Pictures as promised

I am reaching the end of my American holiday and have had a fantastic time. I have this weekend and then I head back Monday night. Canada was amazing, we did niagara falls for a day taking the maid of the mist into it, then we went on to Toronto which was a lovely city. So clean and it felt really safe. We took the bus tour which we were able to use the whole week which was handy. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum - a natural history Museum, the Shoe Museum, the Science Museum, Casa Loma - an interesting Castle, the CN Tower, hit a baseball game which was good fun and of course many places to eat and drink. We also followed the PATH which is a connection under alot of Downtown between different shops and hotels etc so you can walk the PATH where there are loads of eateries and little shops so you would never need to go out in the open. We took it as a fun way home from the Eden Centre - a big shopping mall.

As for my artwork, not done much more, done a little more stitching on the baby sampler and mainly been busy writing postcards although bought some great cute notecards too. So below is the card I made, making use of the spring papers I bought cheap. The animals are fun.

Then here is the ATC i made which I had fun making, the butterflies from the paper were fun so I had a little play with them.

I might do a bit more art play as I bought some halloween papers today for a dollar. I also drew and coloured a petite doll whilst I was travelling to Canada but I will chat about that when back in the UK and can upload photo's easier.

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 :)

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!

Spring Inchies quilt

Thats right my spring inchies quilt has arrived. So all those inchies I made have been put into everyone's quilts and now I have lovely inchies from all these other people. I really like the quilt, its very nice but I do wish I could see which are everyone elses. I am now not sure what to do with. Some people are going to frame theirs, I feel like it would make a good coaster but it is too big and I don't want to cut it up. Hmm somethinking will have to be done.

I also completed my Unusual Alphabet ATC's to send to Rixta and they are now on the way to her in Australia. I was having a look through all my card and such looking for an image to go on a great background I had found and instead found this paisley card. It inspired me to make a paisley themed card as P for Paisley certainly is unusual. I really like the colours, more interesting than some paisley you find :)

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.