Four Seasons Artist Trading Coins

It is time for another challenge at Frilly and Funkie and this time Suzz is our hostess and is calling it Artist Trading Coins.  Here is how she describes it:

The challenge this time is to create an Artist Trading Coin. I am inspired by a new way of capturing a little bit of our art to share with others. You challenge is to create a trading coin which should be a circle shape 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

I had never made these before although I have made some Artist Trading Cards, which are a tad larger so I figured I could handle it.  I was right - they were easy to make so they came together quickly.  I thought I would make four coins - one for each season.  This was a great way to use up bits and pieces from my stash, since it appears I am a craft hoarder.

For your base coin, you need to have a 2 1/2" circle so I gave my husband some of my chipboard and asked him to cut them for me on his laser cutter.  I have a circle die that is the right size but my die cutting machine is not strong enough to cut chipboard and I wanted a substrate that would handle paint.  You can make your substrate out of whatever you have on hand such as heavy card stock, chipboard or even recycled cereal or cracker boxes.

I gave each coin a coat of White Gesso (Dina Wakley) before I started decorating.

Winter

• Cover both sides with Cornflower Blue Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) masking off a section on the bottom front that will become the snow
• Dip the end of a small paint brush in the Gesso and make some dots and then re-ink with the Cornflower Blue AI
• Reverse the mask and use a palette knife to add Texture Paste (Ranger) "snow"
• Add some Star Dust Stickles (Unicorn would be a great substitute) to the snow and to the bottom of a Paper Doll (Tim Holtz)
• Punch snowflakes from Silver Metallic Kraft Stock (Tim Holtz) and add to coin
• Finally, adhere the paper doll

Spring

• Paint both sides with Lime Acrylic Paint (Dina Wakley)
• Die cut two smaller circles from patterned papers from the Once Upon a Springtime (Graphic 45) pad
• Distress the edges of each circle and ink with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) and then add to base coin
• Fussy cut bunny image from the Once Upon a Springtime pad and mount on top of coin with dimensional foam
• Add a tiny jute bow and three little flowers (Prima)

Summer

• Coat the back with Abandoned Coral Distress Paint (Tim Holtz)
• Ink the front with Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz) and then sritz with water
• Add a strip of venise lace
• Fussy cut flowers and leaves and add - Note:  These flowers and leaves came from the colouring I did on a page from an old book for a recent Saturday Showcase using a stamp from the Illustrated Garden set (Tim Holtz) with Abandoned Coral and Peeled Paint distress ink (Tim Holtz) 
• Add some bits of pearl flourish

Fall

• Coat both sides with Squeezed Orange Acrylic Paint (Dylusions) adding extra thickness to the front and roughing it up to give some texture
• Fussy cut a pumpkin and sentiment from the Amber Moon paper pad (Prima) and add them to the coin
• Die cut tiny leaves from scraps of previously inked card stock using the Fall Foliage die (Tim Holtz) and add them on top of the pumpkin

Supply Links to The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Dina Wakley Media Mediums - White Gesso MDM41689
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink Pad - Cornflower Blue AID38955
Ranger Texture Paste Opaque Matte INK44444
Ranger Stickles - Unicorn
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls, Christmas
Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Kraft Stock
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - Lime, 1oz Bottle
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo TIM19527
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Abandoned Coral Distress Paint TDF50186
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Abandoned Coral
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Abandoned Coral TIM43188
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Peeled Paint TIM20233
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Illustrated Garden
Dylusions Paints, Squeezed Orange DYP46035
Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 14PK - Fall Foliage by Tim Holtz 660955
Tim Holtz 5 Inch/ 12.3cm Titanium Snip 816E Tim Holtz Tonic Studios Paper Distresser 370E
Scor-Pal Scor-Tape 1/4" x 27 Yards

These were so much fun to make and I have loads of ideas for more. I hope you will join us for this great challenge.