32 Art Trading Cards in just five days!

What a crazy month this has been

Last year I participated in one of the most fun events on IllustratedATCs - called a Halloween-Athon. I'm sure it's popular elsewhere but here we set aside four days in October to make and trade frantically. Last year I was extremely under prepared. I had to go to work in the early morning which made staying up late to keep up with American trading impossible.

This year however:

1. I took 5 days off work

2. I made about 20 cards beforehand (with the help of #Drawlloween prompts) - check out one of my last posts to see the prompts.

3. I drew out lots of outlines to simply paint later.

Halloween-Athon - ATCs Trading - Katie Hone

That didn't stop the calamity, that is my computer suddenly stopped functioning. I had a very panicked 12 hours where I thought some of my images would be lost forever. A massive sigh of relief when a disk clean up (which took 5 hours) got it back.

And my results?

52 cards made

43 cards traded

I am exhausted!

ATC art by Katie Hone - Halloween-Athon

Mailing list at the end of Halloween-Athon

Monday was great, I could slow down and get the packages ready which for some reason is something I really enjoy. 

I am looking forward to the coming weeks of mail art!

I also received a Secret Halloween package - another mail art madness I do at IllustratedATCs - here is my little Georgie playing with the dolls I received.

Georgie - Aged 2 playing with DADAology's Vampire art Doll

I like to share this art with Georgie - check out the pictures of when Georgie was weeks old, she got a bunch of ATCs as a gift for when she was born. ATCs on her just looked so huge!!

Art Topic List For Halloween, oh and Cookies!!

Hello everybody! I hope everyone is doing good.

Monday

I had a rather epic day with a new friend from work, she is all artsy and we had grand plans to do some interesting stuff. I was going to introduce her to Art Trading Cards, make origami things, this strange plastic bead you can melt down and mold which then hardens. Followed by an interesting dinner and cookies (we figured that would appease the Georgie girl).

How did we do?

We made dinner and cookies - hah!!!

Jody and I spent the whole day chatting and I showed my enormous collection of Art Trading Cards I have collected in two years. Georgie wanted plenty of attention and wouldn't go down for her much needed nap.

Georgie mashes up the mix

Georgie beats the dough into submission

Drawlloween Challenge

My topic list for Drawlloween

Oh this is such fun - for every day in October this year is a topic, we post everyday with our creations and with any luck I will complete all 31 and get a cute little pixel challenge trophy! Don't we just love pixel trophies!

Here is a sneak peak at a few completed ones:

Drawlloween - Ghosts - Eyeballs - Skull - Dragon - Devil --- Katie Hone

Someone you must go and look at

Clicking a few links and looking around the internet I happened to bump into a very good friend of mine on her blog! And it's rich with posts and ideas which, when I have a bit more time I will start reading through. Her name is Amy Weaver - you can find her blog at TheWeaversHand. She has traded some awesome pictures of my daughter, I'm not usually a great fan of collage but the way she uses mixed media is just incredible. Seriously check her out!

Moos made by Amy Weaver - Georgie Atkin 

Children's Books and Youtube Banners

Out of the woods and back into blogging. A new effort to blog at least once a week on either Mondays or Wednesdays.

What am I doing currently? A lot! Seriously I have every single toe and finger dipped into projects with one larger project in mind. Though the way to do this is actually to take my hands and feet out and stick them all into one big bucket... Ok now it's sounding weird! 

A children's book has been an idea I've had for ages but it isn't just me who says this. People from all over who have seen and received my art have always said I might be pretty good at this. I was never keen because I found the project a bit too large to comprehend. With a little help from time management apps (Trello is just wonderful) - I am now attempting to remove myself from small projects and really make a go at this.

Here are some images from an idea --- also found on Etsy:

Elephant and Giraffe at Breakfast

Elephant Skiing down a Volcano

Giraffe and Elephant Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Elephant Skiing on Volcano Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Perhaps I am falling at the first hurdle which is the story itself... am I really meant to write and illustrate, might have to put my feelers out for an author!

Scott Whitehill Youtube Challenges Channel - Art by Katie Hone

One of my other little side projects is aiding small time Youtubers with bits of artwork to help make their profile colourful and attractive. Make way for Scott Whitehill - he happens to work with me at the local Tesco and aims to make a channel about strange and wonderful challenges. Using some of his challenges has helped with my painting.... Eating candy vs insects - yummy!!! Go check him out, support is always a great thing! Do you know a Youtuber that needs a little hand in some fun free banner art? Send me a message!

It's nice to get back into the blogging atmosphere - I'd love to hear your comments :D

Also my Aceo Etsy store is now back up and running with a goal of keeping the shop full and exciting!

Cheese Trees and Beached Hippos

YES - an abnormal title for abnormal art!!!

I have started a new swap over at ATCSforall and I decided to try and create a truely random set of cards. My aim was to have three seperate list of themes and to choose randomly from each one of them to try and draw on a tiny ATC.

So here is my first one - Beached Hippos find themselves amidst a desert of rainbow melting cactus!

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Hippos beached rainbow cactus

This can be found on Ebay here.

And my second one - Giraffe wonders around on the moon and finds a rainbow igloo amongst the cheese trees. (I loved drawing the cheese trees and also igloos have become one of my favorite things to draw!

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Giraffe finds a rainbow igloo and cheese trees

This can be found on Ebay here.

I am really enjoying really surreal art because you can make the stories up afterwards - I do love the idea of cheese trees growing on the moon instead of the moon being made of cheese. So many ideas!!

NFAC - Animals in Hats!

Another month of the NFAC - I'm still pretty new to it but I have learnt that it's best to do all three for the month. I used to find it quite taxing on me creatively but now I'm really organised and have all the topics for the future in my diary. That way when I get a creative hit I can go crazy! Here are my three cards for this month - the topic is "Animals in Hats".

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO -  Toucan in a Fez

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Lions in Fancy Dress

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Giraffes in Fancy Hats

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Tortoise Crawls under a Straw Hat

The only one not listed on Ebay are the two giraffes. When I did all of these I usually found a hat on the internet and then tried to fit an animal underneath it, maybe there was a better way????

Find them here on Ebay:

Tortoise

Toucan

Lions

They all start at $0.99 as per the NFAC competition rules. Search up NFAC on ebay to find what other people have put forward this month.

Creative Tuesday - Jam on Toast

Over at Creative Tuesday the theme this fortnight is "Hot Toast and Jam" - I of course can't ever miss the opportunity to bring out my pair of cute giraffes who obviously seem to like this for breakfast. I sit here and wish and wish I could have a pair of tiny giraffes... Anyone seen the scene in Despicable Me when they shrink the elephant... yes I would love that shrink ray :)

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Giraffes eat Jam on Toast

Pop on over to Creative Tuesday see what other people have made!

This item is also in my Etsy store - hop on over if you want to see where these critters also go.

Creative Tuesday - "I want to go to"

Every time I hear the phrase "I want to go to" I nearly always think of the moon.... so hmmm... I decided to draw all of the giraffe family hanging out on a rather Mars looking like moon (what with the bright red colours). Well we can all bend the rules a little!!!

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Giraffes on the Moon

 

 

 

 

Head on over to Creative Tuesday's little corner of blog land to see other inspirations for this fortnight's topic :)

 

 

You can find this piece of art for sale here in my Etsy shop.

 

I have also kept myself busy with this month's NFAC Theme: All in a Row

 

Check out my Elephants - Giraffes - Pigs

All on eBay now!

 

Creative Tuesday - Birdhouse

I had a great idea once I saw this theme to once again shrink my cute giraffes so that they could go visit some bird houses of there very own. I don't think they found any birds as they've scared them all away. I don't keep a bird house at home but maybe I should, some of them are supremely adorable!!!

 

Here is my entry for this fortnight's theme:

 

 

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO

Head on over to Creative Tuesday to see all the other awesome bird houses/cages.

 

If you want to grab it for yourself - this item is listed in my Etsy Shop.

Journal Pages full of Flowers

My first journal for me to fill has arrived.

All the way from Russia from Irina.

 

Firstly a thank you for the little bag of shells - yay.

 

Now the theme set for this journal is flowers, awesome and quite an easy theme which works well for me.

 

So I have recently got myself a large amount of stamps and as I've been sorting them to find foreign and British stamps I noticed a lot of bird stamps... Which gave me an idea for my first double page spread.

All of those birds and houses are tiny cut outs from stamps - I wanted to add a lot more things but I always worry that I'd over do it. So I left it at that. This was my painted page.

 

So next I had a stab at some more collage and mixed media. I decided to go with my original theme for my journal and let Georgie the Sunflower say hello to Irina!

 

 

I am really pleased with how this came out, with collage I never have a plan, I just start in one corner and slowly fill the page out. The border was cut from a napkin I received many months ago. I'm glad I could finally use it. I really enjoyed doing this first step of the long journey. I have 3 more journals to see and decorate and look forward to seeing mine come back safe and sound.

Traded ATC Bunnies from Down Under

Ooooh how exciting to look forward to the postman every morning again like the good old days of pen palling! Now it's all about the trades. This morning I got my much anticipated trade from Lyndell McCubbin who custom made me 3 bunny ATCs in return for 3 custom made elephants. That's where the elephant craze started! If you refer back to this thread: Acrylic vs Watercolour, I traded the first three images. She is very happy with them since they also arrived for her yesterday.

 

And here they are:

Amongst the Flowers Custom ATC - by Lyndell McCubbin



Blending in Custom ATC - by Lyndell McCubbin

Enjoying the Scenery Custom ATC - by Lyndell McCubbin

This one at the bottom is my favourite, I love the textures created and I am in love with that adorable cotton tail!!!

 

I am addicted to trading, even when I've told myself to stop - only 2 days from giving birth (theoretically) and I still want more!

The Calm before the Storm

A drawing I did a few weeks ago - it is a quiet day at Barmouth harbour. But not for long - in the midst of summer this place will have no place to breath. The cars will be driving slowly, the four cafes along the main front will be heaving and the sea will be so bright you can barely look at it. I used to spend a lot of time drinking coffee and enjoying the atmosphere here. I prefered it of course on a mild day when its not blistering hot - but then that's me. I used to work in one of these cafes - a very hot job working near a griddle all day long. I prefer to be the customer any day. Now I am far away from the sea and how I yearn to smell that fresh sea air more regularly.





At the Quay in Barmouth - 16.5" x 11.5"

Noodle

When I was about 15 we had a pet rabbit called Noodle, I'm guessing the name was ironic since she was a pretty fat rabbit! Watching her behavior over the years she developed some personaility, she was very much like a rabbit version of Garfield. So when she died I decided to start a few one picture frame cartoons.

Larkinor

When I was 16 I got heavily addicted to a web based browser game called Larkinor, I played it for about 2 years before I moved onto better games. It wasn't a very widely known game, in fact I would say there were only 100 regular players at that time. I joined a chat room and met a lot of people, most of whom were from America, they were all very nice and it made my gaming experience very enjoyable. This image I drew using pen and ink was to commemorate all the friends I'd made during my time there. All of the quirky names on the outside of the image were player names so that when I posted this on the forum they could see where they were.

This second image was drawn specifically for a friend I'd made in the game called Monty (game name). He had lost his Dad that week so I decided in memory I would draw an image and do a similar thing with everybody's names. The game was very much a community of very nice people and it was nice to show him how much we all meant to each other. It was a last minute decision to actually colour this one in, it certainly made it more vivid.

This drawing was the last one I ever did for Larkinor, by this time I was getting bored of the game and a lot of my old friends were leaving. This drawing was for somebody we all called Cinder who within the game was on the top list for being the best robber, so I focused on the robbing aspect of the game. It was a nice way to say goodbye.