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ATC Steampunk Fun and a CD Image Review

This week, for a change of pace, I have been playing around with ATC's... the digital kind!  One of the things I have discovered is that you can do "hybrid ATC's"... part of it digitally, some of it "hands on".  Take this Steampunk ATC (artist trading card) I made this week as an example...

Monocle Man

The steampunk background was made digitally using images from the "hot off the press" and very cool Steampunk CD put together by my friend and colleague Cecilia Swatton.  I really like this CD and am glad I bought a copy of it.   With over 270 high resolution steampunk style images to choose from, it was a snap finding images for both the background and the focal point for my ATC.  A few additions using some of my Paint Shop Pro brushes, a Paint Shop Pro tube of nuts and bolts and the print out was ready to mount on matboard, add a few finishing touches by hand and give it a quick spray with Krylon to protect it .  How quick and easy is that???  My kinda project when I need an art break.

Here's a photo of the Steampunk CD cover to give you an idea of some of the neat images I discovered on this CD


The Steampunk CD is organized into six sets of images that have previously been marketed as individual kits and Cecilia has added a brand new collection of images to this edition. Because these sets were orignally designed for digital-to-hands-on artmaking projects ranging from altered cigar boxes to scrapbooking, they include illustrated instructions for a variety of projects; cigar boxes, ready to print greeting cards, ATC's, moo cards, scrapbooking frames and more. Here are a couple of "ready to print" images from the CD...


ATC


Cigar Box Inside


Altered Book or Cigar Box Front

What do I like most about this CD?  The possibilities!!!  There is a lot of room to exercise your own creativity with the images.  The ready made greeting cards and ATC's offer a quick solution to a greeting card or gift tag when you are in a hurry.  What about making some fridge magnets with some of the "ready to prints" to enclose with a little gift?  What about cutting out some of the embellishment images, gluing them to cardstock and attaching them to an altered book cover for a 3-D effect?  What are some ideas that come to you of how you could use them?

The price is definitely right!  $10.00 plus shipping and handling in the US and Canada.  You can see more images and purchase the Steampunk CD via PayPal by visiting Cecilia's blog.  Hope you have as much fun with it as I am!

Now I know what to do with all those cigar boxes kicking around under my art table.  One cigar box coming up....LOL...

Oh gosh...so many lovely projects to contemplate doing ... so little time!

Have a fun, arty week ahead my friends,
Sharon

P.S.  Stop by next week for some notes, tips and ideas from a tutorial I wrote for one of my groups around using digital images in your projects PLUS in two weeks,  a special gift just for blog followers. 

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