenge theme for each issue and for this one it was Puppy Dogs so I could not resist submitting a digital ATC I made with a picture of Troi when she was still a wee lassie (as we say in Scotland!). I think she can't have been any more than 9 months old when I took the photograph of her in our courtyard surrounded by spring flowers and roses. I mixed things up digitally with scans of buttons and fabric and also added an actual real-life button once I printed out the resulting digital collage onto photo paper, which was then layered with felt and stitched around the edges. It's a real honour to see it published in the magazine.

All the ATCs in this issue are simply adorable and it's good to see other people are as soppy about their dogs as I am about mine!

Autumn Leaves in ATCquarterly

My ATC Autumn Leaves has been published in the ATCquarterly magazine issue 12. The challenge had the theme Fall Leaves and you can read all about the ATC I made here.

The transparency I used on the ATC is from Alphastamps!

Autumn Leaves ATC

There hasn't been a lot of actual art on this blog for awhile so today I gave myself permission to take a rest from the 2 quilts I'm working on and make an ATC for the Autumn Leaves challenge for the ATCquarterly magazine. It's not even summer yet (one more day to go!) but most magazines are already working on their autumnal issues and I guess it will be Christmas next (yak!!).

However autumn I like, just a shame winter comes next and I made a fabric/paper collage last year for my November 2007 Journal Quilt that I was really pleased with. There was plenty of it left so I was able to fuzzy cut the background to get exactly what I wanted onto the ATC. This included the wonderful leaves in various colours but also in the bottom right the text: Grandmother Year etc. and in the top left (barely visible): traditional rhyme. I added some more text: A Shroud of Leaves (quote from Shelley) which I antiques with rub-on metallic gold and green

This background seemed to be made for the transparency image which is from Alphastamps Woodblock Print Ravens sheet, which is layered over the entire ATC. The edges were finished with gold machine zigzag stitch and a gold Krylon pen.

Dotty in ATCquarterly magazine and pictures Abby!

My I'm Dotty about You ATC has been published in the latest issue (no. 11) of the ATCquarterly magazine, both in the printed version and also online where you can see more ATCs submitted for the Polka Dot Challenge. Here is the link! Image used is from Alphastamps and the whole process of making this ATC was described earlier in my blog!

It has been a very warm day here (why, oh why did that not happen when Abby and Michael were here??) so we have been at work in the garden, John cutting the grass and me beading! Oh, hang on, I don't think that counts as gardening! These days are so rare here in Scotland that you need to make the most of them!

You can tell by these lovely pictures taken by Abby's husband that it was a lot colder when they were here! Above are Abby and I in our garden with the chicken house in the background and

for just this once John does figure on this blog!! Here are Abby, John and I in the entrance to Rosslyn Chapel!

Polka Dot Challenge ATC

Time to make the ATC for the next challenge theme set by the ATCquarterly magazine. They always come up with such challenging and fun ideas and this one was no exception. It is Polka Dots.

I had a bit of a think about this one before I actually tackled it. I was lucky in that I have a huge collection of dotty fabrics so that presented no problem and this morning the words "dotty about you" just jumped into my brain in what is called a lightbulb moment!

I searched my ever increasing collection of collage sheets for a image with dots and came up with a gorgeous and fun one from Alphastamps Easter Bonnets fabric sheet and suddenly the whole thing came together.

I used a pink polka dot fabric which I ironed on to Fast2Fuse, and stitched on the cut out image in the left hand corner. I added a green rose (Artchix Studio) to her hat with a seed bead and beaded actual beads (size 15 seed beads) onto her clothes and hat in pink and silver. I added the words I'm dotty about you with my Dymo writer and added size 8 seed beads to the background fabric dots. To further illustrate the words I added an circular image (from Alphastamps Round Pendant collage sheet) and put a pink page pebble on top. I surrounded it with size 15 pink seed beads so that it looks like a thought bubble as you see in cartoons. I finished by ironing the same fabric to the other side of the Fast2Fuse and buttonhole stitching by hand around the edges, using silk variegated thread.