I fake-joined the "Ongoing ATC Swap - July 2015" and made a quartet of cards for my super-lame partner.
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I think ATCs that are "more" than just a card are cool, so, while brainstorming ideas, I came up with making one that's also a jigsaw puzzle. To the surprise of absolutely no one, I went for the obvious pun and titled this piece "Women are Puzzling".
This is what the front and back of the card looked like prior to gluing the two halves together and cutting the puzzle pieces apart. I drew her entirely with No. 2 pencil, using a photograph of a real woman, from a
Wig Company catalog (and, no, I don't wear wigs--said catalog is strictly for
educational purposes), as a still-life model (the striped background was my addition). I feel that I made her hand too big, but, otherwise, the illustration turned out okay. I had originally planned to do her in full color, however, once I had the woman roughed-out in pencil, she looked good to me in black & white, so, I decided to leave her that way and finished her off in gray scale.
Here's the finished card, both assembled and unassembled. The pieces got a bit warped from the cutting process (I had to bend the cardboard a bit to get the blades of my scissors around the projecting "knobs"), so the edges of some of them stick up a little, and the fit isn't quite as tight as I'd like, but, for my first attempt at making a jigsaw puzzle from scratch, it's decent enough I suppose. While a twelve-piece (3 x 4) project isn't very difficult to put together, I'm glad that I didn't ratchet it up one more notch and try to make it a twenty-piece (4 x 5) puzzle, as cutting this thing apart wasn't easy and upping the number of parts would have only made things more difficult. Likewise, making it 2-ply cardboard would probably have helped the pieces stay together better, but that also would have been tougher to cut.
Materials:
White paper, white glue, brown paper from a grocery bag, cardboard from a potato chip box, No. 2 graphite pencil, and ink.
Dimensions:
6.4 cm (2.5) wide x 8.9 cm (3.5") high.
Time:
A couple of hours-or-so on July 21st, 2015.
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My next idea for an ATC was one that I'd been wanting to do for quite some time: a "carded" action figure!
At first, I had my heart set on making the
Craftster Cork Guy, but then I noticed the little Cork Horse up at the top of the main page and I cursed myself for my foolishness. What sane person would ever want an action figure of a man when they could have an awesome equine toy instead, am I right? Rainbow Dash only had to kick me in the head five times to convince me of the wisdom of the previous sentence, but, once the world swam back into focus again, I could finally see that my entire life up until that point had been a complete and utter waste, and that her "All ponies, all the time" mantra was the one true path to everlasting happiness and enlightenment.
The cork horse is made out of neither cork nor toothpicks, because that would be truth in advertising, and a slipshod operation like the one that I run can't be held to such high standards. Instead it's constructed out of newsprint, white glue, and bendable wire. As the figure is nothing but a bunch of hollow cylinders, it was relatively quick and easy to fabricate.
Here's the painted Cork Horse action figure, the plastic bubble (made from a toy package, appropriately enough) that will soon encase it forever, and the partially completed cardback illustration/text.
I kind of forgot that white glue has a tendency to smear the pigment from markers when I use it at as a sealant. Okay, that's a lie: I didn't forget at all and I mentally warned myself not to do it right before I did it. It was getting late and I just didn't care anymore (that irritating voice in my head is wrong just as often as it's right, so I don't pay it much attention anyway).
This is what the finished, carded figure looks like. And I'm never letting the Cork House out again either, mwahahaha! (I took the other photos just prior to sealing the animal inside.)
Materials:
White paper, cardboard from a cereal box, wire twist ties, ink, white glue, hot glue, transparent plastic from a toy package, marker, colored pencil, and acrylic paint.
Dimensions:
6.4 cm (2.5") wide x 8.9 cm (3.5") high x 1.6 cm (0.6") deep.
Time:
Two days: July 25th & 26th, 2015. I completed the horse and cardback art on the 25th and did the final assembly work the following morning.
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This one is "Nebiros" (more typically spelled "Naberius"), one of the many demons catalogued in the
Lesser Key of Solomon. This particular interpretation is from Atlus'
Persona series of video games. I really messed this one up with the white glue top coat--the markers bled like crazy, especially the red. Yes, I'm a very slow learner. I was going to take a photo of the card before I screwed it up, and I wish I had done so.
Materials:
White paper, cardboard from a cereal box, white glue, ink, marker, colored pencil, and acrylic paint.
Dimensions:
6.4 cm (2.5") wide x 8.9 cm (3.5") high.
Time:
One day: July 26th, 2015.
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And, finally, I call this piece "The Sleeping Whompus Isn't Sleeping". It's a collage, made from cutouts from a magazine (various photos of cooked meats and monster bits). Not a very complex card, and it was simple to make, but I like it.
Materials:
Clippings from a
Woman's Day magazine, cardboard from a cereal box, and white glue.
Dimensions:
6.4 cm (2.5") wide x 8.9 cm (3.5") high.
Time:
This morning: July 27th, 2015.
