I received my Teds swap and My purple Swap today

Thanks so much to my swap partner for the Teds. They are really cute and I love the star slightly hanging off nice touch. I love the cool green background the one with the two tone brown Teddy. Is that the Cuttle?? bug technique. Something to think about getting me thinks.

Thanks also to my purple swap partner I love your purple with the lady playing the violin with the gold note and the neat printed background.

Both of these swaps were fun to do but the purple took lots of time to gel.

The Purple Swap

I have mailed out the ATC purple to my swap just in time. I made purple people eater for all those in the purple swap. No he is not animated except for his eye that is a google eye...lol I feel like I have done a great task.....I am getting very old here....lol I have come to dislike purple.....it plays tricks on you looks beautiful and plummy on the screen but printed off takes on an indigo cast....humph..... I am not even going to say I am sorry about being late I have done 4 attempts and finally came up with something okay. I started early as well. I don't really dislike purple just what happens to it in the printing process. I'm a red hatter and we wear purple togs and sometimes it looks like we are all wearing Royal Blue....go figure. grrrrrrrrr This is my Boa Babe for my Swap Partner.

Teds are ready to be sent

We were doing teddies this moth and I found the sweetest teddie in my collage fodder so went with them applied a distressed in to the some cardstock glue image down and then added The Teds get ready for Christmas then a bow to the package a package on foam tab and a teddie on a drum sticker and a teddie on another foam tab. Then I put a marker Santa hat to one added a tiny pom pom and a white sliver of paper to make it look like white fur. This one once I got going fell into place.

I received this lovely ATC from my down under swap partner

This lovely one with Cuttlebug work on it and layered and stamped. Then this one with really lovely gold embossed figures. It is a ashame you can't see how shiny and awesome they really are. This was her view on our Children swap such lovely
She also made these to separate Inchies with paper doily pieces worked into the mix. They are just so sweet. I love her work

The bonus from getting things from Down under and the US is the lovely stamps. Here is a roo. Thanks so much for the haul of awesome art work my friend.

ATC and Inchies

I had made backgrounds on white card and black paper these fishe Inchies are done on that I used a gel marker for the 'waves's theses may be used along with with these inchie sunglasses on ATC and such. I haven't figured that out yet.
I received from my AZ/OR friend the stamps on the inchies on these ATC the background was another of the twinkling H20's. I applied the inchies along with some embellishment stamp in the background of an iris a lady bug and a butterfly. It is really to bad tha you can't sew the simmer on the background they look so pretty.

I found out about the Blue Bible on Susan Lenz blog Art in stitches. It is totally amazing and a loving tribute to the Ladies who sang the blues. There are links to some of the layouts she created. She will be installing it at Pickens County Museum on Friday, June 13. If I was headed down south I definitely would go and see it. Susan's installation will be on display ............

Jun 21-Aug 21:
“Susan Lenz: Blues Chapel” Site specific installation of the artist’s mixed media, bead and fiber work paying homage to early female blues singers. Pickens County Museum Shop 307 Johnson Street Pickens, SC 29671

I am so excited for her I wish her a great opening and hope lots of people to come and see her work.

Some Inchies I did and Tulips

These are the cute 'Daisies' I received from my friend in AZ who is now escaping triple digits there and summering in OR. They were in a line and I separated them and added brads for the centers. I will have to think of what to do with them after making them. I want to keep them together but using them as an element in a larger piece of are would be nice too. I also did another kitties inchie with Japanese paper and a sticker. They look so sweet. They will be going into my kitties book I have. It's funny but I thought the white part of the background was too white. So I cut the corner off following the curve and move the white done to show a black stripe. I really like the way it turned out.

I love these the last of the tulips. I hope to try a watercolour of them. Tulips are one of my favourite subjects to paint. That red line is so dramatic against the yellow. The irises are coming out now and the clematis as well. Have to take a few photos of those

Sent and received

This is my ATC I did for a swap in my yahoo group. It was on children. It started with me finding in my fodder for collage a little pic of two kids on a swing. I used that the back of an embellishment package. It was tea stained looking and had writing on it. I cut it out and sanded it so it would take the in and glue things better and rounded the corners and daubed a stamp pad around the edges to give it a distressed look. The hear is a button and I put gold stars on it just for fun. The bus and the slate abc board came from the top of package of rub ons. It cam together nicely. I hope the gal in WI likes it.
My friend who lives in Mesa AZ in the winter and Sisters OR in the summer made this pretty card for me thanking me for the RAK I sent herShe also doodled this card called hand in friendship. Both very nice indeed. I loved the note you can't really see it but the flowers are 3D and the butterflies are embossed. I think these stamps on the envie will be showing up on an inchies soon. Not bad work for some one who had to go to hospital again because she was ill again. Feeling better though.

How to Stamp with a Large Stamp

Worked on inches and asked a question of some of my group and got all kinds of answers. Stand on it......Honest was one reply. She was serious and 2 others replied with that answer. The question was how do you get a good even stamp with a large rubber stamp. Well I didn't stand on it but I did put it on a magazine and put a book over top of the stamp stood up put both hands on it and got a good impression. I also used Stazon ink pad the click is only one of many places to purchase it. I also applied embossing powder and heat gun to raise the impression and since I was using chalk I could remove it from the embossed raised areas with a soft brush and q tip.

I also found out you can remove soft chalk marks with a vinyl erasure. So I had a great inchie session with all the stuff around me. I am really liking the arrangement of my supplies. I must find something to put in the little things. Other than a bit of TV that's about it for the day but that was enough for me.

I will be cutting this up and put each of them on a background. I also would like to make some serendipity squares but in this case the idea is to cover a larger piece of card stock with randon glued on papers a overlapping and going over the edge and then turn paper on the back line up a grid of 1" x1" squares mount on card stock and embellish. I would Google this and see for your self.

My Favourite things and kitty cats

I found this lonely sticker and it started me thinking about my love of kitty cats. So I pulled out some Japanese paper and created this inchie. It is amazing what one can do with just smidges of paper. I love this sticker and now it has a home







In this cute kitty cat notebook with black pages I will be adding more kitty cat inchies as time goes on. One side has lines and the other is blank. Where I have put the first inchie.


I have a punch of a purse on the left here and was going to make purses by punching them out and assembling them. I realized right away that doing the negative instead of the positive it would be easier. I have used some paper I bought years ago and some the gals in our groups have sent me as a RAKS. Do you recognize the floral paper my Fred and Ginger friend and Cindy can you see yours too. I will be doing more of these purses

and put them in this book called My Favourite Things.

I was busily tidying yesterday and today my art and crafting desk. I got it mostly finished and now I can do my Act's and Inchies much easier and even clean up it faster because I have now mostly a place for everything and everything in it's place. Now if I could only get the crawl space done the same way it would be better all round. I am now for some reason able to discard things. This Hello Kitty is for the scan using elements of a doily. Here Hello Kitty has a bouquet of hearts in a doily basket.

This is just a stamped kitty and fish on an Inchie of my watercolour backgrounds

This one is on an plain Inchie background with a scalloped edge one on top Kitty and fish stamped and coloured in since the edge of the cat ended up on the white I coloured it. I am having great fun with all my old and new toys I have. New are an inch square stamp and the scalloped edge stamp and a 6" by pass trimmer and a gingko leaf punch. I have gathered all my small stamps, stickers and embellishments for my ATC's an inchies. I have put in order my pencils, pens and scissors and all the inks, paint and finishing so I can create in a not clutter free but an organized chaos. Here is an ATC's using the scalloped edge punch, ginkgo punch and plain paper on top with the underneath background painted in Twinkling H20's looks kinda cool I think. The cool thing about that product it is shiny. I love working with it

This kitty in the square is punch out frame and backed with one of my watercolour backgrounds. I have also used a one of my Fiskars edging scissors to make a decorative edging and used the cutout and a metallic marker to colour it and apply it. The last one for today was Twinkling H20's background with gel 3d pens using my new decorative edging ruler to make scallops. Then applying a plant tag with a yellow cascading petunia called a Million Bells the kind of sunlight it need and a small sun stamped and coloured in with markers. So I had a very good day

Received this lovely ATC from my Swap partner

Along with a mini stash of lovelies for inchies, a couple of pics for art of Scotties, an angel with a cutie doggie and some lovely card stock. I must go tell her I received and how great they are.

Today I had a run to Michaels I bought out the store so hubby thinks. I did buy a cool thing a Friskar guillotine 4"x 6" format to cut my ATC's and Inchies up. We have already tried it and pronouce it a good thing. It cuts very nicely. I have cool shades of perfect inchies for me and to send in a nice little package along with ATC swaps. This is the one I hopefully be sending tomorrow to my partner. I feel like I have spring in my heart now and feel like creating. So will be toddling off to get my packaging up done to send things off.

I am having fun doing this that and the other what with floral crafts and real gardening in containers soon, my art etc. I bought some silk flowers to make topiaries. We were gluing silk flowers to clay pots at our craft meeting yesterday and I thought a nice topiary ball of silk flowers would look nice it it on a cinnamon stick. While at Michaels bought some pretty silk flowers for a teapot topiary.There is a really nice one at the STYROFOAM* Brand Products: site Teatime Topiary. I have some other ideas for doing a Topiary. Will show them when I have them finished.

Things are being finished

I have been busily working on ATC's, Inchies and the inchies ended up on bookmarks. I have more to show you later. After I have mailed them out. I have added embellisments and funky fibres.



This one was done for a friend with Westies. This is the pic of the two of them when The older one Stormie was protecting the new one Duncan from the sun. They are so sweet.

This bookmark is for a friend who loves monkeys.

This Mini Poddle is so cute.








A new friend loves Fred and Ginger like I do so I made her this book mark from the inchies I made for her

Wednesday early in the morning like 2am

found some of my watercolour backgrounds have been making them into inchies. I also cut up the folder that came with Fred and Ginger box set to do a theme set of inchies or two. I have to investigate my fonts for helps with inchies too. I found a couple of tuts on inchies and read them. They are going to be my eyecandy for the summer. I suggest googling inchies for all kinds of inspirations. Hope to get everything finished tomorrow for swaps.

Later Tuesday

A couple of years in a row one of my yahoo groups did formica chip ornie exchange for xmas. I was thinking it over and they are just the right place for your inchies. With the Formica chip you can make an ornament or a fob for a key chain or ring or a dangle for blackberry, ipod or cell phone. You can get bookmark blanks and put a bunch of the inchies on the front and/or back in a theme would be nice. One thing I am doing is those stickers have a card inside so the store can hang them with would be perfect to alter then apply inchies. They're are long and thin already have a hole for fibres to be added. Small note books could be albums for them I have a couple and some ideas for them. You can make fabric ones and do a miniature quilt.....yikes I better stop now before I get carried away.

I was sitting in the sun and got thinking things through. Also went through embellishments sticker etc and have put the tiny ones aside for inchies.

These inchies are addictive.......yikes

I think I might have to do a 12 step program......lol as I spent the afternoon doing these little things. I did a double blue with a Woof brad 2 hearts and the initials of two doggies I know. This is for a friend...I redid the kitty on pink as the kitty in question is a boy and thought he should have a blue background I bought the greatest punches for 1" and a scalloped edge one 15/16" they look so good together.


I didn't get the swaps mailed as I was busy doing this and didn't have the energy to go to and mail them and the inchies.

Inchies have come to our ATC swap group and I was having fun tonight these are some I have finished. The Scottie and the sheep I will be adding some more to. I found I have about 7 small punches and a bunch of tiny rubber stamps and a couple of alphabet stamps tiny enough for an inch by inch format. I went to a store on Bloor West and found a 1"square punch and a 15/16" square scalloped edge punch. So I was punching stamping and cutting up a storm. Had so much fun.

Finished last months ATC

This is my newest ATC it's Called Refelections for March. Things did not go well for me in March so I am really late in send my Swap. I spent St. Patrick's day in the hospital with pneumonia.

Not too happy with it but this is what it is. That oval in the middle is a mirror when you scan mirrors they come out black so I tried a few things in Adobe and this is a lens fare.

I have a few more things to do for this and next month.

newest ATC's

This is my ATC for April it is to be stained glass or outline. This is done digitally in Adobe and texture noise and clouds were introduced into the mix. I have been neglectful again with this blog. I am going to cut down in my memberships in tagger snagger groups so I have more art time on the computer.

I was a rippin' and a snippin' again and have come up with a new thing for ATC and/or canvas. Will try it out and see how it looks. Veranda is a great mag for ideas for art not that I mean copy but putting colours together etc. It also has that sumptuous look Victoria used to have in its heyday

I will post more when I have the ReflectionS swap done.

This ATC was done for the outline of leaves wasn't very Happy with it but it looks nice.