January Swap

New Beginnings.



I found a printout in my files so decided to use this for the card.  

My background was some fresco brown paint with a touch of purple.  I then added a spritz of gold and put to dry.  
I trimmed a piece of cream paper with my fancy scissors and attached it to the base card, then added the image centrally on the paper.  
I added a cream and brown tiny bow to the top left corner in the small space twixt the edge the cream paper.
I love this card!  
Shame I have to post it off......

I received this cutie from my partner.

Thank you Olive.

Where's My Head?

I have wanted to join one of these swaps for ages, transposing heads in a collage format. 



Our hostess gave us some samples to inspire us - here are two. 


I plucked up the courage and signed up ... kept thinking about this swap........ still thinking about this swap ........printed out some ideas for the swap .... thinking about the swap ......
GIVE UP!
I couldn't work with anything I had so I  decided to to draw and paint the cards.  I chose my designs from some images on the internet and spent a day in my craft room.  DH had pulled a muscle and needed to rest so I painted my cards, taking all day ...... sort of keeping him company!


A straightforward Cockatoo, dressed in a brown jacket with poodle fur collar.  His cravat is fastened with a gold pin.

A bewhiskered dog, his hair so long only one eye shows!  His jacket is golden brown and his shirt is so very lacy.

This lady, in her flower trimmed blouse and well decorated hat, became so very hot while posing for this photo she began to pant to cool down.....
ergo the tongue sticking out.

Watching all the goings on from the couch sat this long billed bird in her green jacket and very short skirt .... maybe she's a tart!!!

Beautiful Angels

When I first saw this swap I thought of using my beautiful Angel stamp but, let's face it, I am no stamper!!!  
I should practise more  - I KNOW!  
So I decided to go decoupage .........

I used a paper towel for the background and used some Brushos - just 'cause I love to see the patterns that form.  This time I sprayed the powders and left them to dry.
The Angel is a free download which I fussy cut and then added a glue glaze.  Once both pieces had dried I fixed them together and attached to a card base.

I printed this old image out onto tissue paper - I will rephrase that - I attempted to print, no matter how I tried my printer was having none of it!!  In the end I used a very thin paper usually kept for inserts and then I crumpled it into a tiny ball.  I used pearl sprays in pink and white and then when dry added the Brushos in green.  Once the background was dry I unrolled the angel paper and partially straightened it out, still leaving in some of the creases.  I used a clear liquid glue to attach the paper to the card and then glazed over the whole card, it took a g e s to dry!!  I love the way the background colours show through.

This angel was found in one of my folder so I fussy cut the image and put to one side.  I used blue Brushos on the base card, sprayed with water and place a paper towel over to pick up the excess water.  When it was dry I added the angel.  Not too sure about this .......

The background for this card is made using Fresco paints and pearl spray.  I cut out this angel and attached to the pink background.  I pencilled in a few yellow shadow lines to her dress, which don't really show up in the photo and coloured her face and hair.  I added Stickles to her wings and then outlined her hair with gold Stickles.

I decided to have another try at the angel stamp - several in fact!!!
This one I am happy with and thought I would send this as an extra surprise.
Once I had stamped in black and embossed in clear, I added some colour with my watercolours.  
I then added some old gold Stickles to her lamp and halo and dress details.


Very pleased with this one I am, very pleased. 


You may notice that there are no photos of the bin ........

Interesting News

I have seen this notice creeping around the internet .......

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

To my way of thinking this means that if you don't have a google account - gmail addy - then you will not be able to 'follow' me - sign in the follow box on right - time to change to Bloglovin perhaps. 

Chinese New Year 2016

I love this swap!!  yes!  I know I keep saying this!  But I do .... Chinese New Year!  This year it is the Year of the Monkey.
I happened to be scrolling though my scrapbooking folder and happened upon some animal kits ...... check this out I thought ..... pick out the monkey, format to size, print and there we have it.  Then I found some papers, and other ephemera .......
Every year my two daughters are given calendars from their local Chinese Food Takeaways and pass them onto me.  This year the boxes are perfect to use as the base card, part of one box can be seen in the top left of this picture ....
I printed out some fortune cookie strips onto some thin paper.
Now I have my ingredients let's start cooking!!!
I fussy cut all the chosen images, except for the fortune cookie strips, and then laid them all atop each card.  Eventually, after much switch around, I have the layouts I want.  I adhered the background paper to each card and left to dry.
Once dry the serious work began....

I attached the monkey, decorated him with some biro fur, and then cut the cookie paper to size, edged it with a promarker and attached to the lower edge of the card.  I wrecked the 'glass' button I was going to use but managed to find a suitable gel sticker.

I treated my second monkey the same except that I was a bit more careful with the glaze on the 'button' and placed the cookie paper diagonally across the lower edge.

This monkey is a cheeky monkey and I miscalculated the size!
I managed to fit him on the page, placing two 'buttons' behind him.  

The cookie paper was too large for the card so I folded it as though it had just come out of the Fortune Cookie and placed the beginning edge under his paw.  

I used this monkey with a red background and some cut out 'coins'.  

Once again I folded the paper and attached it under his jaw ......

Christmas Postage Stamp

Another Christmas swap!
I used Brushos on the background again but this time, after they had dried, I spritzed over with Pearl and Copper Spritz as a finishing touch.


This first stamp depicts the journey to Bethlehem so I needed a background that would show this.  
I used some silver trees which I fussycut from some wrapping paper.
Then I added the stamp!

The second stamp depicts the Birth of Christ so I used my fancy border scissors to cut out a music sheet - in this case the music for God Rest you Merry Gentlemen - with appropriate words just above the stamp.

I used some stamp border scissors to cut another piece of wrapping paper depicting the words 'You're a Star' and then added Father Christmas himself!!

For this card some craft wrapping paper was my fancy cut piece and then I added an 'alcove' to the forest scene!   I am not sure that this works for me but it looks good.

UPDATE:

I have received the following cards by return.

Lots of Christmas Postage Stamps on this one - telling The Story.

Thank you donnacr.

Love these wise men .....

Thank you maryfreeman0622.

Tree stamps with extra trees

Thank you mouseit.

....... and a thank you card as well!

Thanks again mouseit.

Christmas Blessings

Not done with Christmas just yet!!!  
I am following up with a couple of swaps while my Christmas resources are within hand reach!
This swap is an open swap but a) I just love these two stamps and b) I still need to practise my embossing technique!
First off I tried out the Brushos - 


A sprinkling of Crimson on two cards, Jasmine on another and Emerald for the last.  I sprayed some with water and drew out the colour with a paintbrush on another.  I had a fun time.  I learned that the effect varies from card to card finish, interesting.

I stamped the sentiment on each card at a slightly different height, so different wording can be seen on each card - rather pleased that I thought of such a subtle difference!!  I used some rather old embossing powder, each with a slight changing colour but I am not completely happy with it.  I think that the embossing should be a lot clearer and have promised myself I will buy some replacement powders this year.

Now I took up my fourth card again ....

..... this time I used my Nativity silhouette stamp.  I stamped with my Versamark ink and then embossed with some purple powder.  This embossing comes up soooo thick and shiny - amazing!!!

That then are my four cards - three for the swap and one as a Hostie Thank You card - our Host can choose which one to keep.

UPDATE:
I have received the following cards:


A beautiful icon, love that gold!
Thank you kehlenn.

Brilliant embossing.

Thank you ThouArtDelyrias.

Gorgeous silhouette and great Scripture on reverse.

Thank you Suntrade.

Thank you kiwicsi for a brilliant theme for a swap.