ATCs for May 2013

Thank you, Diane, for the tip! I changed to the Google Chrome browser et voila! Pictures! :)

So here are the ATCs I swapped with Miss Peach's mum this month...

This is "Through The Keyhole"

who's looking through the keyhole at you?

This is the inside!

It was a cat! (of course!)

Next this one is "Buttoned Up".

In the foreground in the internet image of a boot.

In the background is how I changed it.

Here's a close-up.

The make the buttons 3D I applied a

Sakura clear glaze pen over and over to build it up.

Lots of stamps and glitter :)

This one is "Blowing In The Wind":

This next one was an open themed one, 

we just had to use glossy card.

So I used a Beatrix Potter decoupage :)

This next one had to refer to Walter de la Mare.

It's a triple fold.

Here's the front:

Opened out,

a poem

(featuring a cat!)

The other side:

Lastly, the theme "April" was set.
This one is called "April Showers".

Underneath the vellum:

UK peeps might recognise the picture as
being from the packaging of
"Yorkshire Tea" :)

Hope you enjoyed looking at them. I've been enjoying the challenge of having a theme and then having to think something up for it!

**** *** **** *** **** ***

Love, tea & cake,
Helena

These are the ATCs I made for this month's swap:

THEME: Rupert Brooke (WW1 poet)

The colouring on all my ATCs is with ProMarkers.

The moon in this one is done with Gilding Flakes.

The poppies are die cut.

I love the way this one turned out.

THEME: Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

The cat & bird are actually details from a Christmas stamp- it also has the word 'Peace' on it and the bird carries an olive branch. I snipped these details off and stitched in some whiskers. The words.... yes, that's what I'd say when Scooby caught mousies :)

 

THEME: India

 I wanted a peacock for 'India' to show the colours and patterns associated with that country. I tried to suggest the heat with the low sun and the orange sky. It doesn't all come out in the photo, but there are glittery details and the blue is actually a deep purple. I drew the background but the peacock is a digistamp from Digi Darla Designs

 

THEME: Grandmother's Attic

 I knew I wanted to do a rocking horse for this one but couldn't find an image of one that was just right. Then at the Craft Fair I picked up a postcard from the Guild of British Toymakers' stall- with a rocking horse on the front! This is a detail cut from the postcard. (This rocking horse is the one that featured in the opening scene of The Woman In Black! They restored it and lent it to the film makers.)

The die cut swirl added to his mane is one that I found on the floor at the fair! I dabbed it with brown and gold paint. I stitched all round the card and, to suggest age, I added thick crackle-glaze and beads in one corner. THIS ONE IS MY FAVOURITE!!!

 

THEME: Mothers

 Another one that's hard to photograph, because it's covered with a self-adhesive glitter film.

THEME: What's Your Fear?

It says "the tops of tomatoes look suspiciously like spiders". I am so scared of spiders. Sometimes, if I am cooking with tomatoes, I'll take off that dried leafy thing from the top and put it down somewhere... then, a few minutes later, I see it out of the corner of my eye and think "EEEK! SPIDER!" ooops..... I drew the tom's and added leaves round the edges- I have never liked this leaf stamp as I think it looks like spider legs. I never thought it would ever come in useful...

Hope you enjoyed looking at my ATCs for this month.

The themes for next month are- Blowing In The Wind, April, Walter de la Mare, Through The Keyhole, Buttoned Up, and a Free Theme on glossy cardstock. I also need to alter 3 bottle caps! Should keep me out of mischief.

**** *** **** *** **** ***

Love, tea & cake,  
Helena

ATCs

Miss Peach's momma, Karla, encouraged me to join an ATC swapping group that she's been a member of for a while. I'm really enjoying it :) 

Here are the ones I did for February's swaps...

Theme: "Yellow and Orange" 
I didn't sign up for this one originally, then I thought "Aha! I know: A ginger tabby!" and then I HAD to do it... This pusscat is a "Magnolia" cat stamp, and I drew the rest. He is sitting on the wall on 3D foam pads and he's holding a silver charm fish. For colour, I've used Promarkers.

Theme: "Children With Wings" 
I love doodling stained glass....
I found a website that gives free vintage photo images. You can't make them very big but they're ideal for ATC size...

That's my Indigoblu gilding flakes on the wings there...Promarkers again for the colouring, little paper flowers and baker's twine.

Theme: "Nautical"
I covered the card with gloopy PVA glue, then stuck some kitchen tissue onto it, and pushed it about, squishing it and moving it, leaving raised, squashed ridges in it. It had a pattern of blue and purple squares on it and I used this to form a suggestion of blue ocean, or perhaps the distorted view of mosaic in a swimming pool..... then added some acrylic bubbles... I like this one.

 

Theme: "Wordsworth"

I didn't want to do daffodils, I thought that would be too obvious :) so I looked up some more of his poems and found one called "The Wren's Nest", in which the little nest is hidden from predators by a primrose... I used an old farthing for the bird as these cute little coins had a wren on them. The flowers & leaves are made with a small cutting die (I've acquired a die cutting machine at last!) and as I didn't have yellow paper I used a post-it note pad :) In the background, I originally went over the card with blue Promarkers and then stuck a gold skeleton leave to it.
Ah yes, and this is Little Baby Bear Bob Jr, or Elb, for short.

 

I'm pleased that for this first swap, I am partnered with Karla :) I love her style and all her arty stuff, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what she's made. It's lovely to be looking forward to your mail in the morning, isn't it?

Thanks for getting me involved, Karla!! :)

  **** *** **** *** **** ***

Love, tea & cake,  
Helena

More pootling....

...So I cropped that picture thingy I did the other day, and made it into a card:Watcha think?
Certainly looks better smaller, I think.
I punched the flowers out of some of the remaining paper. I only did 6 as this punch is INCREDIBLY hard to press down! I hate punches like that! I think you should be able to try them out in the shop. LOL!

Looking out the window, I spotted this wee fella on the rosemary. Wasn't sure if he was nimbling seeds or insects. Cute, isn't he? Wouldn't pose properly for me though :)...that little distraction got me to dig out this, which I bought about a month ago and still hadn't done anything with. It's a big sheet of gift wrap from Paperchase. Decent weight paper, too, and tons of it for £1:OK £1 is a lot for a piece of wrapping paper that will end up torn up and ignored, but not if you use it in other ways. I've seen craft stamps around with similar bird cage designs on, and this is a much cheaper option to those! Here's the card I made with some of it this afternoon. I used bird stamps from my growing collection of stamps received free with magazines :)I quite like it :) Here's the inside:
Next, here is one I put together as an anniversary card for someone. Can't say who in case they come here and see it. Ha.I had the topper ready a few weeks ago, so it was just a case of deciding on a background. In the end I thought just using a plain brown card was enough.Some swirls inside and a 'congratulations' stuck onto it:
It was nice to do a bit of crafty pootling. I am feeling EXTREMELY hormonal (horMOANal?) right now and I needed calming down. LOL!

Finally, I had run out of blank ATCs. Rather than buy some I thought I'd just cut up some card. They have to be 3.5 x 2.5 inches. Yeah, I know, if I have lined them up I'd have got more out of a sheet of card. But where's the fun in that?I coloured them all with ProMarkers and cut them out. Now I have a wee pile of multi-coloured blank ATCs. Far less frightening than a blank white canvas. You never know, I might even produce some completed ones some time.
Wouldn't it be nice to get a swap going?
Hmmm... I wonder if we could so that... any ideas?

ATCs

....or "Artist Trading Cards"... these are always 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size and you make them to swap them with people. You can pick any subject and use any media- you can sew them, quilt them, paint them, draw on them, attach stuff to them, whatever you like. The only rules are (1) you have to stick to that saize and (2) they're to be traded, not sold. On the back, you put your name (plus contact details if you like; I'm going to just put my email on mine), and info. re the picture e.g., title; media used; and if it's one of a series, it's number. Why not chop up some bits of card to 2.5 x 3.5" and have a go?

Whilst coming up out of my deep blue funk (!) last week I pootled these ones over a few late nights..... what do you think of them? They were relaxing to do....

I used my Letraset ProMarkers on all these. I love the way you can blend these pens. They don't leave 'lines', just blocks of colour. When you go over other colours you get interesting effects. When you use the blender pen it washes out the colours like with a water-brush, but you don't know the full effect until it dries, so there's an element of risk and suprise :)

"Sunny Poppies"
The edges on this first one were done by just rubbing a dark blue ProMarker round the edge whilst the inks on the cards were still wet, hence the nice bleed effect....
"Silver Breeze"
-not a good photo :(
It's more colourful than this, and those lines are sparkly.
"Flutterboxes"
"Amazing Space 1"

Not sure what an Art Therapist would make of these last 2 :)

"Calm Before the Storm"

Is she being swallowed up by one of those flesh-eating plants? ...or waves? Are they petals? ...or the layers of an enormous dress??? I've no idea! It's just where the doodle took me!

"Mute"

hmmm....

What do you think?

More info on ATCs and some yummy examples here: Art In Your Pocket.