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.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Found Poetry Swap announced

for Paper Traders members only

Found Poetry Swap
One-for-One Project
Skill: 2 - Budding
Hosted by: Beckie H.
Post photo of completed project by: August 27th
Rotation announced: August 28th
Mail out by: September 1st

I have been intrigued by the concept of Found Poetry, which is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.  The resulting poems are interesting but even more fun is the artistic way in which people embellish their text.  I have set up a Pinterest Board to spotlight some Found Poetry art that caught my eye:
http://pinterest.com/artbeckons/found-poetry/.  Karen Hatzigeorgiou of Karen's Whimsy altered an entire book in this manner, shown here:  http://karenswhimsy.com/altered-books/happiness/.  I also found a nearly 200 page book that was altered by Tom Phillips, called The Humument.  You can view the slideshow and/or gallery here: http://humument.com/.

Hopefully you are inspired by this artistic method as much as I am.  I invite you to join me in a swap project using a single torn page from a book of your choice.  Please mount the page on a sturdy background.  Approximate size for this project is 5X7 depending on the size of your book page.  Highlight in an artistic manner the words that make up your Found Poem and decorate the page with the theme of your poetry.  You may cut, collage, paint, layer, etc. - whatever inspires you!

Please sign up in the database on the main Paper Traders Yahoo site.  Your project needs to be completed by August 27th and a photo posted in the project album on the Paper Traders Swaps site.

I will take all of the people who have posted a photo and randomize the participants.  I will announce the rotation on August 28th so make sure your projects are completed and photos posted by the deadline if you want to be included in this project.

Beckie

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