I haven’t made a lot of ATC’s in the past couple of years. Don’t know why, just haven’t. I do have a lot of cardboard cut and ready, though. I use discarded cereal, cracker, etc. boxes for this purpose. In January, 2023, the time was right. I came up with these little cards.
(ATC = Artist Trading Card = 3.5″ x 2.5″)
When I do other projects, such as collage or Tiny Houses, I always have extra scraps of paper left over. And when I paint, I have excess paint on the brush that I wipe off on to stray surfaces; sometimes it’s paper (I then keep it for collage) and sometimes it’s ATC or postcard cardboard.
These little guys arose from these processes. They are all made of scraps and leftovers. What I did this time was decorate the ATC surface with leftover paint and printing, and then I cut up some strips of heavier paper that came from collage projects (using paper decorated with excess paint. See how it all goes in a circle?)
I like the look of these. They make me feel as if I am peering into a microscope, or out of a window of a spaceship, or into a deep forest. Or maybe lying on the ground looking at plants at ground level, pretending I am only 2 inches tall…
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Very cool… the images and extended life and creative use of your materials!
Thank you. Sometimes I think the scraps of my projects is more interesting than my “well-thought-out” work!
I love this entire collection. They really are wonderful and I am smitten with the colour palette. I especially love that grey-mauve that is so strong within a couple of the compositions. They made me think of moss and leaves and stones. As such, my thoughts wandered to HS Biology class and dropping the square frames at random in order to study the biodiversity found within that space.
Thank you. I also like that color and it came about because I was mixing colors for something else (I do remember how I did it so I feel like I could get near it again). I love how they are complex and yet so small, and your mention of the choosing of a space at random and considering it as a whole little world really fits these well. I love it. I’ve been thinking lately of doing more smaller images and mulling over how to do this and yet keep a good level of complexity. I kind of feel I have gotten enough skill and vision now to be able to attempt this.
Awesome trading cards! Love the greens and grays together.
Thank you. I was going through a phase of mixing odd colors (a phase I hope to continue since I like how things tended to turn out). I got some colors I hadn’t used much before and I really like it.
I like how you incorporate a mission of no waste into these cards. And they are very nice. You know when something is done and don’t overwork it.
Thank you. I hate to see even a scrap of nice-looking paper go to waste (this is why I need to do clean-out art every so often, so I don’t feel bad for even those tiny little bits I save). ATC’s are perfect for this kind of project.
I too like the look of these ATCs. I also like the story of how they were made almost inadvertently from leftovers from other projects.
Thank you. I find over and over that the most adventurous things I do usually are made with leftovers or scraps. Because they have been discarded rather than chosen, I just don’t feel as picky about what I do with them or how they are used, just that they are. And somehow my unconscious seems to figure out a way. I love that feeling of freedom working like this gives me.
I have found that the same serendipity happens with fabric scraps
Yes. Me too. In fact I’m kind of counting on it as I want to make some sort of fabric project and have been agonizing over getting an awesome idea for it and can’t (I really just feel like sewing, is more what it is all about) and so I have come to the conclusion I should just pick out fabrics and start …sewing!
Yes, that’s exactly how it works