More Background Papers & ATC's

I have made even MORE background papers and ATC's, artist trading cards. It's so much fun and so addicting. I could do this part of the workshop, Week One, from The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole forever. It's great preparation for the poetry journals in Week Two as well as larger collage projects. The more practice the better. Right? This time the children joined me. Kids are just amazing. They are so free to create. In their minds there are no boundaries. We really enjoyed doing this together. We did the ATC's on my birthday. As you will see, they are budding artists.

Here's my new set of background papers. Some different and lighter colors. The red is my favorite. I went crazy with the stamping. I didn't worry about how the stamps looked or placement. I just let loose and stamped almost all over the pages with various stamps and ink colors. I used Staz On permanent ink pads. They come in many different colors. I also rubbed a different oil pastel color along each edge. I didn't try to match the colors. I just grabbed a different color each time. Very random. It didn't really matter if they looked good or not; they're going to be torn up anyway. You can make a lot of papers very quickly this way.

Here are my 16 year old daughter Kimberly of What to Wear's papers.

Here is another paper Kimberly did. This one she is framing for her room.

Here are the papers of my 9 year old daughter Emily of Super Stitches.

And these are my 7 year old son Martin's papers.

And here are all of our beautiful papers torn to bits as we work on our ATC's. Did you stop breathing? How could we do that to our beautiful papers?  Right? But one must do what one must do. These papers are fulfilling their destiny. They were not meant to be works of art in and of themselves. They were meant to be a part of something bigger. And joining together with other materials, they can be even greater than they ever could have been on their own. Something really beautiful and meaningful, a true masterpiece. And the same goes with our lives. We can do so much more when we join our giftings with those of others' and work together. And we can be used to encourage and lift others up along the way. We were not meant to stay independent and isolated. We were meant to make a difference and an investment in the lives of others. We all have so much to offer. And that's what this group, The Artistic Mother's Art Group, is all about. Isn't it.

Now for the ATC's:

I made two more cards and another ATC.

Here is my ATC.

And here are my cards. On one of the cards, I pasted the hearts on upside down. Oops. And it could have been such a nice card. It had so much potential. Oh well. That's all right. That's why we practice. We learn from our mistakes. I'll make sure to pay better attention next time. Won't I?

Here is Kimberly's ATC.

Here are Emily's ATC's. She did six! She plans to do a whole deck of playing cards. She's going to collage the backside because she still wants to be able to play with the cards. Practical art. Isn't she clever? Which of Emily's is your favorite? I would love to know. Do tell.

And here is Martin's ATC.

Aren't they all so sweet? This was such fun. I highly recommend having an art day as part of your or your children's birthday celebration. 

And then after all of that hard work, we went for a nice stroll around the neighborhood as the sun was starting to go down, waved down the ice cream truck, then went inside to have apple pie and cheese cake. What a great ending to a great day. You couldn't ask for a better birthday, just hanging out and enjoying time with the ones you love.  

And now I must start working on my poetry journal using what's left of my background papers. Wish me luck. I'll show you what I come up with tomorrow or the next day. See you then. Happy creating. Trudy