PaperTraders Art: March 2011

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.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Announcing the return of the Round Robin Journal project!

journal by Marion Bockelmann

Yes, we know this is really BIG news. It has been a while since we have had a round robin journal project. We have been listening to your requests to bring this back and we're pleased to announce that the first round will start on June 1st!

This project is open to all Paper Traders members - both domestic and international. If you're not a member, please consider joining our group. Sign-ups for the first round will close on May 1st with journals mailing out on June 1st. Project details are posted on the Yahoo group.

This has been one of our most popular and most requested projects in the past. If you have ever participated in one of these Round Robin Journal Projects then you know how inspiring they can be. And the resulting journals will be a treasure to keep and enjoy for years to come!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

A little about the application process...

Hello, blog visitors! We hope you are enjoying our Paper Traders Art blog, finding the freebies and tutorials useful, and being inspired by the artwork posted here.

We have had several inquiries about our Paper Traders Yahoo group since we began this blog so we thought it might be helpful to explain the application process for joining our community.

Ours is a very friendly and encouraging group of mixed media and altered paper artists from around the globe. In order to preserve the integrity of our group and to ensure that it is a positive and safe place for our members – and not an avenue for advertising or promoting commercial sites – we have a long-established policy of requiring a questionnaire and digital examples of the artist's work or a website where we can view their art in order to complete the application process.

This is not a juried submission nor is it meant to be intimidating. No one will be judging whether or not your art is 'good enough.' It is to assure that you are indeed an artist and not a spammer, or someone just looking for a place to promote your own business. This policy was started several years ago by the original group owners and the current moderators have chosen to keep it in place. All of us have been through this process and we assure you that it is simple and painless.

We want to invite you to become a part of our little family. The questionnaire helps us get to know a little about you and what your interests are which, in turn, helps us to better serve you as a member as we plan swaps, projects, and challenges. We are interested in creative individuals of varied skill levels who wish to challenge themselves artistically and help build a supportive community. If this sounds like you, we invite you to join today!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/join