Victoria Day ATART athon May 20-24, 2022

[somnia]

Welcome to the Victoria Day ATART athon!

“I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little dangerous.”
-- Queen Victoria

Yes… ATART athons are very seductive and a little dangerous – at least to craft space organization and household chore completion.

Victoria Day is a federal Canadian statutory holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25. It originated as Queen Victoria’s birthday (May 24). Quebec created Journée nationale des Patriotes (National Patriot’s Day) to fall on the same day. Luckily everyone is too happy about finally having some good weather to bicker about politics, and no matter what people call it (also known as May 2-4 weekend for 24 beers in a case), the May long weekend is eagerly anticipated.

Rush fans may recognize this from Lakeside Park:
“Everyone would gather
On the twenty-fourth of May
Sitting in the sand
To watch the fireworks display”

May 2022 is also my 1-year anniversary with AFA so this is a celebration and thank you to everyone here - especially the athon regulars! - for making trading ATCS so much fun!

For this ATART you are welcome as always to make whatever you want, but I will also provide some Victoria Day-theme ideas and prompts – see the next post.

Start time is Thursday morning in North America or May 20, 2022 WE HAVE STARTED! and end time is end of day May 24, 2022 ish.Since this isn’t a challenge athon, the start and end times are pretty flexible.

ATART = all types of art. Create art of any type to show and tell: ATC’s, APCs, chunky pages, 4x4’s, 4x6’s, inchies, twinchies, bookmarks, charms, jewelry, art dolls, skinny pages, journal pages, tags, rolos, gothic arches, post cards, altered tins – or whatever type of art you feel like making.

All mediums are welcome: collaging, sewing, painting, drawing, digital, napkins (with or without beeswax), washi tape, photographs, beading. . .

All styles are welcome: zentangles, stamps (postage and rubber), stickers. . .

This ATART is open to everyone at any level.

Over the course of the athon, please upload your creations to the Athon Gallery. You can link to your creations in posts here and trade through PMs.

Even if you don't have time to make anything, you are welcome to pop in to see what people are doing, comment, and chat. The fun part is that people are here actively sharing their creations and chatting for a couple of days.

You do not have to trade what you make – feel free to show what you’re working on for swaps or for yourself or something new you’re trying.

ENJOY!

[somnia]

Optional prompts for the Victoria Day ATART athon:


Vintage & Victorian - The Victorian era is long – 1820s to 1914! That covers a lot of fashions and décor influences. These Victorian wallpaper patterns are a great start for backgrounds and color palette ideas.

Postage Stamps – The world’s first public use postage stamp was the Penny Black. It features Queen Victoria’s profile. Create art using any postage stamp – you probably won’t want to use a Penny Black since they’re extremely valuable!

Painted ladies – Victorian houses painted either in classic colors or modern San Francisco-style shades are fun opportunities to play with color – whether you hand draw the houses or use a template and color them in.

Queens, jewels, and jewel-tones – all Queen-related art (any Queen, not just QV) is welcome, plus dazzling jewellery and rich jewel tones.

British Empire and Commonwealth countries – as a theme, use any and all countries that were ever a part of the empire or commonwealth. That includes Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, India, Jamaica, Singapore, and more.

Canada - animals (moose, caribou, lynx, puffins!, etc), landscapes (everything from mountains to coastline to the arctic) + anyone who has ever traded with me has some Canadian postage stamps!

Gothic literature – Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Penny Dreadfuls are from the Victorian era, along with classics from the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, and more.

Steampunk - The steampunk look often uses altered fashions from the Victorian era.

Trains - Queen Victoria was the first British monarch to travel by train in 1842.

Flower gardens – Victoria Day weekend is the unofficial start of our gardening season. Our frost-free date was May 15 so everyone is eager to start planting! I picture huge roses when I think of Victorian flowers.

Use as many or as few as you like on any day – these are here to spark ideas.
Feel free to add suggestions!

[HHC]

What fun themes, somnia! I'll have to see what I can scrounge up. I have some Alice in Wonderland stamps and ephemera....

[jo.on.the.go]

There are never too many athons. I'm bookmarking!

[AmySi]

Fun theme!

[CynthiaSillitoe]

Great prompts! I'm looking forward to it.

[sniisk]

I'm sure I'll be be here . I have had craft papers called Victorian Wallpapers but I'm afraid that I've used them all.

[Aifrati]

Not sure I can join. Busy weekend. But I’ll will be watching all your beautiful creations!

[Suzi]

Sounds like fun!

[Donnacr]

Thought you could sneak this one passed me, did you? Ha, ha, I found you!!

I'm not addicted to Athons with all their chat and beautiful creations, no. . . .

PS LOVE the themes!

[KESagers]

Bookmarked!

[CastleQueen5]

I need to bookmark this.

[letterdiva]

Sounds fun, great theme ideas.

[Seascape131]

Going to lurk for now

[CastleQueen5]

I just noticed the Ideas, or prompts. It is a good excuse to use up some of the queen postage stamps, and gather all my Canadian postage stamps for use as well.

I made this one in a past art a thon, and it never got snatched up.

[somnia]

I just noticed the Ideas, or prompts. It is a good excuse to use up some of the queen postage stamps, and gather all my Canadian postage stamps for use as well.

I made this one in a past art a thon, and it never got snatched up.

I have a lot of queen and Canadian postage stamps, too! I bet that card will get snatched up this time

[CastleQueen5]

I need to sort through some of my saved postage, but getting excited to start A-THON-ING!

[sniisk]

I will be on vacation again on Friday .

[StitchinWitch]

I'm looking forward to playing but I have to finish my mini-aprons for another swap first.

[somnia]

I thought it would be a great idea to re-organize my craft space before this athon. As I've mentioned before, I'm new to the world of mixed media art and ATCs. I've never had a hobby that involved so much stuff before. I LOVE all the fun, colorful stuff, but organizing it and being able to find what I'm looking for is an ongoing challenge. My stuff collection keeps expanding and shifting.

I negotiated relocation of some non-mixed media stuff out of the closet in the guest room that now doubles as ATC central. I found a shelving unit with doors that should allow easy access but has doors that I can close so our guest room can be made to look presentable with enough advance notice. I spent a large part of last weekend relocating books and boxes and filing ephemera (bees, vintage, undersea, flowers, butterflies, "to sort")

Then the pickup of the new shelving unit fell through yesterday. My stuff is now spread all over because I had cleared the space for the new shelf. I had to quickly move some of it out of my home office this morning so I didn't look like a crazy person on a video call. Fingers crossed we get the shelving tonight so I'm able to put everything away. Are all of you constantly refining your organization and storage? I'm hoping the influx slows now that I've been through a year of seasonal themes.

I can't wait to start fussy cutting and pulling out stuff I'm going to use for the athon. My craft space won't stay clean for more that a few hours : )