Artist Trading Card / Pink Persimmon

I have to say that I had sooooo much fun making these!!  I was definitely in my happy place and now everytime I look at them they make me smile.  I was totally inspired by some "pet"  ATC's I had seen.  There are people who take photo's of their pets and then use them on their ATC's.   Here are a few links to :

http://heartnsoul-amy.blogspot.com/2010/07/theme-thursday-animals.html

this first link is to Paper and Gluestix blog - Amy.  She is one of my FAVORITE mixed media / ATC card makers.  Her cards are amazing and she seems to always come up with something different.  I have seen some very talented people, but their projectst tend to look very similar.  I love that Amy's are soooo fun and that she comes up with so many ways to express herself on just 2.5" x 3.5".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14222287@N04/page4/

And this is Amy's Flickr album "Paper and Gluestix", with more ATC's using Harley her dog.

I've seen other's do this.  Amy was just the easiest for my to find and link to.

  I would love to trade these for some of your ATC's.   And if you would like to make some just like these, then check out the step by step project instructions below.  I'm excited to share that these are featured on the Pink Persimmon blog today as well!  Thanks Darcy and Judy!

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Project Details

Stamps : Pink Persimmon "Scottie Dogs"

Patterned Paper : Cosmo Cricket (green floral on ATC #2) and Jilibean Soup (green collage on ATC #2) 6x6 paper pads

Digital Images : Digital Collage Sheets (the numbered strip and butterfly on ATC #1 and the flower stamp and small ticket in front of the cup on ATC #2 are from their "Color Collection" series. 

and

Lisa's Altered Arts (the bottom 1/2 of the house on ATC #1 and the tea cup and butterfly wings on ATC #2 are from the "$1 sheet" section.

(for more detailed info about using these digital files and for finding pre-printed ones to order, scroll all the way to bottom of post)

Old music paper or patterned paper

Aqua and yellow acrylic paint

Bubble wrap

Black Pigma Micron 02 pen by Sakura (Michaels)

Trim heavy cardstock or watercolor paper 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" to create a sturdy card base.  Thin down aqua acrylic paint with water or glazing medium (golden or liquitex).  Apply over music paper and set aside to dry.  You should be able to see the music paper through the paint.  After dry, trim to 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and adhere to front of card base.  Apply yellow acrylic paint to bubble wrap and apply to front of card randomly.  Trim and tear green patterned paper for both cards as shown and adhere to front of cards.  Print and cut digital images : number strip, butterfly, and house base for ATC #1, cup, wings, ticket and flower stamp for ATC #2.  Type and print words for the quotes in a document and trim.  Trim roof top from orange patterned paper or cardstock.  Stamp Scotties and trim.  Assemble all pieces.  Use black pen to outline as shown.

I would LOVE to see your collages ATC's!  Email me or link me in a comment.

hugs,

Melisa

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

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Details for Working with Digital Images

These are digital image sheets that are sold by the sheet.  So once you order, they send you and email with the attached file for you to print.  I save all my digital images under "downloads".  Then I create a file for "digital stamps and images".  Then I create files for each manufacturer as well as by theme and save it twice.  So the Digital Collage Sheet page is saved under "Digital Collage Sheets" and "Yellow Images".  The Lisa's Altered Arts sheet is saved under "Lisa's Altered Arts" and "Yellow Images".  To open / print your files later, just go to that file in your downloads section, right click, and click print to print the whole page.  Or to save on ink, right click and open with whatever program you use.   Now you can crop and print the individual images. 

To crop and print and individual image in Adobe Paint:

1. Open in Paint, it will open as a very large document, so decrease the size so that the images are easier to crop.  Click "Image" and then "Resize / Skew" from the drop down box.  Decrease size from 100% to 50%.  This doesn't change the size of your file, just your viewing size.

Use the the slide bar along the right side to scroll up and down the page.

2. Use the "select tool" to draw a box around the image you want.  Click "Image" and then "crop" from the drop down box.

3.  Click "File" and then "save as" from the drop down box.  Make sure you do not click "save"!!  You don't want to loose your original file.  Save the cropped image in the same folder with a new name.

Once you have saved it you can print it.  I don't like to print from Paint because it's a pain in the patootie.  I'm not going to even go into what settings you have to change to get it to print right.  Too confusing.  So what I do is open a document, Microsoft Works, Word or whatever you use and I insert the image into a document.  I don't want to waste cardstock, so I usually fill up a page with image or digital stamps and print a full sheet at a time.

Clear a mud???  I'm sure there are other ways to do this.  If you have questions, please email me and I can hopefully help you, if you are a newbie to all of this.  It's so much fun to play with and collage image, so it is certainly worth learning how to do so you can print and cut your own images. 

There are companies who sell printed collage sheets to mail to as well, so you don't have to worry about printing your own.  Here is a list that I am aware of :

Lisa's Altered Arts

The Shabby Cottage Studio

Collage Stuff

Stampfrancisco

I'm sure there are more.  I am not sure of the quality of these, so I'm not responsible if you hate them, ha!