Shell ATC's

Shells Theme for ATC Swap for ATC Society

These little buggers turned out pretty well considering I had to do this project twice because the first one got messed up! These are mixed media collage cards. The shells are stickers placed on mulberry paper then glued behind a photo negative holder covered in decorative paper. The background is also decorative paper. The words Sea Shells were glued onto small pieces of netting type fiber paper and then decorated with tiny pearl beads.

When I first started this project, I thought that it would be interesting to hand-write the names of the shells on the photo negative holder. I thought that this would make them look like little samples a shell collector would have around their house. But when I looked at them the following day after they were dry I hated them! The negative holders were so well glued that I couldn't get them off without destroying the cards, so I tossed them away and started over. Sometimes those ideas that seem really great in your head don't translate well to paper!

Africa Theme ATC Swap

ATC's for Africa Swap at ATC Society

Note that some of them have "bite" marks in them! These were fun to make! I wasn't sure if I would like the theme, but wanted to push myself to try something new. And I'm glad I did because I get a kick out of these cards whenever I look at them! The names of the cards from left to right, top to bottom are: "Texture of Africa", "Hanging Around" (or "Which Way is Up?"), "African Sunset", "Here Kitty Kitty", "Wild Africa", "Photographic Safari", "Zebra Serenade", "Pachyderm Journey", and "Chomp! Chomp!". My favorite funny card is "Chomp! Chomp!". My favorite overall card in "African Sunset" because I didn't consciously choose to make this card look like a sunset. I was just decorating it and realized it looked like a sunset after it was dry.

Geisha Gals Formica Chips

"Geisha Gals" April 2005

These formica chips were sent for a swap in the collage cats group. It was the first time I had tried to collage on this medium. The formica is a slick surface, and I thought it would be difficut to work with. But a thin, quick coating of rubber cement on them held everything really well!

The asian paper was really interesting to work with and I loved how the backgrounds turned out. When I first started to create these I thought that I wanted to do a blue and white theme using delft object pictures and Vermeer women. When I sat down to do them I came across my origami paper and thought "Hmm, I wonder what these would look like covered in this paper?" So next thing I knew, I was tearing up origami paper, rice paper, Japanese print, and mulberry paper and made them all Asian! I almost didn't add the geishas because I liked how the paper looked. But it didn't feel completely finished, so I added them and the fibers to complete them.