ATC Vintage Nudes Swap

Last weekend I created a beautiful piece of artist paper made up form several layers, with different techniques. Is was blue and I was wondering what to use it for. And then I entered the 'vintage nudes' swap and found a picture of aphrodite.

Then I knew what to do with it. I cut it in ATC sized pieces. This altered picture from aphrodite is my first time of altering a picture. And I had a lot of fun doing that. First I printed the picture out and sprayed a layer of laque on it to prevent it from bleeding too much. Then I used my Derwent Inktens pencils to add more colour to the hair (and more hair to cover a different part of the picture), I changed her 'skirt' and added white dots to her pearl necklace with a white gel pen.

Finally I painted the waves (acrylics and Inktense pencils and a gold pencil), let them dry, cut them out, and put a thick layer of white paint around some of the edges of the waves. I glued the waves on the card with matte gel medium and covered the whole card with it.

ATC Colourful words (tag swap)

This is a card I made for a colourful word tag swap.

You should use one word, poem and have one dominant color on each of the tags. The host of the swap will make a booklet of different tags for each of the participants (looking forward to that package!)

I chose orange for the dominant color. I mixed orange with yellow, red, white, gold and pink to create different shades of orange for the layers which formed the basis of this tag. I used a few different techniques.

Then I added a picture of myself when I was about two years old, sitting on the edge of an orange sandbox we used to have on our balcony and in which I played a lot. You could also fill it with water and I have very fond memories of that one.

This card is also topped of with a layer of glossy gel medium

ATC Guilty Pleasure

The theme from this ATC swap was 'guilty pleasure. I made a series of 6. First I made one large background with multiple layers on Aquarel paper. These layers were made with oil pastels and several colours acrylics. I cut in in ATC- sized pieces and pasted the picture of the Haagen Dasz on each of the cards. I created shadow with Caran D'Ache water soluble oil crayons and used a stamp (the purple one) and a doily to create the golden texture. I topped it off with a layer of glossy gel medium for protection

ATC Nursery Rhyme

An 'ATC' for the swap 'Nursery Rhymes'. It is going to be a booklet, that's why it's square. This is the one I kept (the first one). On the other ones I wrote more text. I like those even better. I started with a black and white drawing from Fiep Westendorp. It took a lot of work to color it (with my Derwent Inktense pencils). Then I glued them on the background (painted blue with acrylics) with gel medium.

This is the first time I 'distressed' a card. I sanded it and wanted to use a distress ink pad, but couldn't find it in the stores. So I experimented with ecoline (watery paint) and a make up sponge. It worked. And I sanded it again and added some golden details with a stamp and with a paintbrush. As a final layer I covered the whole card with matte gel medium.

I made a series of 10. I am used to making just one, but with the ATC swaps I make series and I find I learn a lot from them

I like how they turned out. The only thing is that the rhyme of Jip and Janneke kept playing in my head over and over again as I was working on the cards :-)

ATC Greek Goddes Aphrodite

The last ATC I made these last few days. This one is part of the theme 'Greek Gods and Goddesses' . I joined this swap via a Yahoo Group. One of the restrictions was: no nudity. That was not so easy if the theme is Aphrodite.

This is one of a series of five cards. First I made a collage and printed this. (much smaller than I made it), on top of that is acylic paint. In the collage you will find many hidden pictures. Some you can still see and some you can't...

ATC Bring on the showgirls

This card is part of a series of 5. Theme: Bring on the showgirls (here's the swap).

The basis is a collage of different magazine pictures with acrylic painton it. On top of this a picture of a lovely, colorfull showgirl. The feathers/skirt of the girl is made of parts of other colourfull pictures. On top of it I drew some golden lines with decorfin relief paint.

This one's also 2,3"x 3,5"

ATC - A splash of purple

This is one from a series of 7 cards. The picture is a bit more blue-ish than the 'real'cards. The theme was: A splash of purple.

The basis are a few layers of acrylic paint, wax color as a resist under the paint, a part of a picture I took from a mural in Amsterdamle golden dot's are also acrylic paint. The white drawing on top is with a water resist fineliner. Next time I will try a white gel pen, because the other fineliner didn't work very long on paint. It quit.

It's a real challenge to work so smalle (2,5" x 3,5" or 6,4 cm x 8,9 cm). Normally I work much larger.

ATC - A case of the blues

From now on I will post in English, since I am joining international Art Swaps.

This is my first Art Trader Card. I made it for a Swap called 'A case of the blues'. I made a series of 5. I kept one.

The basis of this card is artist paper I made for an earlier art-work. It has a lot of layers, all of them aclylic paint. On top of this a picture of a lady, some more paint and Iktense watercolor penils from Derwent (I love those bright colours!).