I made this ATC for Wyvernsians Mesh Swap

Far too much gold embossing, I didn't like it at all, untill I added my all time favourites Accent beads. Now I think it's at least passable. The mesh is over gold card, not very noticable on the piccie, but gives it a bit of sparkle in the hand.

Oh well!, you can't get it right every time, somebody might like it.

Believe Angel ATC

It'a a cold wet miserable day today, woke up full of aches and pains and stiffness, so I thought I would do some crafting till the pain and stiffness eases.

I have seen where people use bottle tops in thier crafting, so thought I would have a go with one that I found, while walking the dog.

I embedded the cut out face in deep impressions embossing powder, in the bottle top and put it in the oven to melt. I needed some wings for my Angel, and found some printed on a square of paper that came in a lucky bag from the Loughborough meet last year, stuck them onto card, cut them out and triple embossed them. Then layered them over some pink sequin waste, before sticking on the bottle top Angel.

The background is a piece of bronzy pearlised card which I clear embossed with a filigree type stamp, and then embossed around the edges with gold and also the stamped word "believe" at the bottom. I added two pink gems but thought they looked too pristeen, so I melted them to take off the sharpe contours and added a few small clear holeless beads.

I may send it to FrankieSues Angel swap on Docrafts.

Heart and Soul ATC

Heart and Soul I made last night.

I tried dabbing my lilac and blue Bingo dabbers onto the shrink plastic heart, and then shrinking it and then embossing it with my deep impressions powder. It appears Green on the picture but is actually a pinkie red.

The background is marbled with Shaving foam, and pieces of Alkohol inked tin foil and a piece of fabric mesh which surprisingly didn't disintergrate when I used the heat gun on it, but curled up a bit and shrank lol. A few accent beads and a couple of melted gems added then the edges silver embossed. the word "Soul" stamped on with stazon. Not sure yet but may send it to the Mesh swap, on docrafts.

Solder and Beads my third Gothic Arch

The third of my Gothic Arches, I wanted to be quite different from either of the other two, and as I have been itching to play with my soldering iron again, here was my chance!. lol
You can just about make out two little coils of thin wire on each of the crossed wires within the frame, and the beads can move freely on the wires. I looped the ends of the wires and attached fuse wire "tassles" to the loops on the sides and used brads to attach the frame to the mountboard in the top and bottom loops, the brads also go through the gold card, which I placed behind the frame.
I had previously attached the pretty mesh fabric to the mountboard, which is yet another one of the Shaving foam creations, made last Saturday. A couple of swirls of silver accent beads, pink gems and edging the mountboard with my gold metalics pen completed the project.

Upgrade on my computer

On Sunday my Daughter in law Shell upgraded my computer

( Shell is a whiz with computers) So it left me with time on my hands and as the weather was glorious, I decided to take her youngest son, Christopher my grandson to a local beauty spot, an ancient farm, called Northicote Farm which is now listed and maintained for the benefit of the public. See small piccie of Northicote Farm, as it looks from the road.

We took Meggy my dog, as it is an ideal place for dog walking, with the nessessary dog waste bins amply provided.

I am not too good on my pins, but was feeling good, so thought if I take it steady with lots of sit downs on the logs provided, I would be okay.

I found myself cursing myself at my stupidity, for not bringing my new camara along as the views were breathtaking. This picture is one I found on Google, but is similar to what it was like in the woods on one of the many walks at the farm.

There are geese and a turkey and pot bellied pigs and other animals there as well.

Part of the listed building has been allocated as a tea room, with shaded tables and benches outside and a large bowl of water for the dogs. So I bought myself a large mug of tea, and an orange drink for Chris and we sat and ate Apple pie as well.

It was a really enjoyable afternoon and I and Chris loved it, and so did Meggy.

Chris is the younger brother of my frequently mentioned Twin grandsons Richard and Andrew, who help me so much with all my computing problems, and who helped me get this Blog started.

Wings and Things Gothic Arch

The background for this Gothic arch (made using the Shaving foam marbling technique as mentioned below) is so pretty, I tried not to cover it up too much.

I used two pieces of shrink plastic made weeks ago which I had coloured prior to shrinking with Caran Dache Aquarelle pencils, layered onto gold card.

I liked the effect of the wire used on the Shades of green Gothic Arch, so decided to add some wire wings to this one too.

Gems chosen to match the colours on the shrink plastic, looked a bit insignificant, so I added some of my (favourites) Accent beads. Edging the mountboard with my Gold mettalics pen gave it the finishing touch I was looking for.

My Gothic arches

Angy and I had another "play" with shaving foam again on Saturday LOL, the background I used for these two Gothic Arches are some of the results, on mountboard.

I love the background of Wings and things but the one on the left (Shades of Green and Gold) doesn't show up so well.

This is my first attempt at gothic arches, which I have made for a swap on Docrafts.

The ladies head on Shades of Green is made from fimo pushed into a mold I made from a metal plaque purchased from Tee Pee crafts.

I painted it gold and glued it into the base cut from a Caramel dessert tub, which I had painted with green and then a light coat of gold (Ocean Pearl) pearlised paints. I embossed the edges of the background with gold embossing powder. I then made a tag from some green recycled packaging, but thought it boring, so I lightly embossed it then cut it across twice with some deckle edged scissors, and left the gaps between the pieces. The clover leaf, or is it a Shamrock leaf! is also made from Fimo, and painted as with the head.

The dark green satin leaves were from a box of embellishments that was part of a gift for my birthday from my Grand daughter Emma.

Inspired by my buddy Nicks clever use of wire in her craftwork, I thought I would have a go at using wire as well, and I am glad I did, as I like the end results.

The Wood cutter and the Dragon clock

This is where my Dragon clock, (details below) now stands, beside the Chinese wood cutter, on my bookcase.

The woodcutter looks how I feel, smug and proud of his new friend the Dragon. LOL

My Dragon Clock

This is my first attempt at making a small but full size clock, I have made dozens of tiny 1/12th scale dolls house clocks, (not working of course) but this one works I am pleased to say and seems to be keeping good time.

I have used this image a few times for my ATCs, So for this project I needed to resize it to, 3 and 3/4" x 5 and1/2" and I printed it twice, one for the cutout Dragon which I triple embossed with my Deep Impressions embossing powder, I then gave him a red gem "eye". the other one for the background, which I strengthened with mountboard at the back . I then edged it roughly with Green Stazon hoping to give it an aged look, then embossed just around the Edge.

I used black Gems for the time markers, and put Brads in the corners.

Enlarging the picture, I noticed a little butterfly which I hadn't noticed before, (Must make that appointment with the optician, lol) So I found an image of a butterfly slightly larger than the one on the picture that I had printed previously on photo paper, I cut it out and added it to the picture with Silicone, slightly raising the wings for a 3 D look. Thats about it really, except for making a couple of stays on the back to make it free standing. I then spent the rest of today admiring it, as I am well chuffed, LOL . It now stands beside a statue of a Chinese wood cutter, on my bookcase, and the woodcutter looks like I feel, smug and proud of his new friend the Dragon. LOL

The edge of Night and Copper Wings

I stamped these at the same "sitting" as the previous two. I must admit I am not too happy with the original, as I find the moth in front of the man a bit of a splodge, lol, and as I had just purchased a new little Butterfly/Moth stamp from Tanda Stamps, at a reduced price (an amazing 75p LOL) I decided I would see if I could cover up the splodge with a seperatly stamped image of my new stamp, using my copper pigment ink pad, (For Copper Wings) which I then cut out. and it worked.

Well..... for me anyway.

Okay, so I lost the moths feelers!, so I gave it new feelers made from copper fuse wire, which sort of frames the mans face. I attached the moth to the main stamped image while it was still sticky hot, straight after the first embossing, the last two embossings going over the whole thing, so that the moth is moulded onto the mans image.

The background was created with some more experimenting, I had kept some clippings of rubber, from trimming my stamps, and these I positioned onto an ATC sized piece of card, I cut out a piece of Kling-on cushioning the same size, and placed it sticky side down onto the rubber, thereby making myself a new background stamp, which would cling nicely to the acrylic block.

I used my home made background stamp with my copper pigment ink pad, on some black paper with a "leather look" finish, (which I had pinched from Angy lol) previously DSSTed to mount card. Hey presto! a distressed looking non descript Background. I feel quite proud of the overall effect.

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The one on the left which I've called The Edge of Night, was embossed with Copper sparkle embossing powder on yellowish mount board. The moth I stamped onto light brown mountboard with black Stazon , cut it out and triple embossed it and gave it thin fuse wire feelers (Hardly noticable on the piccie) I stamped the other two moths at the bottom using, a freebie kindly sent me by Tanda stamps, in my last order. I also stamped the two top corners with part of a corner stamp, one is a bit crooked but who says it has to be perfect??? lol. Then I chalked the blue border and rubbed my royal blue stamp pad around the edges, two royal blue smooth gems finish it off. This is my favourite of all the four. All available to swap.

Once in a blue Moon and You're my bestest friend.

I thought I would try out my new PaperArtsy stamps. The one on the right I stamped with black Stazon onto some yellowish mount board, then triple embossed it using my Deep impressions embossing powder, I layered it onto some torquoise pearlised card. I love torquoise and brown together, so thats the colour mountboard I used for the background. The shell and little metal rings are jewellary findings, and I attached them with Aroldite Rapid (Brilliant stuff, if you want something to hold fast and to dry fast).

The one on the left is stamped onto more torquoise pearlised card, triple embossed as before, but this time, I used a darker brown mount board for the background. Then out came my old favourites......Accent beads, with some slightly larger beads as well. The accent beads were a mix with some torquoise in there, but didn't look quite right, so I soon altered that with a coat of torquoise sparkle nail varnish. Both the background and the stamped card are edged with my gold Marvy Metallics Pen. I added the ice blue gems at the corners, as a finishing touch.

Opportunity ATC finished, Traded with Nicks

After crafting one night, (burning the Midnight oil as usual) I had trouble sleeping, and when I did finally drop off, I found myself still crafting in my dreams LOL.

I awoke next morning with the image on this ATC on my mind.

Whether I have seen a stamp of this image at some time and it stayed in my unconsious mind, or whether I generated it in my dream, I couldn't say, I just knew that I had to create it.

So a couple of hours later using my Adobe programme, this is what I came up with, well..... the printed image at least.

I cut out the image and embossed it with my Deep Impression embossing powder.

I used some brown pearlised card for the background, which I had stamped in the bottom right corner with one of my corner stamps, which I hadn't used before.

I then printed out the definition of "Opportunity", similar to what it said in the dictionary, and stuck it onto a tag cut from the same card as the background.

Then I made another tag with the words "Take It" and put it beneath the first tag, I then attached them to the ATC with a brad. On opening the tags there was a blank space beneath, that I felt needed something else, so I decided "don't look back" seemed appropriate to put there.

I felt that it still needed something else.... what would be appropriate to do with an open doorway??? and I came up with the idea that perhaps the Key that had unlocked the door, to allow access to the opportunity.

So after rummaging in my box of bits and bobs, jewellary findings, bits of Fillegree etc, I found what I was looking for, a little gold coloured plastic key.

Okay, So it's not an ATC that may appeal to everyone, and I may never be asked for it as a swap, but at least I have the satisfaction that I took the opportunity to Fulfill my dream. LOL

Well it seems my very good buddy Nicks wants the ATC, (Or is she just being kind? lol) who cares?, it means I am going to recieve one of Nicks fabulous creations in return, I couldn't be happier. Thanks Buddy.

Opportunity ATC with the tags open.

This is a photo of the completed ATC. with the tags opened