PaperTraders Art: June 2012

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.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Awesome Washi Tape Storage Boxes

One of our fabulous Paper_Traders members, Hermine Koster,
is sharing how she made storage boxes for her Washi Tape,
out of wooden wine boxes.

You are going to fall in love with these beauties!

To turn wine boxes into storage boxes for washi tapes.

Really fond of washi tapes and can’t resist them, so I had to think about
a way to store them instead of putting them in a desk drawer.
I thought it was fun to alter wooden wine boxes and turn
them into awesome storage boxes for all my tapes.

Front of the box: the lid is easely to remove when you want to use the tapes.

This is how it looks when the lid is removed.

Just a little close up, to show you I even stamped on the wooden sticks.

Of course, the box would be too small in less then no time, because there are so many awesome tapes, so I made a new one. Now I used a double wooden wine box.

This is how it looks when it is closed.

To open it you have to slide the lid

And here ready to use, and as you can see still there is room for more, hahaha.

It not only looks great in your art room but they are so much fun to alter
And these will look great with ribbon spools as well.

Warmly,
Hermine

Monday, June 18, 2012

Fabric/Stitching Technique Swap

This swap is for Paper_Traders members only but we would love to have you join us.
Click on the purple yahoo button on the right and start on your Paper Traders journey.

Hosted by: Cathy Calamas
1-for-1 (5x7) fabric, canvas, or matboard
Theme: Anything
Technique required: You must use some type of stitching, machine or hand sewing on your art. You can sew on fabric or paper or both and attach it to your canvas or make it totally out of fabric and turn it into mini-wall hanging.
Sign-up deadline: June 30th
Partners announced: July 2th
Postmarked by: August 1st

Cathy will randomly pick partners and post a list on the group site as well as email participants. You must have your address in the member database to participate. You will mail your finished art to your partner by the post date of August 1st.

Rules for 1-for-1 swaps:

Please mail out your art by the postmark deadline. It is important that you contact your partner by email if you are going to be late.
If you sign up and then cannot participate after partners have been assigned, please let Cathy know as soon as possible so that the partner list can be adjusted. This is important and affects the integrity of the swap so commit to participating wisely.
Open to International members. Please let Cathy know if you prefer not to mail Internationally.
Please use correct postage and mail in padded envelope if your art has bulky embellishments.
You can use any media to create your art but it must include stitching/sewing (machine or hand) for this swap.