More ATCs

Three new ATCs for a Ness PIF Twist. The Nesser wanted ATCs in the following themes, if it's not obvious: Pirate, Dragon, Junebug.

The Junebug is pen & ink with watercolor, cut out and placed on a piece of collage paper with French writing. I added the red metallic rub-on underneath to make it stand out a bit more. The dragon is pen & ink, Twinkling H2Os, gel pen and red gems. The Jolly Roger is pen & ink with watercolor. I drew the skull from my new (used) anatomy book I picked up at BookMooch. Love that site!

Achin' for ATCs!

It's been so long since I made ATCs. Browsing around Ness and Swap-bot, I found a couple that got my creative juices flowing, so I signed up.

Above is my 3-for-3 Mermaid Swap on Ness and below is a 2-for-2 (with 2 partners) Elephant Swap on Swap-bot.
These were fun to make. That tiny canvas is so freeing. I'd forgotten how addicting these things are - I must pace myself or I'll never finish my alphabet!

Other Creative Outlets

I find that between paintings, I need to dabble in other creative endeavors as a way of keeping from getting stale. That's when I turn to Nervousness or Swap-bot for ideas and projects.
This was thru Swap-bot. I had to decorate a matchbox and then fill it with beads & buttons. The idea is to pass along the odds and ends from your stash. I used my finger to paint the box with purple acrylic paint (because I was lazy and didn't feel like rinsing out a brush). I glued a line of little beads along the length of it. I drew those swirls on white cardstock with a black pen, cut them out, glued them on and put some gold paint on them. Then I covered the whole thing in an acrylic glaze. And you can see what I stuffed inside.

This project was fun because it was unplanned - I just kept doing whatever entered my head.
For this Ness LMAO (Land Mail Art Object), each participant was sent a little green or yellow bag. We were supposed to decorate them in a spring theme. I hung beads along the bottom, added beads to both handles and glued these fabric flowers to each side. I think the bag is too small to actually be functional, but it was a good exercise in a creative effort that had nothing to do with paint.

Now onto the letter N.

The Spotted Snail Scaled the Sunflower's Stem

I really like this one. I haven't painted a flower in a long time, so I had fun with this. And I'm happy with my color choices. The S is the same combo of paints as the Octopus's overalls, but heavier on the Quin Sienna. I'm drawn to orange lately for some reason. On my favorite HGTV show, Get Color, they say that orange inspires creativity.

Now onto the next letter!