Pages 01/30/08

'LOVE' ATC's. I made these for a swap I am in with the Altered Art Obsession Yahoo Group. We were to interpret, love. Not a great photo, but I did this in several layers. First, I printed out a transparency sheet of the hearts (which I drew and scanned into photoshop) on my inkjet printer. On the other side of the transparency, I painted the flames with glitter glue and the heart with metallic pink Lumiere paint. The background is 140lb. watercolor paper which was painted with acrylics, and aquarelle watercolor crayons. Once dry, I stamped on a background of french script in white acrylic. I did this on a huge sheet so I could cut each card and save time.
The word LOVE was stamped. Once dry I attached the transparency with brads and colored staples. The back is pretty simple with pretty Joss paper. I also attached some retro danglie bead to the gold wire.
There are 14 artists participating in the swap. The hostess will be binding these as a small book. I can't wait to see what the other artists come up with. I'll take some pics and post when I get it back in March.

Pages 01/28/08

I recently made an ATC envelope template for a swap I am in and thought I'd post it for others to use. The sixe is 8.5X14" (legal paper size). I printed directly onto cut pieces of scrapbooking paper and ran it through my inkjet and then trimmed and glued. Enjoy!

Pages 01/26/08

Sketchbook collage. Got some new pink paint (so NOT a fave color of mine, but I wanted to expand my range of colors a bit) and a cool new Frida Kahlo stamp which I bought from stampcamp.com.

Pages 01/19/08

More handmade altered bamboo beads. Day of the Dead mix.

Pages 01/10/08

I've become obsessed with matchbox swaps. Over at swap-bot.com, there are always various themed swaps going which I can't help but signs up for almost every one. I'm addicted. I've done all kinds of themes - holidays, color, sun and moon, sticker - almost anything you can think of has been done or is available. The idea is to decorate the box to the theme and fill the box with teeny tiny treasures that follow the theme. It's so much fun to try and find small items to fit in the box. You'd be surprised as to how many items actually FIT in one of these boxes!
Above is a mini book matchbox swap item. Participants made bound books which fit within the matchbox. I also included some 'extras', magnets, a bookmark and beads for my swap partner.

I've also been in several matchbox shrine, or matchbox ornament swaps. To the left are some small shrines I made with a Latin theme for a swap. I poured in epoxy and added tiny beads to the epoxy as well as a glass vial filled with seashells. The entire shrine sits on a domino as a base.

For most of the swaps I've done I've purchased a bunch of the standard safety matches, sanded off the printing, and painted or collaged over the top. But if you want to make and build your own and avoid the work of sanding and repainting - print out and fold your own. I load my ink jet with a nice card stock, or scrap booking paper and print directly from my template on to the paper. Trim, fold and glue as indicated, and voila - my own custom matchbox.

I'm sharing my template with you to try making your own. Feel free to print and use it, or share it with a friend, or class. If you come up with something cool, I'd love to see.

TEMPLATE: