New ATCs by the dozens

I just made some new artist trading cards, 29 to be exact. I like to make them in batches, and I needed some for a swao with ATheeC from Flickr, a.k.a. Martine from Belgium, with whom I swap periodically.

I also knew I'd be needing some trades for Artiscape in April and Art & Soul in May, and ATCs or ACEOs are a handy, small size for trading. I usually take ATCs and charms. Some of the designs above started as prints from some of my old favorite ATCs but all are re-colored by hand, embellished and finished as one of a kinds (OOAKs).

The picture above with the cat cards are all ATCs hand-drawn or hand-painted by me, including a Zentangle I made and a charcoal sketch of a bird. Martine also likes APCs--altered playing cards--so I turned Donald Trump into the King of Hearts and Woody Allen into a Joker. Makes sense to me.

Marie Antoinette Mail Art Book and ATCs

The results of lots of hard work by a lot of artists have paid off and come to fruition with the latest fat book by the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group, a private, juried group of 75 artists, of which I am proud to be one.

Rhonda Thomas hosted this lovely 4" x 4" book of all original art by 17 artists, who each made 17 pages, so that everyone would have a finished book. I am treasuring mine. You can see some of the pages above. Mine is the Marie with removeable masquerade mask. More about my hand-painted pages here.

The six artist trading cards are from the same group, a swap in which each person used rubber stamps to create Marie-related images. Other ATC swaps in the MAMA group have included "Marie cuties" and "Big Hair Maries." Still waiting for the spoils of that one to arrive.

I am presently in a charm bracelet round robin with that group: sending bracelets along to eight other people, adding charms as they arrive in my mail. Can't wait to get my finished bracelet back!

And I am also making a Marie torso for Terri Gordon as part of the Marie Halloween swaps going on. I already received my torso from Tristan Robin Blakeman. More about that here. One of my torsos is above as well as my charm bracelet.

Look at all this good STUFF!

So much mail, so little time! Let me try to describe the who, what, when, where, why and how of all this fabulousness, from the top down.

The torso extraordinaire is from Tristan Robin Blakeman in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group Dress Form Swap. The artist trading cards are from the same group, the Little Marie Cuties swap. I blogged about my submissions here.

The Fasteeth is a treasure from Etsy which I am saving, along with the sprinkler head, Jello mold, insulator, flower frog, knobs and more, for something special. I'll know it when I make it.

The doilies, the miscellaneous below the doilies and the tins all came from my IRL art friend Constanza who is paring down her altered art supplies on Etsy also, having moved into a smaller place. Check out her wonderful offerings of supplies and also finished artwork, like the "Under the Elm Tree" piece in the bottom photo.

In the next to last photo are some treasures I found at Green Oak Antiques, in Rochester, IN. Less than an hour from my home and 31 years in existence, and I had never been there. What's wrong with this scenario?

Big Hair is Always Good

Just some crazy big-haired Marie Antoinette artist trading cards I made Sunday for a swap in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. Marie was well-known for trend-setting and elaborate hats and poufs were at the top of her list. She is said to have worn a replica of a ship on her head and live nature settings; I wonder if she ever had a fish, a bee skep, bird's nest, fruit salad or sea shells on her head?

Weekend Busy-ness: Due vs Do, Deux Jours, Not Enough, Mon Dieu!

Here are a few of the artist trading cards (ATCs) or some call them ACEOs: Art Cards, Editions and Originals that I made for two swaps in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. I am just loving this new group I was recently lucky enough to be juried into. I made a dozen all original, all handmade (no digital skills for me) cards Saturday. These are off in the mail Monday, and then I need to get to work painting 17 4" square book pages for the group's fat book page swap. I sketched some ideas last night. Not sure if I want to go with hand-drawn, hand-painted pages or my usual collage with embellishment.

I really feel like I've been busy all weekend, yet I've accomplished little else except to make a list of all the art and writing projects I have due or want to do.

I saw the absolute most darling paper mache ever here on Pam Garrison's blog, so I've been dying to try to make something like these. I also have the doll heads and fat canvasses, so I want to make a dolly canvas like Lisa Kaus here or Beth Quinn here. I have a great sprinkler head just waiting for me to make a robot like this. And I have a new blank watercolor journal so I can journal like Pam does here. I also want to draw girls like Suzi Blu so I joined her Ning group to take a class.

I packed up some Earthenwood beads like these for a trade with Lorelei for this bracelet from her Etsy. She is so talented! I have several things from her shop. I also upended my own Etsy shop. Take a peek. And I am drooling over my recent Etsy purchases of this darling birdie from Michigan, swimmer-person from the U.K. and Steampunk canvas from the oh-so-talented DeBriNa in Cali.

Today I squeezed in a little time to properly dress and coif my new, unnamed Blythe, which I blogged about here. One of my Blythe dolls is going to Aunt Maggie for a face-up.

And over the weekend I tried to work a bit on the first five pages of a manuscript that is due by July 3 for a writing workshop, where I can not only have it evaluated by an author or editor, but I can pitch it to an agent, and I can enter it in a contest. That would be the Midwest Writers Workshop; can't wait! If only weekends were made of five days, and work, deux.

What's a Convenzione without a little Shopping and Swapping and Selling?

The ZNE Convenzione http://www.znecon.com/ last weekend had so much eye candy that I don't think my glasses fit anymore! Naturally, I had to come home with a "few" treasures. Few is a relative term when your suitcase gets weighed. In the top photo is a little nestie I got at Miss Vicky's Cut-it-Up store in Colfax, CA. It is by blog friend Karyn Gartel, so that is even cooler. The batty girl is by Lori Mitchell, and I got it at American Harvest, an unbelievable store in Pleasanton, CA., where you can buy works from Lisa Kaus, Ingrid Pomeroy, Iva Wilcox, Colleen Moody, Sally Jean Alexander and many more artists from our little circle. The dolly box is by Iva, and I got it at the ZNE vendor fair. The bracelet is by Miss Vicky herself-talk about eye candy-her bracelets are good enough to eat. More about her store later. The birdy is a Lisa Kaus original and is a 6 x 6 chunky canvas, which she signed for me.

Next up are darling ATCs I got in our swaps. Pictured are cards by Gina Gabriell, Nadine Johnson, Gina Halle, Jackie Baxted, and Lani Kent. The cards I made are here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-zne-convenzione-countdown.html. Finally, we also did a chunky or 'zaftig' book swap. I made the cake pages here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/06/sunday-storms-sweets-siblings-and-swaps.html and in return, received this book chock-full of 4 x 4 pages by other artists. The cover is by Donna Cook, but each book was entirely different. It was fun to get a page by Nadine Johnson that nearly matched the ATC she gave me! It was also fun to see pages from friends who were not there like Mary Ann http://firstborn.wordpress.com/ and her sister Jo http://labouroflovex3.blogspot.com/. Extra books were sold as a fundraiser by ZNE We Care Coordinator Elena Etcheverry of Scrapbook Royalty http://www.elena.travelingprincess.com/ and proceeds benefitted Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/ and the Pink Sky project http://chelise.typepad.com/stevie_brianna/

On the ZNE Convenzione Countdown

Since I need to wake up before 4 a.m. Thursday to drive myself to the airport for the ZNE Convenzione http://www.znecon.com/, my internal clock must have been practicing this morning when I woke up at 2 a.m. After 90 minutes of tossing and turning and feeding the cat and getting a drink and all the usual stuff, I finally gave up at 3:30 and started making artist trading cards to take to California.

As is tradition at art workshops and conventions, attendees bring small pieces of art, such as ATCs or charms, or little packets of goodies and supplies to trade. I had been procrastinating, thinking I just wouldn't mess with it. But, I woke up thinking how much I love to get other people's stuff, so I figured I'd better do my part. New stuff is always inspiration for new art.

Since I will be meeting Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Art http://krishubick.blogspot.com/ for the first time and since she bought my very first ever ATC "Free Bird," I was inspired to go all retro (by a year) on myself and make some cards with my own bird and cat doodles on Bingo card backgrounds. Even though Kris is in my state, it has taken us more than a year and 2,000 miles to actually meet! She is one of the ZNE http://www.zneart.com/ original moderators. I guess that makes me a ZNE un-original moderator!

Kris was one of the first people tabbed, and rightly so, by ZNE creator and founder Chelise Stroud-Hery http://www.chelise.typepad.com/, the smiling face above with the famous ZNE tattoo. It couldn't be more perfect that this HUGE first-ever ZNE Convenzione falls on Chel's birthday week. She has worked tirelessly to grow ZNE for more than three years, and now she is not only bringing the convention to culmination with artists and instructors from around the country, but is also working on the 2009 convention!

Now that my trades are done, all I have to do is pack and get myself there. Chel, meanwhile, will probably have to have several small cows between now and Friday. Hopefully, she will be flying high from Tuesday's birthday celebration. I'll be flying high, for real, on Thursday to get picked up by Miss Vicky http://www.cut-it-up.com/ and become a Cali girl for a few days. I'm taking a class by the talented California artist Gina Gabriell http://elevenmorning.com/. Gina is opening a studio called Tangerine in Pleasanton, and we will have our class in her studio space and lunch outside at her home. We are making darling paper clay music boxes. I hope mine looks half as cute as hers (shown at top) when I'm done. Glue gun is packed.

A is for Asparagus and ATCs, B is for Banners, Boxes, BSU and Burt's Bees, V is for Vegas and Vacation, W is for Winter and Whining

Hello....I am typing this post with gloves on, so I will try to catch all the typos ahead of time! Why gloves? Two reasons: (multi-tasking as usual) I bought some cotton gloves and hand cream from Burt's Bees to work on my dry cuticles (it works!) and due to the slow spring and snow in Indiana and the loose storm window over my desk, it is freezing in my home office. It is also freezing in my basement studio. Yes, we have indoor plumbing and heating, but I refuse to set the thermostat ridiculously high in March! I'd rather whine!!

So enough of that! First off, thanks to Kris L. Hurst of Blissfull (sic) Elements http://krislhurst.blogspot.com/ on etsy and her website, for my beautiful new spring banner. The blog needed a facelift! So cheery! And, she is so talented; you'll see her work on many blogs.

Now, on to last weekend's art fest here (in said cold basement). I finished up two sets of artist trading cards for the ATC World swaps, and I randomly made another mermaid theme charm bracelet for etsy http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com/.

Plus, managed to squeeze in a traditional Easter dinner with ham, asparagus, et. al., two! naps, a couple of new articles written, magazines read, Blythes dressed and photographed and some thought given to what to pack for vacation (10 day countdown) and what to take to Art & Soul (36 day countdown). My co-workers are in Las Vegas this week but not me (zero day countdown); so I am grouchy.

I also got an email from my alma mater BSU about sending final exam goody boxes to students, and it made me cry. Why? When I lived in the dorm (back in the day and long enough ago so as not to cry), a dorm of four halls and hundreds of girls, the staff sent letters home seeking boxes of candy and gifts for all the students to open the night before Finals' Week. I was the only one who did not get one at the frenzied opening. I guess my letter got lost. It was traumatic to say the least. But, I'm sure I aced my finals for spite. That's how I rolled. I need to go send a box to someone....

What I Did on my Work Vacation a.k.a. 'The Weekend'

Did I do all this this weekend? Yup. Did I eat and sleep? Yes. Did I go out to eat, do some laundry, lose Larry the Cat in the coat closet for three hours? Check. One of my always-inspiring Art and Poetry on-line friends said it looks like I cram a month into my weekends. And I guess I do. That's because I love love love doing all this stuff so much, and there is never enough time. Whoever heard of working 5 days and having a two-day weekend? Someone needs to re-write that book! Let's put on our lawyer pants and walk down that road (fave new line from a stupid commercial).

So what have we here? A canvas for The ZNE Book Club, studying Traci Bautista's Collage Unleashed ("See Rock City"), an altered nicho or dream box from ARTChix Studios for The Faerie Zine's 3-D Fairytale box swap ("I hope you dance: In emergency, break glass for pixie dust"), 32 charms (Mermaid Ballerinas) for Art & Soul swap, Tulip earrings for Cottage Style Street Team (CSST) on Etsy, listing 3/15/08, Barbie and Cancelled Stamps (Love is the center of the Universe) for Artists' Trading Card (ATC) World Yahoo! group swaps, and nautical and purple mother-of-pearl charm bracelet I made over the weekend, listed on etsy and promptly sold. I think I may miss this one! Send caffeine!