Journals & Collaborative Projects

Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous collaborative projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/

Tutorials & Techniques

Below are some of our favorite tricks for adding depth and dimension to your art.  We hope you have fun giving these a try!

Current Group Swaps & Projects

Below is a list of current swaps and projects available to group members. If you are interested in joining our group and participating in these projects, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.  

For existing group members, you can sign up to participate  in these projects here: Swaps & Current Projects.  

We look forward to swapping with you.  Happy Arting!

Member Gallery for Group Swaps
 
Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous group swaps and projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
 
Come play with us... Join today!

Paper Traders is a friendly online community of artists from around the world. We nurture and value creativity, embrace new ideas, products, and techniques yet also value tried and true methods of artistic expression. Our projects consist primarily of paper arts, mixed media collage, artist trading cards, altered art, assemblages, collaborative journals, mail art, and more.

We are interested in creative individuals of varied skill levels who wish to challenge themselves artistically and help build a supportive community. We are at our best when we can share our creative efforts as well as techniques, resources, feedback, and insights. We encourage conversation about art, the art process, and what it means to be an artist.

Paper Traders is hosted on Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
We hope you will consider joining us on an artistic journey!

In order to prevent spammers and to insure that all applicants are actual persons interested in creating art, a questionnaire will be sent to all potential members. When applying, please submit digital examples of your work or direct us to a website where we can view your art. The intent of the questionnaire is not to judge the merits of your art but to safeguard the integrity of our community.

Free Images for Download

Below you will find images that are owned by our group members and offered for your personal use as well as images found in the public domain. Images may be freely used in your personal artwork but may not be used for commercial purposes of any kind without written permission of the owner. No images may be used to create collage sheets or image collections for resale.

To download, follow the link provided. In some cases, you may be able to just click on the image to enlarge it, then right-click and select "save image as". Content changes frequently and many images are available for a limited time.  Please check back often for newly posted images to use in your art journey.

Open Art Challenges !

We're changing things up here at Paper Traders. Instead of the monthly challenges of the past, we'll now be hosting special challenges that might feature a specific technique or product and will be rewarded with actual prizes sponsored by our group members.

Our new challenge for 2013 is a year long word prompt journaling project/challenge. Each specific challenge will be open for one month and all art bloggers can participate, whether you are a Paper Traders member or not. Each artist will comment with a link to their blog post that features the artwork for that particular challenge. For each challenge, a winner will be selected whose art best exemplifies the challenge. The winning artist will be featured here and get a "Trader Treasure" blog button to display on their own blog. They also will receive one chance for each entry for the end of the year prize drawing. Watch this page for more details and challenge announcements.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Gallery: Fabulous Fashionistas


Cathee Stegall

Beckie Holso

Cathy Calamas

Connie Holso

Karen Boatright

Quincy Richardson

Ruth Anna Abigail

Monday, February 21, 2011

A Lucky new winner!!

Brenda of  The Creative Chook
is the alternate winner of our OWOH prize package.
Our first winner did not respond to our contact attempts
and so we generated a new winner
 through the random number generator.
Brenda, we will be contacting you today by way of email
and a post on your blog.
Congratulations!



Saturday, February 19, 2011

OWOH Thank You Gift

As a little Thank You gift for visiting our art blog and making the One World One Heart event such a success we are sharing these vintage images.  They will only be here for a limited time, so grab them while you can.

Please remember that these images are owned by Connie Holso of Stampgram's Studio and are offered for your personal use only.  Do not repost or distribute in any form.  Thanks.

And some vintage postcard images.



Please, these postcard images are owned by Cathy Calamas  and are offered for your personal use only.
 Do not repost or distribute in any form.  Thanks.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Beeswax Encaustic ATC Swap Announced

(Open to PaperTraders Members only )
Beeswax Encaustic- 4 for 4 - ATC Swap
Theme: Butterflies 
Technique: Encaustic Beeswax
Host: Cathy Calamas

    There is a wonderful artist who lives in western NC who uses the wax encaustic technique in a lot of her paintings. Whenever I am in Asheville, NC ( a wonderful arts community) I go see her displays at the Woolworth Art Walk. I would love to one day own one of her originals but for now I will have to be happy with a print.( I have a print of the nest of eggs that is on her home page.)


It is a technique I have always wanted to try and I am always checking to see what is new on Youtube about it. Wax encaustic gives your art a wonderful, touchable, aged and soft dimension.

So I have decided to host a 4 for 4 ATC sized swap using this technique. The theme is "butterflies" which is a good Spring theme after this hard, long Winter. ( yes , even in SC, its been long).
Please sign up in the database at Paper_Traders Yahoo Group if you are a member. If you are not, why not join us today. Click the link on the right.

 Due date for the ATC's will be April 8th, 2011 to give everyone plenty of time in case you are participating in the Word Challenge Journal and/or the Spring Banner Swap.

Happy Waxing!!
Cathy Calamas

Monday, February 7, 2011

Gallery: Valentine Steampunk Assemblages

Cathee Stegall
Karen Boatright

Beckie Holso
Cathy Calamas

Ruth Anna Abigail