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| 619 ATCs Created... |
Making 619 ATCs:
My initial goal was to make one or more ATCs each day for 100 consecutive days, but found it hard to stop at making just one ATC each day. Below is the breakdown of ATCs made each day.
- 2 ATCs: 8 days
- 3 ATCs: 9 days
- 4 ATCs: 20 days
- 5 ATCs: 7 days
- 6 ATCs: 12 days
- 7 ATCs: 2 days
- 8 ATCs: 28 days
- 9 ATCs: 3 days
- 10 ATCs: 5 days
- 12 ATCs: 4 days
- 14 ATCs: 1 day
Given the 2.5" x 3.5" ATC size, this format was fairly quick and easy to create on a daily basis. As I was using watercolor paper for my base, I quickly discovered I was able to get 8 ATCs out of one piece of 7" x 10" watercolor paper. So as I explored new designs and mediums, it was usually more efficient to fill one page of watercolor paper and then cut down into 4 or 8 ATCs for that particular day. Last but not least, there were a few popular ATC designs that received special requests for additional trades. If I had comparable supplies on hand, I would do my best to recreate similar designs.
Dice Rolls:
Once again, this year's Game Plan involved rolling the dice each day inspired me to explore a variety of combinations for creating each set of ATCs without having to overthink each day's creative play. While I made multiple ATCs each day, each card was unique. Moreover, the dice were the perfect motivation to revisit and use a variety of fodder sources, mediums, and techniques that were already on hand in my mixed media supplies! Pssst...if you like this idea, you are welcome to download a free copy of my game plan on my Design by Dice gallery on my website. Feel free to adapt for your favorite sources of fodder, mediums, and techniques!
Fodder Used:
Once die determined which source of fodder I would use--each of which I already had readily available in my supplies:
1. Book Papers:
I love finding a variety of books at thrift stores, including Savers. In some cases, the books provided design inspiration in the form of needlepoint designs, children's poetry, colorful illustrations, maps, and recipes. Othertimes, the books provided a textural background filled with text. Below is a sampling of ATCs made with book papers.
I'm glad I included these delicate papers as they offered lots of design possibilities, especially with regards to the transparent layers. This dice roll provided the perfect opportunity to use the variety of colorful and patterned deli papers I already own, in addition to tissue papers that I've transformed through block printing, doodling, painting, gel plate printing, and stenciling with modeling paste. I also included some decorative napkins that were in my collection as well as a toilet paper wrapper! See if you can spot these delicate, transparent papers in use in the ATCs below...
3. Envelopes
For the past 2 years, I've been saving envelopes, especially security envelopes featuring a variety of colors and patterns inside! Not only are they free and readily accessible, but they are fun to doodle, paint, print, stencil, and stitch as shown below!
4. Made Fodder
Thanks to a number of mixed-media classes and videos I've watched over the past year or so, I had quite the collection of already-made paper fodder available for use in these ATCs: gel plate prints, doodle pages, acrylic ink doodles, spray ink pages,and clean up pages. It was fun to showcase many of these papers as backdrops for many of my ATCs and/or to layer into collages. Moreover, I made a small dent in using some of these papers, making room the papers I will make in the new few weeks/months!
5. Scraps
It's always fun to use paper scraps, leftover from previous projects. Below are just a few of the ATCs that used smaller scraps via collage, paper punches, woven strips, and fish scale designs.
Wendy Solganik aka Willa Wanders
One of my favorite ways to use scraps was to layer and collage them into masterboards that I could then paint and cut up to use as ATC backgrounds or as focal elements.
You could achieve very different looks depending the scraps used (monochromatic vs. multicolor, strips vs. squares/rectangles, cut vs. ripped/torn bits) as well as whether you cut it up to create backgrounds or use as a base layer for gel plate printing, stamping, stenciling, or cutting out smaller elements such as rocks and fish! I had a few masterboards already prepared at the start of my projects and others were created based on the dice roll. Below are just a few of the many ATCs that used masterboards. And most masterboards yielded 8 ATC backgrounds or many more focal elements!
Artist Choice:
Artist Choice rolls were the perfect opportunity to incorporate additional sources of fodder including: wallpaper samples, origami paper, keyboard parts, holographic/shiny cardstock paper, playing cards, Bingo cards, ribbon/yarn, and drywall tape. Pretty much anything that was flat and could be adhered with Reptile glue was fair game in this series!
Medium/Techniques:
The second dice roll determined what kind of medium and/or technique I would use to create. Once again, I enjoyed these opportunities to play with some of my favorite mixed-media mediums and techniques that were already on hand, while exploring new combinations and designs!
1. Block Printing/Stamping
Not only did I revisit several of my previously carved stamps (from a past 100 Day Projects and Carve Decembers), but I carved a few new ones as part of this 100 Day Project including an hourglass, The Quilt Show logo star (after obtaining permission from TQS), and a snail.
I also printed with several commercial stamps including Art Foamies and clear acrylic stamps.
2. Inks
Inks is a fairly broad category that could include india ink, acrylic ink, ink pads, and spray inks. Below are just a few of the many inked ATC creations:
3. Markers/Pens
Markers and pens were frequently used to embellish ATCs with hand-lettered quotes/phrases and a variety of doodles. Some of my favorite pens and markers include:
- Uniball Signo Pens in gold, silver, white, and black
- Posca Markers: MOP'R, 5M Bullet Tip, Ultra Fine PC-1MR, and their new Glitter pens!
- Sakura Gelly Roll Pens
- Ecoline Brush Pens
- Tombow Brush Pens
4. Paints
Paints included acrylic paints used with gel plate printing and/or stencils, paint markers, and watercolor paints. I especially enjoyed playing with watercolor paints and these ATCs were often scooped up quickly in online trades!
5. Paper Punches
I love using my collection of paper punches: circles, hearts, hexagons, butterflies, teardrops, puzzle pieces, spirals, and flowers! I tried to use the various paper punch shapes in different ways to create focal points and background elements. They worked well with most papers, with exception for deli/tissue paper and some of the thicker wallpaper samples.
Stitching:
While this was not one of my dice rolls, I enjoyed embellishing many of the ATC designs with a bit of stitching. The stitching added a pop of color, line, and incredible texture! I especially enjoyed using neon and variegated threads!
Class Inspiration
I love taking mixed-media classes online live as well as on demand, so naturally many of these ATCs were heavily inspired by my teachers and their fabulous demos including...
Jennifer Wilkin Penick
Throughout this project, I routinely partcipated in Jennifer's Creativity Jumpstart classes on Wednesdays, Mixed Media classes on Thursdays, and several of her Art Play sessions. I love Jennifer's teaching style as she provides creativity prompts, examples from her own body of work while also introducing us to other artists. These weekly classes provided the perfectly boost of inspiration. Jennifer got me started with making and trading ATCs, and at least 140 of these ATCs were directly inspired by one or more of her current and past classes! Several of these ATCs were sent to Jennifer along with a thank you note.
Wendy hosts Fodder School, an incredible year-round series of mixed-media lessons featuring world-class instructors. Each month features a new instructor offering a variety of ways to make fodder and use that fodder in a variety of projects. These lessons are supplemented by an annual Fodder Challenge, guest demo videos, monthly love fests, and a private facebook group for additional inspiration and exceptional value! Plus, I've taken several of Wendy's On Demand online courses including Love Your Imperfect Lettering, Watercolor for Relaxation, Watercolor Leaves and Florals, and Wonky Bits. At least 179 of my ATCs were directly influenced by a Fodder School challenge/lesson and/or class with Wendy, including lots of imperfect lettering, watercolor, and wonky bits! Wendy also received several ATCs inspired by her classes as a thank you.
Anjelika Deogirikar Grossman
Anjelika hosted several Meditative Watercolor and Watercolor Play free online classes through The Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities Program which often inspired me to create several watercolor ATCs while exploring new color combinations in my art.
Thanks for joining me in this celebration and reflection of making ATCs. In my next blog post, I will share more insights as to the mailing and sharing of ATCs.
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