So much has happened ...

... since I last posted on my blog. My husband had an operation last week (which was successful) and I've been been running around for him most of the time (and keeping me out of the office for long periods of time). We've also been experiencing some connection issues with our network at home, which has stopped me from being able to access the internet ... and didn't I suffer withdrawal symptoms ... sad huh! So to get to it ...

One of my ATCs was awarded Home Page Art on a new Yahoo Group that I'm a member of - Art Sisters. I felt very honoured and surprised that my ATC was chosen as there is quite a bit of talent in this group.

I managed to finish a couple of ATCs for some swaps. The first one is for a swap at Addicted to Scrap and the theme was outside the rectangle, ie, the card was still supposed to be the same size as an ATC but not shaped as a rectangle. I decided to have a go at a fan ATC (the template of which I received from Laura Carson through Advanced ATCs UK for a swap coming up later in the year). I wasn't overly happy with the end result because I think it's a bit boring, but as I needed to make 12 for the swap I tried to keep it quite simple. I was also concerned that if I added too many embellishments, the fan wouldn't open and close properly or might end up being too thick. I have to say, I don't think I'll be making 12 of these again in a hurry ... very time consuming, hence the simplicity.

5 bladed fan closed ... ATC size

5 bladed fan open

I finished my ATCs for a swap hosted by Laura Carson through Advanced ATCs UK with the theme "What Lies Beneath?" (the ocean, a river, etc). I love the background I made for this card but took ages to decide what the main feature was going to be. In the end I made fish out of friendly plastic that I melted into a pattern and quite like how it turned out ... looks better in real life though because the scan is a little blurry. The background started with a dictionary definition of Fish and some torn pictures of seaweed (although you can't really see much of that anymore), I then used a brayer to paint 3 different colours: a shimmery light blue, a shimmery emerald green and then a Golden blue. I added some torn pieces of metal tape and egg shells across the bottom, which I coloured with bottle and denim alcohol inks. I stamped some swirls in Ultramarine StazOn and inked the borders, stuck the fish on with a silicon glue and it's finished.

I also managed to win the Winner Takes All (WTA) lottery through the PaperArts Yahoo Group for the month of June, which is quite funny because I am a member of 3 ATC related Yahoo Groups and have now won the WTA on all of them ... might have to stop playing and let someone else win for a change (LOL). So far I have received gorgeous ATCs from Jude Wagner, Kaeren Sutherland, Denise Ferguson and Elizabeth Harms.

ATC by Jude

ATC by Kaeren

ATC by Denise

ATC by Elizabeth (aka HRH, Queen of Toys, Your Highness, etc)

"Yesterday is not ours to recover,
but tomorrow is ours to win or lose."
~Lyndon B. Johnson, 1908-1973,
36th President of the United States~