March tag swap

I've finally gotten around to sorting out pics of my offerings for the March tag swap on UKScrappers - better late than never I guess. I rashly decided to do two groups as the theme this month was travel, and I knew I had a lot of travel-themed stamps that I wanted to use, but I think I'll revert back to just the one set from April onwards, especially as I'll be busy with my first Circle Journal (more about that another time)

Anyways, March's birthstone is aquamarine, and this is what our hostess wrote for us to follow:

"On 2nd March 1969 Concorde made its maiden flight to Paris.

So for March what better theme than "TRAVEL" - using any TRAVEL themed stash you have create six tags - it doesn't have to be necessarily Paris themed any travel/country you wish. It could incorporate your favourite city or a mode of transport. The majority of the background of your tag should be aquamarine coloured - pale blues/pale wishy-washy turquoises. The twist this month is somewhere on your tags your must include some kind of postage stamp, postmark or the word POSTCARD."

Shame my tags have turned out a little dark - they started off as a pale blue but I distressed them with I think Faded Jeans and then crumpled the tags up and swiped over the top with Dusty Concord, then spritzed with water so that the inks bled together. Stamped images are all in Archival Black, except for the month which is embossed in white.

The ticket is cut using Tim's ticket die and stamped with one of his sayings from his Odds and Ends set, the other stamps are from various cheap (and not so cheap!) sets which unfortunately I didn't keep the manufacturers name on... but I love the size of the Eiffel Tower stamp - fits onto a 6 x 3.5 tag perfectly!

The second tag is inked and distressed in the same way, only this time I stamped all the images before adding the Dusty Concord over the top of the crumpled tag. Has still turned out a little darker than I would have liked, but hopefully I can get away with it.

This time the month is stamped/embossed with a blue embossing powder I found knocking around, which for some reason adhered itself to the 'enjoy the journey' stamp - but not all over it, just in selected places. When heat set it actually looks quite interesting - shame 'cos I hadn't planned it at all!

New Year, new set of projects...

Amongst other things craftwise, I'm joining in with a Tag Swap online, making sets of tags which have to abide by certain rules. Colourwise they are following each months birthstones, but our hostess puts a twist to each month with other things to be included.

January's tag was Garnet, so nice deep reds were to be used on each tag. Along with the Garnet we had to use a Black and White colour theme - the twist being somewhere on each tag we had to use a snowflake or two as well.



Here's my tag for January, black base cardstock, deep mottled red patterned paper for the rosette (diecut with Tim Holtz' rosette die) and his large flourish stamp embossed in white underneath. Two snowflake brads, one at the top for the ribbons to go thru and one at the bottom, and the month also stamped/embossed in white.

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The birthstone for February is AMETHYST so nice shades of mauves and purples were to be used on each tag. Along with the Amethyst - we had to use a lacey effect somewhere on the tags whether this was real lace, paper punches, stamped lace effect etc - the twist being somewhere on each tag we should include a LOVE quote as well.

 Here's Februarys tag - and I realised after I'd sent them off that I'd totally forgotten to put the lace on - had a lovely strip pulled out of my ribbon box all ready and waiting to be stuck along the join between the music paper and the tag - and somehow I totally forgot to do it!! Dozy mare or what...

Anyways, base cardstock is pale purple, the Cupid from Tim Holtz' Seasonal Masks set applied to the upper centre and Dusty Concord Distress Ink applied around it. A torn strip of music paper stuck to the bottom couple of inches, and another TH rosette made from some pearlescent lilac paper stuck on top. The ticket is die-cut using Tim Holtz' ticket die and stamped with the Valentines Day stamp from his Odds and Ends stamp set, which were all designed to fit the ticket die. Gotta love that man, designing everything to fit with everything else - very canny! The ticket was threaded onto some thin purple ribbon and tied around the rosette. Lastly, I applied Dusty Concord Distress Stickles over the top of the Cupid and stamped/embossed the month in white along the side of the tag. Shame about the lace - but it was very pretty... :-)

March's tags (I got greedy and put my name down for two sets) went in the post today so I'll sort pics out later. But they're nice - well, at least I think so...

ATC's

To my shame, these are 2 ATC's made a year apart... but I still love 'em both!

Halloween 2009 first,




then November 2010's 'Anything Goes' ATC swap... shame we're still all waiting for our ATC's to come home...

Crafty creations from 2010

Might as well try and bring this blog up to speed with some of the crafting I did last year... better late than never!

Took part in another cybercrop, this one was Monopoly themed, and I was in the Thimbles team. Here's a Thimbles ATC I made,

along with some thimble inchies made by casting some resin thimbles using UTEE and Mold'n'Pour.

The mystery kit had papers from Sassafrass Lass in, not quite my style but I did do this rather wintery (for April!) layout,

 

as well as producing my page for the pre-crop challenge using colour-blocking.

Here's an A4 layout done of my Number 1 Dad, not used paint on a layout before and boy does it show... not sure whethere I'll try that again or not!

Another class, this one using custom hand-cut frames

A trip to Hanningfield Reservoir nature reserve during the summer was the inspiration for another class,

and I think that this night-time shot of our hotel in Ostend goes so well with this 'Black Market' paper!

Hmm, another long absence...

... 5 months? I really didn't think it was *that* long ago I last posted, but obviously it was... must try harder... So, lets try and catch up - I'll try and keep it brief, don't want you all falling asleep... 

It's been an up and down few months during which we've had Christmas, which I spent with my family in Kent... my sister Penny and her husband Alastair did us proud!

Dad came up trumps and bought us all amaryllis bulbs again, so The Great Amaryllis Race was on again this year... I think mine was hibernating, possibly sulking, because its now March and its still only about a foot high :-(

As for the Altered Playing Cards, where I was creating the 5 of Spades, I eventually managed to get them finished altho it was well past the deadline, so instead of sending them to the swap host to swap, I ended up posting them separately to the group, and they posted me theirs back. Sadly, we've not got a full 13 cards back as we were 2 numbers short anyway, and another 2 members cards weren't received at all. Still, it gives me the opportunity to make up some extra cards myself, gives me the chance to play with some Tim Holtz techniques and get creative! Photos will follow in a later blog post - I promise! 

I've also been going down to The Craft Barn at Lingfield. I first did a couple of smashing classes making unique backgrounds using Brilliance re-inkers, glossy card and clingfilm, also played with shrink plastic. Then a couple of weeks later I took a Cuttlebug masterclass and learned some new tricks to use with my 'bug. And today I was back there as they had their Spring Craft Fest with 7 ladies demo-ing various techniques - I love the look of Dreamweaver Stencil Paste - I'm sure I have a pot somewhere, I wonder if it's still good to go?

Catch-up 2 - ATC's...

As well as Inchies, I've been playing with some ATC's - Artist Trading Cards. These are 3.5" x 2.5" pieces of art, anything goes as you can use any media you want on them. The only proviso with ATC's is that they must only be swapped or traded, never sold. I'm getting more adventurous with them and the last set I made I'm especially pleased with.

 

First one was a Swap for "The Beatles - Song Titles" - I picked 'Day Tripper. I cut a page out of an old UK motoring atlas, inked it over with Distress Inks and tore it roughly into a rectangle before sticking it to an ATC blank. The ticket stamp was part of a clear stamp set I got at Ally Pally in September, it was a collage stamp and I merely cut out the ticket bit, then stamped it all around the edge of the torn map.

The bus was a pic downloaded from the internet and printed out. I wanted to make the wheels more 3D, so painted some tiny brads with black acrylic paint and poked them thru the picture, then stuck the embellie on the ATC using foam squares to raise it up. Finally the title was printed with my trusty old office Dymo reel and stuck on at a jaunty angle.

Second was another swap, "Autumn Leaves". I went to town on this, using Distress Inks sponged all over a sheet of 12x12 and then a series of leaf-outline stamps randomly scattered on the sheet, so I'd made my own unique background. This was then cut into 3.5" x 2.5" rectangles for the ATC's. Three skeleton leaves were glued to the ATC first, the bottoms of which were covered with a piece of twill ribbon which had been stamped with a paw-print design. Finally the title was again Dymo-reel printed, but stuck to a piece of cardstock, covered in sticky metal tape then coloured using Alcohol Inks.

Both ATC sets have been posted off, but we're waiting for the postal strikes to be over before the hostess returns them all to us - I can't wait to see them all!

Good grief where does the time go...

Last post was June and it's now the end of October...I've got some catching up to do... I'll do it in stages, got a lot of pics to share with you all! 

Firstly, Monthly Inchies Swaps... each month it's a free theme but a specific colour. Because we started these in April, right in the middle of Jigsaw-Mania, I kinda went jigsaw mad and decided that all my Inchies would have little jigsaw pieces on them. And as well as little jiggy bits, there'd also be some tiny jiggy bits. I think it's an addiction, one which unfortunately will last into next year lol...

 

April - Purple / May - Orange / June - Green / July - Turquoise / 

August - Red / September - Pink / October - Blue. 

We also sneaked an extra one in for Summer... These will continue for the next few months at least... I've had some lovely Inchies in return for the ones I've made, hopefully I'm going to make an acrylic album to put them in but I've got so many other things on the go at the moment that it'll have to wait it's turn.