ATCs Archives - Paper Explosion

Playing With Alcohol Ink

Last month, I sat on my patio in the sun playing with alcohol inks. One of the things I did was try to make rose shapes with the ink. I had varying degrees of success. I also just dropped random colors onto the Yupo paper and let it mix however it wanted. Here are a […]

Cacti and Succulents

Back in November, I participated in a cacti and succulent swap at atcsforall. Here are the cards I created using watercolor, fine line markers, and gel pens.

Snowy Swap

For a snowy-themed ATC swap sponsored by Sweet Sentiment, I chose to use their cute moose image. of course I used Copic markers to color the image. The background is the Rustic Trees stencil from Simple Stories, and I used Distress Ink to color it. I used Cosmic Shimmer Fluffy Stuff for the snow. If […]

Slider ATCs

Ok, so I think this is so cool. I found instructions to make double slider ATCs. Since it’s fall, and it’s Halloween, I used some horror/thriller movies as my subject matter. They are all colored using Copic markers. I used digital images. The first image is of the card closed, the second image is with […]

Edgar Allan Poe

Another day, another ATC swap! Once again at atcsforall, this one is all about Edgar Allan Poe. The images are from Kindred Stamps, and are colored with Copic markers. The Poe image is popped up on an action wobble. I printed The Raven on a piece of cardstock and used that as the background for […]

Haunted Mansion

For another ATC swap at atcsforall, the theme was Ghosts Among Us. I decided to use characters from Disney’s Haunted Mansion. The images are from Kindred Stamps, and are colored with Copic markers. The backgrounds are hand drawn, except for the Doom Buggy card, which uses a patterned paper for the background.

Classic Halloween Characters

I found these old Stampin’ Up stamps in my closet, along with some old Stampin’ Up paper, and decided to do a few more Halloween ATCs. Here are Dracula, a witch, and Frankenstein, colored with Copics and heat embossed accents.

A Little Hocus Pocus

I guess I’ve really been working on ATCs more than greeting cards lately! Here’s another swap from atcsforall, with a Halloween theme. I decided to use the Sanderson sisters. The images are from Kindred Stamps. I colored them with Copic markers and did a bit of heat embossing. Aren’t they cute?

Pumpkin Spice

I chose to use a sweet little stamp from Unity Stamps for a pumpkin themed atc swap with Sweet Sentiment. The pumpkin is popped up on the card with foam tape, and there is burlap and hemp twine for a bit of texture. The image is colored with Copic markers, and the sentiment is heat […]

Spooky

It’s that time of year when I start thinking of all things scary and spooky. I made these artist trading cards just for the heck of it. The words and phrases come from two of my all-time favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. For all the book lovers out […]