We are so happy to have Emily join us today on the Kenner Road blog!  Emily is full of wonderful ideas & amazing creativity.  Just taking a peek at the way she uses color & pattern in her crafting, it’s fabulous.

Take it away Emily!!….

As I was making my mini album with the Maya Road mini banners, I was reminded of just how perfect this month’s Kenner Road kit and add ons were for creating Artist Trading Cards or ATCs. I had purchased a 7 Gypsies Artist’s Printer’s Tray last Christmas and spent hours creating a card for each of the 12 days of Christmas to display in my home. The holidays came and went, but I left the tray up, empty, in hopes that I’d get motivated to make a new display. Well Brittany Meadows and the other add ons proved to be just the motivation I needed. The milk bottle tops, the Sassafras papers, the stamps, the butterflies, they all worked together to help me create my new display I call “Hello Spring.”

I do not claim to be an expert in the field of ATCs, but I do really enjoy creating them. At first they were intimidating, but I started searching for ideas online and started playing, and found a new love. The reason I made my first cards was to commemorate a friend from a message board I was a member of. She had unexpectedly passed away, and I started reading back through her past posts. She had shared so much love and advice with us over the past years, and I was so saddened that her little girls might miss out on her valuable teachings. I decided that making ATCs with posts she had made would be a priceless gift to her family, so I organized the board and we made over 100 cards with little tidbits of wisdom and advice from Alissa. Then I made my 12 Days of Christmas cards, and now this project.

ATCs are typically 2.5″x3.5″ but the tray I use requires 2.75″x3.75″, so I’m not sure they are “true” ATCs. Whatever the case, they are very fun to make. You can use paint, gesso, mist, fabrics, handiwork, needlework, vintage images, you can use anything really! I like to use words cut from packaging, fruit stickers, scraps that more likely than not would end up in the recycling bin, and ephmera. Kerry Lynn packages things in those cute little white bags and adds the punch manilla butterflies? I used both on my cards. I stitched with my machine, I painted, distressed, stamped, used the negative space stickers, and repurposed packaging. Anything goes. I don’t necessarily start with a plan, but I always end up noticing patterns. This project ended up with a lot of butterflies, a lot of yellow and green, and a lot of words. I love the look of typography in my projects and this turned out to be no exception. ATCs are also great for trying out new techniques. You might be afraid to try misting or stitching on a whole 12×12 sheet of paper, but it’s far less intimidating to try it on a small little piece of paper. The worst that can happen is you mess up. Then you create something cool from your mistake. That happened with one of my ATCs, I bet you can’t tell which one it was :)

A quick history on ATCs from Wikipedia:

Art trading cards can be seen as the modern incarnation of several much older artistic forms. Because of their small size and usually modest price they have been linked to portrait miniatures, which flourished in the 14th century, and were often used as advertisements by wealthy merchant families in arranging marriages for their daughters. Until this time art collecting was mainly the hobby of the Noble and Royal classes.

In later centuries artist trading cards were used throughout Europe and America as art training tools. Artists would trade the cards between themselves to study each others techniques and explore new art movements. The cards paid a particularly important role in the Impressionists art movement. The Impressionists utilized both sides of their artist trading cards, art on one side and a kind of brief resume on the other. The Impressionists were the first known artists to use the cards in trade for anything other than more art. Impressionists often traded the cards with art collectors in exchange for room, board, and art supplies.

M. Vänçi Stirnemann is credited in many circles with popularizing the modern artist trading card in 1996, holding trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland. This resurgence of interest of Artists trading cards has spawned the popular ACEO (art cards editions and originals) movement. Many people consider art trading cards and ACEO cards to be one and the same. Others feel they are decidely different pieces of art.

Clubs, trading sessions, and online mailart communities have largely replaced the original concept of trading the cards during individual encounters, and many ATC workshops end with a trading session.

If these look like something you are interested in, but don’t know where to start, I suggest you start exploring. Flickr has a bunch of groups dedicated to ATCs, there are online magazines, artists that have their own blogs, even googling the term ATC and searching images can pull up hundreds of ideas. Here’s a few links to get you started:

Art Trader Magazine

Timothy Hunt, Mixed Media Artist

Flick’r Group for Beginners

Flick’r Group Vintage ATC w/ text

Thanks so much Emily!!!

If you’re like me, you end a scrapping session with tons of little bits and pieces spread all over the place.

Cards are an easy way to make something with all that stuff!  I’ve got a simple one and a slightly more complicated one to share today!

STEP ONE: Fold a strip of cardstock in half to create your card.

STEP TWO: Create a mini collage at the top and bottom edge of the card.

The pink brackety shape is a mask I used to create the journaling card on this layout:

I simply cut the mask in half (well, more like 2/3 and 1/3) to use as the base of my mini collages.

I had one stick pen left over, so I figured I’d just use it up.  I pierced only the mask layer (not the card base) with it.  I decided to use the large rhinestone in order to balance out the centered butterfly at the top of the card.

STEP THREE: Paint the sentiment across the center of the card.

I used watercolors.  You could certainly use up leftover alphas (think about a cool ransom style sentiment!) if you’d rather.

STEP FOUR: Add a border around the card to finish it off.

I often find that when something looks or feels unfinished, a border helps to unify it.  I pulled in the red of the stick pin and continued the “hand painted” look with a border of watercolor paint dashes.  Notice that I went over the top of the mini collages.  This helps to ground them.

And here’s the finished card:

And now for a slightly more complicated card….

STEP ONE: Fold a scrap of cardstock in half to create your card base.

The piece of paper I started with was 10″ long by 7″ tall.

STEP TWO: Use a dry brush to add some color to the front of the card.

STEP THREE: Lay down a collection of paper scraps in a basic rectangle formation.

You’ve already done the hard work of coordinating all the papers (or buying a kit where that’s done for you), so you know all the little scrips and scraps will go together.  Notice that I haven’t adhered any of the scraps yet.  I’ve laid them down to be “auditioned.”  And notice too that I cut around the triangles on the scrap on the right edge for a more lively look.  You could also use a border punch.

STEP FOUR: Build up mini collages.

Think of each scrap as an individual canvas for decoration.  I added paper scraps, rhinestones, flowers, sticker scraps, etc.

The flag coming out of the house was a piece of a border sticker that I cut off when I made this layout:

You can see that the house and the bird were also extra bits I cut for the layout above, but didn’t end up using.  Nothing goes to waste!

I also added tiny details like this popped up triangle:

STEP FIVE: Adhere everything.  But think outside the box.  Here I stapled the bits and pieces together:

Note on the finished card below that I stapled them together and then adhered the entire thing to the front of the card.

This way the staples don’t show on the inside of the card.  You could stitch parts down or use brads or something else creative!  Here’s what it looks like with everything adhered:

STEP SIX: Add the sentiment.  I drew my sentiment on the leftover selvedge edge from a piece of patterned paper.

I cut it out and erased the pencil lines.

All that is left is to adhere the sentiment to the card and voila!  My card is done:

I hope you feel inspired to use up the scrips and scraps on your table to create some cute collaged cards!

xo, Julie

Happy Friday!
{and let me go ahead and apologize for the cheesy title to this post! hopefully it will make sense in a few sentences!}
So last time I posted I admitting to scraplifting myself alot
when I get stuck in a rut.
Guilty!
:)
Well, I’ve got another twist on that for you.
Instead of just scraplifting yourself, take a layout design, flip it upside down or on its side, and get a completely different layout!
Here is an example using this layout that is posted in
this month’s Kenner Road gallery.   

 I flipped that layout one turn to the left and this is the layout I got.

And I even managed to still scraplift myself by adding the heart and Making Memories vintage flower (because I am addicted to them!).
Ha!
So next time you get in a rut, try flipping a favorite layout of yours and see what new, fun layout you can come up with!
______________________________________
P.S. Just for fun, I made a card with some scraps
I had leftover from March’s kit!

Have a great weekend!
:)
gretchen

One of the beauties of digi-scrapping, is once you buy a digital element or paper you will never “run out” of it. Much like a rubber stamp, you can use the digital element over and over again – in various colors and on various papers. Unlike a rubber stamp, you can easily change the size and shape of your digital image. You can even cut-up your digital element and use them in ways not originally intended.

Take for example, this all-digital layout “3 of us”. Notice the stitching that I used as stems for the flowers (from the tin flowers kit by kR) and as stitching on the blue mat for my photo (from junk drawer v. 1 by kR). Then notice the subtle floral pattern on the kraft paper. Each of these elements were cut apart from one of the  12 x 12 overlays included in kR’s Honeychurch digi kit.

Click on any image to see larger view.

Here’s how I did it.

To “cut out” the stitched lines, I used my RECTANGULAR MARQUEE tool (looks like a rectangle of dotted lines on your Tool palette), to select a portion of the overlay I wanted.

Then I hit CTRL + C to copy and CTRL + V to paste on my layout. You can now use this portion of the stitching again and again on your layout. In the layers palette, select the layer with the stitching on it and RIGHT-CLICK. Select DUPLICATE LAYER. A copy of the stitching will be created on a brand-new layer. (OR you could go back and select another portion of the stitching on the original overlay.)

To cut out the floral pattern on the overlay, I  used a different approach. I went back to the original overlay. Hit CTRL + D, to get rid of the marching ants that you used to copy the stitching. Using my ERASER Tool I simply erased the stitching. It was easier for me to do it this way rather than try to select the floral pattern. Then I dragged the floral pattern on to my layout. To make the floral pattern more subtle and blend it into the background paper, I lowered the opacity of the layer to about 30%.

You can also play with the color of the element by selecting IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > HUE/SATURATION (or CTRL + U) and playing with all three sliders to get a look you like. For my layout, i wanted the flowers a bit more on the purple side so I played with the HUE slider, moving it slightly to the left.

NOTE: Just remember when you go back to your original file, in this example, the 12 x12 overlay, DO NOT SAVE CHANGES. You want to keep your original intact. Better yet, you can DUPLICATE your image before you start playing and leave the original alone.

Hope this gives you a few ideas on how to make your digital elements a bit more versatile for you! Please let me know if you have any questions!

******

LAYOUT CREDITS:

white fence, blue file:  kenner road’s odds & ends -  junk drawer v.1

stitched overlay: kenner road’s honeychurch kit

flowers: kenner road’s tin flowers kit

title alphas: kenner road’s schoolbox alphas

one of my favorite things to use from my kenner road kits each month are those lovely little glassine bags that are used to hold the bits & bobs.   i like using them to hold some hidden journaling on layouts as well as the foundation for mini books.  i also have used them to function as a neutral “base” for my photo on a busier patterned paper & if you cut them up they make a great textural element or little flower too.  all in all, never ever throw away those glassine bags from your kits.  they are a crafting goldmine :)

this month, in addition to using a little bag to hold hidden journaling on my “faith” layout, i also created a little mini book of some inspirational quotes that i’m particularly fond of at the moment.  i love doing little projects like this.  easy peasy & allows me some crafting time just piecing together leftover scraps of pretty patterned paper & bits of this & that.   there is just something so gratifying about using up the leftovers from one crafting project into yet another crafting project, right?  recycling at it’s absolute best i think :)

last year i did this same little bookmaking technique & made a little book to catalog the fabric i had at home.  it has been quite useful at the fabric store & i haven’t come home with another yard of the same exact polka dot fabric since.  :)

have you used those fabulous glassine bags too?  i’d love to see!

happy crafting & happy “using up the leftovers” too :)

xoxo

gi