UKATC September Colour - Dots (or Spots!)

I am not a spotty person.
I am not a dotty person...... ok! maybe just a bit!

I wanted to use my spotty washi tapes and decided to weave them together.  I found some spotty ribbon and tied a neat bow............ yes! it is ....... neat!
I had printed out my sentiments so the tiny words were cut and stuck ............ before my eyes.  So tiny they were almost lost so I used some Chrystal lacquer along the strips and left to dry.



I found this dotted paper in my stash so cut and stuck it to an ATC card.  I coloured the dots in various colours with gel pens and felt tips, placing a peel off X over one of them.  The sentiment reads............... X marks the 



I cut the tree out of some blue/green dotted paper and coloured the branch dots various shades of green.  The trunk I coloured with browns and then adhered the whole tree to a grey/white background.  The sentiment reads..............rooted to the 

A quick once over with PVA and leave to dry............done!

UKATC September Theme - Crafts

This is my subject....... oh! yes!

Which craft shall I use?  Standing in my craft room I look round and .......... cross stitch, there has to be cross stitch....... and decoupage............... and pricking!
Looking through my files and find that I have a pyramage from Stef Westenbok and ........ a pricking pattern from another Group (now  disbanded).
Searching through my Stitching Cupboard I find several patterns already stitched, which to choose............ a small sampler.
So off I go.




Now the Sampler is already carded up so I have to be very careful when attaching this to the ATC card but I manage to almost centre it ......... just.  I hope that whoever receives it will forgive me.

I printed out all the sheets for my pyramid and then.... silly me, has to be ATC size!!!  

So I resize and print again.  After cutting out all the pieces, I edge the smaller pieces with a black inkpad and fix the pyramid together.  Once this pyramid is attached  to the ATC, I added punchings of leaves in various shades of green, using scrapbooking paper from stash and tissue paper.  It was quite difficult to punch the tissue paper so I held three pieces together to make it a but stiffer.  A few pinky shaded flowers and it is complete.

 My friend's husband (Poor Ray) made several pricking tools some years ago so I had a great time pricking the pattern and remembering them both.  I usually leave the pattern plain but I have seen the patterns chalked  within the pricking so I thought I would have a go.
Last week I tidied up the craft room......................It took me two days to find my tin of chalks!!!  Two days!!!
I am so against tidying up!!!
I lightly chalked the design and ............finished!

All in the envelope ready for posting.

Steampunk ATC

My first one!!!

A background of an old car.

Some bits from old phones.

A brad.

What does it make?

This...............

                                    

ATC World - Cats & Dogs

Cats, Dogs or both ............ both I think as one of my first swaps was Cats.

So I searched through my digi folders and found some suitable images and, after having so much fun making backgrounds, I decided I will use some 'homemade' for this swap.  

 I love this image from Bugaboo Stamps and can never get enough, doesn't mean I can remember how the colours go (after googling it I was ok!  Doh!)
Not long ago I made some backgrounds by embossing pieces of aluminium tape so I thought I would use one of these to show off Dr Seuss' Cat.  I watercolour painted the image and fussy cut it.  When the paint and glue had dried, I covered the cat with crystal glaze.  I am not too sure about the slight colour run and wrinkles but then it may mean that the ATC is just like me!!

I love the image of this cheeky street cat!  They are in a collection of digis shared on another Group but no credits were given.  I must admit that I thought that she was the artist but now I'm not too sure, so if any images on this page are yours please let me know so that I can credit you.  I used a background picture from my 'magazine' play - I chose several and those I never used I saved (recycle?!?).  After colouring the cat and using a white gel pen to exaggerate the details, I fussy cut the image and glued him to the trees background.  I covered the whole card with my new PVA mixture and left to dry......... and dry.............and dry............ and dry.  It didn't, it just remained sticky...... dry but sticky.  So I covered the whole with some Crystal Glaze and next day the whole card glistened....... dryly! 


I chose one of my backgrounds with some of the green paper to show off the brown dog and the ginger cat.    Once again my mixture didn't dry like my old mix did so this time, using Crystal Glaze, I striped the background like sun's rays emanating from behind the animals and covered the animals with a deeper glaze.  Perfetto!

Now imagine the second day of 'drying' the above ....... imagine the panic setting in cos I would 'miss the post'..........imagine the time spent trying to find these images on my PC...... it's all there .......... except for the joy on finding them!!
I coloured up the cat and the pair of animals and another image of two dogs, thinking I would not be able to save the previous three.  I am now rushing to make the ATCs, sorting out the wording, adhere it to the cat & dog and cover the whole with a different make of PVA glue.   Oh! No! I forgot to fussy cut the image ..... I forgot the words on the previous ones anyhow!!
I am in such a tizz, I leave the card to dry overnight and close the workroom door!
The next day I now have five - five - ATC cards to back and complete.  The first three cards are dry and shining beautifully.  The second cat & dog card is dry and has a 'ribbed' effect on the surface and ...... I just left the twins as they were..... no glazing at all.

I will enter the first three into the swap and save the others for 'a rainy day'!
UPDATED:-

The centre is a photo of real cats.
Thank you Leslie.

Cute Iris Folded dog.

Thank you Lucie.

A silhouette with torn and script paper.

Thank you Miki.

UKATC August Colour - Favourite

Weeeelll!  Only one isn't there?!?!?!?

This is RED, highlighted with CrystalGglaze in places.  I wrote the word RED in various forms with various red pens and highlighted one or two, again with Crystal Glaze.

Using a red and white background, added English flags (which were cut in the process of being sized) and a wonderful 'embossed with a rose' red ribbon.  Three red roses, a bow and a jewel finished of another RED one.

All things red used on this one.  I started with a collage of red flowers, added an umbrella, some shoes and a Cross.  A small rose completed this RED one.

All of these cards were edged with a ............ RED pen!!!

UPDATED 03.02.2014



Thank you Jan W

Thank you Janice S. 

                   Thank you Rubes H.  

ATC World - Magazine Paper

Take a magazine and start looking at images and text and cut and paste. 

While waiting for a parcel to be delivered I picked up this magazine and skimmed through it, extracting the following pages with title ideas, vague but we have to start somewhere...........

Lounge, furniture

An Article on furnishing rooms with the latest colours - I think this 2012

I cut out the room view as a start, then added the book shelf, loved the wallpaper pictures and then the print circle.

(Please excuse the print under the magazine pages........ just Blogger letting me know it's in charge!!  All the wording is the same font and size and the layout is perfect, then along comes Blogger and does its own thing!!!)

Cups, colour

An advert for china cup and saucers.

Each cup was cut out separately with the large cup as a start.  The smaller cups were pasted over the top and then the print over the top.

Kitchen, dessert, baking

Kitchens advert with some yumyum recipes.

I cut all four kitchen views and then selective parts, sink , window, cooker and adhered them to a base.    

I cut out the chocolate pear cake but, although I had used fancy scissors, I felt something else was needed. 
I found some stickers and added a chocolate to the centre of the circle but the silver on the background was just too bright ............. I printed some words out from my PC, cut them up, adding them at an angle, and a 'pinny' in gold completed this card.

Holiday, travel

Adverts for holiday places - I indulged in a quick read..........

I used the hotel picture as a base  and tore the sand as a beach, then added it to the bottom of the picture.  The small view of Gaudi land was added to the lower left and then one of the travel tips cut with 'stamp' scissors completed this one.

Topical Tips

Two pages of reader supplied tips .... another quick read and then a tear .......

I cut out the red font tip as a base for the card and then layered other tips over.  I wrote the sentiment in black pen and then inlined with red.

Gardening, flowers

Several adverts and articles used on this one, jackets, gardens, valuations.

I used the jacket paper as a background and then then cut out the yellow petals and the blossom for the corners.  
The jewelled brooch was just begging to be centre page.......... but I missed!!!  
I used part of the description for the label and then outlined some of the goldwork with a gold pen.  
The small flower, also gilded,  was added to cover a word that I left on - DH is very observant!!!!  

I will post the Kitchen, Top Tips and Brooch cards for my swaps.  

I gave up trying to convert Blogger to my way of posting!!!

ATC World - Houses

I started off making these cards using the template listed in the files, the idea being to make the houses and furnish them.  After I cut the first house, I went looking through my scrapbooking folder on the PC.  I collected these years ago when I first started making cards and had only used them to design my own sheets.  One of these folder contained a house which I thought I could use so I then went hunting for some others, some kits had furniture images which I could also use.  I realised that to get a better effect I needed to make them into folded cards, house on outside and furniture inside.

The first house was printed and cut and stuck several times before I arrived at this little card.

 I may yet modge podge the inside to help give it a  'finish'.





Although this one is a Clothing Emporium, it looks like a house so off I went printing and cutting and sticking!!!

This was a really bad taste in wall paper!!


If you look carefully ...... there are hats!!!







This looked like a schoolhouse but I couldn't find the appropriate images so.............



 it is a Party House.




So Hip, Hip, Hurray!  I have made my three houses today!!!

ATC Background

An intriguing title so here I go, or went.

I used an orange net to form my base, thinking that this would be my finished background.

I am happy with this base but how would I use it?

It needed a bit of added interest ......... so I added some fine paper: a piece of plastic film with pasted pink roses printed on it, some fine cotton finish swirled paper, some very extra fine paper with dashes of gold and a piece of green 'net' which was quite stiff.  I adhered each layer with my PVA mix and left it to dry.
After visiting a certain Swedish Furniture store over the weekend I came home with a paper measuring tape - and a couple of other small items!!!
I added this to the paper, two pieces showing the inches side and one piece showing centimetres.  Using my inkpad, I stamped along one of the pieces and the covered the whole page with PVA mix.  When this had dried I added a further 'dribble' along the tapes and ran my finger in a zigzag pattern to form an almost 3D line.  I also added some glitter glue in the top left hand corner and some green 3D glue spots in the top right hand corner.
When this layer was dry, I used an ink pad to gently wipe the zigzags adding a bit of colour to the white tape.  When this was dry, I spritzed the whole paper again.  Eventually the sheet of paper was dry enough to cut into ATC sized pieces which left me with nine cards - I will use the one in the bottom left hand corner myself as the green inkpad was rather wet!!!!

I will send three of these away for my swap.
UPDATED: - 27.10.2013

This background is created using Alcohol Inks.

Thank you Gabriele

Bubble Wrap on linen paper was used to create this background.

Thank you Sue S

 A single layer of Napkin covered this card and left a beautiful finish to it.
Thank you Kathy S

CWS August Swap

I am moderating an ATC swap with the girls on CardWorkShop Group on Yahoo.  For this month's swap I have chosen the Theme - Floral.  I thought this would be good to start the swapping. 
Those that follow my Cardius Bloggus Blog will know that I painted four floral cards.  One I used for the Fun with ATC's challenge here and I have now finished the other three for this swap.  

 Each card was printed on watercolour paper and then painted.  

Paulette at Create with TLC had some wordlets on sale so I have purchased them and used a few here. 


I embossed the cards but, although it is a new embossing powder, it left a raggedy finish so I think it is my inkpad that needs to be replaced - maybe all of the embossing ones to be on the safe side, lol.

The finish shows up quite a bit in this photo.

I added more powders until I was happier.

The wordlets were cut and placed in position but before glueing them to the card I gave them a wash with some watercolour paint.

After they'd dried, I glued them to the card and then embossed the whole front again, this time with a glitter powder.

Once the back had been attached I rounded the corners and filled in the details.

All ready for posting!

UPDATED: 3rd September 2013

I have received three wonderful cards today!
They are such beautiful creations all packaged in a clear DVD case which cost the earth to post, I am just so lucky.

I have decided to show these off in the office so there will be further details about these cards later.
Thank you Chrisann