“Choose Your View” – a digital ATC (artist trading card) that you can print… free! Click on the image to download the printable version. This ATC started out to be a Christmas/holiday-themed card. For some reason, I chose a rather dramatic photo of England. Maybe it was my frame of mind at that moment….
Month: April 2009
By the Light – printable ATC (artist trading card)
“By the Light…” – a digital ATC for you to print I was in a frivolous, mischievous mood today, and something just clicked for me when I saw this image of the moon. In other words, the visual puns are entirely deliberate. I started with an image from the Bare Bottoms folder on my Shameless…
Resizing Your Art for Artistamps
Q: I want to make some artistamps by hand, not necessarily on the computer. How do I make my art the right size for stamps? Should I be creating the art in stamp size, to start with? A: Most commercial artists work much larger than the finished, printed product will be. For example, a standard…
How to make a Sheet of Artistamps with Adobe PhotoShop
If you’re new to Adobe’s PhotoShop program, it can be overwhelming to figure out all the fabulous bells & whistles it offers. However, it’s a wonderful tool for artistamps! When I wrote this article around 2002, I was using Adobe 5.0. The commands may vary slightly if you’re using a different version, but the concepts…
Perforations for Artistamps
I wrote the first version of this article around 2002. New perforating options are constantly being developed, tested and marketed. So, this article is dated, and remains at this site as a starting point for people who want to explore perforating options for artistamps. — One of the first questions people have, is how to…
Real, Exotic and Foreign-looking Stamps
These are a few stamps from my own collection of inexpensive, international postage stamps. They are “real” stamps, used on mail. I like them because they look exotic and/or old, and I gather ideas from them. I’m providing them as inspiration. You can copy* them, tweak them with your own color and design ideas, or……
Glues and Adhesives for Artistamps
Adhesive backing for artistamps If you’re sending your artistamps for others to use, you probably want to make them as much like “real” postage as possible. For example, you’ll want the recipient to be able to lick the back of the stamp so the glue becomes moist and will hold the stamp in place. The…
Glue Recipes – Artistamps
Glue recipes vary from great to disastrous. But, they can be a fine alternative to “lickable” adhesive-backed paper and commercially prepared glues, described in my article, Glues and adhesives for artistamps. Climate differences can affect how well a glue recipe works. Likewise, personal taste–sometimes literally–can influence your choices. Artistamp genius Jas kindly sent this recipe…
Artistamps – Definition
Artistamps can be described as fake postage. Some people call them faux postage, Cinderellas, postoids, or even real postage. But at the post office, they may call them “fake.” In other words, if you use artistamps in place of “real” postage, the post office is likely to return your mail, postage due. Those of us…
Edgar Allan Poe Shrine
The Edgar Allan Poe Art Shrine is one of my favorite assemblages. The elements include a raven printed on muslin, in three sections. I found him in a Dover book, and added color in PhotoShop (Image-> Adjust-> Saturation). Then, I printed him on some iron-on tee shirt transfer paper that works in inkjet printers. I…