of Stamps, Midnight Moonlight and Birthday Sleepovers

I also received my Tim Holtz stamps from Karen at 1papercut etsy store. They were beautifully wrapped, and … included a litle gifty of another little set of arty stamps. Beautiful. Go check out her store; she has stamping/journalling supplies. The Tim Holtz stamps are to die for...[never thought I'd be into stamps but..... : ) ] He is a wonderful designer... Here's a link to his website .

I've finally finished my Blue Moon ATC swap for Jane Clark at  Quilters Cottage Norfolk. It is actually take 2 as I wasn’t happy with how the first was turning out! I’m much happier with this one and I really hope she likes it! [no photos until I know she’s received it though!] It's called Moon Shadow as the Cat Stevens song was playing as I was finishing up and it seemed appropriate!

...and just so you know that I really am doing something on my studio days; here's an update of the little hand dyed lace piece. I'm liking how the Rose is looking with the variegated thread (one of my favourite things at the moment!)

The weekend was busy running around after my kids' social lives! (Their social calendar is definitely busier than mine!) It was also my youngest's 11th Birthday on Sunday and he had a couple of his wee mates sleep over on Sat night. They had a pizza/DVD night and no-one got  to sleep until afte midnight! Mack (short for Mackenzie) is on the right getting ready to blow out the single candle on his six egg sponge cake - which was enjoyed by all!

Birthday Boy!

Cinderella is off to town today to buy a dress for the ball!

February ATC's

Just a quick post this Sunday morning! Washing, baking and helping with homework beckons……………. also Mack is having a friend over for the day.

These ATC’s are made from some old watercolour paintings that weren't good enough to frame…. but are perfect for cutting into 2 ½ x 3 ½ inch cards!

300gm watercolour paper with old watercolour painting (c1995),

stamped text and embellishments,

text cut from old book, felt-tip ink pen outlines and border

I 'm going to give these to my new arty friends here in Tamworth who I will be meeting up with this week after an extended Christmas break. We've kept in touch but it will be nice to see what everyone has been up to! Again, my photo proportions are playing up - and I have no idea how to fix it; but if you click on the photos to enlarge; they'll be correctly proportioned.

An incomplete 5th ATC- just need to add text

I really enjoy creating these small artworks- I have Lenna Young Andrews to thank over at Creative Lenna and her other blog Creative Swaps. Her ATC's, altered books and collage work is inspirational. I entered her last ATC swap -my first! My return swaps are winging there way to me now!I follow her blog and thoroughly enjoy learning new techniques through her blog.

LOVE GONE WILD!

This post title is dedicated to the theme of my very first ATC swap hosted by Lenna at Creative Swaps. I've really loved making these and am excited about receiving my swaps in return! Thanks Lenna!

Mine are only slight variations of the same layout with the text ' WILD ABOUT YOU'.

I used rusted watercolour paper as a base; ripped printed tiger paper and leopard print ribbon was glued to the bottom of each ATC first; the word 'Wild' was then stamped and outlined with a black marker, then coloured with watercolour pencil and water; the eye was printed with a hand cut rubber stamp; watered down white acrylic paint was splattered over the whole front surface and finally small alphabet stickers were use to spell out 'about you'. The edges have been darkened and a fine black border added around the edges; front and back.

I'm officially addicted to ATC's! What a lovely way to give and recieve little pieces of art!