I made two different designs using some Basic Grey papers that coordinated beautifully with the colors and design of the ATC. Because the card base is black, I attached a white piece of cardstock inside to write on. In this post, you can read more about how I packaged the cards to present as a gift.
Last week at an estate sale I bought a 1905 arithmetic textbook with over 600 fabulous pages of math exercises, turn-of-the-century graphics, and word problems that, although quaint, made my head spin! I'm sure glad I don't have to do any of them.
I simply covered my card base (final size is 4.5 x 5.5 inches) with some Graphic 45 patterned papers and used circle punches to create the paper embellishment on the front. It was simple, fast, and my artist trading card will be protected enroute to its new owner.
This artist trading card features new clipart from various sources and text from a 1906 arithmetic book. I don't know who the jaunty bicycle rider is, but we suspect he was a friend of my aunt who is deceased. I borrowed a photo album from my cousin last year to scan some old family photos and this photo was among them, but neither my dad nor my cousin recognized him. 
This simple card features a Cavallini sticker and K & Company decorative papers. I am using it as a sympathy card.
Unfortunately, the end of summer means the end of the flowers. Cool autumn days will transition to winter and snow-covered ground. But I can bring back summer in an instant by envisioning bright, happy poppies swaying gently in a warm breeze.
I created this ATC for a fellow artist who likes my vintage style. She very generously sent some collage items to me, including the vintage German sheet music I used in the background. I hope she likes it!
As promised, I made a second version of my poppy ATC due to some perceived spacing issues with the first one. But after making the second one, those issues have kind of disappeared and I actually think I like the first one better. Funny how the mind works.
I started this ATC without a real plan and am pretty happy with the result. I love the vintage look of this card, which reminds me of a botanical illustration from the 1800s. Unfortunately, the scan does not do justice to the gold embossed flourishes around the edges, and I think the card has some spacing issues. So tomorrow I'm going to make a second version of this card. Practice makes perfect! (Or at least, makes perfectly lovely.)
Imagine what I thought when I found the lyrics for Kim Carnes' song Bette Davis Eyes on a website called "Oldie Lyrics." That song came out the year I graduated from high school! Does that mean I'm an oldie, too?
One of the items I bought that afternoon was a small box camera. It was only a buck and it was missing its guts, but I thought it was cute and I saw great potential for it as an art piece. This weekend I finally sat down and created a collage for one of its sides, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I used a variety of old and new papers, and two of the items in the collage have a photography theme (the advertising logo on the left and the Tim Holtz film strip ribbon along the bottom). The fancy cast iron latch at the top was purchased at a garage sale on the same day.
The collage ended up being 3-3/4 inches square, which qualifies this piece for the Theme Thursday challenge: square art.
I decided to make a clean and simple card for him this year, but of course with a masculine theme. The patterned papers are from 7 gypsies; the stamps are Artistic Outpost.
