Monochrome ATC's

Bit late posting about this, but here are my Monochrome ATC's which I made for the Monochrome swap with MixedMediaATCs. The idea of Monochrome ATC's had been in my head since I went to america and bought some great chipboard monochrome letters however when it came to making these ATC's 1) I couldn't find the chipboard letters 2) I think I had one of each letter so would not have had three M's. However the concept of what I wanted to achieve was still the same. I enjoy doing the weaving for the background and have done it in red and black for Pirate ATC's however it can be tricky.

I am unsure of where I have put the three I received for this swap however once I find them, I shall post pictures of them as well so you can see the other lovely peoples work.

A Card and 2 ATC'a

Thats right me and Cayleigh had our crafty morning before she went to work and I got to play with the new scrapbook papers I bought. I got them in sale getting 180 pages of spring papers for $9. It was awesome. What I wish I had realised was how cheap stitching stuff is here cos I could get threads for 40c rather than 70p back home. Must remember that for next time.

So yes, firstly I made a cool card with lots of animals cut out on it and it said hello. I am mailing it to my friend Nic in the UK today. And then I made an Unusual Alphabet ATC with a butterfly on it. I cut 2 seperate butterflies out and put one on pads on top to make it stick out. I used glitter glue to give some sparkle to the bottom butterfly and voila sparkly fun butterflies. (Yes I know there are no pictures, my cable for pictures doesn't work but I do plan to put some on my netbook and then upload however with no adaptor yet for the UK I am worried about running it out). Then one evening this week I also made a 2nd ATC, well part of one, I took black and white paper and made a criss-cross pattern and then an M on black and white in chipboard that I also bought cheap here. All I need is to combine and make my monochrome card :)

I am off to Canada today but I will update probably when I get back in a week.

Bring on the Pirates

Thats right, some arty activity. I put on the Devil's Whore which is a tv drama about the civil war which is really good but I was only send disc 1 so now I have to wait for disc 2 to be sent to me.
Although that is not the point, the point is that I got some art done so I was at first working on a design for my next zine as I am in a swap on swap-bot and then I moved on to some ATC's to get to the point of finally finishing off my Unusual Alphabet swap.
So I got my bits out and started at it, finding the pictures I printed off the other day so got me moving with the Pirate ATC's and I made another zen atc. It is fun to do and something different. Doodling is fun. So with the button ATC's I already have that gives me two completed sets to be able to send out - yay! So a trip to the post office is planned tomorrow whilst spending the rest of the time revising in the library!

ATC's

Thats right, I actually did some ATC's. It was the last episode of Heroes for series 3 tonight so was watching that whilst doing it. Already had the backgrounds made so it was just actually putting the buttons on them and the rest.I think the button ATC's are fun, cos it had buttons in the background as well as in it :)

I also did a Zen ATC which looks nice. I couldn't find my silver pen but found my Gold. I actually like the effect of the gold better sometimes.
So I have actually pushed on with the ATC's which is good because want to get them sent out to people. I also printed some images off at work to make use in some of the ATC's.
Progress at last :)

ATC

I decided to make a Zen ATC before heading to bed because its relaxing plus its been a while so it was nice. I made use of some of the other coloured pens I have, because normally I only make zens in silver. But the blue really added to the Zen.



Been very busy at work so not much else been going on although I did do a journal page tuesday after getting back from an awesome walk in the woods but I am not completely happy with it so might add to it.

Butterflies

I do think Butterflies are awesome which is why I always get involved in swaps which include butterflies because I know I will always get an idea to run with. This time I made use of a giant poster I got from a newspaper which had lots of butterflies on them and what they actually were. So my ATC's this time round are nice to look at and educational as well :)

It seems like Sunday always end up being an Art day as Sam heads back to Swindon in the afternoon so I can completely free time with no thought about work which allow me to be creative. I just need to get myself in the habit of being creative in the week as well. I also did a journal page which I will post when I remember

Shopping and Art

This weekend has been an awesome weekend firstly because I had no plans, no commitments, nothing I had to do. That included any thoughts about college or work, having been off work for a week so no idea what I could worry about and having had my final exam Friday and had many drinks to celebrate it meant this weekend was all mine. So having started working on my cockerel I decided to pop to hobby craft to get the extra threads I need to complete it and ended uo buying all this stuff. As you can see I bought my threads but also picked up a book on rubber stamping which was on sale as were the 30 ink pads so hoping to have some fun playing around with all that at some point. Then picked up some ribbon as it was 3 for 2, plus are great for sending to other people.

So having been to hobby craft I go busy and made a couple of ATC's which I haven't done in ages which was nice. One is complete, and one is nearly complete. They are both so I can send returns for my unusual alphabet swap which I am very behind with.

Having had that fun, I spent some of last night and today continuing my cross stitch whilst we watched Hitman which was cool. And then I have done some more today. After Sam left this afternoon I decided to paint some journal page backgrounds which was fun. Its been a while since I got any paints out and I bought some new brushes the other day so having a bit of a play around was good. So they are currently drying by the patio doors whilst I had a quick flick through a magazine and got some great bits and pieces from it that I am planning to use for some journal pages of the future. I have quite a few journals on the go at the moment. I have one that is going between myself and Lia, I have a journal in a group swap so I am just working in the final one for that although we might start a new round. Can't wait to see mine. Then I have joined a journal swap on a penpal community on Livejournal which is just starting. Then I have a journal from an ATC group swap although this might be the last one as due to them having taken so long and been way-layed we are sending them back to the owners. So as you can alot of journal action has been happening all whilst ploughing along whilst watching tv with my cross stitching which is starting to take shape now.

House ATC's

Horray from some crafting actually being done. It was nice to do this and I think they are fun. Plus I am organising this swap so have been seeing all the fantastic cards which have been coming in. Gives me first picks on which cards I would like from the swap. It's nice to do something a bit different, not just the normal shape.

But I am not letting my crafting afternoon/evening finish there, I have lost on the tv, a bit of food on the stove and I am going to continue making things. Working on a couple of cards at the moment, making use of a cat stamp I bought a couple of weeks ago. I am sure I will add photo's later in the week.

Its going to be a busy week as I start my new role within Royal Mail tomorrow being Assistant Business Partner for South West Wales, Kate officially left on Friday for her maternity leave with nice presents. So its just me from now on whilst still keeping my old role going for a few more weeks. This is likely to leave me little time for fun on my computer whilst at work. But there are always the evenings.

Also we got another guinea pig following the death of Takumi about 3 weeks ago. We picked ourselves up a little ginger one as the picture shows and we have named him Dave. Yes I realise this is rather a human name for him (going with our other pig, Patch) but I suggested it as a sort of joke last night and its just seemed right.

So enjoy the art and the cute picture of a guinea pig :)

Been quite a while since an update

and for that I apologise. I had intentions to add those pictures the next day and even started a post but never finished it or added the pictures, last week was a very busy week with work and I was travelling all week hence no update but I have done loads of artwork which I want to share with you guys.

Firstly to the buttons which you were all expecting. So as you can see I had lots of fun making paper buttons and put them to good use making many things. First I made a background for an ATC not exactly sure what I was going to use it for but then inspiration hit me and an unusual alphabet ATC appeared which was nice as it had been a little while since I had made an ATC having founf they were turning out right so it was nice to make it without the pressure. I have quite a few unusual alphabet ATC's to make to send back to people but I am trying not to push myself on them otherwise I feel they are not turning out as well as they can.

I then made the postcard not totally sure what I was going to use it for and originally thinking I would send it to a penfriend but instead I used it for an original art swap on swap-bot - my very first on there which meant I only had to make one other for the swap (partly breaking my not signing up for anything rule but only a tiny bit) and I made a zen postcard for that which I will show later.

Lastly I felt I should share my button fun and so I made this journal page in my journal which is heading to Lia to work in as part of our round robin. They all just look so cute on the page.

Following on from this I have been doing alot of work in journals, finishing up Linda's journal and sending it on to the next person in the group as well as doing some work in my journal for my round robin with Lia and sending that off as well.

This page was painted quite early on in the journal being with me, it was fun to do as I don't paint with acrylic often and I haven't quite sussed out how to stop it bleading onto other pages and such. Luckily it only slightly caught a couple which were my pages so it didn't affect anyone elses work. It looks so nice that for a while I didn't know what to add to it and so I ended up just adding some words to it so that you could still see the strokes the brush had made and still feel the texture of the paint.

This is a page about how our trip to Afan had to be called off leading to us driving back ome from Wales and needing a plan B as we had days off work and we didn't want to waste them. Then the page next to it is about our plan B and how we went to cardiffd for a couple of days having many boozy drinks and wandering the city. I added some bits about the places we went from leaflets and such.

This page was inspired on one of my travels with work. I was thinking about how much I love to touch stuff and so I drew the bit in the middle whilst on the train and then added the rest when I got home making use of many different textures. This page is more about how it feels that how it looks. I touch so many things in shops and with the journals I have look at the and feel all the pages as I feel like its another aspect to them

This was the final page in Linda's journal, a farewell page to see the journal off. The stamp of the butterfly didn't turn out as well as expected and I drew over some of it with a silver pen however you cannot see that in this picture :)

Buttons

This weekend it has all been about buttons but not actual buttons but paper buttons. I made an envelope a couple of years ago and I felt like making more paper buttons again. However this time I made an ATC background, a journal page and a postcard. Thats right I made an ATC this weekend - one about buttons for my unusual alphabet. I liked the way it turned out but then I didn't originally plan to make an ATC so maybe that was the key.
Due to having to come back from Afan due to bad weather (lots of rain does not mix with Mountain Biking) we ended up going to Cardiff for a couple of days which was cool. So when I got back I journalled a couple of pages about it.
Well I did a page about needing a plan B due to having to abandon Afan. I had already done a couple of backgrounds using ink pads so I could take the journal with me to Afan but obviously it didn't get used. I did take it to Cardiff but didn't write in it. However I did pick leaflets and such up from places we went so I could make use of them. Which I did when creating my page about our trip to Cardiff.

Pictures to be added tomorrow!

Will catch up

Thats right I have promised myself I will catch up on all arty stuff I need to do e.g. ATC's, journals etc before comitting myself to any new swaps or projects, no matter how much I want to join in. I am a bit behind with some bits and I want to get them completed and sent out to people as I hate being behind. People are very understanding but it does not make it any better!

I am coming to the end of my time with Karen's Journal. I took with me when I was travelling around this week and although didn't get to work in it much I did get to do this page about travelling on the train so much. Limited materials to work with hence the simplistic nature of the page but I got what I wanted to say down. Then last night after getting back from NASS I had some fun with tissue paper making this page. I wrote about our time at NASS this weekend and what a great weekend it was. Apart from that its been quiet on the arty front what with lots of travelling with work last week and a 3 day weekend at NASS. But I will be sure to keep you up to date on how I am doing with catching up on my art!

Under the Sea

Real quick entry as have been mega busy at work and want to head home. Here are my 3 ATC's that I made for the under the sea swap on my UK group. They are all similar but I did hand draw the mermaid (hence they look a little different) and had limited time (been away with work quite a bit) but I like the way they turned out. So enjoy.

Zens

Thats right I was zening it up last night and created my very first Zen ATC's. I decided to go a little bit different so used black card and silver pen. I really liked the effect it created. I have been worried about creating these before as I just wasn't sure what to create and was worried they would look rubbish. However I have seen many pictures with the rest of my blindswaps group having been making loads over the last couple of months and last night I just fancied it. I got started and really enjoyed it. Rather than worry about what designs I was going to do, I just went with the flow and followed my idea's as they came. This made it very peaceful and enjoyable. And so I give you my zen ATC's :)

Unusual Alphabet

I was away at a hen do this weekend so I didn't do much however I was busy creating friday night with my man by my side offering me some idea's actually. It was good fun. I created 2 Unusual Alphabet ATC's to send to Rixta and I am going to do the 3rd tonight so I will be sure to post pictures tomorrow. I did a geisha one and a mermaid one. I was impressed with my mermiad one as I drew it myself - based on a picture I had. Some learning points gained from it and going to draw another one and learn from the experience of drawing the first.

I also made a geisha postcard which I am going to send to one of my pen friends in the states. Probably Nina as I think she will appreciate it. I got an image from the Mary Dover sampler and then coloured in only parts of the image to create a nice Japanese looking postcard. Again pictures and a longer update to follow tomorrow.

Had a good time at the hen night and was very tired when I made it home yesterday late afternoon hence no crafting, just lots of watching House.

Organisation is key

Thats right I have got a new organiser which is great as the 3 drawers I had just didn't hold it all and Sam wanted to get it all put away together so we bought a 7 drawer thing from B&Q and I managed to fill up 5 drawers very neatly with all my bits and pieces. Well it started neat and tidy but since I have done some bits with it, it is not so any more :) I will sort it out again. If I keep it tidy it will be easier to find things, it just when you are in the flow, tidiness is not on your mind. That was actuallyabout a week and a half ago but it has made a difference plus whilst sorting through I found some new stuff.

I refound illustration friday as Lia started doing some pieces for it and I thought I would have a go but as usual did not finish it in the week timeframe, so at the moment I see it as a work in progress as I am unsure whether I want to add colour to it or not - hmmmm a little thought and then I will see. I wonder what this weeks theme is, see if it inspires me :)

I finally got my 4 elements ATC's done, horray - i don't know why its been such a challenge, they are very late so thanks to Julie for being so patient, my idea of what to do changed many times and a hald made card has been discarded for the moment but I am happy with these pastel creations. It was fun to play with the pastels and I learnt a little about blending from Sam which was good. There a bit abstract but I like the water and fire ones the best because they are so abstract.

I also did a little work in my journal. Without a journal to work in at the moment I am trying to work in my own journal as much as possible anyway. I want to try and work in it most days, even if its only a little bit. So i found these trees from a card and I liked the way they looked so decided to do something with them. I did the background and the trees but then was not sure what else I wanted to do however when working on my element ATC's I decided to see if I had a white pastel and see what effect that would have. I like what it did because it is like they are invisible clouds. I think I am going to leave it as it is without words. I think it says more that way.

Cross Stitch ATC

As promised here is a picture of my cross stoitched ATC. It was fun to make although of course time consuming doing all the little flowers but I like the effect it has given. I plan to make some other all cross stitch ATC's in the future as it is something different.

Actually I have an article in a cross stitch magazine about people making mail art envelopes all in cross stitch - the put nice pictures on it and stitch the address on and send letters or such in it. I mean I partake in mail art but had never thought of that. It is awesome but can see it would be time consuming. Plus you need to keep stuff in plastic inside incase the envelope gets wet. So I do have a plan to see about making one in the future, I guess the question would be, who would I send it to :)

Hmmmm so many plans. Once I am in the new house though, much time for bringing these plans to life. Today is my last day at work so I have cakies with me and I must get on sorting everything I need to hand over. Then tomorrow is my birthday - wooooo. I start my new placement on tuesday next week so get a few days off :)

Pretty Postcard

I got sent this beautiful postcard a couple of weeks ago. It is made with Alcohol Ink on Steel so thanks to Seren for sending it to me. I think its great and very different to get a metal postcard.

I finished up an ATC yesterday totally done in cross stitch. I have started the background ages ago and lost it and then refound it just as on one of my groups there was a cross stitch ATC swap. Excited and knowing it would be a good basis to start I finished it off and got it made into a proper ATC last night. Forgot to take a picture but will add it tomorrow. Just need couple more ATC cards but will do normal ATC's with cross stitch on rather than a whole cross stitch ATC. It has lots of little flowers as the background and says Flower Power in green. I like it!

Still lacking a journal at the moment and I miss it. It was nice to be forced (as such) to write something everyday and be creative. I enjoyed being in the rhythm and I am missing it now. Hopefully my next journal from the swap will show up soon. Plus seren was going to include a truly collaborative journal where I can be creative on pages already started. Looking forward to that.

was I creative?

well I did work on some more christmas cards which I was very happy with and I had fun making them. The windmill cards are fun to make because I get to cut squares, then fold them a couple of times and then attempt to glue them all together to make a nice windmill. It seems to have worked so far so I am happy. It makes me think of a rosette and hopefully my family will like them. I did a couple more small snowman cards as well, I got some white wrapping at the weekend with something so I have been using that for a snow effect on the bottom. I think it just adds a little something to the card. I only need to make a couple more cards to finish my family. I was going to make them for close friends as well but don't think I am going to have time so I will buy some nice cards to send to them and still continue to make snowman cards. Then I will have some made for next year already done to send to my friends :)

I also did some work in the journal I have at the moment - I tried to not to worry about what other people would think of the work but just write and add onto the page what I wanted to add. In the end it was only squares of snowflake paper and sparkly card so it is still a sparse page as such with writing but I was struck by the idea from the paper and I just decided to go with it. I thought about taking some pictures but then realised the person who's journal it is might see it. Then it madew me think about how if you never take a picture of it, its like secret work that only the other people working in the journal and the owner will ever see. Part me thought thats sad because you want to share your work with others and the other part thought wow, it means if you see it you are a part of something special.

August is here

and with it has come some nice weather here in the UK - the weather last weekend was gorgeous and I spent much time enjoying it whilst at an all day BBQ - much fun had.

However on the art front not much happened this weekend but I realise it had been a couple of weeks since I posted and I have done some art in that time, its just racking my brains to remember. What I do know is that I went to this place about half an hour away which has all these small shops, one's people have set up themselves and well there were a few craft shops there. So I had a nosey around and yes you can guess - I bought some bits. I bought some scrapbooking papers (not necessarily for scrapbooking) because so far I have not actually managed to get any scrapbooking done but I am sure it will get used for many things. I got some peel off's which gave me idea's which I wrote down but have not actually created yet!

I also bought some embellishments - some tiny feet brads for an ATC idea I had and some travel one's to make some ATC's and I did make one - a flying one. I also have a boat and a car so it will follow along the same theme.

I did start some bits for some colour Mail Art to send out in return for some that I have received. One is a rainbow card but I am still deciding what words to put on it. One was a colour mirage underneath with a black cut out over the top - like when you make snowflakes. I liked the effect.

I made a nie thank you card for my sister Cayleigh as she sent me cool Spongebob notepads from over in the states - for that I used some of the paper I bought on my shopping trip.

Lastly I made a shaker ATC which was in the July 4th theme so much Red, white and blue. We had use part of a specific image hence the 4 behind the glitter but I thought it looked like a fun ATC. So the winner of the draw has it winging its way to them and hopefully it'll make a nice part of their collection. I am planning on maybe making a couple more shaker ATC's but depends whether I feel I have a theme that fits.

Was waiting to put pictures on 1st before publishing but going to be a couple of days so will publish and add photo's later! Enjoy

ATC'S

Last night I finally got some time to myself to do some ATC's which is good because i have a few I need to get done so it's all helping. Its been busy busy of recent. Anyway so I created this butterfly one for the butterfly swap I am hosting. I bought a butterfly punch and just started punching some out in colours and then the inspiration came - I like the idea it makes me think of the fun there is with butterflies flying!
My swap is going well, sign up has closed and I have 24 players at the moment including myself. So far I have had about 5/6 people's ATC's but alot of people have updated me saying they are in the post.
Its been so fun of recent - so much post coming through what with this swap, winning the WTA on the blind swaps yahoo group I joined and having penpals and such - my mailbox has never been so happy and it gives me great joy getting home of an evening and having fun packages to open and see what great stuff has come through!

This ATC is for the blind swap groups March Image competition, you make an ATC based on an image (which was the girl) and then everyone who creates one gets a number, random number wins all the ATC's. I like what I have done with this ATC but am unsure whether to add anything more to it - I am going with the image she is a geisha, considerations are putting something in her hand (many people have done this so am not keen) or putting words either side saying Geisha Girl. Anyone's opinion?


This one I just made off the cuff having looked through some of the things I have been receiving from my WTA round. The Background is printed from an images CD that lovely Pat sent me, then I put the words on that I had been sent. The ticket bit in the words made me think of the many admit one token people had sent me in a variety of colours and I thought the Blue tickets would go best as some of the words are in Blue!!! I did a few other little bits but they are WIP's so still working on them but hoping to do some tonight after I have been to the gym!