Artist Trading Cards January 2023

Struggled making ATCs in 2022, stopped for awhile and then restarted with a much smaller group. By then, my mojo was lost. Finally got my act together after Christmas and produced these. 

The first was created using 2 Unity kits, Soul Mail and Darkest Night, Brightest Day. I started by painting pale stripes down 2 sides of ATC cut watercolor paper, softening the edges. I then stamped the girl image. Using the script stamp, I cleared embossed the script around the girl. Then, I stamped a couple of the postage stamps around the ATC’s using distress inks. I ink blended a little more color on to make the script stand out in a few places and added spatters.

 I stamped the girl again on a pale sheet of Prima patterned paper. I used pink and yellow pencils to add color and shading to the clothing and face, and for a bit more dimension, a metallic gold pen. I colored in the hair with pencil and pens on the ATC. I fussy cut her clothing out and added it to the image with foam tape.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment, backed it with the other side of the Prima paper, pulled the ATC together and added crystals. For some reason, I was identifying with this girl… maybe it was a message to myself!

For the second ATC, inspired by Karen Rice and other YouTube videos, I watercolored a scene on Arches watercolor paper using my Schmincke watercolors. To do this, I basically took my pad and penciled out 4 4” x 4 1/2” sized sections. I then drew a somewhat similar scene on each one. I tried to create a hazy background with a hill that drops off. I then painted in the ATCs using 3 paints. I added white gouache spatter and cut the paintings down.  I white embossed the sentiment from Unity’s Hello Winter Days Kit. After fussy cutting the words, I added them to the ATCs and called them done!

So, here’s the individual set…

That’s it for today! Thanks for stopping by!