Elvis in the studio

John Lennon said, "Before Elvis there was nothing." I adore Elvis. His music and his movies have long been an inspiration for me. I made the pilgrimage to Graceland on his birthday in 1994 (I think that was the year, I'll have to check the scrapbook for sure). It was when Lisa Marie was married to Micheal Jackson. They had this HUGE tribute concert --we saw tons of famous performers all in one place.

Music does influence my art and my life. I made a series of cards with Elvis playing cards and Dream Impressions stamps around 2003. We were heading to Vegas for the convention where I was speaking and it just seemed like the fun thing to do.

I'm fascinated by when Elvis is celebrated. This week there were several shows on about him and his movies were running because it is the anniversary of his death. My trip to Graceland for the concert was the anniversary of his birth. I like that better myself, celebrating his birthday--but since he was everywhere this week, I thought I'd deal out these cards and talk about art with playing cards.

Here's a few tips and ideas (in random order) for working with playing cards:

1. Walmart has the best selection I've seen of decorated playing cards. I've used Elvis, Coca Cola, Marilyn, and others from there.

2. Playing cards are the EXACT size of Artist's Trading Cards and can be decorated just as they are to make ATCs.

3. The surface is very slick so use a solvent ink, sand them, glue stamped images to them, or use gesso to cover areas you want to decorate.

4. Use both sides of the cards--the ones you see above use the front and back of a playing card set.

5. There's a great freedom from working with playing cards because you get 54 of them in a pack and can play and experiment. Enjoy!