My First ATC Art Card

I have to say, I have a lot of interests in life.. and I love to learn about new things.. in some ways I wish I was *not* like this, because life can get pretty chaotic when you have many projects and interests going all at the same time. But Art has always been at the top, drawing, painting and other artistic expressions. Unfortunately I have always felt very intimidated by that old Nemesis of many artists. The BLANK canvas. But, I have found a new area that is interesting and quite wonderful, Altered art and altered books, Mixed media, and collage. Especially the format of ATC cards, or artist trading cards. The only stipulation for an ATC is that it be 2.5 by 3.5 inches. Other than that it can be made in any medium.

I have seen so many very very beautiful and inspired cards and art in the last few months.. I am absolutely blown away by the diversity and how wonderfully varied these little pieces of art can be made. So I finished my first card the other day, and it's very simple.. but it made me giggle... I incorpereated a hand drawn little robot that I found on Etsy.. There is a shop by a lady who goes by Spidercamp, who makes the most Hilarious "bunnies that swear" very cute soft fleece little stuffed bunny ornaments, some of which have naughty words embroidered on their tummies! She also makes some "Bunnies of purity" and great cat toys. Her wonderful creations can be found at http://www.spidercamp.etsy.com/ She also has another shop http://www.jessicapierce.etsy.com/ in which she stocks odd and ends of various items, sewing things, fabrics (I found some nice fabric for my quilting ) and bits and bobs good for art and Collage and mixed media, in her own words some "weird things" I love to peruse her shop as I never know what neat or strange odd little item I might see. Last month she had a listing for some of her hand drawn little robots on kraft paper, various sizes, I had to get them , they just made me laugh. And when I received them I had to fight for my little treasures as my daughter spied them and she thought they were grand! She has this thing about Robots.. they kind of scare her and fascinate her at the same time. She has Down Syndrome and is borderline mild autistic so she gets fixated on certain things. So With that I post for your consideration my Very First (albeit quite simple) ATC! Which deals with MY very ** real terror** of Flying Stingy things! I am going to be creating a series using Jessicas Robots that I will list in my shop but the first one I am keeping forever!

Oooooo Scary?? Not to me!!!!

Ahhh!!! This BEAUTIFUL beautiful fellow, has graced my front porch for almost 6 months and this morning he.,, (I am assuming a he as it looks as he has the large pedipalps maybe?... ) made a Huge web right between the top of the porch posts directly above my front steps. And this is a big big guy.. a good three or more inches with legs outstretched. I LOVE spiders.. I know.. ladies are going to get the willies here,, but I have always been utterly fascinated with Arachnids ..I used to live in what was considered one of the number one spots in the world for Black Widows and as kids my siblings and I would play with them all the time.., Well I did. They were All over the place. My dad built us a very nice little club/ play house from old 4 x 4 posts and power poles, and it was not uncommon to have to go in and clear a spider out before we could go in and play. Anyway this one is just a plain old garden spider.. but what a lovely one ... so HAPPY HALLOWEEN and Don't be scared.. this little (huge) feller does more GOOD in controlling unwanted pest then in being a pest himself!

I wanted to do some handpainted Spider pendants for Halloween but time slipped away from me and maybe I will get some done for next year. I did though Actually get a few new items listed in the Etsy shop... I have been trying to do that for a week!!

http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! and don't be scared of spiders... :)

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Today was my daughters scheduled day for her community inclusion outing with her provider, which is great for my little pill as she gets to see and do fun things without old stick in the mud "mom". And it provides me a few hours of time where I can have quiet time to work on projects or just do simply nothing! One day I actually lay down for a few hours and read and napped!!

Well this morning the Kid was sick, she was really quite bummed as she knew her trip to the Pumpkin Patch was not going to happen as planned.. hopefully she will be feeling better on Thursday and make it out there, she has plans on getting 2 small sugar pumpkins for carving on Halloween eve, and then we will turn them into something good to eat the day after Halloween. Like pie or Pumpkin custards. So instead of getting some jewelry done, I have been heating soup and doing other "mom" things that we all do to comfort kids who are feeling under the weather. I also took a picture of some luscious figs that we got from our nice neighbors tree that hangs over the fence between our properties. This year the figs have been very beautiful and there seem to be more of them, I adore figs in baking quick breads. I made some really delicious Green Tomato Bread about a week ago and put some cooked and finely chopped figs in. The tiny fig seeds give a nice little crunch to this scrumptious moist dense cake. Here is a picture of probably the last of the figs for this year. I will cook, chop and freeze them to add to breads or cookies later. The fabric the plate of figs is sitting on is a UFO that I am working on, a string quilt top that is about half done... (I had a boo boo with it the other day and had to fix it so it was at hand to stand in for a background for the figs)

I also heated the last of the soup I made a few days ago and it is so true that a soup gets better the next day, the flavors have a chance to meld and marry. Split the last with the kid when I convinced her to eat a little. Then I put a big pot of water and frozen chicken carcasses on to make some homemade stock, to make another big batch of this.

Ummm! I have to admit that cooking is not my major forte in life, though I do consider myself a good and proficient cook, I just don't really enjoy it as much as some. But I LOVE making soup and stews. I once made an odd ball soup from Lettuce and other salad leftovers that my brother said was one of the best soups he had ever had. :) High praise as he is a very good cook and makes a chili, and Barbecue that are incredible. Well now on to other things that need attending to.. I keep hoping to get back to my workbench and get a few more items made and listed in the Etsy shop. http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/ But today is snuggling with the Kid, reading stories to her, eating soup and listening to Bluegrass on the XM Radio what can be better then that. :)

Blades Repurposed Material Earrings

In the spirit of Re cycle, and Re purpose I came up with these earrings that use small discarded industrial cutting disks as an "out there" and on the Edge design element. Steel disks, copper wire and freshwater pearls.. the feel is Post Apocalypse and a Beyond Thunderdome style... the disks are a matching pair that fit together and work in a scissor fashion rather then being a sharp edged blade... My Dad, who passed quite a while ago worked for a comapny that designed and machined Industrial blades like these and all kinds from Humongous ones used in the rubber and paper making and baking industries to tiny blades for precision work in surgery.

The silver colored steel wheels were antiqued and then wrapped and embellished with wire stones and pearls. I then brushed and buffed the high points to bring out depth and contrast. A beautiful pewter like luster with a nice oxidized mottling on the steel give a lot of visual texture and interest to these Indie Punk, Post Apocalypse Goth style earrings.

The edges aren't sharp and they can't cut you if you run a finger along the edge.. they have a nice almost coin edge on them. The pointy "tips" are,, pointy! But not very sharp so they Look Dangerously Daring without being hazardous to you... I have 3 pair all different in my Etsy shop

at www.AtabbycatArts@etsy.com and I have lots of different ideas on varying the themes and style and look. I wore the pair I made for myself to meet 2 new members of my family last night and I got a "Whoa Those are Cool!" from the 20 to 30 year olds in the mash of family.

I think Aunty Entity would more then likely approve!

Dyed magnesite square beads and wrapped freshwater pearls. Pink "puka" shells and wrapped freshwater pearls.

My New Etsy Shop AtabbycatArts

I have recently made the step and opened up an Etsy Store, I have so much stuff that I make and I have to create things... I seriously am compelled to not remain idle.. lol. My Etsy shop is

http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/

I will be putting scads of things in there over the coming weeks,, but the main focus I have been undertaking is getting lots of new pictures of all my jewelry that I will be offering and of my painted rock critters... so far I have about 18 items of jewelry in the shop and want to add some painted rocks soon.. I know times are hard and the economy has not made it easy on handcrafters .. but Please in the up coming Holiday season,, Won't you think about buying local handcrafted items for gifts this year... The big outlet stores are great for bargains but most of the items in these mega stores and you *know* who I am talking about.. are imported and that takes away jobs and income from Americans. Make a pledge to support the citizens in our country and buy local and or Handmade items... Good for our economy and our Country.

Above is a picture of a Viking Knit chain and pendant that I am offering for sale on http://www.atabbycatarts.etsy.com/

The chain is handmade from copper wire in 24 ga the Pendant in copper 20ga wire is a piece of beach glass I found and a little blue bead in the top swirl, I did a wire woven bail and the whole piece is meticulously handcrafted from start to finish... I even took the brass end cones and turned the edges over to make them smooth rounded and pokey free!

Please feel free to take a peek at my shop and convo me if you have any questions about anything I offer.

Regards :)