Artist Trading Cards

ARTIST TRADING CARDS

What are artist trading cards?
Artist trading cards (ATCs) are miniature pieces of art that are traded around the world. Artists create, trade and collect art at organized "swap" events, either in person or online. The only official rule for ATCs is the size: 2.5" x 3.5".

How did the movement start?
In 1997, M. Vanci Stirnemann, a Swiss artist, created 1200 cards by hand as part of an exhibit. On the last day, he invited others to create their own cards and trade with him during the closing reception. The movement took off, and today, there are ATC swaps in almost every major city around the world. There are also many online swaps.

How do I create ATCs?
Most swaps are open to any media, materials or techniques as long as the card fits into a standard trading card sleeve. ATCs are traded, not sold. However, there are some artists who choose to sell cards. Cards that are sold are called Art Card Editions and Originals (ACEO).

How do I trade cards?
You can locate an in-person swap in your area, find an online swap, or organize your own swap. There are a number of Web sites that others have created to help artists get started. They can be found by doing online searches using key words such as “artist trading cards.” 

Over at "Artistic Document" forum a group of us got together and decided we would take on some ATC for fun - they are very addictive, we have now gone to another forum called "Jellybean Scrappers" and we are continuing the swaps. These are alot of fun and a great way of getting mini works of art.

I will now add some of the swaps that I have been in by showing you the completed sets, they have a theme to follow.

Hope you like looking at these mini works of art.

These two swaps below were from 2010 - see why my friends have been giving me a hard time about updating my blog.

We had Domestic Goddess in April 2010  and Oriental in Sept 2010

Isabelle's Castle Album

Last year a close friend of mine from work had a little girl and I said to her would she like me to do her a Castle Album for her new little arrival, I had purchased a Kaiser Castle album a long time ago with the intention of doing it for one of the grandaughter's - well the grandies grew so quick I never got around to doing it hahahaha, I asked Simone what colours she would like and she said mauve's pale green and pink so I created this for her - she loved it and said it is something that Isabelle will always be able to treasure. I was really happy with the finished album and loved creating this for my special work mate.

My handiwork - Trifold Card

A few weeks ago I went to a card class that was held by one of my very best friends who lives around 40mins from me at Morayfield, Keryn is a "Stampin Up" demonstrator and she taught us this card in the class.
Hope you like it - I have shared it with some of my crafty friends.
Thanks Keryn for showing me how to do this great card it is beautiful and very popular, with my friends.

Caloundra Beach and Sunset

Better late than never

Well greetings to one and all, I have been getting a bit of flack from many of my crafty friends to update my blog with all things crafty and not crafty. I have decided to give you a little bit of info first of the area closest to when Brian and I are currently living, I hope you enjoy this little bio of Caloundra.
The story of Caloundra and the quick facts bio were taken from an article
written in a local magazine that is distributed around the local area.
Hope you enjoy reading a little about our beautiful area.

Where we live - Remember when ..............

We live in a suburb called "Little Mountain" - which is the suburb just before
Caloundra. It may not have been swinging, but Caloundra in the 1960s was a town on the cusp of significant change.

A five bedroom home, fully furnished, with all amenities and 120 - degree views of the ocean, the advertisement read on Christmas Eve, 1968.

The price? Just $10,000 - and that was among Norm Butler Real Estate's more expensive listings. A new three - bedroom furnished "surf home" was a snap at $8,500. Caloundra was still a very small place then.

"Nobody had to lock their doors, because there was only one road into Caloundra and therefore only one road back out of town if anyone was to steal anything." Until the late 1950s, Landsborough was the commercial capital of the shire of the same name.

Like the rest of the Sunshine Coast, it was the small towns along the railway line that mattered. Primary production still ruled, and tourism and property development were still to become viable economic interests. Visitors to Caloundra arrived at Landsborough railway station where they boarded a bus or booked a private vehicle for the journey down to the sea.

There was no coastal road north to Mooloolaba, just a rutted, sandy track that was finally sealed to become Nicklin Way in 1964. It was reported in May 1963 that work was expected to start on the "missing link" of the North Coast Highway in "about a month". "The link" is the 7.25 mile Caloundra - Mooloolaba section of the 30 - mile Caloundra - Noosa coastal highway". The report said that tenders had been let to construct the highway, including 3 bridges. The work would mean spending 350,000 pounds before June 30, 1964. Contracts stipulated that the bridge over Currimundi Creek had to be completed within eight months and over Tuckers Creek, north of the Mooloolaba River, by June 30 - 1964.

"The imminent start on the Caloundra - Mooloolaba coastal road ends a two - year halt on construction," the report said. "The section was originally scheduled to be completed by December 31, 1962, but the State Government extended the date until June 30, 1964". Significantly for Caloundra, Nicklin Way signalled that the Coast was ready to take over

from the hinterland as the economic heart of the shire. Four years later, in 1968, the Landsborough Shire Council moved it headquarters from Landsborough to a new building at the corner of Bulcock and Minchington streets. Its former  building in Landsborough, where many historic decisions were made, is now a museum, and now even the new Caloundra offices have long since become redundant. Council operations were expanded to its current building at the corner of Minchinton

Street and Omrah Avenue in 1995, less that a decade after Landsborough Shire officially became Caloundra City Council on December 19, 1987.

By 1988 Caloundra was well and truly on the map as a destination in its own right. It's population had virtually tripled in the decade from 1970 - 80. The property cycle peaked in 1976 - 77, again in 1980 - 81 and 1984 - 85, and shot to its highest level in 1988 - 89, with 1993 - 94 not far behind that. It then slowed in the mid to late 1990s before another resurgence in the new millennium.

 

Quick facts on Caloundra

The Caloundra Lighthouse was built on Canberra Terrace in 1898 and guided the ship into Brisbane until 1969. It was moved to Golden beach's Woorim Park a year later and is owned by the National Trust.

The Centaur plaque on Caloundra Headland pays tribute to the Australian hospital ship Centaur, which was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Caloundra in May 1943. Only 64 of the 365 medical staff and crew survived.

The SS Dickey Memorial stands in the park at Dickey Beach to mark the spot where the vessel carrying 11 crew and 40 tonnes of sand was forced on to the beach during heavy seas in 1893. Attempts to refloat the ship were unsuccessful and only a skeleton still remains on the sand.

Large tankers and liners make a spectacular sight today as they use the passage just off the coast of Caloundra to move into the port of Brisbane. Kings Beach is a popular spot for viewing the modern - day giants of the sea at close range.

And lastly the vegie patch

All be it small we have a good crop of capsicum that are flowering and have fruit on. We also have silverbeet in behind the capsicums and we have been eating it - love silverbeet - yep along the front you can see the row of Basil, this is more Basil, I think I should be selling it as it is so good and Basil is not cheap to buy a miserable little bunch in the supermarket is so expensive. On the other side of the planter I have just planted some more lettuce and silverbeet- coloured (Chard) like the yellow and red. The only real thing that I have not had any success with is Tomatoes, for some reason they grow big and strong flower and fruit then before the fruit ripens they shrivel and die off, I was told by the girl at Bunnings I know that even all their plants were doing the same - in saying that we did get some ripe fruit, so next year I am going to try and grow my own plants from seed, it is not the ground as they were all in pots of their own with compost - so just a pain in the ass me thinks.

Photos above show:
The vegie planter with the Silverbeet at the rear, Capsicums in the middle and Basil along the front.
The Capsicum plants showing the fruit and flowers.
And lastly newly planted Lettuce and Silverbeet

Herb Bed

I managed to twist Brian's arm enough to say we needed our "Herb Planter"
put into the garden somewhere so that it would get some sun and also some rain and we have plenty of that here in Qld - especially at the moment - and as I type this it is raining.We really have a great herb bed this summer and as I said in another post we have the best Basil I have ever grown.We use our herb's all the time and they seem to grow the more you pick them.
One thing that I have not got to grow well is Mint believe it or not, I think it is in the wrong place as is getting too hot and dries out too quick so I am going to move it and see if it does any better in a cooler spot.
In the large planter we have Parsley,Sage,Rosemary & Thyme - sing - a- long time, we also have Chives, Basil, French Taragon the real stuff,Oreganum or Marjorum & Coriander this is fantastic with Thai cooking which we love.

 The photos from the top show:
  Herb Planter Tub, Common Thyme, Sage, Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Oreganum
  French Tarrogon, Struggling Mint plant and Coriander.