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!

Designing with Vintage Digital Images / Stamps

One of my goals this year was to try to do some "Clean and Simple" style cards.  This style is not always easy for me, but when I seen last weeks image over at "Digital Two For Tuesday", I was inspired that I could do it using this gorgeous image.  Cora works hard finding vintage images, repairing them and posting them for others to use for their personal use.  These images are free and the only thing she ask is that you not post the image for others to download anywhere else.  Please refer them to her site.  She post 2 vintage images every Tuesday on the Digital Two For Tuesday Challenge Blog, and then she post more "bonus" images on her personal blog on Saturdays.  She also sells a few Vintage Clear Stamp Sets in her Etsy Store.  I recieved my first set this week and loved creating my first project and can't wait to use the other images in this set.  I will post all of her links for you further down.

You can copy and print out this image HERE.

So lets get on with today's tutorial for this particular image.
Go to Digital Two For Tuesdays Blog.
Right click on the image.
Click "Save picture as"
Save to a folder that you can find easily.  I save my free digital downloads in one file labeled "Digital Downloads",  then I create files within this one that are labeled per the site I found them because I want to be able to give proper credit if I use them later.  So this one is saved in a file names "Digi 2 4 Tues".  This where I save all of Cora's wonderful images that I choose to download.

Now open up a word document.
Select File, then Page Set up.
Enter the following Settings : top - 0.5, bottom - 1, left - 0.5, right - 0.5, header - 0, footer - 0, Orientation - Landscape.Select OK after you have done this.  A message box will pop up telling you that one of your margins is outside the printable area and ask if you would like to continue.  Select yes.

Now you are on your document page.  Select "Insert", "Picture", and the "from a file".
Now find your file.  "Insert" it in the document.  It will appear very large with a box around it and "handles" at each corner.  Move your mouse pointer to the bottom right corner, hold down the left click button and drag the corner up and to the left, reducing the size.  Reduce it till the right side of the box is aligned at the 4.5" mark.  This is what centers it on your card.  So now the left side of  the box should be aligned with 0 and the right side with 4.5.  If your box disappears, just click on the center of the image and it will reappear again. 
Later we will be cutting our paper at the 5" marker.  Now you need to click you mouse pointer to the side of the image so that your curser appears, hit the space bar til the curser arrives at the 5.5" mark to create some space between image 1 and image 2.  Right Click on the image and copy, then paste.  It will appear huge again.  Grab the bottom right handle again and reduce the size and the document will automatically move it up to the spot where you left your curser.  Now resize the image as you did before until the left side is align with the 5.5" mark and the right side is aligned with the 10" mark. 

Now you have aligned your images horizontally to create 2 cards.  It's time to align them vertically.This one is easy once you move your curser all the way back over to the far left of image 1.  Sometimes that is a little tricky since the image is right up against that spot.  I have accidently deleted my image before while trying to do it, but then you just select "Edit" and "Undo" and you are back in business.  This is actually the hardest part of the whole process, teehee.  I just keep clicking in different spots until the large curser appears to the left of the image.  If you click and it blacks out the images (selecting both of them), or the box appears around image 1, then click below it to clear that and try again til you find that sweet spot that gives you the huge curser. 

Once you have the curser set to the left of image 1, you just hit enter till you get all the way to the bottom of the page.  I usually just hit it till it goes all the way to page 2 and the backspace once and I know I'm as far down as I can go for that page.You are ready to print!

I print mine on thick cardstock, Papertrey Ink because I like the weight and my copics blend best on it.  But you do whatever you like.  I do go to "Properties" when the printer box comes up, and select the heavy weight setting.  As I have said before, I use an Epson and do not have any problem with my ink bleeding with Copics or Prismacolor pensils and OMS, unless I scrub really hard.  I have a friend who finally gave up on printing her digis on her HP and finally bought a cheap Epson just for that.  She said sometimes the HP ink worked ok with her HP and sometimes it ran.  I do not know how other printer inks work and would LOVE to here feedback from others and put some data together on this. 

Once you have printed your card, place the paper horizontially on your paper cutter and cut the paper down the center at the 5.5" point.  Now you have 2 cards.  Turn each card and score/fold at the 4.25" mark (center).  Use your favorite border punch to decorate the front edge.  Color your image.  I used Copics and then some shimmer chalk in the background.  It's a very light pink so I didnt' have to worry about getting it on the green and could get into all those little spaces. Add your favorite sentiment if you wish.  Mine will probably end up being another birthday card, since I am sending out so many this year.  Secure a piece of ribbon!!

Ok so the instructions are long, but trust me you can whip these up really fast.  I just went into alot of detail for beginners!  Wouldn't a make a nice note card gift set!! 

I would love to hear if this tutorial was helpful and if you used it.  Tutorial do take alot of time to post and it encourages me to take the time to do them if I know someone is actually using them. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read!!