Art News recommended by Yong Chen : Trading spaces: artist trading card book

Trading spaces: artist trading card book
Expression, May-June, 2005 by Lenna Andrews

Whether you're new to Artist Trading Cards (ATC's for all of you in the know) or you've been making them and trading them for a while, we've developed a cutting-edge way for you to store your cards. Not only do we give you some ideas for ATC's of your own, but now you can make your own ATC book--a place for all your cards to call home.

INSTRUCTIONS

"Enjoy Life's Moments" Card Take a plain piece of card stock (2 1/2" X 3 1/2") and cover it with a piece of decorative paper using a glue stick. Take an image from ARTchix Studio's Merry Christmas collage sheet and glue it off to one side, on top of your decorative paper background. Cut out an optometrist lens from ARTchix Studio's In My Drawer transparency sheet and place it over the image like a frame. Punch a hole through all the layers and use a mini brad to secure the transparency at the top of the handle on the lens. Stamp Enjoy Life's Moments at the bottom of the card with StazOn ink in Black.

"Bingo" Card The base of this ATC is an Itsy Bitsy Bingo Card. First I painted over the surface with both Iridescent Green and Iridescent Violet Twinkling H2O's, using a water brush to give the trading card a shimmering look. While this was drying, I cut out an image from ARTchix Studio's Loveliness collage sheet in an oval shape and removed a couple of decorative flowers from a ribbon I had on hand. I also cut a small length of lace for the bottom of the trading card and a piece of Gold German scrap border. I used Sobo glue to attach the collage image, decorative flowers, lace and the gold border.

"She Feels Hurt" Card This card is made from a regular playing card. Take an old book page and use your glue stick or xyron machine to cover the front of the playing card with the text. Smooth the text over the card entirely and trim the edges. Use watercolor crayons to create a frame around the outside edges of the card, coloring over the text. Use a water brush to soften the colors. While this is drying, cut out a collage image from ARTchix Studio's Classic Nudes collage sheet. Try cutting the collage image out so that no background area is left, just the woman. Glue this onto the text paper with your glue stick or Xyron. Add more watercolor crayon so some of the color goes over the image of the woman. Cut out text from an old book page and attach with a glue stick above the image to evoke the feelings of the woman. Lastly, wrap the playing card with gold trim, gluing down on the reverse side of the card.

"Destiny" Card Take a plain trading card or card stock, cut to size, and cover it with a thin layer of a decorative paper napkin. Pull or tear the top layer away from the other two layers of the napkin to get a thin layer. Put a generous amount of glue stick on your trading card, or use your xyron to prepare it. Lay the thin layer of paper napkin over your trading card and smooth it out over the card. Trim the excess paper napkin away from the edges. Cut out a collage image from ARTchix Studios Hats and Parasols collage sheet, cutting it out so no background remains. Glue this image on top of the napkin background, and then stamp the word Destiny onto the background with Black StazOn ink. Go around the edge of the trading card with a 14K Gold marker.

ATC Book Cut the burlap, the checkered lining fabric and the batting for the front and back covers. You should cut the checkered lining fabric about the same size as the burlap (4 1/2" X 5") and the batting just a little bit smaller. Layer the cover fabrics loosely with the batting in the middle and the lining on the opposite side of the burlap. Lay these "fabric sandwiches" on top of each other and using a Japanese screw punch or 1/8-inch hole punch, punch three holes on the left side. This may take more than one pass of the punch, but it will eventually go through. Take the burlap front cover apart from the batting and lining fabric and use fabric glue to attach a fabric image from ARTchix Studio's Breathless fabric sheet to the center of the front cover. Below the image attach a quote on fabric from the Truth fabric sheet. Thread your needle with the silk embroidery ribbon and do some simple stitching to enhance the cover. I did some French knots and a few lazy daisies. Attach mini brads. Making sure you line up the holes that you previously punched, use fabric glue to glue the cover to the batting and the batting to the checkered lining fabric.

To make the pocket pages for the ATC's, begin with plastic trading-card sleeves--old baseball card sleeves work great. Measure out two lengths of the colored plastic tape (for each plastic sleeve), each 3 1/2-inches long, and place one on the left-hand side, catching it about a 1/8-inch or so on the plastic sleeve. Flip the sleeve over and place the other 3 1/2 inches of plastic tape on top of the first one, covering the sticky side and creating a binding. Use a 1/4-inch hole punch to make three holes in the plastic tape "binding," making sure they correspond with the holes you made on the front and back cover. Do this for all plastic sleeves. Slip one ATC in on one side, flip your page over and slip another ATC in on the other side; doing this for all plastic sleeves. When all cards have been placed into the sleeves (pages) and all the holes have been punched, use more of the silk embroidery ribbon to "bind" the pages (plastic sleeves filled with ATCs) between the two covers. Starting from the outside front cover, use your needle to thread the silk ribbon through the front cover, all "pages" and the back cover. Do this for all three binding holes and tie the silk ribbon in a small bow on the left side.