Parchment ATCs

I was given my first ever ATC by my sister Jean, back in the Autumn of 2005 and I have been swapping them ever since. I did several organised monthly swaps when I lived in UK, but it became harder after I came out here, and some went missing in transit. Plus  I had to rely on people sending me British stamps for the return postage, so I did fewer. I also found it difficult when I wasn't inspired by the given theme for that month, or I was restricted to using a certain company's stamps etc and I didn't have anything by them to go with the theme, so I stopped doing them at all for a while. Then I found a few people who were happy to do personal swaps occasionally, and this suited me much better, so that's what I do right now. I am at a point where I owe a few to people so I set to and made a set. I missed out on the swap over at Julia's Stamping ground, for the birthday of What's on your workdesk Wednesday, due to my trip to UK and family events, but a couple of the friends I visit there, offered to swap with me  the next week, so I wanted some for them as well, and here is what I made.

When I posted the ATCs I had made to take to my Grand-daughter last month, I had so many kind comments about the parchment craft one, that I decided to have another go at them. It is also good practice for me, before my next parchment craft lesson tomorrow. I used the same piercing pattern to make the lacé effect but this time I mounted each piece onto alcohol ink backgrounds that I made years ago when I bought my first inks. At the time I thought they were a bit bright but that's what I needed for these cards. 

Then it was just a case of choosing toning embellishments for each one. These range from buttons, to paper and resin flowers, gems and sticky ribbons, and for one I stamped my favourite dragon. I saw this image on the side of a very muddy delivery van in Murcia, as I sat at a roadside café, so I took a quick photo, and when I got home I edited it on my computer until I had a good black and white image and then I made a stamp using imagepac. I also made a cutting file so I can cut him out any size, and I have made a 30cm one in red paper to go in my scrapbook about our holiday across S.E.Asia. For the ATC I stamped him onto lightweight card in Versafine black onyx, cut him out, and then embossed him with standard, clear powder. I thought he went well with that particular backing card and ribbon which had a slightly Oriental look about them.

I actually made more than one of some of these designs, and I have just a couple left over, so if anyone would like to swap, and you don't mind posting to Spain, use the e-mail above to send me your address and I will get one to you.

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Better late than never, I am finally posting a photo or two of my workspace today. If you like taking a sneak peak into other folks craft rooms, hop over to Julia's blog , and join in the fun.

My desk is a bit different today because my room is at the rear of the house where it gets the full sun every afternoon, and it is becoming too hot to work in there, so I was looking for something that I can do out on the terrace, where there is often a light breeze to keep things more comfortable. I suddenly had the bright idea of tackling a new bobbin lace project. I haven't done any for ages, but over a year ago I bought a kit (pattern and bones/frame) to make a fan, and I really want to give it a go. So this morning I dragged out my box of lace bits and bobs, several rolls of bobbins, and boxes of threads. I pinned the pattern onto the pillow so I could estimate how many pairs of bobbins I might need, and I think it's around sixty pairs. 

The worst task at the start of a project is winding the bobbins. I have done two dozen pairs so far, so there's still a few to go! I got distracted sorting through my bobbins, and pairing them up. They are so lovely with a wide variety of wood and design, and the pretty 'spangles' hanging from them. I had a go at renewing the spangles on a couple of pairs this morning, and it was a lot harder than it looks!

The rest of my room is much as usual with a stack of things to put away on my tray, and every corner filled with boxes, folders etc. I have moved my box of copic markers from the top of work surface to underneath the desk. I realised yesterday that at certain hours of the day they were in full sunlight which probably isn't a good idea. So now they are in a darker corner, but still easily accessible when I need them. Next to them are a couple of folders stuffed with decoupage sheets, acetate, shrink plastic etc.- all the stuff I couldn't fit into the drawers!

Of course, in the background are the two furry ones. They are never far away. On Monday, the grey one had a run in with the dog we are looking after for a couple of weeks, while our friends are on holiday in UK. He is wonderful with our two dogs, but cats are a different matter. Fortunately we were on hand to separate them when the fight broke out, and I have to say, my Baggins came out on top! However, he was a bit traumatised and is spending even more time than usual in my craft room now. And hopefully Barney, the dog, has learned his lesson and will leave the cats alone for the rest of his stay.

And finally here is the one thing that keeps me sane in here right now. The floor fan, switched off for the photo, is on all the time, as well as one on the ceiling, which makes paper crafting a tad difficult, but I wouldn't survive in here without them. I am sure most of you are saying 'Why is she complaining about the sun', but actually I am not complaining, I love it, but we have a red, heatwave alert on our forecast for the rest of this week, with expected temperatures of at least 36º in the shade (that's around 96ºF), so a drop of English rain would be a welcome relief.

Love, Peace and Joy for Rudolf Day

Good morning my crafting friends. You must think I have been very lazy or otherwise occupied just lately as I have posted very few pieces, but I have actually been quite busy making things that I couldn't show on my blog until they had been posted off and received by various family members and friends.

However, today it is Rudolf Day again, the 25th of the month, when the lovely  Sandra from Stamping for Pleasure , challenges us to make a Christmas card or two. I like to make half a dozen but last month, after the prototype, I lost momentum, so this time I decided to have a production line going from the beginning, and here are the cards I have made.

I used sponges and Adirondak inks, lemonade, and sailboat blue, to create the background, which I then trimmed to size and distressed around the edges with Momento Paris dusk. The nativity image is cut from medium weight black textured card, using a bought file for my Silhouette cameo machine. This card has very low fibre content so the detail cuts very well. I glued this in place making sure the star and baby came into the yellow zone of the background. Then I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the top and from it I hung an angel charm. I had two proper charms and three angels from a broken angel chimes. For the sixth card I used a paper sticker angel from a set I bought 'way back when'. I then added a matching bow. I used the same Paris dusk inkpad to stamp the words taken from a set by Woodware.

Finally I mounted the panel onto a dull gold textured paper and then on to a 12cm square navy card. I bought a huge set of navy and black card blanks in various shapes and sizes, probably from create and Craft, many moons ago, and I have now decided it is about time I made use of them, so I designed the card specially to fit these ones. I then just added a drop of stickles glitter glue to the centre of the star. So I now have a set of six cards that I am quite pleased with. I'll just print off some inserts for them and they can join my growing collection of Christmas cards.

Well, I had made these cards and went ahead to write this post without checking Sandra's site. I have just been to it now to get the link above, and I was so surprised. As this is the sixth month, she has challenged us to make a set of six, identical or different cards. So that was a lucky coincidence wasn't it?

I shall also enter them in the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 78: Get Inky.
One stop Craft Challenge: Christmas in June.
Stamping for the Weekend Challenge 12: Show us your Style. I love to use silhouette images over an inked background.
Make it Monday 95: Any Papercraft.

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Well it is now two weeks since I got back home from my visit to UK, and until yesterday, I hadn't managed to sort out the new stash I brought back with me. I did have my son and his partner out for one of those week, but still....

Anyway, last night I did spread everything out on my desk to take this photo. I had to be quick. It is so hot here now that I need both my ceiling fan and a floor standing one on, all the time, so I had a choice of snapping this shot before it all blew away, or turning the fans off and dripping on everything!

I didn't actually buy a lot this time. I have such a huge amount of 'stuff' so I am trying to be a bit more discriminating about what I buy. but I did have two lovely parcels waiting for me at my son's house. One was some blog candy that I won from the lovely Lynne at Creative Lynks. As I was coming over, it made sense to have it posted there. There were some lovely items in it including these unmounted stamps, beautiful buttons and ribbons, an alterable book, and a gorgeous paper pad. 

The other parcel was something that Sarn arranged for me. I am unable to buy Stampin up products in Spain, and UK demonstrators are not allowed to ship out of the country, so I placed an order and had it posted to my son. So that was a punch, two great sets of stamps, a die and an embossing folder, and more paper. the two lovely cards are from Lynne and Sarn. people are so kind aren't they?

 Patterned paper it the one thing it is really difficult to get here, and many companies won't post  it because of the weight/high postage costs, so I do try to stock up on that when I am in UK. Despite a very hectic schedule I did manage an afternoon on my own, browsing the shops in Shrewsbury, so, of course, I was drawn to the QVC seconds shop where there used to be a huge range of craft materials, often in opened or damaged packaging, but I have bought real bargains there before. I was disappointed this time as they only had one shelf, but I did get a big pack of beautiful 12"x12" papers,  a huge pack of white paper flowers, and two large Crafter's workshop stencils.

I spent yesterday evening finding homes for most of these, so this morning my desk is more or less clear, as it usually is, and I am now off for my monthly diabetic check at the clinic, before I go to Sewing group.

Hopefully I'll be back at lunch time to see what my crafting friends are up to this week. If you'd like to peek too, pop over to Julia's Stamping ground, and follow the links.

ATCs for a special young lady.

I thought it was about time I did a post on here, so seeing as I haven't got back into crafting mode since my week in UK  followed immediately by visitors out here, I thought I would show you something I made to take to England with me. Having five sons, five grandsons and a great grandson, I sometimes feel a tad outnumbered. But I do have two lovely gran-daughters, and I am pleased to see Hannah, who is now almost thirteen, taking an interest in papercraft. On her last visit she was particularly interested in my folders of ATCs, and back at home she started making some. When I asked her whether she had anyone to swap them with, she said 'No' so I promised to bring three with me for her to swap with. And here is what I made.

The first one I chose because Hannah is entering the stage where clothes have to be black, and her parents long-ago interest in all things goth, is beginning to feature in her style. So I chose this digi stamp from The Paper Shelter, because it is called Goth Girl, but it still has an element of colour in it. When I bought it, I also purchased a set of papers with the same name, and because I wanted to use them as a backing, I followed the colour guide that came with the stamp as it matched the papers. I used my copic pens to colour the image.

Fortunately Hannah is still sufficiently 'girly' to enjoy pretty things as well, so I used a funky font that I purchased from Lettering Delights to write her name. I reversed the second 'H' and 'A' so the eyes were looking inwards, but I couldn't do it with the 'n' as the school teacher in me wouldn't let me use a back-to-front letter! I added an ancient pair of googly eyes from my stash to the first letter, and some pretty pink flowers and die cut leaves at the base.

 For the last one I thought I would try out some lacé parchment work to practise what I had learned at my last class. It is still a long way off being well done, but I am making some progress. I mounted this onto some bright pink and purple card made when I first experimented with rainbow inks on glossy card, about eight years ago. It has been sitting in my stash ever since, and I thought the strong colours would make a good background for the parchment. Some sticky ribbon, pink gems, and a few metallic butterflies finished this one.

In return Hannah gave me these. She knows my three favourite images for crafting with are flowers, fairies and butterflies, so she has used a stamped flower, a hand drawn butterfly and bee, and some fairly stickers, on her own decorated backgrounds. These will now be given pride of place in my ATC folder.

As I haven't entered a challenge for a while I will link this to Make it Monday, week 92, where Anything goes.