The last craft class

Gosh, I can hardly believe that 9 months has passed - could have grown another human being in that time, and in fact two of the group did ! Welcome Sophie and Marcus :-) The rest of us just managed a bit of crafting !!! lol

For the last class we made a male orientated card, suitable for Birthday or Fathers Day and there were a selection of sentiments available to the crafters.

The vanilla craft ink has been retired from the SU catalogue now, which is a shame. I loved embossing with it onto dark cardstock.

SU recipe :
Stamp set : Sincere Salutations, Natures Nest
Cardstock : Night of Navy, Very Vanilla
Ink : Vanilla craft ink, concord crush, sahara sand
Accessories : Scallop ribbon punch, large oval punch, corner rounder, clear embossing powder
Techniques : Stamping, punching, heat embossing

At the last class we also did some 'thinking on your feet'. I wanted the crafters to use their own supplies and imaginations. We did an Artist Trading Card Challenge. Everybody made two identical-ish trading cards, the title being 'Beauty' and then traded one. I thought it was a huge success and I loved seeing all of the individual and personal works of art that were produced.

If you dont know what Artist Trading Cards's are, here is a brief summary :

Artist Trading Cards (ATC's)

Is a 2.5 x 3.5 pocket size canvas. Originally designed to be an artists calling card, created in 16^th century Europe. They were considered the first pocket sized photo's – rich men often commissioned artists to do nude ATC's of their mistresses ! Also used during match making. Later used for advertising and for artists to study each others style.

They have gained momentum since 1997, when baseball and other sports cards were standardised, and were traded. A Swiss artist, Stirnemann, created and show cased 1,200 similarly sized cards, he told people who wanted one of his cards to come back and bring one of their own to trade.

Stirnemanns work spread through Canada through Calgary artist Don Mabie (aka Chuck Stake) who participated in the 1997 trade. In 2000 the two collaborated on an exhibition in Calgary, with 80 artists from 10 different countries. The concept spread across the globe like wildfire.

What is fun about ATC's :

You dont sell them, you cant buy them, you can only trade them.

Design, make and trade these tiny treasurers, using your imagination and all your craft supplies.

Join or start an ATC group, choose a title for each exchange.