November Artist Trading Cards

As you know, I’m a member of an ATC swap group. As always, I enjoy playing with this little ATC format every month, and sending out and receiving, in return, very creative ATCs in the mail. More importantly, though, belonging to a group of fellow crafters has been life affirming, as we share life stories, our ups and downs, crafty news and ideas, and generally supporting one another! So, I had a couple messages to send to this wonderful group in November.

The FB groups have been abuzz about ‘that’ paper and how beautiful it is. I picked up a sheet of it at Hobby Lobby. And I must admit, being a watercolorist, I too have been totally mesmerized by how pretty it is. (And I have an urge to recreate it in my style... on my task list for a later date.) However, feeling a little stressed this month with life events, I decided to recreate a very messy, but somehow totally freeing version of it for the background of this very special sentiment, from the Specially Warm kit. I used a combo of acrylic paints and paint pens and just free handed painting on a sheet of Bristol paper. So, fun... felt like I was back in nursery school! I then used a dotted stamp from A Good Life kit to add a lime green color to bare areas. I cut down the sheet and stamped and die cut the sentiments. Added a little leaves from another kit to the edges of the sentiments and used pens on it. Final touch to the ATCs was to add rustic ribbon. For my ATC friends, I cut down my sheet and included a 4x4 piece along with the ATCs for them to play with. Hope they find and create that special day!

The second ATC was inspired by a few things. I’m really feeling like a mushroom, lately, with the explosion of Covid around me and the shut down my state is experiencing, I’m hunkering down, hiding away, not going out much, not seeing the light - trying to avoid getting sick. Also, my yard gets full of mushrooms this time of year. And third, felt the need to use my pencils and pens on a great stamp! So, I pulled out the Change The World KOTM kit and stamped the mushroom using a gray archival ink. I love the Cozy Evening paper from Mintay, so I used a piece of it for the background and as my color inspiration. I stamped the sentiment from the Trust It Will Be Okay kit and added matching color to it and used Washi tape, a button and sequins to embellish the card.

Well, that’s it for these 2. One more card for today and then I’m done sharing! So, on to the next post! Happy crafting!