ATCs - Hand Drawn Challenge

The theme for my original ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap group this month was "hand drawn." This one really had me stumped. I love to design and work with patterns and colors but I seldom draw anything other than doodles. I kept trying to come up with a simple subject to draw - a flower, a cute little person or animal but I think the drawing skills in my family went to my brother - he has amazing talent and has even illustrated books! Finally it occurred to me that when I make a quick sketch of an idea for a page - I am drawing (a bit slow on the uptake) and I had my idea for the card.



I drew some one inch square layout sketches in a grid pattern. I needed to make fourteen of these, so I needed to figure out a system.



I calculated the measurements of the layout for the squares and made a drawing to scale. I first tried using a one inch square punch to create a template from a piece of chipboard, but I had a hard time getting the punched squares to line up perfectly.



By using Design Studio, I was able to set up a quick file to make the template with the squares perfectly aligned.



Here is my template - I cut it from a pretzel box and used it to trace the squares onto each ATC front.



I often use my digital scrapbooking software (Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus) to create the backs of my ATCs - it gives me a chance to try another design and have a bit of digital fun. I chose this paper because it had small colorful squares that worked with the sketch boxes on the front.



Here is a closer view of the back of one ATC. I applied a 50% opacity to lighten the paper so the information could be easily read.



Here are my finished ATCs - I drew the sketches on each card - at least it did not take as long as the thousand inchie project (if you missed that one - here is a LINK)!



The cards are very similar but not identical - it is tricky to draw the same thing over and over in a one inch space. It took most of an evening while watching TV to finish them. I don't often sketch layouts before I create a page, but when I do the sketches are much larger!



In the wider strip across the center of the card I wrote "So Many Pages ... So Little Time." I cut the fronts from a light sage green textured 12 x 12 paper with my ATC cut file. I chose that paper because it was an odd color and usually the bits and pieces that are odd colors are the ones I end up using for test cuts and sketches.

I can't wait to see what the others in my group came up with - I think a lot of us were outside our comfort zone this month. When our organizer, KER, posts photos of the group of ATCs on her blog I will edit to add a link here.