ATC update from me

kinda got motivated to start my cards and got a fair bit done today...we couldn't find duck anything at the craft store Friday so I wound up making a couple of stencils, used a canvas I got at the auction Thursday night (2 for $1.00 ;)) and used acrylic paint to put the design on...I cut everything and added the card stock - here's where we are...approximately, LOL...

we've got to go out of town next weekend and the week will probably be pretty crazy so I doubt I'll actually finish these for another week or so, but just wanted to share...they've been a lot of fun so far :)

The sky less travelled.....

Thinking about our travelling journal and now, our ATC's, i worked out the the path our ducks are taking look something like this..... [a play with watercolours in my sketchbook with a little photoshop] Sorry to anyone whose town i might have misjudged on the map :(
Those Ducks sure will be tired when they're done travelling!
I was thinking maybe in line with our ATC's it might be fun to send out a couple of postcards from the towns where we live- you know the touristy ones you by when you're on vacation to send back to your friends....would be good to learn more about where everyone is from. Whoever receives one can post it [rather than the sender, so not to spoil the surprise].
Who doesnt love a surprise in their letterbox?!

ATC's are done

After the background dried I lettered some duck quotes with acrylic ink and then collaged some paper I had created some time ago randomly over the background. I then brushed the entire background with a mix of acrylic medium and glaze. So the photo is showing somewhat of a glare.

Next I cut the entire piece into the size of the cards. As you can see they curled a bit so since you need to put your info on the back I printed out on card stock all my info and cut those to size. Next I sewed the two pieces together with a zig zag stitch.

The imitation stamp was done from a watercolor illustration I did and put together in photoshop, cut and collaged on.

Then I lettered the quote and now ready to mail them out.

Most likely this is more info than you wanted but I really enjoyed creating these ATC's.

I'm so excited! I was at the Thrift store yesterday and found this book...it was published in 1941, and has some great illustrations in it! It was 3.00...I grabbed it right up! It's funny because everywhere I go now...I see "DUCKS"!

Hey you Duckies out there!!! Look What I found!

Start of ATC's

It's bitter cold and snowing here so what better time than now to work in the studio. Not sure what was happening about the ATC's so decided to go ahead and make some for you all. Pictured is the start of the background work. One easy way is to take a large enough sheet of paper or fabric, in this case here I used 'duck canvas', to make several at once. Either paint, decorate or collage the whole piece then cut it to the ATC size and finish with added touches.
The background work here is called paste canvas which is similar to paste paper. I made designs first with soft pastels in two shades of blue. Then the entire canvas was covered with ross art paste and while still wet acrylic paint was dropped onto the canvas and blended in. Then a marking tool was used to create wave lines. This needs to dry before more design is added then I will cut the canvas to size and finish with embellishment. My theme here will be pertaining to our journal. Hope this inspires you to try some ATC's in any case I would love to send you one. I'll send out an email to all journal members. Have a creative day.

Up, up and away ...

Dear Ducky
My new friends ended up staying an extra day and left Tuesday morning for Tokyo, Japan. I begged them to stay. I couldn't bear to see them leave. I miss them so much already, I wish I was going with them. Here's a shot I took when I waved them goodbye.



I hope to see them again soon - one day. R.D. xx
(Click image to enlarge for detail)

*** Collage, acryllic, ink, pencil and linseed oil on 140lb coldpress watercolor paper. Image continues over four pages.

atc for Duckies !!!!!!

This is an atc in honor of our duckies....I used a playing card and covered it with light green tissue paper...added some yellow tissue paper, and painted over that with some yellow acrylic paint..ran a comb through the paint to give it texture....stamped some duckies on the paint (when dry)...added some leaves, and the word quack.

Preparing for takeoff

Dear Ducky …

The duckies have enjoyed their stay at my house, but now, with a mix of vegemite, cheddar and marmite sandwiches packed in their bags — the little darlings have to get ready to leave for their big trip to Tokyo. Their flight is booked for Monday at 11 a.m. and I will be so sad to see them go. We had so much fun: getting to know the swans on Hill Road, the geese down at the Raritan River and the Woodpecker that lives two trees away. The chickadees stopped by for a final farewell bash last night and we are all feeling the effects of the bath water today, let me tell you. I really feel like I made some good friends these last couple of weeks. I do hope they come back soon to visit. It'll be quiet without them around to hide the bath plug, peck the cats' tails quack jokes, and see how many ducks can fit in the kitchen sink. I'll let you know they took off safely on Monday, goodnight quacks for now — R.D. :D

New Ideas...

I thought that rather than have a million group emails back and forth, i'd just post this so we could all share our ideas from here...

For those of you just tuning in, here's my original email:
"To keep everyone involved, interested and active in our travelling journal project i thought we could come up with some ideas to share more about ourselves and our work through the shared blog.
The idea is that we could set a few themes from time to time throughout the Journal Project to which we could respond [through drawing, illustration, collage, photograph or just a written post] like we would for Illustration Friday.
The themes would be ones that would reveal a bit about ourselves and our work [materials we use, ideas or artwork/artists we like...etc]
The themes could be about the towns where we live, our favourite songs or the things that inspire us. I thought incorporating a few mini-projects within this Journal project could be one way to keep the creativity flowing and share more about ourselves...What do you think??"

Toni shared a great idea: to make ATC cards so that we can all get a set. This was actually the first time i had heard of these, and a quick internet search revealed they are Artist Trading Cards-what a brilliant idea!

I know nothing about these, so please share what you know and what you think about this!!

The duckies have landed!

They flew in on Saturday and I have almost finished my four pages ... I think it's an art journal kinda week, cos I'm all fired up and rolling art out of the wazoo! Here's a detail, but you can't really see too much. I don't want to give it all away just yet. :) I loved Bek's pages and wasn't sure how to continue, but I kept true to my word and paid homage to the airborne R.Ds floating in the sky - my wee friends I made flying back and forth tranatlantic-style ... stay tuned ... quack!
(Sorry it's a bit fuzzy)