I'm looking for people to help with the site. We desperately need a steady supply of product reviews, demonstrations or interviews - or anything else you can think of! So many great new products on the market, product reviews and demonstrations of these would be great! Inktense pencils by Derwent, Pan Pastels (I'm not sure who makes these, but I'd love to get my hands on some!) Watersoluble oil paints aren't new any more, but we don't have a review or demonstration of them!
New work is in the gallery all the time, please check it out!
Eliza
We have a wonderful new demonstration in our demonstration room by Vicki! Thank you Vicki for showing us how you do your beautiful and very skilled Watercolor paintings!
I'm always looking for new demonstrations, product reviews, or anything you might think that artists and viewers might be interested in! For that reason I'd like to tell you about a new website that has opened - Scratchboard-art.com! Scratchboard art is a wonderful medium, and more and more people are finding out how much fun it is to do! Doing scratchboard in an ACEO size is a challenge - but a challenge many scratchboard artists take up! Why not pop over to the website and have a look?
Until next time!
Eliza
First I discovered that our gallery comment system had been spammed. Thousands of unwanted advertising comments had been added to all the galleries! There was no way to clear this except one at a time, so, regretfully, I turned off the comments which got rid of all the spam in one swoop. It's awful the way that people can spoil a good thing.
I've also noticed that some of the galleries are "broken" in a way that they still look fine, but the owner of the gallery probably can't log in. If this is you - please email me and let me know. It's a very easy fix, takes only a minute or two, but I have to know which galleries are affected first.
So much bad news! But there is good news as well! Your response for donations to re-register domain and hosting was so great that I was able to do it for two years, so it will be a while before I have to ask again! THANK YOU! Big time to all that responded so wonderfully.
You have given me encouragement to add to the site. I've written a demonstration on using coloured pencils for fur, and one for using coloured pencils for human skin. There are also new product reviews! You HAVE to try out the ACEO size canvas's that are made by one of our members! I've been buying them and I'm so impressed! See them in the Product Review section. In that section you will also find a comparison of several of the better brands of colored pencils on the market.
Remember - I'd love your input to the site! If you have used a new product in your art that you want to tell us about, or if you are using an interesting technique you would like to share, please write and let me know!
Gallery News! I've more then DOUBLED the quota for each person's album in our art gallery! This means that if you had run out of space - well, you can go add more pictures now! Remember to keep the individual picture size down, and of course they must be ACEO's!
Other site news. Had a bad fright with the gallery this last week, when part of it broke, not allowing me to add new members. But after 48 hours of cursing it, crying and going to forums for advice, I've found a work around. So - they still work and new people have been joining!
New Demos! Two wonderful demonstrations to show you! Jet Eagleson and her son put together the most amazing demo on making paper. Lots of clear directions and wonderful photos!
And something a bit different - a full explaination on how to make prints from your art by Laura. You can see it in the Demonstration Room. Thank you Laura!
That's all the news for now. Keep creating!
Eliza
Bone*diva has received the honor of 2006 Community Hall of Fame winner for her efforts in forming and leading one of the largest eBay Groups. An active eBay member since 1999, she trades in the Art categories and has a love of equestrian art.
Bone*diva started and leads the Art Card Editions and Originals eBay group (ACEO). With over 2900 members, she organized the artists who help each other understand how to sell their self-created trading card artwork on eBay. In the ACEO group, they share information on selling strategies and important trends for ACEOs. Their efforts have empowered artists to succeed because they are able to eliminate the “middle man”, i.e., art galleries, and sell their artwork directly to the buyer.
I'll close any new joins to the gallery so that no one is disapointed in not getting a reply to their request - but I'll leave that until the 27th of June. At the moment the gallery is still open for new joins!
As always I'm looking for demonstrations and product reviews, so if you are interested in writing one please contact me.
I'm also saving up for a harp to learn to play during my convalescence (I already do play a bit!) and if you would like to help with raising the money please see my ebay auctions - there might be something there you might like!
I did a bit of clearing out of old galleries that had never been touched. Please - if you have a gallery and haven't yet uploaded any of your own art, do that as soon as you can.
Thanks for your help.
Eliza
Time to clean up the galleries!
When I create an album in the gallery for new artists I put up a "placeholder" graphic so that their album can be found. Once they have uploaded some of their own art that "placeholder" should be deleted. I see that some people haven't deleted it, and some other people have yet to upload anything of their own.
As it does look ugly scrolling through the galleries and finding so many of these laying around, I will be starting a clean up soon.
What does this mean? If you have your art uploaded already, it doesn't mean anything. The placeholder will disapear and you will have more room in your album for pictures! If, however, you have yet to upload any of your own art - and it has been over a month since you were given an album - your album will disapear and you will have to reapply.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!
If you haven't yet uploaded your art, and you have had your album for over a month, PLEASE upload now! If you have lost the instructions, or are having problems following them, please email me, eliza@art-cards.org otherwise you might find yourself without an album. I will give everyone a week to get their albums in order before I start. If you have put your pictures up but haven't removed your placeholder you can help by logging into your album and removing it for me! Thanks :)
Now it's not as fancy as eBay, no bells and whistles, just a really basic auction, but it works!
But hold on - this isn't just ANY auction place! Our aim on this site has always been to make things fun. Ever since we had to shut down our competitions I've been thinking about what we can have to replace them - this is the answer!
Each two weeks we will have a theme to the auctions. You don't HAVE to take part and you are more then welcome to upload artwork that doesn't fit the theme, but if you do take part you have a chance to win.
Winners will be chosen by the number of bids they have. The winners of each competition will be displayed on the front page with a link to their auctions! I say "winners" because we may have more then one each time, depending on circumstances.
To play, all you have to do is to put the theme in the title of your auction and to let us know your auction URL in the special thread in the Forums.
For information about using our auctions, please see the page on Auction Instructions.
As I said in the email that was sent out recently, I'm working on a surprise for you for January! No clues - but it will be BIG! If you aren't already a member of the mailing list you better join, all news goes there first and you might miss out on anything new. To join the mailing list just send an email to...
updates-subscribe@art-cards.org to subscribe.
(Please note, you can not email the list, it is for announcements only)
Happy Holidays everyone and I'll write again in the New Year. Eliza
We have a new improved gallery now!
Instead of limiting the number of pictures you put up I've set a limit of 800 kilobytes per user. This should give you plenty of room to put up pictures of your art cards! You can also have sub galleries now, if you want to devide your gallery into sections.
The new search engine should work better, and if you go into your album, and click on "edit album" you can set up keywords for the search engine to find.
We have a "random image" on the home gallery page, which is a great feature!
I hope you enjoy using the new gallery, either as an artist or as a viewer!
Eliza
Ashley Plath is helping me to keep them organized by checking them and writing to people if they have too many pictures or too large a space in the description area. Everyone give Ashely a big round of applause for the hard work she is doing!
Thanks to Mo and Pat who also offered to help, and who's services will be called upon as soon as Ashely needs help.
The big news is that, because of our growth, I'm already looking into upgrading the Gallery. Hopefully this will be done easily and with no loss of - well, anything really! It should fix some of the problems we are having with the search engine and a few other little problems.
I'm not sure exactly when I'll be doing this. Maybe today!
Fingers crossed that all goes well!
Eliza
Kerry will need artist info, photos of art cards, information on swaps, and recommendations for books and/or websites that would be helpful for artists,collectors, or people showing a new interest in this art form.
Thanks Kerry!
September 21st 2005
"Little Sister" (http://atcsuk.blogspot.com/) has sent me this information:
Call for Submissions : The First International Artist Trading Card Exhibition in the UK!
Artist Trading Cards, or ATC's as they are called, are virtually unknown here in the UK, so to promote them I have organised the following exhibition.
Organised and funded entirely by me and at personal cost to me, so any contribution is more than greatly accepted and you get the added prestige of being included in the first ever International Artist Trading Card Exhibition in the UK!
The local and national press and local radio are being contacted prior to the exhibition so you could be published too!
To be included in the exhibition, the "fee" or "payment" for inclusion in the exhibition is two donated act's more if you wish. These works can not be returned and donated cards will become part of my personal collection after the exhibition. The Artist Trading Card Exhibition is a promotional exhibition only and no cards are for sale. Any medium, especially hand drawn or painted, linocut, fabric, non-paper is good too. But we already have many digital copies so please send original works only. Your best efforts please, we want to show the UK just how fantastic this new art phenomena is, not to mention what fantastic artists you all are!we need to wet those appetites!
All artists who donate cards will have their work named in the exhibition.
Size: 2 ˝ x3 ˝ cards may be any shape as long as they fit into the 2 ˝ x 3 ˝ frame, any that do not fit within this frame can not be used. If embellishments i.e. fibers are outside this framework that's ok, but the card itself must fit within 2 ˝ x 3 ˝ frame as it's got to fit into a plastic sleeve in order to be exhibited.
I will post photos, comments and any publicity generated by the exhibition on my web site and blog, and there will be documentation to anyone who donates cards and requests it.
The date of the exhibition is week beginning 10th Oct. 2005. Cards can be sent any time from now right up until the above date, and all works will be included.
Please note.
Anyone intending to send more that 4 cards please include a small bio of yourself, contact e-mail etc. so that this can be exhibited alongside your work.
Otherwise work will be grouped according to medium.
Art Cards, Editions and Originals ACEO
As an offshoot of ATC's, Art Cards Editions and Originals or ACEO's as they are more popularly known will also be represented in the exhibition.
These are the same size as atc's but are not traded they are bought and sold.
There is much debate about the rights and wrongs of sell or trade within the artist trading card community, with good points being made on both sides.
I have chosen to include both ATC's and ACEO's within this exhibition as an example of the way in which this art movement is continuing to develop.
September 2nd 2005
Sorry I'm a little late with this, things have been hectic lately and time slips away. Next month should be normal again!
We have a winner for our August "Early Fall" competition! You can see the results on the "Competition" page.
Congratulations to our winner, and thank you to all the people who entered with such wonderful cards!
We are having a break from competitions in September, get ready for a new competition in October!
In the meantime, stay well.
Eliza
The "Fall" competition for August is closed and judging has started. Will have a winner for you at the end of the month!
Unfortunately we did not receive enough support to go ahead with the "Cards for Kids" idea for September. Looks like we will just take a break for that month.
There will be an exhibition of Art Trading Cards at the Radstock Youth Centre (UK), November 2005. If you are interested in learning more or submitting cards see http://www.maxinechurch.com/atcexhibition.htm
I think that's all for the moment!
Eliza
25th August 2005
It's with regret I'm going to have to announce that I will have to start charging a one time $5 administration fee for setting up accounts for our gallery.
The growth of the gallery has been enormous, and I had no idea that so many people were going to write every day and ask for galleries. I have been saving them to do in clumps every three days, but it is still digging into my precious art and work time.
Remember, this is not a yearly fee - it's only to be paid once. I hope that this doesn't turn people away! More information on the "Join Us" page.
Eliza
Instead of a competition in September we are having a special event - Cards for Kids.
The idea is to make Art Cards (not gift cards!) to be given to children who might be in hospital over Christmas. If every member made 10 cards during September we would have over 10,000 cards!
The question "which hospital?" has yet to be answered (but is in the works, I'm waiting to hear back from a certain very special someone).
If you would like to be part of this event please make cards suitable for children. We don't want Christmas themes as they aren't Christmas cards - not all children in hospital over this time might celebrate Christmas and we don't want them left out! If you can't manage 10 then whatever you can. If you can manage more then that is great! It would be nice if they were all originals, but if you are going to send prints please make sure you put edition numbers on the backs.
On the 1st October put them in a plastic bag with your name and the number of cards on them and send them to me. Please email me for mailing details.
Thanks :)
Eliza
I've uploaded a new demonstration in our demonstration room. It shows how to make your own ornaments for cards - or - Christmas is coming up! All you need is some embossing supplies and a little spare time to make some lovely shiny trinkets. See "Ultra Thick Embossing" at http://www.art-cards.org/demonstration.html
Hope you have fun!
Eliza
http://elizaleahy.blogspot.com
Congratulations to everyone who entered, your work is truely amazing! And a special congratulations to our finalists - and a SPECIAL congratulations to our winner!
A big thank you to our generous sponser Vickie from "B-Muse". Without our sponsors we would have no competition!
This month (August) represents the end of winter, at least to our American friends. So I thought we could start early with a "Fall" theme for our next competition. Sara from "Manto Fev" will be donating a $30 voucher for the winner of August's competition. Thank you Sara!
I have something very serious to talk to you about concerning the competition for September - but I'm going to leave that for next time!
Stay well!
For our July competition we are going to do something very different. The theme is "words".
You have to write a small poem (well, it has to be small, doesn't it?) or even just a line, and decorate it. You can use whatever medium you like - but the WORDS must be HAND WRITTEN! :)
No cut and pasting of text. Collage is allowed anywhere but in the text!
This should lead to some very creative cards!
The rules are:
One entry per person
Must be an art card - 2.5" x 3.5"
Send in an email to eliza@art-cards.org
Deadline 25th July
If you know how, please make your card 72dpi and 500 pixels along the longest side. Otherwise, don't worry about it :)
The generous person providing a prize this month is Vickie from B-Muse. If you haven't already checked out B-Muse's site please do! Vickie provides some wonderful things specifically for cards, including watercolor paper in different thicknesses, mat board, and glossy cards - all cut to the right size for Art Cards! Takes some of the work out of the process and you can get right into the creative side! I buy my supports off her, as well as little plastic packets with sealable tops to send the cards in. Go to http://www.art-cards.org and hit the "B-Muse" banner to be taken directly to her store!
Thanks Vickie!
Get creating everyone!
It's a new forum for discussing your art. The idea is to put up a piece of your art for others to discuss the possitives and anything that might improve it with a few changes. It is not limited to Art Cards, all artwork is welcome, two or three dimentional.
Everyone is welcome to join, but please keep all critiques honest and helpful. I have hosted it off this site to save on space!
Laura won the Valentine competition with her "Zen Cats" ACEO.
You can see Laura's lovely work up for auction here
Sketch is working on getting thumbnails for our artists gallery as well. I can't thank him enough! Here is the link to his home page again, in case you missed out on seeing his unique and very detailed work! www.sketchdude.com
We have had a lot of confusion about the competitions, start dates, ending dates, themes - so for the moment at least we are just going to let them slip by. If anyone is interested in taking charge and running them, keeping up to date in the forum and encouraging people with themes, please write to me and let me know.
(click on their card to see their auctions!)
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We also have one Encouragement Award...
The two little ballet dancers are hoping and dreaming of being prima ballerinas when they grow up. The idea just grabed me and said "Yes, I can see them in their minds pretending that they are big ballerinas on points!" The picture told the story so perfectly. Unfortunately roselover doesn't appear to have any auctions up at the moment - but keep an eye out for her!
Remember, put your Valentines cards up so that they end on the 30th!
Eliza
He has been working on our auction site to give us thumbnails - so far we have them on the main page, soon we will have them in the categories too! It's looking so wonderful with pictures - like an art auction site should look!
Three cheers for Sketch!!! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray! Hip hip, hooray!
I'm also glad to see the number of entries into out "Hopes and Dreams for 2006" competition. It certainly wasn't the easiest thing to illustrate and you have all done an amazing job! Keep them coming!
Search for "2006" to see the entries.
Seems I was a little short on the instructions and I've had a few questions.
Basically you can put up any time you want, but whoever has the most bids on the 17th will be the winner. Just put "2006" in the title so that we can find you. The winner will be announced on the front page with a link to their auctions on the 20th.
If you want to start working on the second theme competition it will start on the 20th and will be "Valentines". Put "Valentines theme" in the title so that we can find you.
Thank you to everyone who has tried our new auctions so far, thank you for bearing with us during out "teething" phase! Other then some emails going missing it hasn't been too painful!
Please let me know if you have any problems or issues. I'm working hard to make this a good site for you and need feedback!
Oh, and I think that I've FINALLY killed off the spammers from the forums. Don't forget you can discuss your auctions, or anything else, there as well!
Stay well and happy!
Eliza
The theme is "Hopes and Dreams for 2006!"
It is free to join and free to list - and everything is free and going to STAY that way.
Why buy and sell on eBay when there is a FREE alternative?
Check out what is available already, after less then one week!
And get ready to upload your "Hopes and Dreams for 2006!"
Good luck!
Eliza
If anyone would like to write a product review please let me know! Likewise I'm looking for demonstrations - if you have a technique not already covered that you would like to share, let me know!
We now have "donation buttons". You are under no pressure to donate, but if you would like to drop a few dollars into the kitty for the running of this site please feel free to do so!
Don't forget to support our wonderful sponsors who provide us with prizes for our monthly competitions!
Thank you :)
Eliza
Other news...
I've been bogged down with mail recently, and life has been busy so I haven't had time to impliment a few new ideas I've had for the site. I want to have some articles about Art Cards, and I have the first one in mind but I haven't had time to write it! I promise within the next week there will be a new article, a new product, a new demonstration and hopefully an interview from Don!
In the mean time, don't forget the Forums, check out the galleries and have a good time.
Eliza
Please don't forget our forum! The poor thing is awfully sad and lonely! We have people there who are waiting to set up swaps as well as information and hints and tips and we would love you to add your favourite tip as well!
If you aren't already on our mailing list please consider joining. It's the quickest way to get information about what is going on at art-cards.org. Just send an email to updates-subscribe@art-cards.org to subscribe. It is a low volume, announcement only mailing list.
The Stamping Bug has these stamps, and you can buy them as either mounted (the easiest way), unmounted (to mount yourself, saving money) or as a whole sheet (the most economical way).
Full details HERE
I would encourage you all to enter, and if the exhibition comes to a city near you please attend and write a report for those of us that can't get there!
Note - your entries are NOT returned, they become a perminant part of a travelling exhibition.
We also have our very first interview,(Thanks Tamara!), our very first demonstration, (Thanks Alexah!) and our very first competition, (Thanks "Stamping Bug" for the prize!)! It's definatelly a month of firsts! Make sure you get your competition entry in by the 25th! Theme this month is "All creatures great and small".
Watch out for more great news coming soon!
Eliza Leahy
The biggest change will be to our artists gallery. Now instead of one picture per artist each artist will have a gallery of their own work to show! There is also a comment feature so you can tell your favourite artists just how much you like their artwork!
We will be having interviews with our ACEO Artists - finding out their likes and dislikes in art and in the products that they use to create their art.
We will be holding competitions. Each month a different theme will be presented, and at the end of each month the best cards (as chosen by our hand picked jury of professional artists) will be displayed as encouragement so you can see what is possible with a little bit of talent and a lot of fun! Prizes will be donated by our wonderful supporting companies! Please do click their banners and see what they have to offer - it's amazing what wonderful products and deals are out there!
I'm hoping we can have a regular schedual of demonstrations and techniques using new products and devices as well as much loved older techniques that might be new to you! If you would like to present a demonstration please let me know
I hope you are thrilled by the way that the site is growing and all the new changes and improvements we are making, and I hope you are too!
Eliza Leahy