Following on....

from the last post I actually did some of what I said I wanted to do. A miracle it seems but it makes me happy. I finished off my halloween postcards which can be seen. The pictures are not great as I only seem to find time to take pictures when its dark outside thus I have to use artifical light and it never quite looks that great. We have a spider postcard which I find amusing for the googly eyes. And then a general halloween theme card which I made using some great embellishments i bought from the art shop down the road when I went recently and have so far only used the one. I have much bigger plans for my halloween makings and yet here we are with very little. I also used the cobwebs which were sent to me as part of my grab bag winnings and I though gave it just what it was missing. These postcards are going to Zoie who set up the halloween card swap on my livejournal penpal group and to Cayleigh who made this awesome halloween postcard that I wanted so I offered a swap. These went in the post only today so they probably won't get there until after halloween but I hope they are appreciated anyway. And that is why at the moment I have not made any more because they would not get to the destination in time for halloween anyway! Maybe I will make some and keep them for next year. I really need to be thinking of my christmas cards as I worked out today it is only 8 weeks and 1 day away and I have not at all started them! AHHHHHHHHHHH is what I say to that! Plus I did some more of my halloween stitching but unsure if I will have it done by wednesday. I hope so because then I can put it up and make it halloween themed as such in my room.

No Crafting

I have not forgotten you my lovely readers, I have been very busy at work and this has impacted on my art work. I have had a couple of new pieces come through and I do want to put them on here which I will try and do asap. I have things to work on I just haven't done them.
My plans are:
A paper journal to work on for ATC group where there is a big group of us involved and its going to circulate so I have the journal I just need to start.
A 5/5 hand drawn ATC swap on a USA group I haven't traded on in ages
A 3/3 Bonfire swap which I am hosting on a UK Group
Some halloween postcards which I have started but need to finish
A letter postcard which I have all planned out I just haven't made it - the letter Q.
A couple of handmade postcards to send in response to a couple I have received
and finally a cross stitch piece i started for myself which is halloween themed which I wanted to have ready to put up for halloween but not sure if I will manage it now.
So that's what I am looking to do, now I need to find the time :)

Carolyns Journal

My work in Carolyn's Journal in our ATC group round robin is totally finished and went in the post today. Which also means no more journals in this swap as that was the last one for me. Horray! I am glad because it means I have passed on everyones journ als fine and I am sure Craolyn will be very happy to have heres back. It also so sad as its the end of this however we are just starting a new journal round and I am in that one so it's all good. Also with my own journal and the one I am making for Serendipity's swap as such I am a busy journal lady.
There seemed to be an overall theme of the sea with Carolyns journal so I tried to stick to this. It was a hardback book (like tiny kiddies book) so this made it easy to work on. I firstly used acrylic paint and cotton wool to dab the paint onto the page to give a nice blue sea effect. Using the cotton wool had its issues as at times it tried to stick to the page but it worked out in the end.
I then thought that the swirl punch I had would give a good effect so i used this to make dark blue swirls. Having done that I realised the the imprint of the punch looked great and so I lined the edge of each page with this. I randomly put the swirls on the ATC side page as I knew the ATC would cover most of this page however was at 1st unsure what to do on the other side and what in fact I was going to put on the ATC. I liked the thought of waves on the pages and so I cut these out in card and then put wave upon wave on them which are lines from a biffy clyro song which I really like. Very fitting for this page.
What that left me with was an idea for the ATC, I considered a couple of lines about the sea from a well known book or poem and then I considered drawing a mermaid but was unsure how I would do that (my drawing skills are mediocre I would say). So I looked online searching on google for sea poems and found this one which is not by anyone well known - was on a site where you could vote for the poems. I though giving the poem a torn edge effect would look nice and then to join it to the pages I put blue swirls on it for a sea effect. With just this I flet it was missing something so looked at what embellishments I had from what people had sent me and found these from when Pat sent me the Yak Pak when I first joined blindswapsATC group. Seeing as its a poem about love the heart was perfect and although i couldn't find a sea related embellishment, I felt that the cog was fitting none the less. I hope that caroly likes this page, I quite like it, not the best in the journal but nice none the less. I was unsure what to do with the theme but I definately think its fitting to the rest of the journal and I think that is important. Now Carolyn will finally get her journal back and get to enjoy the wonders in it.

More Mail In

Thats right I've had more mail in, one piece for the contortionists call and some RAK ATC's so check it out.

http://seussscatpost.blogspot.com/2007/10/contortionists-and-atcs.html

Scavenger Pack

Thats right I received my scavenger pack from Bonnie in our ATC group and its great. I got some images, lots of fibres, 8 ATC backgrounds, some tacky tape which looks interesting although I am going to have find out what fun things I can do with it. As my surprise she made me this cool christmas themed mini plate, its like a mini carboard sleeve which opens up and there is a glass slide in it which is mounted in with an image behind it. As you can see its something different and she did a great job with it. She included a couple of black ones for me to have a play with so I am glad the glass didn't break during posting.

Also over the weekend I did another journal page. Nothing complicated as I was at Sams at the weekend so no supplies or anything but I like the simpleness of the page and I enjoyed just sitting there and getting engrossed in drawing - trying to make the tree as real life as possible. Drawing is not a strong suit of mine but I enjoy it none the less so sometimes its nice to just draw.

Journal Work

Having seen Serendipity's post about a journal swap I decided that I wanted to join in and so last weekend I went out and bought a journal from WHSmith. Its got thicker art paper on it and a hardish cover so I think it will survive in the post. The premise of the swap is that you work for 15 days in your journal, then let seren know, she'll give you a list of people who have signed up and will be the people who work in the journal. Everyone passes it on to the next until it gets back to you. I thought this would be great fun and I have been doing a bit more journal work, having refound carolyns from our ATC swap.

So this 1st page is about the fact that we put an offer in on a house last saturday and about how I feel about it all. I drew a standard looking house as I can do this where as attempting to draw the house I've bought would have been trickier. Its something thats very close to my heart at the moment as its my 1st house and without knowing her it will all go, some strange feelings going with it. Waiting for our offer to be accepted i've never felt so queasy and we had to wait a few hours.

This 2nd one is more of a fun page and was inspired by all the inchies talk going on. Obviously Lia's been doing squares for ages but its invaded my ATC groups as well - inchies seem to be everywhere which is fine by me as I like them. So into my head popped, every body's talkin but squares and the rest just developed. I love this page as it creates the saying in so many different directions. Make me smile.

So apart from these 2 pages I've done some work to finish off carolyn's journal - just need to add a couple of bits before I send it to her however this is going to have to wait until after the postal strike!

Time ATC's

ATC's galore. The 1st one I have had done for ages apart from the words and I just kept not getting round to it. So I finally printed a number of different sizes at work and then added it on. I really like this ATC - I think the picture is fab and I am going to send it to Pat as part of her scavenger pack.

These next 3 are all part of a "Time" swap I'm taking part in with a UK group and I had to have them sent out by Monday and I made Sunday night. I had the ideas for ages it was about finding the time to make them so when I got back from Sams sunday evening I set about creating them and I really enjoyed it. So we've got one based around a clock and the hand move round so I liked that - deciding what colour to make the clock was tough but these 2 colours just kind of found their way together when I was looking through my different colour papers. Its a nice contract I think.

Then I did one based on old means of telling time so a egg timer as such. I like the though of making the sand glittery to give the card a bit of sparkle. I know its a simple card but I like it.

Then the final one came to me as a last minute idea - so many of us these days base our time around our diaries. I hate the fact when someone asks me if I can do something I have to check my diary but its one of those facts of life. So I though a clip as such of someones diary would be a great way to show the passing of time. I made up the events so its not an actual clip from my diary but some of the things very well could be things that i'd do in a day.