Artist Trading Cards (February 2026)

I taught an ATC class for a few friends this weekend and made two sets of my own:

The Michigan cards have cherries (famous product of Traverse City), deer (state game animal), cherry blossoms (state floser), and robins (state bird) along with pieces of an outdated Michigan map. I realized later that night, that I should have used a reference for the robins because my memory of what they look like was off. Oops.

The spring set are early, but that just means I have time to mail them! I didn't realize the ink from the stamp pad would smudge when glue was applied, but I still think they turned out cute.

The background effect was achieved by laying down pieces of patterned origami paper, then overlaying tissue paper that was brushed with a small amount of gel medium on the underside to make it stick, and brushed with a small amount of gel medium on top once it was in place.

This is a messy and delicate technique, and it works best with thinner tissue paper - so try cheap gift wrapping tissue paper, not the thick stuff they sell for crafting. I used to use Recollections brand from Michaels but I can't find it anymore. They probably discontinued it because most crafters are looking for thicker, more opaque paper - the exact opposite of what I want.

This was the first time I used patterned paper underneath the tissue paper, instead of just solid colors. The patterns show through and I love that, so I would do it again. The specific origami paper set I used is available through the Michaels website but isn't in stores.