ATCs: Halloween Bird and a Good Boy.

UPDATE -- The Halloween ATC was one of the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Winners!  Thanks to the SSS Design Team!


Happy weekend, everyone!  I hope you are enjoying it - they never last long enough.

Today, I am sharing two ATCs for a swap.  If you are new to Artist Trading Cards (ATCs), these are little works of art that are 2.5x3.5 inches.  Basically, they are the size of a baseball card or a poker card.

The themes for these were based on the profiles for two different people.  One person liked blackbirds and Halloween, and the other liked the color turquoise and the Tim Holtz crazy dogs.   These are the cards I came up with:

I started both of these cards the same way: I glued bookpages from an old book to Canson watercolor paper.  When it was dry, I lightly brushed gesso over the bookpage to push it to the background a bit.  I don't want to cover up the page completely, and you can still see the text peeking through.

On the blackbird card, I spritzed the card with water and dabbed fluid acrylic on one of the short edges, and tipped the card up to let them mix with the water and run down the card. I spritzed it with water again and used more of the acrylics a couple more times to make the color darker and more rich.  I used the Red Iron Oxide and the Azo Gold, which are perfect colors for a rusty effect or, like in this case, a Halloween orange. For the dog card, I used the same process, but with a Bombay ink in turquoise. This color is super saturated, so I only needed a little bit!

Once the paint and ink are dry, next comes my favorite part!  I call it creating the scene - not like in a landscape, but creating an interesting background that compliments the focal image.  For the blackbird card, I stamped a tattered, grungy frame in the top left (this may be my new favorite stamp) from a Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous collection. I also added some INCREDIBLE Halloween-themed washi tape by Tim Holtz - I am in love with those birds!  I found the washi tape in Tuesday Morning, amazingly enough - I just LOVE that store!  I also added a torn strip from an old German book...because Halloween just screams "German text" for some reason.

For the dog card, I stamped a bone from the Tim Holtz Crazy Dog/Crazy Cat collection.  The circles (that I'll later turn into tennis balls) were from a newer Finnabair stamp collection.  I also added the black and white washi tape and some stamps along the edge.

Now to finish the cards!  I stamped a black bird onto mixed media paper and fussy cut it.  When I put it on the card, I also realized that it was lacking in...something, so I pulled out a circle stencil, traced it onto an old book page, and cut it out.  Instant bookpage moon!  I glued the elements down and finished by going around the card edges and the washi tape with my Stabilo Marks-all pencil.

For the dog card, I chose the Boston Terrier - I love his surprised look.  To me, it said "*Who's* a good boy?  Is it me? Please say it's me!  Am I the good boy?!"  It's so cute.  I stamped the Boston Terrier twice onto some Canson mixed media paper and colored them with some Caran d'Ache Neocolor water-soluble crayons before fussy cutting them. (I usually make two cards that are the same.  One is for me, as it's usually the one I experiment with and make mistakes on, and one is for the trade.)  I also went and colored in the circles with a yellow neocolor to turn them into a tennis ball.  For the bones, I used my white gel pen.  I glued the dog and sentiment down, and viola!  Cards are finished!

I hope you like what you see - until next time!  Have a great weekend!