Cookala's House of Cards

2007-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

I've Moved!!

from now on please go to http://cheeseclothmoon.wordpress.com/ to see my cards and leace comments - see y'all over there!!

2007-07-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Good news! I'm thrilled to announce that five of my ATCs have been published in The Faerie Zine, Vol 2. How cool is that? Yay!

2007-06-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Folks, I have fallen way behind in posting pictures of my ATCs here due to problems with my home computer. If you want to see my latest ATC creations, visit my Flickr site - there's a link on the left. Hopefully, the puter will get fixed soon (firewall problems) and I'll be able to update the blog. My qapologies for the inconvenience.

2007-03-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

2007-03-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

2007-03-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

2007-02-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

2007-02-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

Altered Easter Eggs made for a swap at BMuse. They fit into an atc sleeve. The four single eggs I decided to keep for myself and make into ornaments to hang as Easter decorations this year.

2007-02-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

2007-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

2007-02-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

2007-02-13T17:14:00.001-08:00

2007-01-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

2007-01-16T19:30:00.000-08:00

these 2x6 bookmarks were made for the Anything Goes - bookmark swap at ATCards.

2006-12-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Portraiture Series ATCs 1 - my first stab at making hand drawn ATCs. For these, I used acrylics, pearls, markers, alcohol inks and paint pens on a gesso base.

2006-12-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

cards made for the Alcohol Ink Swap

2006-12-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Alcohol Ink ATC's - part of my private collection.

2006-12-26T12:25:00.001-08:00

Valentine's Day Swaps 1 & 2

2006-12-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

..and now for something completely different - my cards for the Monty Python Swap. Monty is one of my most favorite wacky things of all time.

2006-12-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

ABC's Swap

2006-12-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

Birdy, Birdy, Birdy Swap

2006-12-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

Some of these are still available for private swapping.

2006-12-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas RAK's

2006-12-01T18:07:00.000-08:00

Vintage Children With Wings Swap

2006-12-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

Stockings and Stuffers Swap

2006-12-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

Definitions Swap

2006-12-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

Calendar Card Swap

2006-12-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

Snowflakes and Jinglebells Swap

2006-12-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

O! Christmas Tree! Swap

2006-12-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

All Santa's Swap

2006-12-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I've falllen way behind posting the ATCs I've been busy making. So, I've decided to just post them all together (those that are swapped and those that aren't). If you see a card you're interested in trading me for, you'll have to visit my flickr site and lookat the ones noted b"available" or the set named "ATC's for trade". If you see a prevalent theme among 3-6 cards there's a good chance they were part of a swap.

2006-10-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

So, these are cards I made for three different swaps - Gingerbread, Kaliedascopes and Vintage Christmas (which is only 75 days away!!)

2006-09-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

More to trade!

2006-09-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year (almost) when summer days are near an end and the cool, crisp air is just waiting for a chance to be. Thoughts turn to harvest hay rides, scarecrows, pumpkins and Halloween. So came this swap to be - Ghouls and Goblins, with a crooked stab at humor thrown in just because.

2006-08-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

Been busy making cards for private swaps. The Zetti style ATCs below may be destined to become ACEO's as I'm contemplating selling some to those people who aren't able to swap their own. And it wouldn't hurt to have some supply money coming in so I can make even more art (that's my practical side talking). I still have to set up an ebay selling account, which I will be doing soon. After that's done, I'm going to start making some small altered canvas art and collage (4x6 up to 12x16 or so) which I'll also be posting here and at Flickr.

2006-08-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

These I made for me. That's right! I get to keep a card or make some just for me now and then. I love the zetti style started by Teesha Moore. They're such fun things to make, and I love the vibrant colors and strangeness of them - surreal and whimsical. I'm planning to make 6 x 9 and larger canvas colalge art in the style of zetti and vintage and post them on ebay for sale. I'm also toying with the notion of making some ACEO's (atcs that you sell for money rather than swap). There's a good market and not everyone is artistic enough to make their own. And besides, supplies cost money. It would be really nice to be able to make enough money to keep me in supplies. Now, all I have to do is get my sweet patootie into gear, set up an ebay account and start making saleable art!

2006-08-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

These were made for a private swap.

2006-08-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Snowmen. Before you know it, they'll be here again with their coal eyes and teeth, they're carrot noses and red scarves. Who doesn't love a snowman? Snowmen do melt your heart.

2006-08-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

Halloween ATC dolls. These were a challenge to make, and were time consuming, too. I had to cut legs and arms, find heads and print them out. I had to make clothes that would cover the brads that hold the arms and legs to the atc body. The arms and legs and head fold up into the body, which is why they're called atc dolls. Art dolls are different, they're paper dolls pasted onto the atc base. The most work went into the mummy - I had to tear strips of white cloth and then wrap them around the atc body, legs and arms. My fave is the bride. What woman wouldn't understand that hisssssssssss she let out at Frankie upon their intro? heh. well, wouldn't you do the same?

2006-08-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

Pumpkins! was the theme for this swap. Autumn is just around the corner, bringing with it the annual pumpkin picking treks to farms on the outskirts of towns. I really like the one named Pumpkin Patch. It'll be hard to let that one go.

2006-08-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here, Kitty Kitty was the name of this swap. I got into playing with stamps and made one background with alcohol inks (kitty with wings)and did one card with a transfer.

2006-08-16T17:53:00.000-07:00

So here are some that are up for grabs - all but two that is. To see which are still available you'll have to look at my Flickr account - there's a hyperlink on the left side of the screen. Just click on the animation.

2006-08-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

Art Doll ATCs - been wanting to try making these for awhile now, and finally found a swap for them. Here the theme was open, but I'll also be making four more with a Halloween theme, though the choice there will be either art dolls or ATC dolls. THe difference? ATC dolls have their heads, legs and arms attached to their ATC bodies in some way, whereas art dolls are made seperately and then attached to the atc.

2006-08-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

SO, ok, I've already said I have a passion for all things vintage and all things with wings. Let me add to that Medieval things -like knights and ladies and lords and kings. and wizards! we can't forget wizards! (though I'm just waiting for a swap to come along that involves wizards...anyone?)

2006-08-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

These I've decided to add to my private collection. Hey, I gotta keep some of them!

2006-08-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, the theme was Christmas in July. Brrr. Reminded me of cold weather, a place I would rather not go to!

2006-08-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Send in the clowns! The theme was, ,of course, clowns. I wanted a vintage look, so I found some great images on an ephemera cd I have, and here's the results.

2006-08-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

Poodles, poodles and more poodles! Who doesn't love a poodle?

2006-08-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

Halloween will be here before you know it. This is the first Halloween swap I've done, and I like the way the cards came out.

2006-07-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who are interested in swapping with me, many of the cards I've listed here as available have now been traded. I created the animated show box on the right side of the screen towards the top of my links. Right above it are instructions for finding your way to my Flickr page, where you can view what cards are still available. It's just too much work to keep moving them around within the blog here - and I do alot of private swaps out of Flickr so I always keep the set named "ATCs for Trade" current as to what's still available.

2006-07-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

These are available for trade. If you're interested, drop me a comment and we'll talk trade.

2006-07-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've started making cards for myself now (finally!), though I my change my mind and decide to swap these out in private trades. I also thought maybe it's time I tried hosting my own swaps. The Asian themed cards were made for that purpose, but they call came out so nice it't hard to let them go!

2006-07-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

These cards were made for a swap themed "recycled" - the idea was to use what you could from the junk mail you got in one day. I think they came out pretty darn good!

2006-06-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

These are ATCs that fold closed and open - they're available for trade, but only for ATCs that fold open and closed as well.

2006-06-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

More ATCs made for private trades. Some are still available.

2006-06-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

These are ATCs that I've made for private swaps. Some are still available for trade.

2006-06-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

This swap had Americana as it's theme. I thought July 4th - fireworks, barbeques, fireworks, flags, fireworks....

2006-06-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

The theme was hand drawn angels. So, that's it - white marker on black atc blank.

2006-06-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

THis swap was entitled Memoirs of a Geisha.

2006-06-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

This swap was an attempt at creating a faux cloissonne effect using embossing.

2006-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

Another Paris themed swap. What can I say? Got a thing for vintage Paris.

2006-05-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

This swap was a Wine Label swap. Wine labels have some really beautiful artwork in them, so this seemed like a good swap to get into.

2006-05-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Dr. Who? heh. I'm a big fan of the Dr. Who series, so when this swap was posted I jumped right in. It turned out to be a real challenge to get three quality cards done, and I ended up pretty much completely altering the original image I printed off the web as they were badly pixilated. But I think they came out pretty well, considering.

2006-05-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Finally! A swap that had written word as it's main focus. I printed out four of my poems onto a transparency sheet and found a suitable background for each, added some fibers and viola. I'm going to make more of these for friends and family, too. They're neat, and it gets my poetry out into the world.

2006-05-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

Here, the theme was Red. Passion, love, blood, tomatoes, anger...whatever. I really like the way these came out - it was so hard to let them go!

2006-05-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

The theme was Sci-Fi. Little green men, weird creatures, strange planets...you know.

2006-05-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Another Faerie swap.

2006-04-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

This was a swap I did for Greek Mythology.

2006-04-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love Walt Disney? How can you not?

2006-04-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

They're called Postage People. What you do is match a postage stamp with a head on it to a body, and viola, postage person.

2006-04-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, wanna get groovy? Then let's do the time warp again!

2006-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Music soothes the savage beast, so it is said. I love music, always have always will. That's why I keep joining swaps that have music as their theme.

2006-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here again, there was an open theme. Anything was ok, as long as there was a ribbon on the ATC. These went over to Ausralia, btw. How cool is that?

2006-04-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Mona Lisa, with her infamous smile...

2006-04-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

The theme here was Pansies - and I love pansies - so pretty with their painted faces.

2006-04-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

The theme of this swap was Alice in Wonderland, which is my most favorite of all stories. Alice is my alter ego. We're so much alike it's almost scary. But my favorite character is the smoking caterpillar. If I were brave enough, I'd get a very small tatoo of him put on my right shoulder.

2006-04-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

This swap was different. You signed up and made cards for the four people who signed up after you for their sign of the zodiac - this way, everyone makes 4 and gets 4 back of their own sign. I can't wait to see what my four Libra cards look like.

2006-04-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

This was an open swap - any theme, any medium, as long as it had a puzzle piece in it.

2006-04-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

These are the cards I made for the Magic swap. Presto change-o!

2006-03-31T14:42:00.000-08:00

ok, so this is a gloat post. Glory be, two of my cards have been posted on two different ATC sites homepages. Wow. And both in the same week! Holy ATCs, Batman, I've scored a double Bat hit!

The first card was posted at ATC World, and then two days later the second cards was posted at Artist Trading Cards. Both are Yahoo Groups. I've been doing a lot of trading at those two sites, but I find I've grown fonder of another site right now only because the swaps involve less cards (3 or 4 as opposed to 6 to 9)- and that's really good for me right now because I'm just so damned busy that I may have to give up sleeping!

THe third site is Artist Trading Card Forums. All of these three sites are excellent and I highly recommend them.

I also joined a third Yahoo group site named ATC Friends Around the World. It caught my attention because the swappers are trans-Atlantic, and I really want my cards to travel the world as much as I want to collect cards from foreign countries. Unfortunately, I'm thinking of leaving it because it moves extremely slow and the one hostess I've sent cards to has been completely lacking in feedback. I have no idea if she's gotten my cards. I have no idea if I'm going to get cards back. So I'm disappointed to say the least.

So, that's my gloat post. I'm incredibly complimented by all this - it really tickles me to log in and see one of my cards plastered on the homepage. How cool is that? Somebody pinch me! (but not too hard!)

2006-03-31T14:35:00.000-08:00

Well, these cards really belong to 2 different swaps, although they were held by the same hostess. Three cards for the theme of "gold" and three cards for the theme of "silver", and even Homer Simpson will know which cards belong to which swap!

2006-03-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

This was my second triptych ATC swap. I love making these, and the concept of a "door" that opens to an inside "view. I've included shots of the card both opened and closed.

This is also the first set of ATCs that has one of my own poems included in them (something I plan to start doing alot more often). The name of the poem is "Pastorale", and I wrote it in April 2005 for a NaPoWriMo challenge at the PFFA (www.everypoet.org/pffa/)which is an on-line poetry workshop that is close to a second "home" for me. It's not for the thin-skinned or vanity poet - you'll work your butt off and really learn the art of writing a poem there from critiquing and being critiqued by the critters that hang out there. Expect nothing but the finest there, though the crits may be harsh they are always honest.

2006-03-31T14:10:00.000-08:00

I love anything that's connected to fantasy. So when this Faeries swap was posted I had no choice but to join and get me some fantasy ATCs. These were the cards I made:

2006-03-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

Can you say Basilisk? How could I not join this swap, when the subject was anything to do with Harry Potter, one of my top five all-time favorite characters ever? I wish I could go to Hogwarts, too!

2006-03-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Boop-oop-de-boop. And that's all I have to say.

2006-03-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

This was a black and white swap. Sounds easy, but try it. Not so easy to work with a lack of color.

2006-03-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

Here the theme was "seasons". So I did one of each, and a few extras.

2006-03-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

The theme of this swap was Vintage People with Wings. Well, so I found some old photos on the net and just added some color coordinated wings. Viola!

2006-03-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

I like strange, and zetti is definitely strange and also quite wonderful. This swap's theme was "Zettiology" - for an explanation of the art form, just google "zettiology" and it will bring you to the form's inventor.

2006-03-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

I love anything stained glass. SO, when this swap was posted it caught my eye. At first, I didn't think I'd join thinking it would be hard to dulpicate the look of stained glass with paper and paint, but I read the instructions and thought I'd give it a try. Here are the fruits of my labor - who says you can't teach an old artist new tricks?

2006-03-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

Easter Memories was the theme of this swap. I decided to go with a vintage style because I like it. It doesn't work for everything, but it worked well here I think.

2006-03-11T13:20:00.000-08:00

The theme was Time. Wish I had more of it!

2006-03-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Now here was a swap who's theme is near and dear to my heart - Lighthouses! Of course, I had to include the three lighthouses I often haunt = Fire Island Light, Montauk Point Light and Orient Point Light. I really, really hated to send them out, and only did so after promising myself that someday I will make more for myself. Maybe during the summer.

2006-03-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

This was my first foray into making a tryptich. You have to have 3 sides. I've taken pics of the two cards both open and closed so you can see all the sides. THey were challenging to do. I can't wait to do more!

2006-03-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

Sun and Moon, Moon and Sun. I was instantly attracted to this swap, as the sun and moon are interesting in many ways, but it was damned hard to come up with 6 cards to illustrate how! One of the things I love about ATCs is that they force you to think outside the box, and that causes growth.

2006-03-11T12:56:00.000-08:00

The theme of this swap was Affirmations, or things I tell myself every day. As I was making them I kept remembering those old Saturday Night Live spoofs with Affirmations by J. Handley. *snigger*

2006-03-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

The name of this swap was Sea Sirens. They're beautiful, yet other-worldly or odd in some strange way.

2006-03-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

These cards were made for a private swap. The second card, "Peek-A-Boo" is interactive. I've taken shots of the card both open and closed. The flaps open to reveal a surprise.

2006-03-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

The theme of this swap is Music, and all of these cards have hopefully made their way to Austrailia by now. ATC are so cool. One of my cards has made its way to New Zealand, too, as well as France and Austria and the UK. I like to think of it as parts of me that are floating around the globe, because for me creating art is like giving birth without the pain.

2006-03-05T14:26:00.000-08:00

The theme here was to use cemetary statuary in some way. I tended to lean towards the religious side of things here. Can't say why. I guess the angels guided me.