Hello summer ATC set

A closer look on the cards

When the Finnish mixed media artist Jehkotar announced that there's going to be an Artist Trading Card trading event, I decided to jump in. I went for the original ATC cards but it was possible to do the ATC coins, too. I have never done any ATC coins, so I decided to skip them. There was enough new things ahead because I had never made any sets, used the horizontal view nor had I ever marked the cards accordingly (the proper marking in the back of the card.) I had a few weeks of time to think about how I would make the cards. I had a faint idea in the beginning but by the time I finally got to my desk to start making something the idea was gone.

The base material

While still wondering how to make these cards, I started off by cutting the card bases from the vellum surfaced paper (Strathmore Bristol 100 lb / 270 g/m2). All I knew at that time was that I wasn't going to do anything too heavy or dimensional. Also the theme for this card trading was stamping.

Coloring the backgrounds

For coloring I chose 13arts' Ayeeda mist, chalk celadon and the Kesi'art's Pschhiitt spray, songe d'ete 895. This time I actually used them as sprays. I also sprayed quite heavily with water. I was a bit unsure if the Bristol paper was thick enough for this wet technique but since I was not going to use any paste or such, the cards were easy to flatten under stacked books whenever needed.

Letting colors to dry

I placed a cling foil over the cards. Wrinkled it a bit and then let colors dry over night. When I removed the cling foil the cards had an unpleasant odour, sort of a piss like scent. But that was probably because of the cling foil preventing the papers from drying. The odour went away after some while. The pattern wasn't very crisp. I should have used either less water or more of the darker green, or both. At this point I could have done some more patterns to the background but I decided to move on to the next layer.

The stamping

And that was stamping which was the main theme for this ATC trading. I chose the Distress oxide ink (Peeled paint) and the larger stamp from the Altenew's Leaf canopy stamp set. I was a bit sorry for choosing that ink because I wasn't looking for a reactive ink. The other options would have been either some green/greenish color of Distress ink (which would have also reacted with what ever was going to go on top of it) or something else beside an ink. I did experiment with the Ecoline's watercolor brush markers before starting any of this but I was looking for more crisp look than what the watercolor markers were giving. The markers were an option for background coloring but the sprays took a win on that.

Finishing the backgrounds

Because the Distress oxide ink was reactive and I didn't want any of the white oxide to appear on the leaves, I had to think hard what to do next. I managed to ruin two background cards with experimenting. I tried a plain yellow marker to add something to one of them and to the other one I tried to do splashes with the 13arts' chalk celadon spray. I didn't like the results, not a bit. So they will be getting a thick coat of  gesso at some point. Since I now had too few cards, I had to make a couple of new background cards. Luckily they look pretty much the same as the others. One of those cards was meant for myself but I used it as a prototype (more experimenting) and it turned out to be too different than the rest. So I left it out from this set. The next phase was to add color to the edges (Tattered angels' Glimmer mist, English ivy) and to do some splashes (Marabu Creabox acrylic spray, sun yellow). The acrylic spray was thick enough to hide the oxidation that would have appeared under it. The green edges could have been clean straight lines or something more messier. Now they look like as if they were done in a hurry.

Fuzzy cut birdies getting colored

After a while thinking, I decided to use birds as focal points. I Googled for domestic birds but I couldn't find anything I liked. I don't have bird stamps and I didn't want draw them because well... I don't draw. I should practise drawing but it just never happens. I knew I had this Scrapberry's big scrapbook paper with pretty birds but at first I wasn't sure if I wanted to use them. After fuzzy cutting a couple of birds to see how they would fit on the cards, I decided to cut more of them. They had pretty coloring already but I wanted them to pop-out more. So I started coloring them with the cheap Colortime markers and added some glitter with the Wink of Stella's glitter markers. I used the white gel pen for the eyes.

More colors to the birds

The Derwent's Graphic line painter was a disappointment. The white paint kept pouring out and the tip wouldn't stay put. I used it only on one bird and after getting a big splat on it I put the marker away. I may use it for white spatters someday. Luckily I managed to somewhat cover the white splat, although it is a bit visible. Some of the Colortime markers had dried a bit so they weren't giving a good cover. So I pulled out some wooden color pencils from my stash and used them to give more color. The glitter from the markers wasn't so glittery anymore, so I added glitter glue to give more sparkle. I used another white marker to write the text on a black gessoed paper strip.

The finished ATCs

I created a simple form to adhere to the back of the card. The gray edge is just to show how the form sits on the card. I wasn't sure which information to put there so I searched for some examples and then made one of my own. I was going to put my blog logo in the bottom but then decided to leave it out. It's just plain form with nothing special about it and it was really easy to do, so feel free to use it if you like it. I rounded the edges because that's how I have done the ATCs before. I may have filled in the form a bit awkwardly and weird but that's me being normal. The picture above has a distorted view. All the cards are the same size.

The form for the backside

All of the ATCs are going to be posted today and will be in the hands of the new owners by the beginning of the June at the latest. I should also receive 9 ATCs from the others. I will let you know what I received. I'll update this post with a picture of them.

These are the ATC cards I received