ATCs

Here are a few of the ATCs that I created this weekend. I'm still working on a couple of them but I wanted to go ahead and post these.

This is the fresco background with some stamped images and ink shading. I transferred the word.

This is an image transfer onto fabric that I colored with liquid watercolors. The fuzzy stuff is painted dryer sheet. It adds a great dimension that the scan just can't pick up.

Another image transfer onto Lumiere painted muslin.

And an image transfer onto the fresco background. It transferred well even with all the texture of fresco.

Fresco Backgrounds

I spent the weekend developing ATCs and techniques for these classes I'm going to teach. I'm calling this my fresco background and I think this is my all time favorite technique using gesso. It is so fun and easy to create stunning backgrounds.

These are some of the fresco backgrounds that I created using white gesso and Golden acrylics. I just love the Golden products! They add wonderful depth to these pieces. The scan here is flatter than the actual pieces. I think I'll photograph them next time instead of scanning.

Here are some ATC backgrounds that were created using the same fresco technique. This time, I used clear gesso instead of white. With the clear, you can paint and add papers and other bits under the gesso. It really changes the feel and adds another layer to the image.

Here is my mom's version that she created with my instruction. I can't take any credit here though. She is the artist that put me on my path so it is all her fault! Also, she added the violet here that I was afraid to add to my own piece. AACK, me afraid of violet! I think hell might be freezing over as we speak. ...It will never happen again, I promise.

Mom's backgound again, after we cut it up into ATC sized pieces. These are so much fun, I can't wait to do more.

News

After I completed the Grace ATCs (shown below,) I showed them to the owner of a local rubber stamp store. She loved them and now she has asked me to teach some classes on advanced ATC techniques. I am so excited about this!

It's a little strange to me that I have absolutely no desire to teach any kind of quilting classes but I can't stop thinking about these ATC classes. I've always felt a lot more advanced in my quilting skills than any other art media. However, I have yet to find MY quilting style, that technique or concept that just makes me want to explore every aspect of it. I still feel like I'm constantly jumping from one style to another and not really mastering any of them. I'm not sure where I'm going with all this so I think I'll shelve it for a while. I have so much on my plate right now, maybe I'm developing A.D.D. - thanks Mom ;)

Grace

I recently participated in an online ATC swap with the artisttradingcard yahoo group. The theme for the swap was "Tuesday's Child is Full of Grace." Well, when i read this, i instantly thought of my Grandmother who was named Grace. I got a bunch of old photos of my grandmother and created a set of cards based on her.


This is one of the cards and i posted the rest over on my yahoo photo site. 

Bluebird Babies

My parents also have several Bluebird houses. We found babies in this one! We think there are three in the nest (the fluff toward the front of the nest is number three?) but it was hard to tell. I had to hold the camera over my head to take this shot. 

Tree Frog

This is a beautiful little tree frog that I photographed at my parents house with my wonderful... fabulous... exceptional Canon Digital Camera. Can you tell that i love my camera? :) Oh, and i'm bloging this from my mom's painful dial-up connection. uggh - should i time how long it takes to upload the picture? I think it might be too depressing. Sorry Mom :)