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.

Friday, February 28, 2014

Gallery: My Wish for You

Amanda E

Ann C

Cathy C

Debra C

Ellen L

Jo M

Nancy S

Nydia D

Pam C

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Tutorial - Hot Glue Stencils

One of our group members, Letha Richardson, was kind enough to share a little tutorial with us about making custom stencils out of hot glue.  Read on to join Letha in this fun adventure...!


I was quite fascinated by the videos and posts I have seen lately on homemade Hot Glue Stencils and, after doing a little research, have discovered the original idea was from Traci Bautista. She has a walk through on her blog; if you want to check it out, just click on her name. :)

So I shared my discovery with my sister and art friend Beckie and she asked if I would try out the technique and write up a little tutorial on how I was able to make this technique work.

Well, it was a piece of cake!!! I really thought there would be a pretty big margin of error and I would likely fall into that error section, but NOPE! Even I was able to do this and make it work. :)

Below is the YouTube video I created on how to make the actual stencils.  Then hop on over to my blog for more pictures and info on how I used the stencils in a couple of ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZAFRxkoQqY 


Thanks for taking the time to watch my video.  I encourage you to give it a try for yourself!  It is super easy and the patterns are endless - just use your imagination!!! :) 


Go on over to Letha's blog and see how she used her new stencils in creating some colorful results: http://thismuseofmine.blogspot.com/2014/02/hot-glue-stencils-how-to-tutorial.html

Friday, February 14, 2014

Gallery: My Secret Valentine

Amanda E

Cathy C

Debra C

Ellen L

Nancy S

Connie H


Sunday, February 2, 2014

February Freebie - Good Luck

It's time for another freebie courtesy of your Paper Traders Moderators.  A great big THANK YOU to Connie Holso for preparing this lovely collage sheet for your personal use.  Please use the link BELOW the photo to download the high-res version of this file.  Enjoy!
Download Here:

Saturday, February 1, 2014

New Swap: Lucky You Altered Tag Swap

This swap is for Paper Traders members only but we would love to have you join our fun. Please click on the purple yahoo button in the sidebar for more information on how to join Paper Traders.

Lucky You Altered Tag Swap
1-for-1 tag swap - Size #5 manila tags (4-3/4" x 2-3/8" or comparable)
Requirement: use a stencil(s) to create an altered tag with a "Lucky" theme
Skill level: 2
Sign up by: February 28th
Partners announced: March 1st
Mail directly to your partner by: March 11th

In honor of four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold, and other lucky things associated with St Patrick's Day, I thought it would be fun to host a swap with a "Lucky" theme.  For this project, you'll make one altered tag (size #5 or comparable) using stencils in the creation of your design.  The style and color of your project is open to your own inspiration - you don't have to use traditional St Patty's Day colors or themes... just make sure you incorporate the use of stencils and that your theme is "Lucky"!

Stencils can be really fun... you can spray or paint through them, use modeling paste, etc.  Read about some ideas for using stencils here. For some visual inspiration, go here.