Happy Mail

Yesterday I received a beautiful set of 3 ATCs & a card (with an ATC on it) from my cyber-friend Cuchy... The first one is titled Valentine, & she has cleverly done a heart shape by weaving beautiful strips of embossed papers onto a lovely textured b`ground, the second one, titled Butterfly, has a lovely painted & clear embossed music pattern onto currogated card, the third one, Gracias (which is Spanish for thank you) has been worked on clear acetate (I put black cs for the b`ground so you could see the detail, though it`s hard to see that Cuchy has gone to town with the GM on this one LOL) & the forth one is the gorgeous card that she sent me...sorry the fine details are hard to see from the scans, but trust me when I say I`m most grateful to have received these, they are just beautiful in real life, Thank you my friend, I`ll have some ATCs for you very soon... :) I told Cuchy I`d let her know how many ATCs I have in my collection, it now has 245 beautiful ATCs in it, each one a lovely work of art...How many do you have? Thank you for visiting me, & I hope all is well in your part of the world :)

I Owe You One...

Here is the ATC I was meant to upload the other day, it`s a Thank you ATC using the DRD flower stamp from the "Full Bloom Collection Vol 1". Normally I don`t use many flower stamps, but I love this particular set...The b`ground was done using acrylic paints, & the flower was coloured using Twinks H2Os, with a bit of KG added, I also wanted to add some stitching to the edges, but didn`t have the right colour thread, so I added the gel pen detail by hand. The other 3 ATCs I have done are for Artilicious, can you see the common thread linking them? I was very surprized that my DH picked it sraight away...can you? I made these for the theme I had in mind for the month of March, & I`ve been trying to add the post to Artilicious, but it won`t let me publish... Stay tuned & I`ll let you know how you can own these ................................................

Soot?

Yesterday I managed to finally finish a few UFOs...My ATCs for the DRD "Filmstrips" swap, a couple of TY ATCs, as well as a couple of birthday cards, one of which I`ll be entering for this month`s Soot challenge over at Inkurable Stampers. If you happen to be taking part in the DRD swap, look away now...or continue reading, the photos are not that great anyway LOL. I`ve also remembered to share one of the sympathy cards I had to make last week, I don`t know about the rest of you, but I always find it difficult to make sympathy cards, I guess it must be because they are for a sad occasion... Anyhow, the first card is the one for Inkurable Stampers, then there`s dad`s birthday card, followed by the sympathy card. I also made 3 Thank you ATCs, 2 of them using the Robot filmstrip, & one which I`ll have to upload to the next post (sorry about that), & the last 2 ATCs are the ones which left this morning for their trip to the DRD swap...the one on the left-hand side has a crumpled & inked b`ground, with some machine sewing (yes, I`ve kept my machine out & ready to play LOL)

The one on the right-hand side has been stamped & clear-embossed, & I`ve used some bleach to give the b`ground a mottled effect. It`s hard to tell from the photo, but I`ve used the Sunflower GM (thanks Marie) to lightly spray the filmstrip, & I think it looks great. I`m very pleased with how they turned out. Now I can concentrate on Marie`s "Romance" black, white & red ATC swap for Artilicious...Stay tuned :)

I`d just like to add a very quick thanks to those of you who have stopped by my blog & left comments, & also to those of you who`ve emailed me about the loss of my little Cuddles, it has been very hard, & I thank you all for caring...

Happy Valentine`s Day

I hope you`ve all remembered it is Valentine`s day today...
I have a couple of people to thank, but I`ll be very quick.
Thank you Barb (& Roy) over at TSQ, I won a G/V from them during the week just for shopping there :) & if you`ve got some stamping needs AND would like to donate to the fire victims, do visit TSQ as they are donating all $$ from sales to this very worthy cause.
I also found out that I was a winner over at Lorri`s Artivity blog, thank you Lorri (& Lorri`s mum for picking me) & you can see the beautiful collage sheet I won here

Thank you ladies, & I wish you both a lovely Valentine`s day & night ; )

A Difficult Post...

Sorry I`ve been MIA, but it has been a very trying week for our little family. I wasn`t going to share this sad news in my blog, but I`m hoping it will help me to get back to a somewhat more normal state of mind. Our beloved pooch Cuddles passed away in my arms (with our vet`s help) on Monday morning after DH woke to find her in the middle of a heart attack...She would have been 15 years old this March. I mentioned in a previous post that we knew her time was coming, & we thought we were prepared, but how do you prepare to loose a friend? DH & I had to make the decision to have her put to sleep, & although we knew she`d had a long & happy life with us, it was still a very tough thing to do. We know she`s in a better place now...

We also found out our siter-in-law lost 2 of her cousins (& their young family) in the Kinglake fire. Watching the news coverage of the tragic events is heart-wrenching, & all I can say is that this beautiful land of ours can be very brutal & unforgiving at times. I hope you are safe & surrounded by those you love, wherever you are in this great big world of ours...

For My Valentine...

Marie had a great challenge over at Pernickety this week, to do a window card. I needed to do a card for my Valentine, so this fitted in perfectly. I couldn`t take a photo as it is late, so I`ve scanned the card closed (top image) & open (close-up of the inside heart).

I used my cuttlebug machine & a concentric heart die to cut out the heart on the front of the card, I then layered another "negative" of the heart cut-out over the front of the card, & I stamped the leaves with red & brown ink, repeating the stamping on the inside of the card...I used some tiny rhinestones (thanks Marie) for the outside corners, & some "Trimmings" rub-ons I won I while back at SBT50.

I hope you like it Marie...

More ATCs & Some News...

Just yesterday I received my beautiful ATC returns from a couple of swaps I took part in during the Christmas period hosted by Marie over at Said Simply... "Pecan Snowballs" is by Lara W, "Granma`s Punch" is by Leesa H, "Fruit Dip" (with the acrylic bauble) is by Marie S, followed by "Recipe For Christmas Joy" (made up in a concertina style) by Samantha N, then we have "Brandy Cream Sauce" (with its gorgeous envelope) by Jan-Marie, followed by my own 2 ATCs for "Meringue Baskets". I have to say I`m not much of a cook, but I loved the idea of this swap, & needless to say, I loved the ideas everyone has come up with... Thank you Ladies :)

I also took part in Marie`s Artilicious "Doodling Swap" & here`s a scan of those

little beauties...

The first one had no details on the back, but when I find out I will come back & edit the post, "Spread your Wings" is by Leesa H, "Twinkle" is by Samantha N, the third one, "City Sanctuary" is by Nicole F ( & mine was specially picked as I`m the only one who lives in the city LOL), the next two were also missing the details on the back (& I want to know if that boot is a stamp & who makes it !!!! So I shall find out whose ATCs they are (& give a little slap on the wrist LOL) & come back & share. **********The "Flower" ATC was made by Haley (Jan`s daughter), "Happy Halloween"was made by Jan, & the boot was hand-drawn with each ATC having different coloured tights, & "100% Artsy" was Marie`s creation...Beautiful work ladies, & thanks Marie for letting me know...*************

The last one in this swap is the one I made...I had never doodled on an ATC, but I like the way it turned out :)

As for my news, I`ve been kindly asked by Marie to contribute to her ATC blog "Artilicious"... Thank you so very much Marie, it`s a lovely compliment :) So as soon as I get organized enough, I`ll go & post over there. I already have some fun themes in mind...so stay tuned :) but in the meantime for this month, Marie has chosen a black, white & red colour scheme & the theme is romance, so if you`d like to join in this ATC swap, just head over to Artilicious & sign up... & tell her Vicky sent you ; ) As always, thank you for stopping by, & if you`re in Victoria today (where it`s 46.7 ºC) stay cool anyway you can...TT4N

1st Lay-Out For The Year & Some ATCs

Well, after the last few days being 43ºC +, it`s a relief to have a somewhat cooler 30ºC day LOL. I know the Northern hemisphere is freezing ATM, but it is so much nicer to craft during Winter :)

As the weather was much more agreeable yesterday, & DD started back at school, I had a bit of time to scrap...I`m embarrassed to say it`s my very first LO for the year, but I`ve had the photos for a while & the actual LO was in my "to do" list, so I headed over to SBT50 where Victoria has a 45 week challenge happening (I missed the 1st week, but want to do the actual challenge, so I may come back to it if I have time)

The actual challenge was to use either a red, orange & dark purple colour combo, or a dark green, black & blue one...& work with 3 photos, I chose the brighter option, & I`m very happy with the results :)

I`ll have to add another page, as there are a couple of other photos I wanted to add, but I ran out of time...
Last week I swapped ATCs with Barb (TSQ herself) & made these little beauties for her...

The last one has dangly legs LOL, I hope Barb liked them :)

& here are the gorgeous ones I received in return...lots of texture, & great colour too, thank you Barb ( notice how I USED my sewing machine for my LO above??? LOL) & while you`re visiting Barb, don`t forget to enter her giveaway! She`s taking part in the One World, One Heart blogging extravaganza (I don`t know how else to describe it LOL), & what a great idea this is...I would have loved to have joined in the fun, but I just don`t have the time : ( There`s not much time left to join, so go & have a look quickly & see if you`d like to give it a go...it`s a great way to put yourself out there in blog world, & a fantastic way to "meet" other like-minded bloggers :)

I just LOVE those Stampotique images...they are so quirky & grungy, don`t you think? I know they may not be everyones cup of tea, but they are a favourite of mine ATM. Speaking of quirky, Sarah over at Inkurable Stampers, has the new theme up for this month, & it`s SOOT (!) Now, I`d never heard of this technique (I know, I live in a very sheltered world LOL) but she has a fab tutorial with very clear step-by-step instructions, AND she has used some Stampotique images in her gorgeous samples...So go check it out, you know you want to : )

Meanwhile there`s another ATC/Card swap happening over at the Darkroom Door blog , visit their blog & get the details... I`ll be joining the ATC swap, will you?