Artist Trading Cards

Prompted by Simon's "Artist Trading Card" challenge, may I present this trio made with an image transfer on kraft card stock using the sample ad for the Tim Holtz "Groups" Found Relatives as the background.

The next layer is white heat-embossed stamping (Tim Holtz Mail Art stamp set) along with some Tim Holtz Photobooth pics.

My stock of colored embossing powders is limited so I used permanent inks to tint/tone-down some of the stark white and also used a few strips of Tim Holtz Design Tapes. I painted on the white border.

I don't make many trading cards but if you'd like to see a few more, here's a link. 

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

ATC Writers

Today I'm sharing some "artist trading cards" and the inspiration came from this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp. Making multiples might have been implied so there are nine of them.

Many times, I'll thumb through books I've collected that were saved from dumpsters to get ideas and use for collages. A page from a history book captured my eye.

I trimmed each picture to standard ATC size, pasted them on thick cardboard, encased them with clear medium, used gesso to bring out the details and tinted them with markers.

I stamped the backgrounds by masking the faces and the text came from the same book which offered up a summary of the author's style.

The feature that really represents my style is the use of dimensional dots along the border. If you trade cards like these and would like one just let me know--my email is in the sidebar.

Labels

This is an artist trading card (ATC) and it's the size of a standard playing card. It was made (along with three others) for this week's theme at Simon's Monday Challenge Blog.

I'd never made an ATC before but it's not much different than a tag size-wise and I like working small. Mine became a series rather naturally as a result of using a group photo fussy-cut from a book.

Below is a view of the four of them together but you'll have to open the light-box view (just click on the photo) to get the full effect.

Here's what the original photo looked like before I began to assemble the collages. The children (students) were all lined up in front of their rather impressive school building.

It was my intention to use materials/design elements that best reflect my current style: The fussy-cut figures, Distress Ink stains, stamped tissue paper, Remnant Rubs (Gilded Accents), postage stamps, polka dots (washi tape) and machine stitching.

The children's manner of dress (some without shoes), the mix of age groups and their expressions (perhaps being photographed for the very first time?) are all very endearing and illustrate perfectly why I like working with vintage photos so very much.