Hi friends! Happy Sunday! Please join me in welcoming back special guest Anna-Karin Evaldsson for a fun share of 3 artist trading cards! Read on to learn more and enjoy!

Hi everyone! Spring is here and flowers are appearing everywhere. I am happy to be back on the Simon Says Stamp store blog with a tutorial. Today, I made three Artist Trading Cards, with easy techniques. If you have never made an Artist Trading Card before, I hope you will do so.

Sometimes it is fun to make projects in a different size than what you normally do, either larger or smaller. Artist Trading Cards are 2.5 x 3.5 in and it is such a fun surface to work on. ATCs are also great if you want a small design, such a small stamp or a small die, to be the focal point of a project. On a small surface, the small design looks bigger. I really like the new Simon Says Stamp Poised Primula flower die set, from the You Are My Favorite release. It is a fairly small flower, which made me switch from the art journal page I planned to make first, to ATCs.

I decided to use mainly inky scraps for this project. Most of these were made with Distress Ink and, in some cases, also Distress Oxide Ink. Some of the papers are watercolored. I love digging into my pile of colorful scraps.

Die cut the Poised Primula from scrap papers and from Simon Says Stamp Ice Vellum. If you don’t have enough inky scrap papers, you can easily make some by smearing Distress Ink on a non-stick craft sheet, misting with water and pressing watercolor paper or Ranger Heavystock paper into the ink.

Shape the flowers and leaves with Tim Holtz Shaping Tool Kit.

I used the pretty Simon Says Stamp Petal-Tipped Labels on two of the ATCs. One of the labels was die cut from Ice Vellum and the other one from old book paper.

Stamp the Ice Vellum die cut with Simon Says Stamp Old Letter Background and white emboss. Don’t worry about perfection, we are just aiming for a nice, distressed texture.

Cut three ATCs from the scrap papers (2.5 x 3.5 in).

I stamped two of the papers with texture stamps. The first stamp is from Tim Holtz Tiny Textures and the second from Tim’s Ultimate Grunge. The stamps were misted with water before stamping.

Ink the edges of one or two of the cards and then distress.

Mix a little water into Winsor & Newton Permanent White gouache and splatter on the backgrounds using a paint brush. Tap the brush to create the splatters.

For the first card, I used only flowers die cut from Ice Vellum. Glue the stems to the background and then arrange and glue the flowers. Add the centers.

Since the flowers and leaves were shaped, the card has dimension.

The Ice Vellum is really pretty, with a sparkly, pearlescent look. I am fond of vellum and this version will be a new favorite. The words were cut from an old book about flowers.

The second ATC uses the brown background and the label die cut from Ice Vellum.

I added Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Peachy Gems to each flower center.

The sentiments at the bottom of each card come from Tim Holtz Tiny Text.

The third ATC uses a label die cut from a page in an old book about flowers describing Primulas. I like such little details.

I used a mix of blue and Ice Vellum flowers for this card, with Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Dazzling Gold Gems as flower centers.

Splattering adds texture without overwhelming the background.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it inspired you to make Artist Trading Cards. However, if you don’t want to make an ATC, you can of course turn it into a small folded card instead, by adhering the ATC to a folded card base. Thank you so much for looking! Happy crafting! –Anna-Karin

SUPPLIES:

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Thanks so much for stopping by, and thanks to Anna-Karin for being our guest!

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