Last year they were suddenly there and everybody seemed to be immediately hooked to them: the Artist Trading Coins! I had never heard of such thing and had no idea what it was. But I follow a Dutch lady on Facebook, who is a true crafting expert with long years of experience.
She explained how she did it. At first she showed a technique with alcohol markers and alcohol ink. I tried that and had some beautiful results with this technique. And it actually never occurred to me to make a tutorial or any kind of video (or blog) about Artist Trading Coins. Until last week…
Artist Trading Coins with water-based markers
The lady who showed her alcohol ink techniques, her name is Diny Sprakel by the way, uploaded a video in which she explained how to work with water-based markers. Therefore she used a gelli plate and yupo paper. Yupo isn’t really ‘paper’, but it’s a synthetic, non-porous material which is very well suited for making Artist Trading Coins.
Diny used the Studio Light markers on the coins she made in her video. And someone asked her if the same could be done with, for instance, Tombow Dual Brush pens. Diny replied: “just give it a try”.
What’s logical to me, might not be so logical to you
What triggered me to write this blog and make a video about how to easily make Artist Trading Coins with water-based markers or pens, was the question of another person. I had posted some pictures on Facebook of my ‘try-out coins’ with the Studio Light markers, and someone asked me where she could buy those circles.
To me it was no mystery, but apparently this was not the case for everybody. Like my husband always tells me: “you think that everyone else knows what YOU know… but they DON’T if you don’t tell them what you know!”
So I figured it might be a good idea to make a video on how I make Artist Trading Coins from start to finish. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.
Who came up with the idea?
Because I didn’t know where the whole phenomenon ‘Artist Trading Coin’ came from, I did some research. Out of curiosity… I like to know what I’m talking about before I make a fool of myself hahaha. 😉
The idea came from Joanne from Craftyhodges, in 2018. The idea was to make miniature art pieces in the form of 2.5 inch sized circles, cut out of heavy cardstock. She meant for them to be traded and shared among artists. Somehow her idea spread all over the internet and has inspired artists from all over the world to start making coins. Like myself!
- To make Artist Trading Coins there are a few rules
- the size is always 2,5 inches
- they’re made of heavy cardstock, watercolor paper or yupo (the coins have to feel solid and sturdy)
- coins are never to be sold, only traded (or keep them yourself 😉 )
Keep these simple rules in mind, and you’re good to go.
Start learning how to do it
Wanna know how to make them yourself? Watch the video below, and I’ll show you exactly how!
If you’d like to see more of my video’s, please subscribe to my Vimeo channel.
To see more of my Artist Trading Coins, go to the Gallery of the same name.
Please share my blogs, so more people will be able to enjoy my blogs and videos. Thanks!
Oops… I nearly forgot to add the list of used materials!
- This is what I’ve used to make the Artist Trading Coins in the video:
- List of used materials (random order):
- Zig Color Clean brush pens
- Copic Sketch markers
- Faber-Castell Pitt Artist metallic pens
- Edding 1200 metallic pens
- Yupo paper
- White water-based Sharpie
- Vaessen Creative 2.5 inch circle punch
- Gelli plate
- Twinmarker alcohol marker
- Stazon Jet Black
- Uni-Ball Eye UB-157 pen
- Dutch Doobadoo glue pen
- Paper towel
- Sensitive masking tape
- Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer
- 2 foam stamps ‘Lady & Circle’ from Pronty Crafts by Julia Woning (494.904.008)
- 2 foam stamps ‘Kisses’ from Pronty Crats by Julia Woning (494.904.006)
- Foam stamp ‘Flowers’ from Pronty Crafts by Julia Woning (494.904.009)
- Text stickers from Studio Light Art by Marlene Sticker sheets
- Text from Dylusions Coloring Sheets by Dyan Reaveley
