Saturday, June 8, 2013

Artist Trading Card - Favorite TV Show

****  This is my first BLOG HOP  (or is it BLOGHOP, NO that is just a MESS!!  It doesn't even look like English, does it?).  Wow, another challenge, this one by way of one of the facebook groups I hangout in a LOT!!!  ****

I joined another swap.  Nothing new there!!  I find that I almost HAVE to join swaps to MAKE myself create these days.  My lack of motivation is almost an entity in itself.  We do battle daily, wrestling to see who will win.  I am not proud to tell you that some mornings I admit defeat before even suiting up.  I do have strategies for conquering my foe however, and one of the main ones is to commit to these swaps.

So, this particular swap was to create an Artist Trading Card, 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 like a baseball card.  I had heard of them before and Googled it, but then was so intimidated that I didn't pursue it.  Go ahead, click here and you'll see what I mean!!  Now you are wondering why, if I was intimidated by the thought of even attempting an ATC (gotta learn the lingo!!), then why on Earth would I commit to making them to trade with people???  Well, first, I am my Mother's Daughter!!  She always has to try out anything new that she learns about!!  It's usually a new cooking technique in her case.  Secondly, the group is full of nice women who I knew would accept whatever I came up with!!  Lastly, I am quite simply a glutton for punishment!!  Seriously, it looked like a nice challenge and I new I had it in me if I just didn't chicken out.

The theme was "Your Favorite TV Show," so that was easy because I LOVE Veronica Mars!!  OK, not the easiest choice in the world, because I love a lot of other shows too, but I LOVE Veronica Mars!!  I watched the DVDs of the 3 seasons before falling asleep for about 3 years straight.  I am not kidding.  I have no idea how many times I have seen them over and over - Seasons 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1...., so coming up with icons from the TV show for this card was only a matter of whittling them down to which ones would work well.

Whenever I think of Veronica Mars, besides Kristen Bell and the rest of the cast, the first thing I think of is her messenger bag from the first season, so I decided to go looking for images of it, then find canvas at JoAnne's, then sew mini ones to put on the cards.  Oh yes, another thing I learned from my mom is not to do things by halves.  If you are going to do something, do it right, or not at all.  (That may explain the state of my house!!  LOL)  I found a remnant of the perfect colored canvass to make 4 Veronica bags and started sewing.  I was only able to find 4 camera charms, but that was enough for the 4 bags, and only 3 people had signed up for the swap, that left me one!!  I also found some notebook-paper-lined card stock and have some stamps that reminded me of the doodles from the introductory credits from the first two seasons. It was coming together nicely.

I left on a long trip to see my parents and when I returned, 8 people had signed up for the swap...  Hmmm.  I could not procure ANYMORE of the perfectly colored canvass to sew more Veronica bags, and also there were no more camera charms ANY WHERE.  GRRRR.

I put the project aside for a while.  Something would come to me.  Maybe I would just go with a different color canvass or try to dye it.  It had been all working so well, but suddenly it had gotten hard and it wasn't fun anymore.  My grand plans had been thwarted!!  Curse you Red Baron!!

Finally, under the pressure of just a few days left before the swaps needed to be posted, I got my bright idea!!  Take a photo of one of my mini-handmade-Veronica-bags and affix that to the card, and use camera image Washi Tape to replace the charms.  I was back in business!!

Messenger bag is popped up with foam tape.

You can see that I added road Washi Tape for the Pacific Coast Highway, and map Washi because Private I's always use maps (or Mapquest!!)


Motor City Comic Con
May 17- 19, 2013

For Tommy's birthday weekend we took him to (OK, you've already guessed  ^^^) where we happened to meet Aaron Ashmore who was in (Did you guess it again??) Veronica Mars!!  He was Troy Vandegraf in the second, third, fourth and fifth episodes, and then he came back late in the second season for a reprise.  I had to ask him if he was going to be in the new V.M. movie and he said that he had read on the internet that it was a rumor!!  LOL  I said that I had read that as well, but I was coming to him as a better source!!

Look between my head and Aaron's and you can see Eddie McClintock photo bombing us!!!
I introduced my daughter, Lisa, to Aaron and she was a bit stunned.  I suppose that that happens to him all of the time.  He stood up and shook her hand and turned on his smile!!  OH MY!!  I got caught in the BLAST!!!

Aaron was signing autographs and also doing a talk about Warehouse 13 (which we also watch) with Eddie McClintock, who decided to join us in our photo.  We had no idea until Lisa and I heard his voice in our ears as he was looking over her shoulder at the camera asking, "Did it turn out?  Can you see me??"  Such a shock to turn around and see him!!!

Guess I'll have to make a Warehouse 13 ATC, so I can post the better photo of Eddie and tell you about our wonderful conversation with him.  What a nice guy!!!

Meanwhile,  GO!  CREATE!!  Use some of your stuff - YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!!!
Karen