ATC Extravaganza

"Valentine for Books," with poetry by Pablo Neruda. (Can you believe we are cutting books up to make art now?---We had two copies.)

While Bumpa was here, we had friends over: Meikle, Fiona, Jonas, Bumpa, and myself spent a snowy afternoon making ATCs (while the older guys played some really complicated strategy game that took a few hours to set up). Here's what the table looked like with 2 children and 3 adults making cards:

The next day, Bumpa asked: Wouldn't it be cool to have a marathon of card-making? Jake said, Ummm, isn't that what you just did all afternoon yesterday? And Bumpa said, No I mean like 3 or 4 days! As it turned out, that's mostly what Bumpa occupied himself with while here! Jonas and Bumpa took a trip to town to the art store to get Bumpa some supplies to take home with him, and restock on our supplies. And Meikle and Fiona introduced us to Glitter ModPodge---my new favorite thing! It will be hard to hold myself back from glitter-fying everything now... Note below:

Here's Fiona, thinking up brilliant new titles for her cards. She and Jonas even collaborated on some cards!

Here are some of my new favorites:Those are garlic skins, above. They are wonderfully iridescent in person.

"Sylvan Has a Friend in Jesus" (above) needs a little explanation. Jesus is the name of Bumpa's cat, but pronounced the Spanish way. So while Sylvan was visiting Bumpa's house, he was quite nervous of Jesus who is just a cuddly mellow kitty. According to Sylvan, Jesus was looking at him in a "mean way." But later, he cuddled up on Sylvan's sleeping bag in a way that didn't make Sylvan scared. So I guess I am referencing their complex relationship with this card.
"Make 3 Wishes," (above) came to me as a fun treat from Robinsunne during the vacation week. She had discovered this neat technique of taking little strips of masking tape (about a half inch wide piece) that you have ripped the long way, and layering them on a card. When you rub the taped card with shoe polish, the way that the ripped portions absorb the polish make it really look like wood! So she sent me the "base" card to build up as I pleased, then I sent it back to her. I am awaiting her interpretation to come to me!

Finally, I am so pleased to let you see my new bumper sticker, made for me by Bumpa with a big label maker at his work:

This one comes from Joanie:I'm anticipating Wednesday's Swap Group! See you there!