The Last of the Orphans and an ATC

Here's the third and last of the cards I've made with an orphan stamp for the Stamp Attic swap. I should get my stamp back with three cards, can't wait to see what has been made with it :).

For this card I've trimmed the image down to just over 1" of detail, stamped with Dusty Concord Distress Ink; I've drawn some of the colour into the violets.

The card is a pearlescent yellow DL, I've trimmed off the RH edge and used my new Martha Stewart punch on it, mounting Graphicus Guild paper under the shaped edge. I've cut a strip of the same paper and shaped it on each side with the punch. The images are mounted onto gold card and stuck over the paper strip, with an Elusive Images sentiment at the bottom.

I think this is my favourite of the three cards, I won't be sorry to give the stamp back to its owner :). It's a good swap idea though, it's made me think :)

Here's my ATC for the Stamp Attic July swap, which is holidays:

I won the Beachabella in a Challenge from my awesome Blogging Sister Janet. She's coloured with Copics and paper pieced onto Bazzill card and pearlescent yellow. Her sunglasses are highlighted with black Stickles, they really show up well in the flesh. I've stamped a sun and some seashells on there to make her feel at home :)

A Good Garden Always Has Weeds

Here's another couple of things I've made with my Digi Image from Shirleys2Girls. I coloured the image on the card with watercolour pencils, but used chalks for the background. The flower stamps on the card are Botanicals from Craftwork Cards. The DP is from Stamp Attic, as are the Prima flowers, I think the grosgrain ribbon is from a sewing shop.

The ATC is a failed attempt to strengthen the colours, the background started off with an apricot watercolour pen, which ended up a harsh shade of orange. So... I overcoloured with mauve and rescued it with an earthy brown colour :). The image uses watercolour pens and is cut apart from its sentiment. The background is glimmer misted paper stamped with tapestry stamps. It's quite fun but the colours overall aren't quite right...

ATC round up

I've been working on some ATCs for swaps over the last week and since I have no new cards to show, I thought I'd post the ATCs on here:

The first one is for "AWalk in the Woods", for a swap at the Stamp Attic.

I've stamped the lovely tree/water scene onto glossy paper that I've brayered with a Kaleidocolour inkpad.

I've stamped some leaves from an Inkadinkado Inchies set onto the Bazzil card for the ATCbase and added another inchie on foam pads to finish it.

The other ATC is for a UKATC group swap, with the theme yellow and green. It's a sort-of free ATC:). The green paper is a magazine freebie (very lightweight, mounted onto card). The tree is from a set of Paper Artsy stamps that Igot when I renewed my Craft Stamper subscription and the bird is last month's free stamp with Craft Stamper. I love the bird! The bird is stamped onto Glimmer Misted paper and some Stickles jazz up its crown and the tree behind it. The feathers and the bird's legs both came from my husband's fly-tying supplies - shh! Don't tell... :)

Harvest Moon - Penny Black Challenge Anything Goes

Week 46 on the Penny Black Challenge Blog is "Anything Goes". I thought it's be fun to make an ATC for this and got out my wonderful Nature's Dance stamp that featured on most of my Christmas cards last year. I white embossed it onto white card and decided to change the season by sponging it with Distress Inks in all 3 colours that I have :). The moon was masked off with a little bit of a Post-It note and then a little of the straw coloured ink rubbed across it.


The bronze card behind it is wrapped with silk yarn in Autmn colours and some gem flowers that my DH bought me at Christmas are to the right of the ribbon. I'm wondering whether to add anything else...

Springing into ATCs

The Stamp Attic's ATC swap for March was Spring. I made this rather uninspired ATC using some Penny Black clear stamps onto glimmer misted paper. As the 8 ATCs were made Mon afternoon for Mon evening I soon regretted having to cut round the sheep's body and four feet :)

Luckily the rest of the group were more inspired, here's their lovely work:

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Can't see the wood for the trees

A set of ATCs for the UKATC group's swap. The theme is Trees, which just leaves me with the tricky problem of which of my (too many) tree images to use :)

This is an Art Impressions stamp, used on a Glimmer Misted background, with some snow added to the branches with a white opaque pen. I've tried to add some hill/landscape detail with chalk inks. The ginger card used to mount the trees was part of the packaging for my Sugar Nellie stamp order the other day - waste not want not!

Magnolia vs Stampavie Challenge Week 16 - Lace & Pearls

What a fun challenge this week at Magnolia/Stampavie from Bev: Lace & Pearls. I decided to make a Tilda ATC. I'm not sure how much Tilda is a lace and pearls gal :) , so I kept her to neutral creams mostly. The background has flower stamped onto it, with Pearl Stuff centres. There is heart lace along one long side and two pearls on the opposite corners. Omunted onto bronze shimmery card to frame it.

ATC Time Again

March is going to be very busy; I'm committed to several ATC swaps and want to get them ready without too much panic. So, still on an ATC theme, here is my monthly UKATC swap: three ATCs using Sugar Nellie's Leanne Ellis images.

All use the same Glimmer Misted background. Tweet has a printed paper scrap hill, the birdhouse stamped onto it from the image, a flower in her hair and a bird from Lisa's Altered Images perching on the skewed birdhouse.

Rosey is stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with Copics and with Jelly Roll pens. The flowers have Glossy Acents on them, the background circles are coloured with a white gel pen.

Luvvy has an Elusive Images heart stamped onto the background. Again, she's been stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with Copics. Her skirt is paper pieced. Ribbon came from my blogging "sister" Vanja and the heart that she's holding is made from gold card with alcohol inks used on it.

So there they are: blonde, brunette and almost black haired :)

Dogs, dogs, dogs - and a birthday

Dogs, dogs, dogs is a swap at ATCsForAll.com. I've used Glimmer Misted backgrounds and images from

Lisa's Altered Images. Encourage uses Inkadinkado inchies in the background, Smile has an Elzybells sentiment, Art Impressions tree and Stamps by Judith flowers. True Friends has a metal charm wired on and background stamps from Craftwork Cards. Puppy Love has the tree, grass stamp from Stamps by Judith and a Dovecraft sentiment stamp.

The final ATC is for a UKATC birthday and uses Lisa's images again.

The Blues

This month's ATC challenge at the Stamp Attic is Music. I had to make 8 cards to trade so chose to keep it fairly simple.

The background is a sheet music image, oversprayed with Glimmer Mists. A blue tape ribbon is behind some painted Stampbord (first time I've used it) with a note copper embossed on it. The note is from an Inkadinkado clear stamp set that my SBS sister Janet was kind enough to ssend to me. I've scratched a smaller note into the surface of the Stampbord. I've added a peel-off in the RH corner and I don't think they need anything else.

ATCs - something from nothing

On Friday, I finally changed over from my old, slow computer to a shiny new one.  At least, my younger son, who was IT consultant for the day, did the changing over.

As I needed to stay out of his way, I made some ATCs from the ice cream tub that has bits and pieces in it that didn't quite work for another project or weren't quite right.  Also, I have bought images from http://www.lisasalteredart.com/ and will sit and cut them out when I'm watching TV and add them to the tub.

So, in no particular order, we have:

 It Was Her Destiny - leftover piece of Glimmer Misted paper that I decided to  emboss with a Cuttlebug paisley folder.  I added a painted Bella image that I bought in a batch of images from Ebay, mounted it on a scrap of cardstock and added left-over flowers punched from scraps.  Message was from a page of one-liners from Lisa's Altered Art.

Hoot - background was a reject experiment:  Glimmer Misted background with a Clarity Stamp from stamp of the month stamped on it, repeatedly clear embossed to make a thick, cracked glaze.  Owl was clear embossed using assorted pigment inks to give him shading, he was a try-out for Mum's birthday card.  Leftover Hallowe'en ribbon and some brads finished this off.

Autumn - a spare Willow with hot chocolate (Whiff of Joy) painted image was mounted in front of an oval I cut from a Glimmer Misted tree scene that didn't quite work (Elusive Images stamp).  Buttons were bought nearly a year ago, ribbon from my stamping "sister" Janet.

Odd Man Out - experimenting with the Paper Artsy stamps I got for renewing my Craft Stamper subscription.  French script gold-embossed on bronze paper, image of man and pen decoupaged on beige cardstock, torn around the edges.  The ribbon that doesn't show up well is Laura Ashley, the other is from Janet again.  Sentiment from Lisa, as before.

Chocolat - same background as Destiny.  The oval image is from an Obsession Impression stamp set, I spent ages colouring and glittering it to decided I didn't like the colours I used!  The Hotel Chocolat ribbon is from Christmas chocolates, the flower ribbon behind I bought on sale in the US last summer and the little flowers came from my DH for Christmas.

In the bag - I spent ages last year masking off a white margin and brayering over Versamarked handbags (Hero Arts stamp) only to reject it for whatever project I had in mind.  I think the Clarity stamp handbag was from the same project.  I combined them with the image and message from Lisa and at last they worked!  Used Stickles around the margin.

Lesson learned:  sometimes a part-made, reject project needs to mature.  When in doubt, put it away for another day :).  Until of course you are disappearing under a landslide of paper!

ATC Roundup

I needed to catch up on some ATCs this weekend. Here is a lovely set that I got from Andrea for my November UKATC swap, the scan is ok but they look really good in the flesh, thanks Andrea!

I've made ATCs for the December themes on UKATC. I always have good intentions to take part - and always run out of time! December is a month to get things done early, or not at all. So here's my snowman card. The sentiment shows up much better in real life, it says "Let it Snow". Fluffy stuff for snow, circles cut with nestabilities dies, buttons and eyes use Stickles.

And the other theme is bronze/copper. I used my Crafty Secrets stamps, embossed on beige card, water coloured. The background paper has "A Little Note" embossed and there's the last of the ribbon used up that came from a chocolate box.

Beautiful Trees ATCs

Here are the ATCs that I received from ATCsforall.com's Beautiful Trees swap, all 3 absolutely gorgeous. Thanks Ithica, Cordelia and leslielynn.

Bonfire Night ATC Swap

Last night I went to http://www.thestampattic.co.uk to their monthly meet. We had a smart new venue this month to meet in, with more space and good light.

The ATC swap was Bonfire Night, we had to make 13 identical cards. This was a real struggle as a theme, I found it difficult but discovered I was not alone on moaning about this one :). There is no tradition of exchanging cards for Bonfire Night, though I'm sure it's only a matter of time until Hallmark seize this as a new marketing opportunity.

Also there is only so much time one can spend on 13 ATCs. My image came from searching Google images, it has a metallic thread "fuse" poking out from the barrel. I've used silicon glue to give the barrel dimension. It's on a Glimmer Misted background with stamped and embossed fireworks that are a snowflake stamp I bought last year.

I also agreed to do a 10 minute demo for the group, as everyone has to take their turn. It was rather "blind leading the blind" as I've not been stamping very long, but I demoed my brayer, the first gadget that I ever got. I used it for landscapes, for mirror imaging stamps, with rubber bands around it and also the bouncing brayer technique. Finished up with some nice samples which I hope to tart up and do something with.

ATCs received - Pub Signs & Birds and Bees

Today I had my swaps back from UKATC's pub sign swap. Everyone else seems to have been sensible enough to put the pub name on the front of their ATc - unlike me! Lovely ATCs and all so different.






Yesterday this lovely set arrived from ATCsforall.com, from the Birds & the Bees swap.

Tilda & Friends ATC Challenges - Golden Tones

This week's ATC Challenge is Golden Tones at http://tildaandfriends.blogspot.com/2008/10/golden-tones.html . Here is my Tilda. Her background is a gold napkin from the kitchen drawer. There is some Autumn colored yarn behind her and I've decorated a stamped flower (can't remember what this came from!) with some Stickles.

Tilda & Friends ATC Challenges - Swap

I'm having an ATC day today :).

Here is my Edwin ATC to swap, for this week's Challenge over at Tilda and Friends. http://tildaandfriends.blogspot.com/2008/10/alota-special.html

More Hallowe'en ATCs

I got the chance to make another 6 ATCs for the Stamp Attic's swap, due next week. That completes my total of twelve, thank goodness! As before, I used images downloaded from http://www.lisasalteredart.com/index.htm , with ribbons, Stickles, Glossy Images and an Art Impressions tree stamp on Glimmer Misted background.

October ATCs

Each month on the UKATC Yahoo group there is a 1 to 1 swap of three different ATCs. This month I'm swapping with Sheila. I've made these two bird ATCs, using Lisa Volrath's images. TThey co-ordinate with my wrapped Tilda card.

It's A Wrap - Tilda & Friends ATC Challlenge

This week's challenge is to wrap up your ATC with ribbon, string, paper, wire, or anything else that comes to mind.

Painted Tilda is on a Glimmer Mist background, wrapped in hand dyed threads, lace and yarn. She is wrapped in a hand-dyed thread "belt" on her dress.