My friend and I decided to do a little personal swap between the two of us. We chose the theme "nature". You typically set a deadline for completion and mailing, ours was a loose date of before July 22nd. Right off the bat I had a terrible time! I couldn't think of anything. I googled for inspirations to little avail. I went through at least 3 ideas and a lot of hair pulling until I FINALLY figured it out. I took a more liberal interpretation of "nature". I received my friends card on Saturday and it was beautiful! She used real pieces of evergreen which made it extra special. I think my hang up came from wanting to make something directly personal to her. It's not that I didn't in the end, but as soon as I kinda let that part go I had more success. I'm not going to post the one I completed until she's received it (it is now posted), but I will post the other one that I finished for an upcoming swap. Sorry for the quality, but my phone actually took a better pic than my camera, go figure.
Folks trade ATCs all over the world. The catch is to trade not sell. I've already signed up for a swap for later this month. I already completed the card for that as well. Another of my larger hurdles is the lack of crafting supplies I have. Plenty of paint and what-not, but no embellishments, ribbon, glitter, etc. Most ATC swaps require some sort of embellishment. Cash flow is pretty tight in our household. We're trying to get approval for a home loan when we move in Oct, and I wasn't offered a course this term so $$ has been tight. I'm trying to get into this quick art with as little investment as possible at this point. Lucky for me it was 1$ days at Michael's!
The greatest benefit of all came from the fact that having completed these little works you get that instant gratification of project completion so its a lot easier to maintain the momentum. With that said, although I keep thinking about my next ATC it's brought me back around to take my hand back to my paintings. My heron piece is coming along, but on hold since I think I have a lighting issue I need to work out first. So maybe after all of this I'll bang out another painting this week. Maybe even a big one! We'll just have to wait and see what pops up to prevent this new drive I've gained.
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| "Button" Theme Completed 7/16/11 Materials: Scrapbook paper background, vintage ballerina print, 1 button, iridescent ribbon, glitter and 3 adhesive gems. All coated/glued on using Soft Matte medium. Button was sewn on. |
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| "Nature vs Nurture" Completed 7/13/11 Materials: Scrapbooking paper background, jeweled butterfly adhesive, words and image from Vouge Magazine |
