ATC Wallet Tutorial Online

Finally! Another blog post. As those involved in our meetup know, we made ATC files at our meetup yesterday. (Eileen, if you're reading this, I'd love it if you could upload some pics of yours on the meetup page!) Then, this morning, I found a tutorial with instructions for making a no-sew cloth ATC wallet that I thought might be fun to try. It doesn't carry as many cards, but it looks pretty simple to make with stuff you may already have in your stash.

Fiskars TV Episode 112

At the end you can give your info, if you like, for the opportunity to win some of the tools used in the episode. Personally, I like winning stuff and I've won some pretty cool stuff from Fiskars over the last few years. I even have a spare Fiskars craft drill I won that I'll be giving away at our next meeting (I'll draw from the names of the people who attend, so come play with us!) I already had my own so I can vouch for its coolness, especially when it comes to drilling holes through stacks of chipboard or paper for book binding. I also took a class on altering legos and drilling them for use in jewelry using this drill. Love it!

I'll be posting the next meetup soon! Keep an eye on the site!

P.S. For Eileen and anyone else who is interested, the online store/email list I'm always working on swaps for is called Alpha Stamps. They have a great selection of hard-to-find turn-of-the-century and early 1900's style craft supplies including glass glitter (Wear gloves. I found out the hard way. Ow!), boullion, dresden (my favorite) and lots more. Another source I like for these sort of items is 32 North Supplies, Sugar Pink Boutique, and Chocolate Letters.

Alpha Stamps has a Yahoo Group for organized swaps. It's well worth joining, not only because the swaps rule, but also because they regularly post private sales just for the group, featuring products that fit current swap themes. Cha-ching! The pic above is of an atc from a group I submitted to their "Steampunk" Swap. They welcome all levels from gross beginner (I think of myself as a sorta-kinda-beginner. :)) to professional artist (check out their design team members' galleries. I love their stuff.)

One last note: I would love to have some blog posts from other members and/or pics of your projects to feature on our blog. Please please send me jpgs and other info you'd like posted. I realize you may be tired of seeing only my stuff, but it's all I've got at the moment. If you've swapped ATC's with me, I would love your permission to post pics of the ones you gave me. :) Post a comment here or on the meetup board to let me know. Thanks!

2010: Another Year to Make Stuff In!

Surely after being cooped up with your family, you're ready to scrape off all the mess that's collected around your brain and put it in an altered book, stack of ATC's, a sock puppet, or some other creation.

We're having our next work-n-play day Sunday, Jan. 3 (that's this upcoming one!) at 3 p.m. in the Archivers' work room. Bring whatever ingredients/projects you want to work on, and if you want, a) something you've made lately that you want to show off and/or b) some ATC's you've made that you'd like to swap. RSVP here:

http://www.meetup.com/ATC-Artists

Next order of business...I was thinking it might be fun to have a monthly ATC theme for those who want to participate. Read more about it and vote for January's theme here:

http://www.meetup.com/ATC-Artists/polls/218413/

And next...

I'm always raving about Alpha Stamps' online store and community. If you'd like to read more, my current blog post is about their matchbox swap. Take a look, if you are so inclined:

http//scrappyrat.blogspot.com

If you want your own reason to rave about them, stop by their blog this week and enter their daily "While the Cat's Away" drawings going on right now. I highly recommend doing so since I won their Art Deco package today. Whoo hoo!

http://www.alphastamps.com/blog/

That's all for today. Now go make something!

P.S. Yes, that's a pic of the weird orange I was working on last meeting. It looks a little less like a pizza taco with the beads added.

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello Altered Artists and those who are art-curious!

No, we're not a group of drunken crafters. Perhaps the name is a bit misleading that way. Altered art is a type of crafting that begins with...well, just about any object and turns it into something more useful, interesting, or just plain cool.

Altered Artists of the Triangle is a Meetup.com group:

http://www.meetup.com/ATC-Artists/

We like to get together to make stuff, learn more about making stuff, and watch other people make stuff. Anyone is welcome to join us in creating things. We're not snobby or judgemental--feel free to work on any kind of creative endeavour you like (well, as long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else--no sewing animals to one another or altering anyone's face using sharp objects--unless it's consensual, I suppose.) From high art to scrapbooking, we're open to pretty much anything that involves gluing, sewing, wiring, or welding one thing to another thing. :)

We're currently looking for locations where we can hold our events. Our numbers tend to range from 3 people to 15 at this time,

Ideal locations have table space for all attendees so we can bring our supplies and make things.

We're polite and neat, but of course we do use things like gesso, watercolors, glitter and the like when we work on ATC's, altered books, art journals, and the like. There might be glue and sculpey and the like used to make dioramas. We pick up after ourselves and we can bring table coverings if you ask.

We are also looking for locations for our stitchers/fiber artists to get together and work. Stitchers mostly need someplace comfy to sit and work together (tables optional), so we're pretty low maintenance in that regard. It would be great if we could find a space where our fiber artists who use sewing machines to meet. Tables, outlets, and a tolerance for noise would be ideal. :)

So, welcome to our blog. Swaps, event info, and more...coming soon!