"Indisputable Joy"

It's not news that I'm quite drawn to things arranged in the rainbow spectrum...or any color spectrum for that matter.

This is a very simple ATC (artist trading card) I made for the ABC exchange I did years ago with Ellen and Lynn.

"R" is for rainbow and ric rac and ribbon.





This image of the books caught my eye on Pinterest and led me to this article that introduced me to artist Julie Seabrook Ream. Julie finds the "beauty of ordinary objects: she gathers colorful iterations of a single type of thing, from feathers to fishing gear, matchbooks to macarons, and neatly arranges them in rainbow order."



You can see a lot more of her ordered objects on her Instagram page:  https://www.instagram.com/hey_jules_studio/

Here are a few of my favorites:

Artist Trading Cards

I mentioned this little ATC (Artist Trading Card) in a early post...but I didn't tell the whole story.

I have written about all kinds of art shares and trades that I have done...many of them with my friend Ellen. This was one of the first where we made and traded four ATC's.

An artist trading card is the size of a baseball card....2 1/2 by 3 1/2.

These were my four cards....a little goofy as usual.  I do really like the starfish one...a watercolor background with some stitching and beading...and of course a little glitter.  The starfish is cut from a piece of fabric. The rainbow layered card was done with embellished punched circles.  The stripes are doodles, strips of paper and over the top embellishments.  The black and white one is described in the link above.

And these were Ellen's!  She is a master at layering and collaging....they have so much texture! The moon is actually some thin layers of mica.  I love them!

The ABC Project

In 2011 Ellen, Lynn and I wanted to start a shared art project. We decided to exchange a set of alphabet ATC's. (artist trading cards...2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches)  We would make one of each letter and exchange them over a year ending up with a whole set that was a mixture of all of our work.  We mapped out the calendar and got to work.  We were to mail a few cards each month in order to inspire each other and watch our own new set grow.

This is the set I made.  Some of them are in my complete set and the others are divided between Ellen and Lynn.

A is for altered.....an altered Pokemon card left over from one of my kids.

B is for blue.  I used blue buttons and beads, and a little bling.  Do you recognize the bottles from the instant art post?  Martha's bottles just keep on giving.









                                                                             
C is for color.  I started with an image of colored pencils from a greeting card and had fun embellishing.

D is for dew drop.  This photograph was taken in Door County, WI where the project was planned.  There was a feather covered in drops on the beach in the middle of a sunny day and it sparkled in the sun.  The card also features a dotted "D" and a little dangle.

The photo doesn't show but some of the dewdrops and part of the image. are dimensional.

 E is for energy....energy from the sun.  I edged the card in awesome "E" words.  

F is for farm.  I had fun with this one.  It includes a funky frame with fabric fields of french knots and a little fence.











G is for glitter, glisten, glitz, glow, gleam, glamour and glimmer.  Did you notice the glitter "g?"

H is for happy.  That's it...just happy.  Oh yes, there is a heart.

I is for indigo inchie.   It includes a picture of an indigo bunting.












J is for joy.....jumping for joy to be exact.

K is for kaleidoscope.  I made the little images using a program I bought a while back called "KaleidoPix." You can upload a picture and manipulate it into a kaleidoscope image.

L is for laughter...featuring lavender and lace.













M is for mosaic.










N is for nature.  I did it in neutral tones and included narcissus. a nest, and bits of an actual nautical map.  And, I snipped the date and the larger letters from the newspaper.








O is for outrageous.  It features the color orange and orbs and ovals.

P is for pink and purple polka dots and patterns. This is one of my favorite quotes.

This one is actually a pop up card.




When you open it the word "play" pops up!



"It's a happy talent to know
how to play."
Ralph Waldo Emerson.


           

Q is for quilt.   The tiny log cabin quilt block is made from hand-dyed fabrics I bought at a quilt show.                                                              

R is for rainbow....and ric rac, and ribbon....oh yes...they are all in a row.











S is for stones, seagull, sand dollar, seed beads, sunset, starfish, a stack of stones, sea glass and sequence. Some of the photos were taken on the beach in South Carolina and there is stitching on the outside edge.

T is for a tangled tree.  (as in Zentangled)


















      U is for umbrella....and under....









V is for village.
After all...it does take a village!  The little houses were made from watercolor and collage scraps.











W is for wool, weaving, and wisdom.  The W is cut out of a watercolor scrap.  The photographs of the wool were taken at a rug hooking store in Maine.

X is for X-stitch and excellence and extraordinary.
The background is made from the "KaleidoPix" program mentioned above.

                   Y is for yippee, yellow and yarn.













Z is for Zentangle!

                              

   Lynn's set

       MaryAnn's set

     Ellen's set

                              Thanks Ellen and Lynn!  This was a fun project!