ATCs For All - APC Alice

Having never tried this before it's worth a go.  PJ found a pack of cards in one of his boxes so I didn't even have to go buy them!

I took the Hearts suite 2 to 10, painted Gesso all over them and went in search of some images. .....

Here's little Alice who's just found the tiny door. 

I coloured her using my Inktense pencils and then corner punched the top left and bottom right so that the number showed - I think that is what is supposed to happen.  When the card was dry I added a tiny silver (ish) key.

The White Rabbit has always been a favourite of mine so I used some green vellum as background and then fussy cut WR.  I emphasised the lines of the rabbit with a pencil and drew a gold line along the watch chain with a gelpen.  I cut the 'legs' of some watch brads and, using Collall glue I added one as the rabbit's watch and placed another one further down the card.

In the Disney film the Tea Party scene is so funny and one of my favourites.  Using my Inktense pencils and gold gelpen, I coloured the Mad Hatter's hat, the edge of Alice's chair, her dress and hair and then the tablecloth, colouring it over the peeloff that 's still under my mat!  I added some teapot peel offs over the sketch, cutting two of them to size.

I am not too sure about this one ....

It's supposed to show the Cheshire Cat .....

I used the coarse paste to form a tree trunk and grass.  That was the idea anyways ...  so just to re-inforce this idea I watercolour painted the tree and ground.  After adding two 'googly' eyes, I tried to draw his smile ..... I used a white pencil .... a white gelpen  .... white paint ....   didn't look right .... drew round it and it started to look better .... add some teeth and now it's much better ... the mouth is a bit squewiff but it's a mouth ...

I shall donate this as the hostess gift, requesting some feed back on all the cards ...

UKATC Extra Swap - Covered Photo Mounts

This is a new area of creativity for me.  I sorted out some slide mounts, still in the boxes I had from Paper Wishes way back when, checked to see that I had read the instructions for the swap correctly, and proceeded to decorate.

 I used pale mauve corrugated paper and green handmade paper to cover the original mounts, leaving the dark green fronts clear as backs.  I attached some punchings to decorate, lavender for the mauve and pink for the green.   Terrible picture for colour!!!

I used glitter paper and embossed cream paper for these two.  I stamped Hello down the one side and added a cream cat outline and some gold tulips to the blue one.  I stamped a pattern with black ink and added a pink girl to the lover corner.

Pink shiny paper and cream embossed paper covered the last two mounts.  I used a glue pen to draw little flowers in the four corners and filled them in with pink micro beads.  Once dry I used the glue pen to draw some leaves along three sides and filled them with green micro beads.  I ran some multicoloured thread through some clear glue and lay it along the top and bottom of the mount.  I then glued a gold ribbon flower in each corner.

Hopefully they will be acceptable, as I sourced some images from the web to see how others had decorated their mounts.

UPDATED: I have received the following ....

An almost steampunk card.
Thank you Angie.  

Very understated but love the embossing.  

Thank you Jan W.   

Love all the colours.
Thank you Kate G

Classical layout with gold.

Thank you Kathleen

Marvellous embossing and sentiment.
Thank you Lyn

Such rich greens complimented with the cream flowers.

Thank you Roseann.

Next time I shall send in the correct format - mounts decorated and filled!!!  lol

UKATC February Monthly Swap

Art Deco, glitter through a stencil ...

Lots of tiny little stamps to make the grass, and embossed snowdrop all laid out on a background of patterned paper.  A little sentiment to complete the Spring colours.

I stamped my butterfly scene and embossed in clear embossing powder.  The water colours filled in the scene while I painted n the background plainly to frame the view.

These were received in return  ....

Beautiful silk ribbon, a rose, golden butterfly and green twine.  Red pearls decorated this work of art but, although the postman didn't bend it, he did crush it .......

Valentine cupid bear standing proud and glittered in the corners.........

and what a cute little 3D card .....

Thank you Marilyn.

ATC World - Oriental

What to do this month .... what to send .... I don't want to be late for this swap so I googled and pinterested and then .... my magazine arrived!  It is a superb issue this month and I emailed the Editor and told her so!!
Only one article consisted of stamps other than the free ones - really good value for freebies and ideas!!


The ideas did not include any ATCs but they could be adapted ... This little panda was stamped and paper pieced.  I used a bullrush stamp as a border and added a few red flowers at the lower edge.  I placed the crane a bit too low but didn't want to start all over again.

The next card showed a string of lanterns across the width of the card and washi tape used as borders top and bottom.  I took this theme and then added half the word statement along the lower edge.

This is my own design .... I stamped the vase in gold onto blue wallpaper and fussy cut it out.  The cherry blossom bough was stamped in brown and then I coloured the blossoms with watercolour pencils.  I stamped the symbols / words in black. 

Here are my returns ...



Beautiful Bronze Geisha.
Thank you Jan.

Wonderful Vintage Geisha.

Thank you Kathleen.

Brilliant 'soap employee' card and the back has been finished with the same thought put into it - love the parasols.

Thank you Mel.

UKATC February Theme - Oriental

...  and the theme for February is ... Oriental!

Love it.

I printed out a twisted pyramid sheet and just used the smallest four squares, edging them with gold ink.  I used one of the backgrounds I made using red and gold stamps some time ago.  I then stamped 'Hello' in black ink onto an oval sentiment strip from the sheet.

I cut some bronze paper to fit the ATC and then attached a dragonfly brad in the top corner - bronze of course!  I sorted through my file of oriental embellishments and found some shiny photo cards.  I cut out one of them and cut the corners inwards.  When I attached this photo to the card, I managed to fit the photo under the dragonfly brad.

I found this circle left from making my Chinese New Year cards and had a light bulb moment!  I used one of the backgrounds that I made in preparation for my Anniversary swap which never materialised as I was so ill.  I thought of Ikebana flower arranging so cut the circle  to form a vase shape and slipped a die cut spray behind it.  I outlined the 'tree' and vase with a pink pen and then added a few pink sequin  flowers - thinking 'cherry blossoms'.

Shopping at 'The Works'

I popped into 'The Works' branch in our nearest little town and found out that they have lots of new goodies in the Cardmaking Dept.

I bought this ATC kit, some felt butterflies and two tiny Alphabet Stamps.

Then I spotted these stamps - one set is London but since when were we able to get anything to signify the rest of the country!!!  The post set will be excellent for my Mail Art envelopes - another wonderful art form which I am exploring.

Not being the weather to go out shopping, I had a look to see if The Works was on line ... it is .... I am waiting for my parcel to arrive!!!

F Y I
Our little black cat is getting very old now, her colour is fading - something she is not aware of - and when she lies across the black strip on the bed .... she is now a bit obvious!   Bless!

ATCs for All - Fabric Frenzy

I have several Cross Stitch designs in my 'box' so I decided to enter them into this swap.


The Angel came on a Christmas Card many years ago.

The little ones sitting back to back on another card.

I stitched Ms Liberty as a practice piece and then put it away n my box.

I backed all the stitchings onto a white card and trimmed the corners.

The Hot Air Balloon was a hostess gift so after I had backed it onto the card, I added a frame cut from kraft paper.

These little beauties came in the post ....

This felted beauty was just amazing!!   I have never seen felted close up before, loved it.
Thank you CAMeocheryl.

Such a cute owl - just brilliant!

Thank you Fondanie. 

This is great piece of work, not just lace but ribbon, zigzag stitched and buttons.

Thank you Katelnorth.