Monday, February 1, 2010

ATC Challenge - Red



I was invited to join a small Artist Trading Group and we just finished our first trade. The challenge was the color red. Originally I was thinking Valentine's Day but that was so obvious. But then I ran across some Chinese envelopes I had in a drawer and the inspiration took hold. This year, Chinese New Year lands on Valentine's Day! So I created ATC's based on the year of the Metal Tiger which is this year's animal.

First I used a red fabric background and stamped a chinese character in dark blue. Then stamped some other oriental motifs in cold and a darker red. I then used a puffy paint to paint individual tigers on each card. When dry, I used a heat gun to puff them up and then painted them copper using H20 watercolor paints. When that dried, I added in details and stripes with a dye pen. The pen with the H20 paint trashed two of my black pens. Apparently they don't play nice together. So note to self, don't do that again. I sewed a Chinese coin onto each and finished the edges with a satin stitch in black.

I made 8 so that I could pick the best of the bunch for my trade which included only 5 people. So I have 3 left but need to do some adjustments to the faces.

3 comments:

HockeyKitten said...

OMG those are so beautiful. I'll take one of the rejects!!

kathy said...

Patty these are gorgeous...so much WORK you did on them. So lovely girl, but then,you always do a nice job.

Carole said...

Patti... these are great... I really like doing them, but they take almost as long as a larger piece, don't they. Very satifying tho and nice to have on hand as little gifts.
I always am in admiration of your work.