Happy Owl-oween ATC

There's another collage challenge over on the Collage Obsession blog. This week's theme is Owls, so I thought I'd get in the Halloween groove and create a digital ATC. I came up with this Happy Owl-oween ATC for the challenge.

This little owl looks ready for a little trip into Boo-ville, wouldn't you say?

Young Miss ATC

I was in the studio over the weekend and found inspiration in a favorite vintage photo. The end result was this Young Miss ATC. 

I used a Kraft paper ATC blank that I spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to age and distress it and give it that grungy look I so love. I added the vintage photo, some stickers, paper fasteners, and a flower for embellishments. Just a simple little piece of altered art really, but I love how it turned out.

Fancy Free ATC

I decided to join in one more challenge this week at the Gingersnap Creations blog. It's the Turquoise, Blue, and Purple Color Challenge. And I've called my Altered Art  ATC Fancy Free.

Once again I've used paper elements and ephemera to create my ATC, with a beautiful vintage photo as the focal point of the piece. Then I added a bit of digital editing to enhance the piece and bring out its colors more. I love being able to give an art piece just a little bit more personality, which the digital editing allows me to do. This lovely lady looks like she's footloose and "fancy free," don't you think?

Night Rider ATC

I've not been doing much artwork lately, nor much blogging. Trying to get back into the swing of things by joining in the Horror Stories challenge at Gingersnap Creations. We needed to create something with a Horror Stories theme...perfect for Halloween time. :) I've created this ATC that I'm calling Night Rider.

I've added lots of paper elements and some stenciling with paper doilies, along with some plastic gems. Then I enhanced the ATC with a bit of digital editing to help age it a bit and bring out more vibrant colors. I love the vintage witch image...she's so fun (even if she's not all too scary). And don't you love the skull-headed bat? Now THAT is scary. LOL

BeWitched Digital ATC

I've been having Halloween on the brain for some reason, which is funny since I really don't care that much for Halloween--outside of seeing my grandkids in their costumes, of course. But since my mind is stuck in Halloween mode, I thought I'd create a digital ATC with a witch theme.

She's a rather pretty witch, don't you think? :) I love the colors of Fall and Halloween, so that inspired me for this Digital Collage more than anything else. I love how it turned out.

Fashionable ATC

This is an ATC I've created for the Gingersnaps Creations At the Mall Challenge.

This ATC combines my love of vintage photos, Altered Art and ATC's, along with my new passion for digital art and digital collages. I'm going to leave it up to you to decide which parts are which.

Your Beach or Mine ATC

I had so much fun altering an existing Altered Art piece recently (Altered Mona Hangtag) that I decided to do it again for the City Crafter By the Sea Challenge.

I took my original Life's a Beach ATC, which is made out of paper products, and I altered it digitally to become a new ATC, Your Beach or Mine.  It's really fun to take something made out of paper and then use digital means to alter it into something new. It lets me combine two different art passions, Altered Art and digital art, into one medium. I was glad I could stretch those skills a bit for this challenge!

Discovery ATC

This ATC is my final project as a visiting artist for the month of April at the Gingersnap Creations blog. The theme for this color challenge was Red and Gold.

I started with a piece of ATC-sized illustration board, which I covered with a piece of scrap wallpaper that is a metallic gold color.  Next I added the Discover vellum paper embellishment and the red ribbon near the bottom. I added a 3-D bird cutout, and also another egg cutout to repeat the one on the vellum image. And I finished it off with some red rhinestone gems on each of the top corners of the ATC.

I really enjoyed my time as visiting artist. It helped me stretch my wings a bit as an artist and step out of my comfort zone a bit too, which is always a good thing to do as an artist.

Geisha ATC

I was recently asked to be a Visiting Artist at the Gingersnap Creations blog for the month of April. This month's theme is The Far East, and the first challenge of the month has the more specific theme of Geishas. So I created this Geisha ATC.

I started with an ATC size (2-1/2" x 3-1/2") piece of heavy paper that came in a paper elements pack from K & Company. It has some lines on it and the butterfly.  I distressed the edges with a bit of red ink. Then I stamped on the Asian text using black ink. Next I created the Geisha image by stamping it onto some card stock and then embossing it. Then I attached it to the ATC in relief using a piece of foam core. I added a red flower gem to her hair for a pop of color. I also added a piece of scrap burlap for some texture, along with a flower element that I added some more gems to. And I finished it off by stamping out the letters to spell g-e-i-s-h-a.

Friends Forever ATC

I haven't made any ATC's for awhile, so I figured it was about time to make another one. And this ATC is very girly! :) I'm using this for the Craft Your Passion Anything Goes Challenge, as well as the Ginspiration Challenge at Gingersnap Creations; they provided several inspirational themes, and we just had to pick one--I chose a photo of a jacket with a black & white design motif.

I started with a piece of ATC-sized illustration board. To that I added some pink textured cardstock. Then I took some scrapbook paper that has a black & white design motif much like the photo inspiration, and I tore it on one edge and distressed it with some brown ink. Then I glued that over the top half of the ATC.

Next I added a vintage photo of two girls, one of whom is holding a pink heart. I also punched some pink heart shapes from the same pink background paper and glued them to the black & white paper. Then I stamped on a decorative heart and the words, friends forever, in black ink. I added some rhinestone gems to give the ATC some sparkle, and I distressed the edges of the ATC to give it a bit more dimension and definition.

I may have to give this to someone for Valentine's Day, don'tcha think? It would be perfect for that for sure.

2 of Spades ATC

Awhile back I created the first ATC I'd planned to do from a deck of playing cards. That was the 3 of Hearts ATC. So I thought it was about time I alter another card in the deck...after all, there are a lot of cards in the deck waiting to be altered! So here's what I did.

I used a Glimmer Mist on the card itself. Wasn't sure how that would turn out since the card's surface is very slick, and it was starting to puddle up on me. So I decided to break out the heat gun and help speed up the dry time. When that was done, I really liked the background; it's very fluid and freeform-looking. And up close, the card does have a nice shimmer to it now, which I like a lot.  Next I added a vintage photo of a fairy girl, who has pink and purple wings.  I added a coordinating butterfly image on the fairy girl, and then I added some purple daisy stickers in the empty opposite corners. I finished the ATC off by adding some pink rhinestone gems to the daisies and to the butterfly.

OK, so 2 altered playing cards down...only 50 to go!

Dream of Paris Artist Trading Card

This ATC is the result of the May challenge on the Scraptivate site...the theme of which was "Metal." The first thing that came to my mind was one of the biggest hunks of metal on the planet: The Eiffel Tower! So that was my inspiration. And since I do dream of one day going to Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower myself, this was a fun way to do some daydreaming.

I created a crackle paint finish using Tim Holz crackle paint. I also distressed the edges of the ATC a bit with some copper ink. I added a photo sticker of the Eiffel Tower and a diecut flower. I stamped on a postage mark that says, Paris, France, and also embossed the word "dream" onto a piece of paper and adhered that as well. Finishing touches were some copper brads, along with a 3-D dragonfly that has some copper antennae. I really love the texture of the crackle paint, and overall I love how this ATC turned out!

Au revoir for now!

Sweet Artist Trading Card

This is the final of 3 ATC’s I made for the swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I belong to. It is my favorite of the 3 that I made. I'm also using this an entry to the Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge for transparencies. :)

Again I started with a scrapbook paper background. The image is an inkjet transparency made from a vintage photo, and I used Mod Podge to adhere that to the background, just adding some along the back edges. I added a torn piece of contrasting paper near the bottom of the ATC, along with a butterfly photo image. In the top left corner I added a paper flower with a bronze/copper metal brad. Then I finished the whole thing with the alpha stickers that spell out S-W-E-E-T.

I love this ATC! It was really difficult to send it off to someone for this swap. I almost didn't! But I finally caved and mailed it to its intended recipient, along with the other two I'd made. So now my  little ATC art is in the hands of other creative artists across the country.

Friends Artist Trading Card

This is another of the 3 ATC's I made for the swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I belong to.

For the background I used scrapbook paper, which I distressed just a bit using distress ink. For the image, I used a vintage photo that added to fabric by doing a gel medium transfer. It gave it a pink hue, which actually I didn't realize it was going to do, but I went with it. It also made it sort of translucent, which I really liked. After I applied that with some Mod Podge, I added the black ribbon and ric rac. Then I punched a hole on either side of the top of the ATC and added metal brads. I finished it off with a paper flower embellishment, and the word F-R-I-E-N-D-S.

Dream Artist Trading Card

This ATC is one of three I made for a recent swap at the ArtHavenCreations Yahoo Group I joined recently.

I began with the background, which is a piece of scrapbook paper. Then I found a nice vintage photo fairy that I had on hand. I liked how there were hearts in her fairy wings, so I incorporated hearts into the overall design, using a heart punch to create some paper hearts. I also added a gem to the front of her dress for some sparkle. I added another butterfly and also a rose for some more color and balance, and the D-R-E-A-M letters too. I finished it by using some distress ink on the edges for that lovely aged look.

3 of Hearts ATC

I happened across a couple of decks of playing cards in my studio the other day. After some careful consideration, I decided they were the perfect size with which to make ATC's. So this is my first ATC creation using a playing card, the 3 of Hearts.

I had such fun creating this one...used a big text rubber stamp for the background, and distressed it with Distress Ink, of course.  Got a great vintage fairy photo from Art Chix Studio , which was a great website to find, BTW. I was doing a search for my blog after creating it and found that site first. LOL They have some really great stuff for altered art and mixed media artists.

Anyhoots, I also added another butterfly image, to match the vintage fairy. I added some black ribbon to create some extra interest, and a red heart button to replace the heart I covered up with the fairy. I also added some heart brads, a sticker that reads, "kind," and a black button.

I had so much fun with this that I think I am going to alter the entire deck of cards, making ATC's out of every single card! That will be a nice little set. :o) But for now I'm back to the studio, working on a Michael Jackson painting for my celebrities in blue series.

Fly ATC

This is my very first ever ATC (Artist Trading Card). Not sure if I followed all the rules--not that there are any ATC police to come and get me if I didn't. LOL The main requirement of an ATC is in its size; it's basically a miniature work of art and should be 2-1/2 x 3-1/2" in size. ATC's are meant to be swapped or traded, but never sold.  I really need to get making a bunch of these, so I can start doing some ATC swapping. How fun would that be? To have a grand collection of mini works of art, created not just by you, but by people from all over the world?!

My first one was created for a challenge in a Ning Community I belong to, called Scraptivate. The challenge was to create something with the theme, Taking Flight. What we created was up to us, and medium or art form. So I just decided on an ATC.

I used some scrapbooking paper to cover some illustration board. Then I found a vintage photo of an angel that I liked, which seemed like a perfect fit to the theme for the challenge. I tore the edges of the photo and Mod Podge'd it to a grungy'd up piece of card stock I had. I wanted some color, so I found a butterfly photo to add (Butterflies do fly, after all). I added a strip of grungy, ripped muslin to the bottom for texture, and added two buttons to create some depth. I added some glitter to her wing, though it's difficult to see that in the photo. The final touch was adding the word, Fly, which I stamped onto grungy paper.

One of these days, who knows, she might belong to someone on the other side of the world! Fly, indeed.