Steamin'

I'm typing this with rather inky fingers (despite giving them a good scrubbing) as I had a session this afternoon inking up, painting and stamping on a set of tags to create backgrounds, which will be swapped out with other artists to add photos of themselves and quotes - eventually we'll all end up with a tag book each, it's called "Sisters in Art" and being run by Ali (who always has brilliant imaginative ideas for swaps) on her Yahoo group, VintageATC UK.  Anyway, I rather enjoyed myself and have decided I'm a bit of a fan of "tags" at the moment ..... I've also finished my three tags (Autumn, Daydreamer and Vintage Birds) for my own tag swap running here on my blog this month (check out the details in the sidebar as there's still time to join in if you fancy having a go)!  Have received a couple of sets already and they're lovely so I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of you all come up with.

So ....... whilst I was playing with the tags this afternoon I remembered that I promised to put up pics of the "Steampunk" ATCs that I made a while back - so here they are, hope you like them, they're my first attempts at the steampunk style which is a style that I love and have seen some fabulous art created in it - just try googling to see what an enormous range of steampunk creations there are!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Flying Machine

The Mad Scientist

The Time Machine

This Way Up

All the above ATCs are still in my possession for one-to-one swaps, but the three ATCs below are the ones I made for the Steampunk swap I was in so they've now gone to new homes.

Medicine Man

Time Traveller

Robot Punk

Thanks also for the lovely comments left about my Heaven and Hell pages, they're much appreciated.

This week I have mostly been making .......

...... ATCs!  The mood came upon me (at last) and I had a couple of sessions, making a mixed assortment of cards, some for a specific swap (no theme) and others to build up my depleted stash.  Nothing too fancy or complicated, but it felt good to be playing around with inks and papers again.  Here are pics of what I made.

These two cards were made for a monthly partner swap (no theme)

  The next few cards are an assortment I've made to keep for swapping out on a one-to-one basis:-

"Bird Call"

Background created with torn page from telephone directory and distress inked.  Stamped bird and word images.  Words cut from dictionary.  Finished with heart embellishment, paper flowers and Stickles.

"Dream Time"

Background created with alcohol inks using a "Spinart" machine.  Girl stamp (Craft Stamper freebie) tinted with Promarkers and extra circles stamped and adhered around card.  Time Holtz adage ticket (Dream) distressed and torn, with added eyelet and ribbon tie.  Finished off with adhesive stones and Stickles.

 "Gorgeous George"

Alcohol ink background stamped with Paperartsy image.  Embellished with paper flowers, buttons and fibre.  Word 'gorgeous' created with Dymo machine; 'George' from clothes label.

"Playful Days"

Background created using papers from Crafty Individuals mini books and seagulls from CI-278 rubber stamp plate.  Beach belle image from a Somerset Studio free sheet.  Embellished with inked fibre, shells and Beadazzles.

The last ATC I want to show you today is one that I've made for a monthly draw in one of my online groups.  Each month there is a draw for ATCs, the winner takes all the ATCs that have been entered that month and chooses the theme for the following month - this month it's "Pigs" and as I do like pigs (I absolutely loved the mother pig with all her squeaking little baby piggies in the Woodentops when I was a child - anyone remember them?) and I remembered I had a 'pig' stamp lurking somewhere, I just had to make one.  So this is my entry for this month  - won't know till the end of the month who is the winner - but it would be rather nice to have a collection of 'pig' cards:-

I really love all the Steampunk art that's around at the moment and was tempted to join a swap for Steampunk ATCs, so I've had a go at making a few in that style this week - been rummaging around in my stash for old watch parts, metal washers, tiny glass jars and bulbs, anything I can lay my hands on that can be interpreted in a steampunk style, plus going through old encyclopedias I have with Victorian/steam/industrial machinery image in them (I picked up a set of 8 very old but not rare cyclopedias - yes, that's what they're called - for £3 at a car boot fair some years back and they're full of line drawings and maps).  So far I've made four cards and halfway through a fifth, but the swap's not due yet so I won't post any pictures until they've gone out.

Look at my little cheeky madam Mia having a good rootle around in my bin just now - she's obsessed with bits of paper so she's in heaven rummaging about amongst all the crafty rubbish! (Note the stack of dictionaries - great charity shop finds and an endless supply of words).

And what's this fearsome creature with the sharp fangs and gaping mouth ..... is it a monster or is it a devil?  No .... it's Mia, leaping up and attacking the strap of my camera!  (What a good game that was)!

Hopefully, I'll be able to get a bit more crafting done over the weekend, one or two different projects I'm starting on, plus slowly adding some more pages to my art journal.  Might be time to run another challenge/swap on the blog too - if anyone fancies it and enough people are interested in joining in.  ATCs - or something different ...... what do you think?

The Pink Gents are on their way .....

The "pink gents" swap ended at the weekend and as I only had three participants, as well as myself (first cards I've made for ages!), everyone has received a card from every other person.  I swapped the cards out today and Graham has assured me that he dropped them in the postbox at lunchtime (first collection day after the bank holiday weekend).  Thanks to Joanne, Mel and Sonia for taking the time to join in this swap - you really came up with some interesting and amusing takes on this theme ...... here are pics of what they did!

Joanne Parkin

Mel Dunkley

Sonia Jones

....... and these are mine

I was also going to have a draw to win the "Dandy Gentleman" cabinet card which I created (see pics in previous postings).  As there were only three names to choose from, I decided to let Mia once again pick the winner for me, so this is what I did ....... first I wrote everyone's names on differently coloured pieces of paper and then scrumpled them up  into little balls.  Mia's absolute favourite game is chasing balls of paper up and down the hall and stairs, so I threw them along the hall to see which one she'd go for.

As you can see, Mia very definitely made her choice .........

..... and (drumroll please!) the Winner is ..........



Congratulations, Mel - the "Dandy Gent" is coming your way soon!!!



In the Pink ..... and an ATC Challenge!

I've noticed an increasing trend over the past few weeks ....... men have taken to wearing "pink".  Every time I turn on the TV there they are - broadcasters, celebrities, antique experts, chefs, students, pensioners, sober politicians, flamboyant artists, sportsmen, old and young ..... there they all are with their pink ties, pink shirts, pink trousers, pink jumpers, pink hats, pink shoes!  I've even seen a couple of football teams sporting very fluorescent pink shirts!  I even had a quiet smile to myself the other day, driving home, when I passed an elderly couple out for a walk - she was dressed all in blue, he was dressed all in pink (shirt, jumper, trousers)! *LOL*  I must admit, I rather like it!  In fact, it seems that men are quietly reclaiming the colour "pink" for themselves as back in Victorian days, it was a masculine rather than a feminine colour.

And so, as my own little homage to men's new found "pinkness", I thought I'd create a little piece of art using one of my Victorian cabinet cards.  I've turned it into a wall hanging.  Hope you like my "Dandy Gentleman".

Before

After

Now, I thought it was about time I posted another little ATC challenge for you all so here's what I propose - you need to create three ATCs containing an image of a Victorian gentleman (just google away to find suitable images) dressed in or surrounded by the colour "pink" ..... you can keep your cards serious, quirky or humorous, entirely up to you.  (Details in the sidebar, as per usual).

Hopefully, plenty of you will want to join in and what I propose to do is put everyone's name "into a hat" and whoever is pulled out will also receive my "Dandy Gentleman" cabinet card as well.  You have until the end of the month (30th April) to make your cards and post them to me (just email me please to sign up).

Finally, if any of you want to give your brain cells a good working out, pop over to my sister Lindsay's blog and have a go at her crafty quiz - it's quite challenging, in fact very challenging, but there's a prize for the winner (closing date 9th April) so it's well worth having a go.

It's all been happening in Blackpool!

Well, it seems that Blackpool was THE place to be this weekend!  I've been going along to some of Blackpool Football Club's home games - it's within walking distance of my house, it's a good afternoon's entertainment in the fresh air, with a good-natured crowd - and this weekend our opponents were Wolves (we won 2-1).  Little did I know that Prince William (complete with blue baseball cap) was also at the match, not tucked away in the director's box but in the stands with the rest of the crowd - he was spending the day in Blackpool on a "stag do" with friends and was also seen later enjoying some of the rides at the Pleasure Beach.  The media are now, of course, speculating that he was checking out the resort for his own "stag" celebrations next year!

And then, Saturday night, "Strictly Come Dancing" was televised from our own Tower Ballroom (the mecca of ballroom dancing) - tickets for this event are like gold dust, a friend of mine has been trying to get tickets for us for this event for the past couple of years, without success.  I've been watching the show each week on TV and there are some wonderful celebrity dancers this year - my favourites have to be Matt Baker and Kara Tointon - but I cannot believe that Ann Widdecombe is still in the show; I was sure this was the week she'd be voted out but no, it wasn't ....... sorry, Ann, but the 'dance' routines aren't funny anymore and poor Anton now looks like he wants to be put out of his misery as her partner .... definitely time to go and make way for the better dancers now.

Now .... just a reminder that the "Movers & Shakers" ATCs and Christmas Triptychs are due to me in a week's time. I hope everyone's getting on well with making them, but I know how busy everyone must be starting to feel with Christmas starting to appear large on the horizon, so if you're likely to be a day or two late, please let me know. As this is such a busy time of the year and we all grow short of time, I've decided not to run an ATC swap in December ........ I'll think up some new swaps for after the New Year and hope that's okay with everyone.

NOVEMBER ATC SWAP - "MOVERS AND SHAKERS"

I had such fun creating the "shaker niche" into the pages I made for the altered book round robin (see previous post) that I thought it would be a good idea for this month's ATC swap.  You can make your cards in any style you like, to any theme you like, but you must include something that moves or shakes on each card - it might be a shaker niche as I have done, something that opens like a door or window, maybe a tag that swings - these are just suggestions ..... I'm sure you can all be inspired to create your own "movers and shakers" and I'm looking forward to seeing all your cards.  (Details of the swap are posted in the sidebar).

The "Things that Go Bump in the Night" ATCs are now all swapped out and I'll be popping along to the post office shortly so they'll be with you in the next few days.  Thanks to all who joined, I loved seeing all the spooky ATCs you created and I hope you all enjoyed making them.

A Mystery Torso!

Well, I WAS meant to be posting this yesterday but my computer decided to have an argument with Blogger's new downloading pictures link and I couldn't load up any photos .... grrr!!!  But, today it all seems to be behaving itself (fingers crossed)!

So, anyway, look what came in the post for me yesterday ...... these wonderful Torso ATCs from the recent challenge swap at "Something Completely Different" (see Link in sidebar).  I love these cards, but unfortunately one of them has no details on the back so I don't know who created it - what a shame!  So please, if you recognise this card as being yours, let me know as I'd love to put a name to it!

This is the "anonymous" torso which I believe was created for the "Red" Challenge

I received this great "By the Sea" Torso, which was created by my friend Joanne

I love the poppies on this "Bling" Torson by Gina

A lovely "Memories" Torso made by Zoe

Thanks to each of you for these beautiful cards, I really enjoyed the challenge of making them myself too and hope those who received my attempts are happy with them as well.  Unfortunately, I've not been able to join in the recent SCD challenges but hope to have a go again soon.

OCTOBER ATC SWAP - "THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT"

It's that time again, the first of the month and time to post a new ATC swap.  As we have now very definitely entered the autumn season (in fact, today is particularly unpleasant with lots of lashing rain and winds - more like winter actually!) and as Halloween seems to be becoming more popular over here in the UK, I thought we'd go "spooky" this month.  I know a lot of you love creating cards with a Halloween theme so hope this swap will appeal to many of you and you'll sign up.  You can really have fun creating your cards for this swap - witches, ghosts, spooky creatures, spiders, cats, broomsticks, haunted houses, ghost trains - anything at all.  Why not try shaping your ATCs too into haunted houses, windows or arches?  I'm sure you can come up with all sorts of spookiness for this swap!  (Details in the sidebar, as per usual)!

All the "glitter" atcs are now here for September's swap so I'll be swapping these out over the weekend - thanks to everyone who joined in!

Just a Little Reminder .....

...... to say that the Glitter Swap ATCs are due to me by next Thursday, 30th September.  There's still time to join in this swap if any of you are still thinking about whether to or not.  Next month I'm hoping to post details of a new swap with a Christmassy theme (sorry to bring Christmas up in September!) - it will be separate to the regular monthly swap - so I hope some of you will be interested in joining that one.  All I'll say now is that it won't be ATCs.

Lindsay's Matchbox Shrine Workshop

On Saturday I made the trip over to Oswaldtwistle once again to attend one of Lindsay's workshops at the Dawn Bibby Studio/Topaz Crafts and also to hand-deliver some of the "grunge" books to those 'girls' who were going to be there too.  In fact, I was the last to arrive as they were already hard at work decorating mirrors in Lindsay's first workshop of the day.  Still, it gave me a chance to browse round the shop and pick up a few Rangers products whilst it was quiet. 

   

 These are the two matchbox shrines that Lindsay had created as projects for this Workshop

 After a bit of a hectic half-hour to tidy up and set out everything for the afternoon workshop, we all set to work trying to concentrate on making our matchbox shrines (I wasn't the best pupil, in fact I should probably have ended up in the 'naughty corner' because I had to keep asking "please miss" questions of Lindsay due to lack of focus and thinking I'd missed some instructions - honestly, I really think I was away with the fairies on Saturday, my mind was all over the place *LOL*)!  Still, I did manage to get most of my shrine finished, just got a few bits and pieces to add to the front and put a backing on it and I'll be able to hang it on the wall with other pieces of art I've received or made. 

My shrine - a work in progress!

Of course, we took much longer than anticipated working on this larger shrine, even though Lindsay had a second smaller shrine for us to make too ...... everyone jotted down notes so that they could recreate it at home if they wanted to.

  

It was lovely to meet up with everyone again - Joanne, She, Gez, Elaine, Chris - even though we didn't get a lot of time to natter ... and also meet Sioux (Artyjen) for the first time (sorry we didn't get more of a chance to talk)!  We did all get to swap ATCs and I came home with a bunch of gorgeous cards and I think everyone liked their grunge books too.

 Lindsay modelling her pink & black furry slippers

(comfort is all when you're standing around all day)!!!!

Joanne, Sioux and Gez hard at work

Joanne, Sioux, Gez and She - just look at the concentration on their faces!

Here's everyone looking very happy with all their day's work!

 

A gorgeous set of "Alice in Wonderland" ATCs that She gave to me,

(all contained in a beautiful ATC tin)

 

ATCs I received from Chris, Sioux, Joanne (top row)

and Gez and She (bottom row)

 These were from Joanne too

(love the flower on that ATC - I'd really like to know how to make it)!

By the time I got home again I was really tired (I think we all were) and not fit for much besides putting my feet up in front of the tv, but it had been a good day out (of course)!

SEPTEMBER ATC SWAP - "ALL THAT GLITTERS" !

The "Seaside" ATCs have now all been swapped and posted out to everybody, some may even have reached their destinations today (thanks to everyone who joined in and sent such beautiful work), and it's time to post a new swap again.

I had a few different ideas floating around in my head for the theme this month, but this is the one I finally settled on ....... you can actually choose whatever theme you like for your cards, just so long as you really "glitz" them up with lots of sparkly bits, glitter, sequins, Beadazzles, shiny beads or threads ...... you get the idea!  Just have fun!  Usual "rules" apply - details in the sidebar under the "Object of Enchantment" ATC that I posted, just to give you all a little taste of the sort of card you could create - oh yes, for this swap, you are definitely allowed to go over the edges of the cards with your embellishments if you want to!

So ...... hope you all fancy having a go at this one - enjoy!

"Of the Sea" Torso ATC

The final week's torso atc challenge at SCD is "Of the Sea" and I was quite pleased when I read this, because I'd already created a sea-themed torso (1) because I was having so much fun making "torso" cards and (2) because I was already creating some sea-themed cards for the seaside swap on my blog.  This is the card I made and which will be joining the other torsos to be swapped out by Carol from "Something Completely Different".

I inked up the background and stamped text from Crafty Individual's new seaside stamp set CI-278 onto it.  I stamped the "bather" from the same set onto white card, then coloured it with some Pro Markers and layered it onto the card with the stamped sun.  I finished by adhering some frayed hessian, shells and stickles to the bottom of the card and around the edges.

I created another torso atc with a vintage seaside feel, in more muted, sepia tones, this afternoon - but haven't taken a photo of it yet ...... I haven't made my mind up yet whether it'll be going out as part of my Seaside ATC swap or whether it'll be going into my own stash of cards for swapping.

I'm pleased to say that I've now received all the cards for this swap - and some beauties there are too! - so I plan on sorting these out over the Bank Holiday and posting them out soon as I can.  Don't forget I'll be posting the new monthly ATC swap sometime on Wednesday (1st September), so pop back then if you want to see what the theme is!

Hope you're all enjoying a lovely extended holiday weekend, whatever you're doing - no big plans here, just general pottering about and doing a bit of art when I can. 

Red and Black Torso ATC

Well, after my lovely day out yesterday and then popping over to see my parents this morning, I've been able to spend a bit of time this afternoon making my torso atc for this week's Red and Black challenge at SCD.  I already knew the kind of card I wanted to create and had found a suitable image - it was just a case of putting it all together and hoping it turned out okay ..... and here it is .......

For the background, which you actually don't see much of in the finished ATC, I used some black velvety card cut from a cologne box that my son had finished with and asked if I wanted (the family are so well-trained nowadays - don't throw anything away till they've checked with me first! *LOL*).  I then attached a luxuriously soft red feather and added the image of the young lady, at the same time wrapping part of her body with some lacy red fabric.  I also added a lacy flower, button filled with silver stickles and a red heart, plus a black gauzy flower with a red gem centre and another red gem in the top right corner.  Stuck the word "pose" across her back and added more silver stickles around the edges and under the flower.

Hope you like it!

"Memories" Torso ATC for SCD Challenge

The theme for this week's torso ATC for the SCD Challenge is "Memories".  I struggled a bit at first with this one as I had an idea in my head what I wanted it to be about, then when I began, nothing seemed to work - it was all a bit of a hotch-potch and I wasn't very happy with it.  However, I played around a bit more with the card until now I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.  My torso is a remembrance of all the wonderful and different cats that my family and I have had the honour of sharing our lives with over the years.

The background was some Crafty Individuals paper, inked and edged with a gold Krylon pen.  The stamped cat heads are from a Hampton Art Stamp - Kitty Tiles 4578 - coloured with Promarkers and pencils, edged with gold.  I used rub-on words on the background, plus other word stickers, covered with Glossy Accents and Beadazzles.  I love the little "heart with wings" charm which I inked with Butterscotch alcohol ink as it was originally silver.  I finished by wrapping some wool fibres around the "cherish" sticker - rather appropriate as cats love playing with wool.

Hope you like it.  I'm really enjoying the challenge of creating cards with this torso shape, to the extent that I've made one of my "Seaside" swap cards with a torso and plan on making another one.  Looking forward on Friday to seeing what the subject of next week's torso will be and to swapping all of them out at the end of the month.

"Out of Africa" ATC Photos

Now that everyone has received their cards from this swap, I thought I'd post pics of them all (yes, I remembered to take photos this time!) so you can all enjoy seeing them.

Ali Brandist

Chris Bedford

Gez Butterworth

Joanne Parkin

LuAnne Boyce

Sheila King

Mine

As you can see, lots of wonderful-looking cards and it was interesting to see all the different interpretations of them. 

(For anyone who wants to, there's still time to make and send cards for this month's "Seaside" themed ATC swap - they're not due to me until 31st August - and I can promise you, I've received some very gorgeous cards for this swap already)!

Finally -

A Bit of an Update:  The teenager who attacked Graham was in court again last Monday and we've now been informed that he will be appearing before the Youth Court (he's only 16) on 31st August for his case to be dealt with.  Graham does not have to attend (unless he wants to - he doesn't) so it looks like the "little darling" has decided to plead guilty after all.  I'll post again about this when we hear what the outcome is, but as he's only 16 years of age he's not likely to get as heavy a sentence as if he'd been an adult.