New Art Group

I joined a new art group on Yahoo. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I already joined 5 swaps, the earliest due on 9/20 and the latest due on 10/15. My plan was to join swaps that weren't due anytime soon as next week I will be starting work UBS for 3 weeks and working about 8 hours there everyday and the 3 hours at my other job every day, so I wouldn't be very energized to do anything in the evenings.
The other day I was in my art closet and decided to start on some anyway. OK, it really started at the event I was working at Hilton on Thursday when I was a little bored and started sketching out ideas for the upcoming swaps on my information sheet. One of the swaps I'm in is called a Ladies Vintage Wallet swap. Basically, we're creating a simple 'wallet' out of paper, decorating it and filling it with a few things that will be swapped out. We have to create, in addition to the wallet, 2 vintage decorated ATC's, 2 vintage decorated luggage tags, 1 vintage decorated calling card and 1 vintage decorated/written letter to ourselves, as if we were living in that time period. I had to scan an ATC I did for a sale on etsy, so thought I'd scan the finished (or so I thought) pieces I had for the swap.
These are the lugguge tags. I took the dimensions given (2" x 3"), cut the tags out, rubbed a Really Rust Stampin' Up ink pad on them, and then added images I thought made them look vintage. Clock: I found the clock image on a collage sheet, cut it out and wrinkled it up, I did the same with the two kids bicycling in the corner. The bead is a paper bead I did when I was younger. Leaves: The top leaf is a ginkgo leaf that was sprayed with ink and then pressed onto a piece of paper, the other is from a piece of patterned scrapbook paper, I then layered the button and brown flower embellishment in the corner. After scanning these, I added a green tinged image of a boy on top of the leaves and added a twine to the clock tag and a green yarn to the leaves tag.

These are the Vintage ATCs for the swap. The one on the left has an image I took out of a dictionary of the occult that I bought at a bookstore in New Orleans when I went there in 2003, I distressed it with the same rust ink pad as I did the background and the two luggage tags. I also wrinkled it up to make it appear older, it is mounted on a green paper and then onto the ATC. There is a piece of gold mesh across the corner with a tannish button and a green button on top. I decorated the wallet with the mesh and green so I was trying to tie those colors in. The card on the left has a napkin for a background. The lady image was stamped with bleach into some green paper, the "INSPIRE" was also stamped this way.

I'm still in the process of finishing the wallet and the calling card. I'm having a hard time figuring out what a letter to myself in the Victorian age would be.

The other swaps I joined are: a charm swap, I've never done charms but it sounded so neat, plus I'm psyched to see what other people did. For this swap, I wrapped some puzzle pieces in tissue paper and covered them with tacky glue, kinda decoupaging them and then stamped an interesting texture stamp into them. I need to paint/color them in something bright as they're stamped with black onto a darker teal and blue tissue papers. I had also planned on doing the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on some matboard, but I don't have the supplies, and I'm not sure how to keep the holes in the pieces as I'm making them. I might borrow the supplies from my mom, not like she's using them now anyway. This one's due on 9/20, I will receive as many charms back as I send (8 or 16) on a charm bracelet.

Tag swap: I'm supposed to make 5 tags ATC sized or ATCs with tags on them. I've already finished these, they're distressed with the same ink pad to paper technique as the above cards/tags.

Chain Swap: I have to make a paper chain of 3 people/animals/whatever and decorate as I wish. I found a really cute alien chain pattern online and did that decorating the head and legs. I then made a single one for me decorated the same way.

Queen of Hearts Swap: Basically I take 6 Queen of Hearts cards and alter them to whatever I want. I can also make my own cards. I'm having the hardest time on this one, but it's not due until 10/15, so I have some time.

I'll scan and post lengthier descriptions on the other projects soon.

I joined a new art group on Yahoo! called TheSumOfAllAtcs. I felt I needed an outlet to making more art than just the one time per month for my CollageATCs group. I've already joined 5 swaps.