Hello, hello, hello,

For those of you who've been waiting to commit to an art project until you know what it is, well, here it is. I like to do Artist Trading Cards to trade, as the name implies, with other artists, photographers, and others. No, you do not put your stats as an artist (e.g. date of first painting sold, record sales price for a work of art, prizes won or awards given). You do sign your work and date it, and provide information on how you can be reached, such as an e-mail address.

Google artist trading cards and you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about ATCs, and then some. I've posted a couple of my own in earlier blog posts, but there are thousands of examples all over the internet. One very helpful site that gives a thorough explanation and history as well as many and varied examples of ATCs is http://www.cedarseed.com/air/atc.html. Take some time to look around. Do you sew? Knit? Take photogaphs? Doodle? Color? Quilt? Are you a calligrapher? All these techniques and many more are things you can use on your ATCs. You don't have to be considered an artist by yourself or anyone else to start making and trading these fun mini-works of art.

The best thing of all is that you can commit to something like this because it is so small, and it takes such a short amount of time to complete one. Or a hundred.

Don't blame me if you become addicted!

Do blame me if you can't find an old card, or some kind of material to work on. You can find the specifics on any ATC website, but I'll be happy to mail you a couple of blanks if you want.

I'd love it if some people would participate. Not only will you get to stretch your creative muscles, but you'll receive an ATC by someone else. You see, ATCs are never sold; they are either swapped or given away. I'll do one for you if you 'd like. Just tell me you want to do one, too.

Okay y'all, as much as I appreciate Becky's positive response, I can't believe she's the only one!!! I promise, you can do so many different things with this one little project; it's the size of a playing card and you can do pretty much anything you want to it. You can doodle, draw, paint, glue something on it that you did on your computer...magazine cut-outs, beads, clay, wax --- the possibilities are endless. You can even sew something on it if you want! Plus, you'll get a free piece of art in return. Really. I'm going to wait --- let's see --- a few more days and then I'm shuttin' it down --- Becky and I'll be doing something cool and fun, and you'll all wish you'd joined in...

Hope you're all having a good week!

Okay! Who's up for an art project???

Don't all reply at once! Let me say first that this would be a very small scale project with a) very little skill or artistic talent required, and b) many, many, many different variations that you could do in a very short amount of time. It would also be cheap. In fact, I would even send you the "base" to get started on. Then you could choose how much time, effort, resources to put in to it. I'll give you lots of examples to look at, and lots of free advice. ;>)

WHADDYA SAY? Who wants more information?

Here's a photo I took last summer in a friend's garden, then played around with PaintShopPro until I got this image. I kind of like the eerie quality of it.

Here's a drawing of an unidentified plant I drew from a picture in a magazine. I thought it was pretty, but didn't get it quite right, so I think I changed it a bit.

Okay, okay...Due to all my clamoring fans, (you can tell they're clamoring by all their comments) I'll be updating my blog much more often from now on. The subjects may be varied, but I hope to include more posts relating to art, and post more pix of the things I'm doing in that regard. It seems I'm rather distractable and undisciplined, and may need a bit of accountability, even if it's only to myself and my imaginary readers. (Did I ever tell you about my childhood imaginary friends? Yeah, that's a whole 'nother post...)

So art-wise, I've just finished, or almost finished, redecorating my bedroom. I have the before pictures, which I'll post soon, and then, as soon as I finish a painting for above the bed, I'll take the after pix. That's not the only artwork I've done for the room, so perhaps I'll take some after pix in the next day or two. I will say that I consider the whole room an art project; I made the curtains, pillows, a tablecloth, etc., and feel a great sense of artistic satisfaction in the (almost!) finished room.

My next project will be to make some painted tote bags for various folks. I made several for a neice, but the forgot to take pictures, but I really enjoy adding trim, appliques, etc., but I had the most fun on the one I painted flowers on with a mixture of different kinds of fabric paints. Loads of fun and I think it turned out quite pretty. I may have to recreate it...

Alrighty then. There's the first of the new posts. Hope to see you often.