And the winner for April is.........

Laura.... so glad I haven't been to the PO with that ATC I owe you yet, now I can send both things at once!!
Oh, gotta have a photie, so here is a card I made for a little girl who's very poorly but been very brave. See, I can so do cute!!



The next giveaway will be ready to upload around the 7th/8th May so don't forget to pop back. Happy Bank Holiday everyone and if the sun doesn't shine - CRAFT!!!

Beginner's Luck??

I posted the other day about a new acrylic paint technique and managed to make some nice ATCs using it. This was the last background I made in that batch which I finished off with some stamping.

Not bad I thought, like these, let's have some more. Well I have been doing this all day (well for about an hour) and not one decent crack between the lot of them. Am racking my brains now to think if I've left out a crucial step but can't for the life of me think what it could have been. Still, was good while it lasted!!



In the same vein I re-visited the bleach technique I tried out a couple of weeks ago with a modicum more success. This time I used water colour paper with Whisper inks and also distress inks (although they might just work with water never mind bleach). Not quite the same feel as the last ones but quite attractive never the less - personally I think they are a bit nicer in real life than the photos.



There are a few of these for trade, so do pop over to my FLICKR gallery if you are interested. Oh, and a quick reminder, you have one more day to join in with the April giveaway (see sidebar), draw takes place at 8.00 pm Friday.

Just a quickie.....

Well, where did all those blue skies go? Oh right, yes it's my day off and we plan to pop off to the local wood today to see all the bluebells in flower so OF COURSE it has to be all wet and grey .... still, at least it's not too cold.

Have been doing odds and ends this week and have several WIP on the go. I made a decision the other week that I needed to not just make 1 of each thing I try so that I could keep one thing as a reference. So here are three ATCs I made in a similar vein. Two are available for trade.



The background technique I used was demo'd by Sheena Douglas at AP. She used dark card and covered it with a layer of dilute PVA. She then painted on a single layer of acrylic paint in a lighter colour and heated with a heat gun and all these wonderful cracks appeared. Polished up quickly with a cloth it leaves a great surface for stamping on to. Now Sheena was using a specific brand - escapes me which one it was - so it may have a special composition, but I have tried just with the odds and ends of acrylics I have in my box. Not all of them have worked brilliantly, I do think you have to experiment with the thickness etc as well. This one worked very well:-



I also used one of my experimental pieces for the roof and door etc on this card. I was really pleased with this 'shabby' effect.



Hope to be back soon with more but am a bit like a butterfly this week, flitting from project to project and trying to catch up with some old stuff that I haven't finished yet. I also got my first of nesties so have been playing with my cuttlebug and making cards - piccies soon.

April giveaway now here......

I have been rather technologically challenged this week due to hardware problems so am very late posting this month's giveaway. Oh I know, excuses, excuses....



This month's giveaway is one of these little butterfly brooches. Fans of Clarity stamps will know that this is one of their signature projects regularly demo'd by the team at craft shows and on TV so I take no credit for this idea. They are often to be seen sporting their brooches on the stands and this was the case when I went to Ally Pally the weekend before last (that long ago already??). I have had the stuff - fusible film and angelina fibres - to make these for ages and after seeing it demo'd again thought I really must have a go. They are really pretty, the colour effects are fascinating and they do seem fairly sturdy, (the only bit I'm worried about is the actual brooch attachment but so far they seem OK). So this month we are being a bit more girly than arty!!If you would like the chance to own a piece of wearable art then leave a comment on this post before 8.00 pm on Friday 30th April.

Simply irresistible......

well not really lol. Right a few different things here to share, but a bit of a theme running through these pieces.



This first one is for the AI challenge "green and yellow" and was originally designed to be an emboss resist technique, I painted the card with an Adirondack dabber, then stamped part of one of my favourite collage stamps and clear embossed. This was then followed by a layer of green paints and when dry the embossing powder was ironed away using scrap paper. This should have revealed the yellow paint underneath, but instead it was all a bit patchy so I stamped again and embossed with gold embossing powder. Of course I didn't get it lined up perfectly the second time (close, but no cigar) and this has resulted in an attrcative shadow effect (well I think so). In order to make the text really pop out I stamped and embossed onto heat resistant acrylic and then layered it over the background, attaching with brads. Quite effective in the end - AND I made the deadline this time!!

Still on an emboss resist kick I used the technique to make this tag for Tuesday Taggers. This week's challenge is sponsored by one of my bessie cyber buddies, the gorgeous Georgina who is donating a set of paper artsy stamps as a prize.



The reason I have been stuck on the good old emboss resist technique is that I am taking part in a monthly technique swap - the theme for April is to use resist embossing to create a background - on all three of these ATCs have left the base card blank and added colour with various ink pads after clear embossing a stamped image.



UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE ..... I bemoaned the loss of some my artwork in my last post but it appears they have now arrived - too late to be swapped out but the hostess has kindly offered to swap out some of her cards. Typical, but I am just grateful that they have not been irretrievably lost.

Missing in Action......

or at least that is the feared fate of my birdy tags with pointed hats. Am a tad disappointed, but it's the first time this has happenned to me so I suppose I should count myself lucky. Not to be put off, I have made the cards for the next swap with this group (I am determined to get some trades in the post!!). These will go in the post this week, hopefully that will give them plenty of time to arrive.



The theme for April was to use a house shape, max size 4.5" x 2.5". Mine are totally random and not really very house-like in content. I had a bit of fun with these getting messy with acrylics and gel medium. Very therapeutic, and maybe these have got me in the groove to join in with the 'Dans my maison' challenge..



Also played with my bleach technique again but added some extra stuff to these two ATCs.

It's a puzzle - where DOES the time go??

Am getting very slipshod lately. Put things in envelopes for trades, then don't get to the PO for two weeks. Make birthday cards and forget to give them!! Finish things for challenges and forget to upload them..... have missed so much just lately and nearly missed the boat on this one again.



This is an altered jigsaw piece for a challenge group on FLICKR. It is supposed to be monochrome but has sort of ended up shades of black with shades of cream and white so the effect is a bit softer than a straight black and white look.... did it a week ago and then put it aside because I thought it needed a little extra something - haven't had any inspiration so will have to go into the swap as is.

HAPPY EASTER everyone!!