ATC (Finally my 1st...and 2nd..and 3rd....)

Oh wow, I have to mention, one of my ATC's has been featured in Webchyck's World Blog as a great example of working with 2.5" x 3.5" canvas. Thank you Becky for making my day! Go on and click on her blog to check her post and at the same time get to see all the wonderful ATC's made by the wonderful ladies at scrapbookgraphics.com.

I never thought I would like it because I thought the canvas was too small and what was I to do with trading cards? But I have discovered a huge liking to creating ATC's (Artists Trading Cards), it's quite liberating! ATC's are cards created on a 2.5" x 3.5" canvas, usually watercolor paper, cardstock, or illustration board. Any medium is allowed on trading cards. Some examples of mediums that other artists have used are crayon, wax reserve, collage, gel pens, concrete transfers, watercolor, colored pencil, and pencil sketchings etc. The new breed of artists create using digital media, and some even marry both styles, embellishing their printed work.

I'm not yet too familiar with the whole process of trading or even printing (I work digitally), but what I find joy in is in creating these unique pieces that evoke the ramblings of my soul, little whimsys, fantasies, oddities that I find so fascinating.

There always has been this part of me so in love with fairy tales, dragons, mythical creatures, gypsy like lives, traveling to distant lands, and stories of new or parallel dimensions Books that have shaped my ongoing hunger for this type of literature have been CS Lewis (I grew up reading the Narnia Chronicles), Madeline L'Engle, Tolkien. Then there were was this particular book on Gnomes that was wonderfully illustrated that I so loved. Of course, we had the whole big box of Dr. Seuss books to devour. Shel Silverstein. The Little Prince....and as I grew older, stuff like the Griffin & Sabine Trilogy or any of Nick Bantock's books and others in that genre (I could go on and on - that's another love affair I have, BOOKS!) Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that, I believe all these have root in my imagination and which is why I love Altered Art so much. It feels like I can create anything I want and it will be all right. I feel at home doing this type of art. And viewing all the other artists works out there gives me so much inspiration. It is, to me, a journey of the soul.

I'd like to share with you some ATC's I've created, I have also posted them at my gallery at Scrapbookgraphics.com.






I hope these have inspired you...either to look inside yourself because a certain quote has called out to you or maybe to create your own. I would love to see your art, link me up!

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Nothing much, I just want to post some layouts I made using one of my favorite artist's kits, so whimsical, so enchanting - so Lorie Davison. Its called "Bunnies, Bees, and The Birds' Big Balloon" (A Spring Collection), available here at scrapbookgraphics.com.

Here are some previews of the kit:







If that's not enough to make you fall in love with it, then I don't know what will. I guess Lorie's work reminds me so much of the books we used to read as kids, of fantasy lands and creatures....and that's why it really tugs at my heart and appeals so much to me. I love reading children's books, to this very day! So many ways to scrap this kit, I LOVE IT! I'm not done making all my layouts, just finding the right photos for it though, lots of extraction. So far, I've scrapped 2 layouts, do you like it?





Can't wait to make more!

I also have another layout using another great kit, Treasures From the Deep, a collab between Irene Alexeeva and Studio MGL, also at scrapbookgraphics.com.



We had just gone on a summer trip to Talisay, Batangas, which is just by the lake of Taal Volcano (one of the smallest volcanoes) and I had lots of photos of the kids in a speed boat (not a high res camera though), I extracted them nonetheless! I also wanted to scrap the photo of some family members, our 4 boys we started calling V-boys, hahaha, its sort of a family joke pertaining to the ideal v-shape of a mans body when one works-out and is fit. The men started hamming it up and posing, claiming they had v-shaped bodies, what a laugh! So I extracted their pictures and created a layout using this really great kit!

Check out my family's very own V-boys! LOL! Enjoyed creating this!



If you like these kits, you may find them at scrapbookgraphics.com, or just click on the links above to be brought straight to the kit.

Have a happy day ahead ;)

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Some Updates and a Freebie

I wish I were a better blogger, its just that sometimes I just do not have enough time. Sometimes it takes me not less than 2-3 hours to get a post up..more often than not, its because I have to fix all the photos and attachments for the post, which I do also on the day of the entry. I wonder, is there a faster way to do it?

This post is so late, I never got to let you know about my application for GoDigitalScrapbooking's Supreme Team VII contest, as I mentioned in the previous post, I made it to Round 3 but sadly did not make it to the final round, Round 4. Just my luck, my Macbooks power adaptor decided to go kaput on me on Round 3. I did not have a computer to use and I really panicked and was on edge, you may find it funny, but I even cried when my adapter would not work, LOL! Imagine that, my laptop is part and parcel of my life, I use it for work and of course for play...and when you can't access that, what do you do? Thank God I still have my Apple Care Plan, although it would take them 2-3 weeks to get me my new power cord..sheesh! Thank God also that my aunt lent me her old iBook G4, what a lifesaver! I had less than one day to scrap my Round 3 entry using Photoshop CS (I'm used to CS3 so it took me awhile to figure out some stuff)...oh the rattled nerves trying to get it done...and get it done I did, the last entry in, phew! Not my best work, but I do love kits and the play of colors.

We were given the kit Kick Back and Relax by One Memory at a Time (OMAAT) and a collab wordart kit by JAB Digital Designs, check it out below:





You may click on the previews to purchase the kits at GDS.

Here is my Round 3 Entry:



And here is the template I made for it:



You may download HERE.

What I did for my layout was to use the template to scrap the middle part first, then I saved it as a jpeg file and opened up another file and layered the bottom layers. :) Happy scrapping!

Congratulations to all who made it to the Supreme Team VII, way to go girls!

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