I like to create my own ACEO cards and I make them several different ways.

Take mat board blanks, and gesso them several times on both sides. If you only do one side, they tend to warp. When I first started doing this, I cut the mat board with an exacto knife. I soon learned I could cut the board with a scissors and that was much easier. I'm more precise with the scissors so that was an added advantage!

Once the cards are cut, I do oil paintings, drawings and watercolors on them. Watercolor sits on top of this support and can easily be manipulated before and after it dries. It doesn't sink into the support. It creates a unique effect, a little like working on Yuppo paper.

When you cut the cards, measure the entire blank into 2.5X3.5 rectangles. If you measure one and cut it, as you get into the cards, they'll become uneven.

I cut suede mat board this same way to do pastel and colored pencil ACEO cards. Watercolor paper is easily cut into ACEO sized supports and used with your style of painting. I skip the gessoing process on these papers.

Oil paintings can also be done on canvas. I purchase the canvas tablets, that have been primed and gessoed, and cut the cards from the canvas.

When I ship an ACEO card, I decorate my envelope. I take an ordinary white mailing envelope and use a rubber stamp to fix it up and make it look unique. When someone gets a card from me in the mail, the recognize it as being mine immediately! Sometimes, I color in the image with colored pencils.

Inside the envelope, I include my brochure with my websites, accomplishments and selected images. I wrap the cards in paper and put them into clear bags that fit the cards. Don't place a pastel card directly into a clear bag without wrapping it, the bag creates a friction that can take the pastel off the support. You don't want someone to get a "ghost" card. This happened to me once!

If you don't wish to go through the process of creating your own supports, do a web search for aceo products and supplies and you can find what you need.

I've included a photo of an ACEO watercolor done on gessoed mat board.

If you understand copyright law, you'll know this. Never copy anyone else's photos or artwork. If you want to be considered a serious, professional artist, use your own reference materials.

Get a camera and take your own photos. Robert and I go out on photo shoots often so I always have plenty of reference material to work from.

When we go on these photo sessions, we look for horses in good light situations, horses playing, herds of horses in fields. Horses of unusual colors. Any horse is fair game for us to take photos of.

You can use someone else's photos if you have permission or if you pay them what they ask for use of their photo. That's perfectly acceptable.

There are also artist groups you can join, where the artists contribute photos to a reference library. Any photo is up for use by any member of the group. Bear in mind, no matter how large the reference library is, there are always certain photos that appeal to a large number of artists, so you could be doing a very similar painting to someone else's painting. When you use a photo like this, make the painting your own, don't create an exact replication of the photo. That way, no one will guess which photo you used in your painting.

There are artists who take the time to search the web to be certain no one is copying their work. They're willing to prosecute and they have every right to do so, when they find copyright infringements. So take the time to get your own reference photos, do your own work, and you'll have the pride of knowing your work is 100% original!