June Theme Swap

Buttons and Bows.

I was inspired by this ATC on this Blog.

I sorted out my material, bought a long time ago from the Works.  Found some free printable spools and pattern pictures. opened up my Button Tin, sorted some threads and sewing accessories, and sat down at my desk to create. 

I attached a piece of material to each card blank, cut out a pattern image and attached to the base.  
I added some wondaweb strips along the edges, it's not very visible in the photos but it's there!!
I added different size and colour buttons to the left hand sides.  I cut out the spool pictures and wound various threads round each one, adding a glitter thread to the main colours.  I attached two gold safety pins to the red card, a tartan bow and needle threader to the fawn card and a silver safety pin, pearl headed straight pin to match the cream bow on the cream card. 

I love these cards and am soooo glad I visited Kelly's blog before I started creating!!!  You should take a trip through her blog, there's lots more to see.

I received the following beautiful cards:




Baby's Friend  - so cute.
Thank you Liz.

Love the embossing on the background.

Thank you Phillipa.

A great big bow ... or is it ...bow!

Thank you Pat. 

April Theme Swap

Mermaids!  
Thought I would try something different  .... mermaids in silhouette!
I printed some backgrounds which I had sized down to fit the card, cut some printed mermaids out of different patterned papers and used some raffia and threads.

Once I had attached the background papers to the base card, I spritzed them with pearl spray in the hope that this would give the cards an oceanic glow!!!


I attached the mermaids and then added the threads along the lower edges as seaweed.
Pretty pleased with the whole effect, especially as the spritzed worked perfectly.




I received the following cards by return:





Love this arty mermaid with her pearl crown. Thank you Mel.

Beautifully pyramaged to the corner.

Thank you MargaretC.

I recognise this little decoupaged mermaid.

Thank you BarbaraB.

April Colour Swap

I have received the following cards:

There's a superb button on this card!
Thank you Gerry.

Three pearlised paper butterflies.

Thank you JudithAnn.

Just love that corrugate fence!!

Thank you Pat.

April Swap

Long time since I have entered an ATC swap so I really enjoyed this one.   The theme was April Showers.
I used a Lacy Sunshine image for this swap, I love all her images so was really pleased to use this one.

 I coloured her up some time ago using pencils but added some pale blue Biro to the puddles, just enough to brighten the picture up.  I inked up the edges of the card, blue at the top an green at the bottom.  I edged the PC printed sentiment in pink and added it along the lower edge.

I received this absolutely great card by return.  Doncha just love this drawing?!  Makes me smile every time I look at it!!

Thank you Olive.

April Swap

I decided to use up the decoupage I brought back from the Crop, kindly donated by Shazsilverwolf.
I added some washi tape to the edges of the base card and then attached the decoupages.

Daisies

Roses

Lilies

UPDATE:

Thank you SueF for the following cards - 

 
A very pretty tag.

An elegant ballet dancer.

A very modern watercolour.

Silhouettes Swap

Time to use up some of my cards!  I made these cards several years ago, well, actually the other card has a green die cut silhouette.  When I queried if it was acceptable, I was told that the theme was black silhouette so I had to abandon it and make some more cards.


The original cards had black diecuts on an acrylic abstract background, so I cut some new canvas to size and painted it up.



Now this shot is not very good as you can't really see the silhouettes - they are there though!
A small black dog with his nose to the ground ..... looking for the bone!



For the next card I used blue and green paints as I was using two black birds silhouettes.

Good cards and soooo different!

Crayon Rubbings

I used a Steampunk mask/stencil for this swap.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself making the backgrounds by rubbing my crayons on ordinary printing paper over the stencil.  I know that I would be embossing cogs to go on top so I only used 'metally' colours.  Once I had the paper coloured I cut out the ATC pieces and attached them to base cards.  I cut out the cogs and chains, embossed and inked them as in my Cardius Bloggus post.


I added some embossed chain links and fancy cog along with a PC printed sentiment to this card.

I felt the pattern on this card was too 'pretty' to cover up so added a small cog and placed the sentiment on a 'plain' part of the card.

This grey card 'cog' was coloured using Distress Inks, big and beautiful!
Another PC printed sentiment along the lower edge.

Would you look at the brightness of this 'cog'!!!  Distress Inks on Balsa Wood! What a difference!!  The colour fair knock you out!

Another PC printed sentiment added to the lower left corner to finish.

What a lovely swap this has been, I have enjoyed adding all the different elements and the crayons rubbing was the best.
UPDATE:
Everything became very difficult for our Host and we have had to wait several months for our returns but send them he did ........

 
Flowered crayon rubbing background.  Think this looks like a dreamcatcher.
Thank you Patty R.

Looks like diecut negative has been used for the background.  Ingenious!

Thank you sarat.

The background appears to be the top of a flour sifter.  Another ingenious one!!

Thank you Rosa.