Artist Trading Cards, part 1

Yesterday we began a new art project... making our own artist trading cards. In case you haven't heard of these, they are little works of art made on trading card sized blanks. They are popular in the artist community and are always traded, never sold. I thought it would be fun to make our own attempt at them. Oh, and the reason this is titled 'part 1' is that what would be the point of making trading cards if you don't have a chance to trade them? We've invited our friends, the P Family and the H-S Family to make some of their own, and then next month we will have a trading card party. (Of course, since I arranged this way back in August, the mothers of these families may be surprised by this.)

It was a huge success, based both on the engagement of the participants and the final products. First I ordered a bunch of blanks. Yes, I could have cut card stock down to the proper dimensions, but the cards were so inexpensive that I decided to purchase them. I ordered smooth Bristol board blanks and they were so nice to work with, I think that contributed to the project's success. (I'll add a plug for giving children real art supplies and not kiddie versions. Have you ever tried to use the kiddie versions? It's incredibly frustrating.) I also ordered plastic sleeves for each card. Putting the cards in the sleeves made it suddenly look so much more important. Everyone loved slipping their artwork into the sleeve and admiring it.

We began yesterday morning by talking about what artist trading cards are and looking at a lot of examples. (Pinterest is perfect for this. Search the term 'artist trading cards' and you'll have more images than you could possibly want.) I also mentioned that each artist trading card needs to have the name of the artist on the back, contact information (for older people who have such things), and the title of the piece. At first this threw everyone, "Title? I have to title it? I don't like to title things!" Yet, I think, like the plastic sleeves, this small thing changed the way everyone thought about what they were doing and made it more important and worthy of time and effort.

After discussing the cards and showing them a few that I had made in advance out of different media, it was time to make them. I only gave each person one blank at a time to stop them from just churning them out. (This was a particular concern for the younger half.) We also got out nearly every craft supply we own. There were old magazines and books, glue, colored pencils, tape, doodads, needles and thread, pastels, watercolors, and markers. Each child made between two and three cards in the two hours we worked on them. Even the little girls took a long time for each card. It was two hours of contented busyness with everyone focused on their own work. 

Here are the results:


Some close-ups:

By D. on left and P. on right

By L. on left and A. on right

By H. 

By P. on left and TM on right


By A. on top and D. on bottom

By P. on left and G. on right

Comments

MamaPPod said…
Um, yeah, one of those mothers is a little surprised. It does, however, explain why I now have 3 packs of blank artist trading cards in my house "for next month".

I suppose I will need to schedule an art day in my future, too??
4/05/2014 5:32 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making bias tape... otherwise known as the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
( Sorry, the contest is now closed .... though you're welcome to leave a comment if you like.) It's Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway time again.  I love bias tape.  It is so useful and so easy to use... finishing edges ... finishing seams ...  And while the pre-packaged stuff has it's place and I use it often, I really like to have patterned bias tape as well.  Enter one of my favorite little tools: the bias tape maker.  This one make 3/4 inch bias tape and I will be giving one away at the end of this post.  But first, I thought some of you might like to see what it does if you've never used one before. I don't have a rotary cutter, nice cutting mats, or even a proper cutting table (I cut-out things on my floor), so if I can do this, so can you.  Here is my admittedly quirky method. Step 1:  Lay out the fabric and fold a corner over to find the bias.  The woven threads should be at right angles to the part you turned up. Step 2:  Using a ruler and some sort of mark
Read more

Apple picking in the rain

Image
Today was our planned day to go and pick apples.  It was raining off and on, but when it comes to fruit, we don't let a little water get in our way so off we went.  We met our friends and enjoyed their company and picked a lot of apples (3 1/2 bushels).  We also ate quite a few. G.  L. K.  (with an apple nearly as big as his head) P8, TM and L. Now, I don't know about you, but even picking 7 bags of apples does not take us very long.  It's a shame to drive so far only to turn around and go home, so we packed lunches, headed to a park, and enjoyed the now sunny weather. TM and P8 A good day all around.  Of course now I have to do something with all these apples...
Read more

Kenzie on the beach

Image
We have made it back home. I am feeling a little more balanced, but it was hard saying goodbye to a house we've created such meaningful memories in for the past 34 years. I'll write more about both later.  In the meantime enjoy pictures of Kenzie living his best life as a beach dog.  Note the ears blowing in the wind (Photo credit TM) (Photo credit for the rest MC)
Read more