Hello everyone:) It's me, Elin, with some new ideas for you. This week we are playing with brown and can you think of anything more brown than coffee? I find myself using tags for almost all of my projects, but almost everytime I'm about to use one I find it too white for my project. As you all know, the vintage style is all about the "old look", so I figured some coffee would do the trick. So here's what you need to make coffee-tags at home: Some sort of plastic container to put everything in, powder coffee (doesn't have to be an expensive one), the tags you want to colour, an old newspaper to spill on and some hot water. The first thing I do is to fill up the container with hot water and then I sprinkle on some coffee powder. The amount of coffee depends on how deep colour you want on your tags. You can also adjust this with the time you leave the tags in the coffee bath. Then you put all your tags in the bath; you can colour quite a lot of them at the same time. If they tend to float up, I use a fork or a knife to push them down again. And now we wait... I usually leave them over night, but then again it comes down to what colour you are after. Check them every now and then, and take them out when satisfied. This is my result when I pull them out. While still wet, I sprinkle some coffee powder over them to get the "stained look". When they are dry, the colour has faded a bit and they don't look this intense anymore. And here they are, all dried up and ready. If they are very curly when they have dried, you can pull out your iron and flatten them on high temperature. Now what's left is the fun part; decorating! Here are a few simple ideas on how to decorate: For the tag above I only used stamps. It is the backside of the tags below, which I'll attach to wine bottles for two of my girlfriends ;) For the front I used the stunning papers from Riddersholm Design: Mill Truck from the Fleamarket Collection and Songbird from the Huntington Garden Collection. The mini tags are from the Fleamarket and Huntington cut out sheets. I stamped my papers with this gorgeus vintage stamp from Inkido, called Carte Postale. Other than the papers, I also used heart brads, memo pins, a painted Love Hanger, some Cheese cloth and natural jute fabric. For my bows, I used Shabby Seam Bindings; these colours are "Sky Blue" and "English Lavender". Combined with the natural Jute Twine, it completed my task for this week :) Hope you enjoyed my tutorial and got some ideas from this. With Love

With Fall in full bloom, it inspired me to create these... ATC's *** materials: corrugated cardboard acrylic paint vintage paper magazine scrap scissors UHU glue stick A dash of imagination! *** *** Click Here * Take a look at what other talented artists are creating on day #26 * Happy Saturday!

This blog is run by Chriss for 'The Artist Trading Card Club' it's members, guests and visitors, from time to time it may include snippets of my family and I. Should you wish to know more about joining the Artist Trading Card Club then please feel free to contact me on this Email address [email protected] Can you create 5 Artist Trading Card's on our monthly theme, swap 4 with us and keep the other Artist Trading Card for your own collection then why not join in the fun....

Explore SharonAnn53's 107 photos on Flickr!

2018 Topic 1: ATCs Mary Watkin Hi everyone, Darcy here to spend New Year's Eve with you. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas week with families and friends. Of course we have also had round up week, looking back over some of the incredible blog post inspiration from the past year. It has been lovely and relaxing to curl up with a blog post and a chocolate or two. I have recently been converted to gin and may have had several plum and vanilla mixes, they were especially lovely. So onto our first challenge of the year. As usual we change things up slightly each year, and so to kick off the year we will have a month long challenge. We are going to be sharing so much inspiration with you and so many new products that we need a month to fir it all in. We have also changed the prize for now, and will be giving away the much sought after PaperArtsy aprons to challenge winners. Barbara Yaya ATC's, I am sure you have all heard of them if not made some, but for those new to these mini pieces of art here is a little background information. ATC stands for Artist Trading Card, these have been around since the late 1990's, so they are a relatively young form of art. Though other forms of collectable cards have been around for over 120 yrs. A Swiss artist, M.Vänçi Stirnemann, was having a huge exhibition of his artworks which were all tiny pieces, the same size as baseball cards. At the end of the exhibition people were encouraged to swap their own art for one in the exhibition, this developed into a trading project. Anyone, from any walk of life, or skill level could take part. The most important part of the ATC project was that the cards were traded and not sold. Within a few weeks of this Swiss project ending other artists had set up more trading sessions in Canada, and from there it became a phenomenon that spread around the world. There are dedicated websites with galleries and forums just for chatting about ATCs. The flower cards below were all on the Illustrated ATCs website. Some people confuse ATCs with ACEOs, the latter stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals, these cards can be sold, and that is the major difference between the two. One can be sold and the other should be freely traded. Besides being given away, there is a standard size for ATCS, that is 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches (64mm by 89mm). This is smaller than most playing card decks. Here is a great template that shows an easy way to get the maximum number of ATCs from one sheet of A4 card wwith very little wastage. Mirkwood Designs ATC's can be any theme, any colour, any medium, literally anything goes, however they tend to be fairly flat as they are often mailed out. It is also easier to store them if they are not too chunky. The following two cards both have embellishments but you can see they do not add too much bulk. An ATC does not need to be paper or card, it can be fabric, just adhere to the size guidelines. Quilting Arts This one has such fabulous textures and layers, fabric, stamping, embossing, old paper, what is not to love. Belinda Spencer Anything goes, what will be your chosen theme? I especially love the simplicity of this doodled flower with text. Arts for All These cards have such lovely blended qualities over the torn paper edges. If you like the distressed look then these are for you. These are done on playing cards, so not strictly ATCs, but there isn't much difference in size. Claudia Neubacher Some people like to round off the corners of their ATC's. Anne Kristine More mixed media, stamping and layering. I love the eye peeking out from the butterfly. Kelly Hoering Mostly artists will make a set of cards in one theme, they will keep one from the set and trade the rest. All traded cards should be numbered on the back, and should also have a title and the date and the artists name and contact details on the back. Magda Bolinksa A minimalist set now from our own Ellen Vargo, these could be traded as is or built upon. Ellen Vargo These ones are so yummy, the gorgeous colours that pop, the sniped paper feathers, the painty, corrugated texture in the background and the tiny words and number embellishments. April Marie Cole These birds are so bright and pretty, they were fussy cut from scrapbooking paper, the artist had added such interesting layers beneath them. Terhi Koskinen This set comes from a theme that is just 'yellow' , a lemon and a yellow frog are amongst others on her blog. Your theme does not need to be complicated, a simple colour is enough. Sally Rose Sally Rose This one really caught my eye, the image is a simple vintage photo, but how clever is the hinged, acetate door. Arte Banale A small paper clay heart adds subtle dimension to this set. Katja These great zendangles are simple but very effective, it is all about the variations in length and pops of colour. John Bloodworth This is possibly my favourite, because .. well just look at her, so weird lol Karen deWalt This set looks to have been influenced by zettilogy, what are your influences? do you have a favourite artist or song or book? any of these things could inspire a set. Illustrated ATCs.com These cards have been done in a Tim Holtz style, these really stood out as the stamping is so crisp and clear. when working on such a small scale it is important to keep stamping as clear as possible, always use the right ink for your surface. Redanne There was so much inspiration, but I couldn't pass by these wonderful creations. I love the humour in them. Rosie Schirrmeister Once you have your ATCS made you need somewhere to store them and to store your swaps, you can buy plastic pockets for trading cards and keep them in a binder, but there are some fab handmade storage ideas out there. Of course you can just pop them onto a book ring and hang them in your studio rather than hide them away. Stephanie Ackerman I do really like this box though , it is filled with small envelopes to hold the ATCs, this could be made to match your cards or to match the decor of your room. Anjuli Johnson I hope that has inspired you, I pinned so many cards, it was hard to choose. One sheet of A4 card will give you 10 ATC blanks, so pull out a sheet and get cracking. We would love to see what you make, and if you feel inspired why not swap your cards with other people. Don't forget to follow Darcy and Leandra's Pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! ~ Darcy Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired! You must complete step 1 AND 2 to be entered into the draw. To join our challenge: 1. Leave a comment on the Topic Introduction Post and go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy Apron. 2. Make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page. The current topic link Topic 1: ATC's will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 4th February 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. (Please note the challenge is 1 month long due to significant new Product news during January) All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy creative apron. Please make sure we can contact you as a prize winner - it helps if you share your contact info from the platform you opt to use. Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Het leuke aan journals maken is dat je er dubbel plezier aan beleeft. Het maken enerzijds en het gebruiken anderzijds. Mijn mini 'ATC only j...

Thanks for your interest in participating in my ATC SWAP! We have lots of amazing artists participating so far and I'm going to make this as easy as possible for you. Guidelines below! Here's how it works: CARDS ARE DUE BY FEBRUARY 10TH (See mine for some ideas HERE) GUIDELINES *Create 5 cards with a LOVE theme for this trade *Must be 2.5" x 3.5" in size and no thicker than 1/4". Playing cards work very well as a base. You're also welcome to use heavyweight card stock or chipboard cut to size as long as it's heavy. *Entries should use a DecoArt product and be layered with other papers, buttons, embellishments or fabrics. Think layers and texture! If you live out of the country and have no access to DecoArt products you can still join us! *The back of your trading cards should have your name , the title of the work, signature and date. You can include contact information or your social media info if you want to, it's up to you. This is a terrific way to make new friends, so I would do it. I'm including an example of what I'm using on the back of my cards and you're more than welcome to print it out and use this for the back of your cards. PLEASE SEND CARDS TO: Mark Montano ATC 2126 Cove Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90039 *Place your ATCs in a clear baggie with your name clearly written on the baggie. *Include in your package a self-addressed stamped envelope/mailer with the same amount of postage that cost to mail them...(usually about $2.60 for a bubble mailer) Please make sure to PRINT your return address on the empty mailer that will be returned to you. You are addressing your own return envelope *Write your RETURN ADDRESS on the left corner of this return mailer too! *If you live in another country, please make a small donation for postage on my YouTube page to cover the cost of your package from the U.S. Usually about $4 You can do this with the SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL button on the right side of the home page. If you don't have that button, you can contribute via PayPal at [email protected] Thanks so much and I hope you join us!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it has been so long since I last blogged, I have been very busy, honest! We did something a little different in our Wednesday Class last week, an ATC holder from a great tutorial here. I made it using the gorgeous Attic Boutique DSP, which has sadly retired now. ' It has eight pockets inside to hold eight (or more) Artist Trading Cards. The plan is to make technique ATC's when we do a technique in class and store them in our little holder. We all loved making them, they would make great little mini albums, you can put photo's/messages inside. I am going to try making one with ordinary envelopes as well.

Made for a local swap meeting. Summer theme.

A set of 20 FREE printable vintage French children's language book pages from the Pigeon Vole primer! Perfect for unique wall decor and DIY projects.

Всем привет! С Новым годом, дорогие мои! И я предлагаю вам начать год очень приятно и вкусно: в своем первом посте в 2016 я объявлю победителей проекта Mixed Media Courage! Барабанная дробь, фанфары и все такое :) Если серьезно - то я не устану благодарить вас всех за участие в проекте, за красоту которую вы творите, за ваши теплые слова! Полностью все этапы проекта с нами прошли аж 42 человека! На мой взгляд, это просто суперский результат! Честно скажу, мы не ожидали, что так много людей заинтересуются нашим проектом, и это, конечно, безумно вдохновляет! Надеюсь, даже для тех, кто не попадал в ТОПы и не выигрывал призы, этот проект все равно принес много пользы, мотивации и вдохновения. Любите краски и они обязательно ответят вам взаимностью :) Ну а все топы и призы в вашей жизни еще обязательно случатся! Ну и теперь - о тех, чьи работы по итогам проекта нас поразили больше всего. На этот раз мы решили немного изменить механизм распределения призов. Ведь, согласитесь, когда попадаешь в ТОП, а приза не получаешь волею рандома - становится хоть чуточку, но обидно) Поэтому сегодня мы решили выбрать 6 участников, работы которых в совокупности, по всем пяти этапам проекта, нас особенно впечатлили, и разыграть между ними рандомом 6 призов :) С вашего позволения, принтскрины рандома я вставлять не буду для экономии времени своего и вашего (вы же мне верите?)), просто сразу расскажу и покажу наших почетных победителей и награды, которые им достанутся :) Приз от постоянного спонсора проекта магазинчика Hand Made Натальи Нагаевой - сертификат на 500 рублей - получает... №29. Оля Береза Олины работы с самого начала проекта впечатляли нас своим колоритом и нестандартным подходом Оля, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Приз от магазина "Заготовочка" - набор сокровищ на фото ниже Получает... №7. Галина Латышенок! У Гали чудесные, светлые работы и при этом просто налицо виден рост в работе с красками на протяжении проекта! Галя, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Приз от магазина "Скрап Маркет" - набора материалов для скрапа, представленный на фото получает... №22. Ирина Кашкарова! Любуемся Ириной работой с цветом и многодетальностью в ее работах! Ира, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Фотофон от студии Photofon.by и ее хозяйки Nastica получает... №23 Светлана Липницкая! Светины работы завоевали нашу (и, уверена, вашу) любовь не только за красочность, но и за исключительную смысловую наполненность и экспрессивность! Света, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Приз от магазина "Арт-Кладовая" - сертификат на сумму 500 рублей на покупку любых скрап-материалов - достается... №36. Nikolka! Наташа сделала по всем этапам серии АТС, каждая из которых невероятно стильная! Наташа, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Приз от магазина ScrapEgo - набор материалов производителя достается... №11. Юлии Бушуевой! Юля стала явным завсегдатаем наших топов благодаря ее потрясающим работам :) Юлечка, поздравляем! Пиши письмо на адрес [email protected] с пометкой "Mixed Media Courage - ФИНАЛ" для получения приза :) Спасибо еще раз ОГРОМНОЕ всем, кто участвовал в нашем с Никой проекте, и двойное спасибо - тем, кто прошел его полностью :) Красок вы больше не боитесь, теперь главное - не забрасывать их, дружить с ними и часто с ними работать :) Море вдохновения вам, и до новых встреч!

FREE for you to use on your ATCs. Just print them out, cut and paste them to the back of your card.

I thought it has been a while since I made ATCs so I thought Is there a way to make neurographic ATCs? Well, I won’t know till I try, right? I began with a sheet that was 10.5 inches x 7.5 in…

Hey all! Can you believe it is December already? Wow! Time is flying!! I received some requests for a tutorial on some tags I made recently, so here it is. The basic visual supply "list" of items I used. First, I cut some 3" wide strips from a manilla file folder. I left the fun shapes/curves at the top because they are random and fun. Next I sprayed some Dylusions inks through some stencils and let those dry. Then I put a light wash over that to blend the hard edges where the stencils were. Next I grabbed my crayons and started scribbling and drawing shapes, etc. I grabbed some acrylic and began adding paint in various places, also adding some bits of paper and stamped images. I trimmed them in half for tag size. At this point I work with the composition of each: adding more paint, crayons, gel sticks, doodling, or whatever strikes my fancy to balance them out. I decided that instead of trimming corners and adding holes for the standard tag design I would try something different. I painted an index card with black acrylic, sketched out some borders and shapes and cut them out. I doodled them up a bit, then glued or stapled them on to make them look a little more finished. The last step was to ink the edges. I love how they look with this one simple step! :) Here are the finished tags... One last photo of some others I had done with the same process. This was actually kinda fun putting up this little "How To". Hope it helps someone. Blessings! :)

The Graphics Fairy has a "Back to School" collection of images that I've wanted to use for a while. Today was the day. The result was six ATC cards (2-1/2 X 3-1/2). Be sure to review my Terms

FREE for you to use on your ATCs. Just print them out, cut and paste them to the back of your card.

It's time for another freebie courtesy of your Paper Traders Moderators. A great big THANK YOU to Connie Holso for preparing this lovely of...

Every day, I get questions about the scrapodex and I thought I would do a little post to answer a few of the questions I get. The vintage rolodex that I use holds cards that are 2 1/4" by 4"....

I love making tags! So here are a few more. These were inspired by the fabulous Vectoria Designs. Enjoy.

click all pictures to see them better Our family has been playing a game called SPLIT for at least eight years and we recently ran out of score sheets and the cards were Cheeto-stained, bent and in pretty bad shape (like me some days). So we grudgingly opened a new box (I had bought a couple when the company folded) but no one could bear the thought of throwing away the old cards. This project is born from happy memories meets uncharachteristic sentiment (we're usually pretty cold-hearted about stuff). I prepared the cards with a thick layer of gesso applied with a palette knife. You waste a lot less this way than if you use a brush and spreading is quick and as easy as buttering bread. This is a great time for mark-making so etch into some of the gesso. I mostly made hearts as they're easy. You can make marks with the back of a paintbrush, a skewer, pencil, stick - whatever. Drying time. *sigh* The bane of my existence and I've gotten weird about preferring natural air drying over using my heat gun. Why? It seems more stable to me. And I'm a nut. Anyhow... Since I wanted to maximize what was accomplished during my (eternal) dry time I spritzed them with spray ink. This is a very unintentional step. Don't stress it. Some will look good, some will pool and muddle and look bad. It's all fine. Once it dries gesso and ink combine and the results are rarely recognizable from what you see at this stage. Then, just for shits and giggles I splash around some alcohol ink. Love this stuff. Never used it as intended. I just splash, splash, splash the stuff all over my projects and then grin at it like the Cheshire Cat. It's good stuff. Covers everything. Spreads like a zombie virus. Win all around. Here's one batch of cards. I did one craft mat (official distance measure in my house) worth of cards at a time. Waited an hour or three until they were safe to move off onto the table (Still very sticky, but moveable) and then made another set. It took all day but all 104 are now prepared. I sorted them according to the ones that were awesome and the ones that sucked. I'd dress it up but that would be dishonest. Me: Suck. Suck. Really, Nicole? Suck!!! Awesome. Everyone come see this, it's so cool! Suck. Suck. Good. Like it. Like it. Like it. Um, no. Then in my traditional backwards way of doing things, I started with the ones I hated so if I wrecked them, they were already destined for the trash and it would fall under the 'no harm no foul' rule. They were ugly. As you can see in the pic above (left side), my gold alcohol ink (just found it in a box) made brown splotches. Not even brown really, more like puce. Ick. So I added some ink, spread some large mica flakes and did my best to salvage them. Now I luuurve them. So pretty and fun. No Cheeto stains. Here's the first dozen or so: Thanks so much for visiting! If you'd like a print out of the quotes I used on these cards please click this download link. Special thanks to Carla Devine for creating this document.

A collection of free vintage autumn-themed postcards! Includes ATC-sized images and journal tags. Great for easy fall home decor and tons of DIY projects.

Inside you'll find Easy Artist Trading Cards Ideas for Kids. Stop by and download lots of fun templates for free.

I love making tags! So here are a few more. These were inspired by the fabulous Vectoria Designs. Enjoy.

What are ATCs - Artist Trading Cards? All about this fun, economical form art craze. Illustrated article on the Tin Teddy Blog.