Little Things

Hello! Welcome to my blog! I must tell you I have a special place in my heart for little things. Baby bunnehs, little piglets, baby alligators - and not just animals! I also love small-format works of art!

I fell in love with artist trading cards (ATCs) years ago, but somewhere I lost the desire to create them. I think I was busy falling in love with the next new thing. I moved from scrapbooking to card making, but all things old are new again!

Small formats still tell stories!

ATCs were a way to create one of a kind art. They were used to trade with other artists - sharing personal style, techniques, or serving as business cards! These were usually created in small quantities earning collection numbers (i.e. #3 of 14). Some were one-offs - only 1 in a series, thus coveted.

The latest phenom stirring the crafty waters are Artist Trading Coins (ATCoins or just Coins). These are the same principle, just abbreviated. The ATCs were 3.5 x 2.5 inches (same size as baseball trading cards and most business cards). ATCoins are 2.5 inch circles. I don't know why, but these are so addictive!

My friends and I just finished our first Coin exchange. There were 2 options - create 18 similar coins (it's hard to make them perfect copies) to exchange with 17 others, and a one-to-one exchange. So satisfying, invigorating, muse-shaking fun! I'll share those once everyone has received theirs in the swap - no spoilers!

I started with a Gel Press printed sheet and punched 2.5 inch circles. I colored some medical gauze with Daley Rowney FW light green acrylic ink. Then I embeded it by stitching it into the gel print and covering bits with modeling paste. I added circles of acrylic paint, added some green glitter washii from Tim Holtz and Nuvo crystal drops. The fish is a Beautiful Betta from The Ton. I love this set so much!!

Here's the one-on-one swap. I made this adorable undersea coin using alcohol inks and foil on Yupo paper. The stamps are Inkon3's My Little Catfish.

I put these cute little merkittehs and sea horse on a fluid alcohol ink circle of Yupo paper. Did I mention these little coins are addictive?!

Here's the one I received from my partner, Rebecca Roh. Isn't it gorgeous? Every kitteh needs toys and leaves pawprints on your heart. I love it!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm hosting the Mix-Ability challenge on Splitcoast this week. Swing on by and join us!

Ta for now,
~ky

Cute But Dangerous

That sums up this stamp set! Welcome back to my blog! I picked up these adorable images from Fleurette's store, Inkon3. Check them out:

Totally adorable, am I right? As much as I love these for card making, I really adored the idea of giving them their own world! I started with an acrylic paint background (titanium buff), then layered over several shades of blues (Dina Wakley's colors) through various stencils.

I followed the same pattern with the lower green areas. I stamped random text over the sky and grass using Archival Inks.

I stamped all the pieces and colored them. You'll note the Ellen Hutson flowers. They are from Rustic Botanicals by Julie Ebersole. So stinking cute!! Her set was provided to Understand Blue Unwind attendees. If you haven't gone to a UBlue event, you really should.

Although these adorable dragons come with dies, I wanted clean dark edges, so I cut them out by hand. I find that activity very zen. I also cut out rocks using Tim Holtz's cobblestone die and created little spaces for the flowers and mushrooms.

And how cute is that little fire! There are two little faces that you can choose for it. I love this one, and debated putting googly eyes on it, but I decided to just leave them be. All of the dragons are shimmery with Wink of Stella. I mean, they're magic so why not!

To tie the whole page together, I painted a crisp black border, highlighted with white Gelly Roll pen lines and gold embossing paste through a Dylusions stencil.

Here's the whole page. I really love how it turned out - I added text bubbles and pencil shading to add interest and dimension. I'm so glad you stopped by today and I hope this page brought you a smile. I hope you're inspired to get this set and start creating today!

Ta for now,
~ky