Dog Portrait Artist Trading Cards Easy Mini Tutorial

Dogs Artist Trading Cards - a mini tutorial

A mini tutorial for a set of cute dog themed artist trading cards.

The ATC background

Cut four pieces of card to 3 1/2″ by 2 1/2″, the standard size for an ATC.

I glued an old dictionary page to the cards with Ranger multi medium matte.

Then I painted the cards with Americana multi-surface Satin acrylic pain. I did two in Flamingo and two in Turquoise Waters. I added a little water to the paint first to water it down, I wanted to be sure that the text would show through.

Next, I used a round blending tool to apply Ranger Distress Ink around the edges of the cards. I used Worn Lipstick on the pink cards and Peacock Feathers on the blue ones. I used a finger dauber to add some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink around the very edges for a nice aged look.

Then I gave them a quick spray with Pearl Diamond Spray & Sparkle from Crafter’s Companion to add a bit of glitz.

The focal points

I die cut four oval frames using the tag die from the Creative Expressions Austrian Collection Corner Border and Tag Die set by Sue Wilson. I cut these from some bronze metallic paper.

To vary the textures, I cut the central area of the tag die from very lightly embossed pearl shimmer card. I coloured two with the Worn Lipstick Distress Ink and two with the Peacock Feathers.

I chose four dogs from the Tin Teddy Dog Portraits Ovals sheet, cut them out and ran a black Sharpie marker around the edges to give them a crisp, tidy look.

Next, I cut some pieces of wax cotton and threaded them through the die cut frames. Then I glued the die cuts to the cards with more of the Multi Medium. I fixed the ends of the threads to the back of the card with sticky tape. I will fix my customized ATC back to the cards before trading them, so it doesn’t matter if the reverse looks messy for now.

I added the centre of the tag, using the opposite colour to the background, as with the threads.

Finally, I added the dog portrait using a sticky foam pad and two shiny gems to each card using Aleene’s Tacky Glue.

If you would like to know more about ATCs, check out my popular article – Introduction To ATCs – What are Artist Trading Cards?

Here are links to some of the products used in this article. If you click on the Amazon links and make a purchase, I will get a small commission for sending them custom. This is at no extra cost to yourself. Thank you.