Faces Theme - Swaps Received

I was so thrilled to get my Faces swaps in return for the ones I entered on Zuzu's Forum.


'Sarah's Face' by the lady herself Zuzu. I love the stamped face - the soft chalky pink, and the collaged wording and bumble bee - also the mirror images of bees stamped underneath.



This is Ginger's face ATC. I can't put this one down - there is so much to feel and see. And the wonderful warm colours.


This one is by Nes - a lovely combination of greens. I love the soft chalky green colour and the face is so enigmatic.




This is a lovely zingy stamped ATC made by Anne

Thank you ladies - you are so clever and I can learn a lot by studying these

A Wedding Card for friends - in the forum and blogging world

I made this for a lady I do swaps with - she is getting married on the 4th July - yes Independence Day! Her husband to be wears specs so I drew a pair on the groom - and I thought the lady looked like Louise too.

Louise likes embossing and textures - so I layered and layered and layered a Tim Holtz Distressed embossing powder on the card, and bought ribbon to match - in the hope that it looks a similar colour to her outfit



I won't tell you how long it took. The lady is a wonderful artist, so it made me nervous making it - still its the thought that counts.



The inside.

They are a lovely couple and I wish them every happiness on their special day - and hope one day to meet them.

Textures Swap on ATCards

I recently joined in my first swap on ATCards Forum and sent off my ATCs to the USA and have recieved these in return.




The top one is pieces of material collaged onto card.

The middle one is by the swap host

And the bottom one is made out of threads on the card then machined - three totally different styles.

I am looking forward to the ones I should be getting from Australia in return for swap I entered my Aussie themed cards.

Bollywood?

A friend Kath, kindly send the me stamped image on this set of four ATC's (I have yet to cut it up).

It immediately made me think of Bollywood and the beautiful Saris and gorgeous colours.

I used alchohol inks - three colours - for the background on glossy photo paper, then added metallic gold ink to give it a lovely warm sheen - hard to see in this scan, so I took a photo which shows it up slightly better.

I used gold mulberry paper torn up to make the framework, and gold and pink gems to pick up the colours. Once again - it looks better 'in the flesh'.

I can't decide if I will do any more to it. I am going to see how it looks in the morning. Then I have to cut it up - on not!




This is a photo and it shows up the gilding a little better - but not all over!

Architecture Swap - For Mandy

This one was made on white card, with a rich cream backing paper which I stamped with Latin text. I carefully inked around the edges to try to give it an 'aged' look with the addition of distressed embossing powder. This I carried across to the architecture to link it all together - and to give the feel and impression of stonework. I gilded the fairy wings to give a focal point.




Black and white study on a black card which has been embossed with a black shiny powder to give the effect of pebble dashing. There is embossing on the building which highlights the fancy brickwork,arch and door.



A black and white work, with a soft white stamped background, the silver on the foreground images looks smooth and dull silver to the naked eye.



I am delighted that Mandy chosen this one as her hostess gift. For some reason you can not see the colouring.

Black card stamped with latin writing, the house I coloured with water colour pencils a pale shade of grey, the glass in the windows a soft pale yellow so that it looks like the lights are on in the house and gives it depth.

The Venus De Milo is coloured pale cream with water colour pencils and the foreground flowers are coloured yellow to mirror the windows - but slightly darker.

I had a real struggle with this theme, but am so glad that it stretched my imagination to think of ways to interpret it. And of course I had a very happy three hours or so 'playing' in my studio making them.

Bathing beauties - ATCs for an organised swap

I have been spending far to much time doing manual labour - and other things - and not spent enough time for 'myself' relaxing - so this afternoon as it was raining, I remedied the fact and spent four wonderful hours making these.

These were all monochrome photos to start with!


Having been posed in a Victorian studio, I wanted to 'blur' the fact so have altered this photo and the others, for a 'Vintage Bathing Beauty Swap' but I am not sure that they will be right for it.

The seal I stamped on - to add a bit of fun - it came from USA, I quite like the way that the the foaming sea in the background gives a nice natural seal-like texture to its back.



This one is another 'posed' photograph. I have added layers and layers of mulberry paper to give it texture and to represent a foaming sea. I spent a lot of time colouring and shading these photos - and especially the mulberry paper otherwise it would have looked flat. The stamp I used came from America.


Here is the last one - I hope they are not too 'arty farty' for the swap.



Another Victorian photo which I have 'messed about with' to make it look all wishy washy to give the feel of the seaside.

It was originally a studio shot with a plain background and she was sitting on a chair - the shoes are a giveaway clue!

Experimenting with silver, paint, and ink.

A friend Kath sent me some stamped hands - so I am trying out different ways of using them.

I painted some backing paper, and added some silver

Then I inked over the silver to dull it down a bit and to make a mottled effect with the colour combinations


After which I stamped on the ferns then collaged the hands.

The flash on the camera makes the silver look bright and shiny - but in natural light it is dull, and just adds a subtle shimmer behind the soft colours to give it a bit of depth - sometimes I find stamped image ATCs look a bit 'flat',so am trying out ideas to solve that.