Zentangle Challenge - Hearts for Artoo

This Zentangle is for week 8 of the Diva Zentangle Challenge. The Diva posted the challenge while her little boy was in the hospital. The challenge was to use two previous challenge techniques. I chose the two pencil string combined with the addition a blind string. So these "Two Hearts in One" are for Artoo as well as my prayers for her family.

ATC's and what to do with them...

ATC's - what to do with them? Artist trading cards are fun to make and swap but what can you do with them beyond storing them in notebooks or framing them for your walls. While you do have to part with most of the artwork created for swaps there are a few methods for preserving a piece for yourself. I always scan or take a picture of the artwork I send off. This week I was finishing up eleven Valentine ATC's for a swap at artfortytwo.org. Before mailing the cards out I scanned a few of them for use in my own Valentine's. I cut out the scanned ATC's and mounted them on brown and purple cardstock to frame them. I attached the framed pieces to the front of 4x6 cards in pink and cream. Then using the metal foil from last week's make and take I framed the ATC's again on the cardstock  after coloring the foil with alcohol inks.

Add a Valentine verse inside and you have your very own Valentine's - just in time for February.

Brrrr.......

January may have come in warm and snowy but it is going out cold and blowy! Subzero temperatures have finally come home this week. A great time to stay inside and make those February valentines. Reflecting back to when my boys were young I thought of how we would always make Valentine's to give others. Usually flat, about the size of baseball card, we would paint and color them one Saturday afternoon. After they had signed each one (a laborious process), we would staple a bag of candy or a lollipop onto each card. For some reason over the years an extra treat had become a part of the giveaway. When I was growing up we were happy to get the little cartoon based cards from all of our class- mates. Nowadays specially packaged candy is the Valentine!  Some marketing genious, I suppose. But I must admit I am still a sucker for the homemade with love variety.

And so... I have been playing around with Tim Holz's alcohol inks again for a valentine swap on artfortytwo.org. Alchol inks are solvent inks which adhere to any non-porous surface.  They can be used to color metal, dominos, glossy card stock, glass, etc. I am always discovering a new use for them. They are just so versatile and colorful, as well as quick and easy. Inspired by an article in the December issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors I thought these little ATC's would look perfect mounted upon a card. They can be removed and hung up on their own as an ornament or picture frame. I love the look of the alcohol inks on the metallic foil tape on the sides of the card.

So with Make and Take coming up on January 24th at Swift Weaver's I decided a Valentine's project was just what the weather ordered. At left is a card designed by Swift Weavers' intern Diedre Ranney. We hope to see how you can inspire us with your own designs and ideas. We'll be here Monday night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m or email us your own valentine creations at dianetrew@yahoo.com.