My First Hosted ATC Swap

I'm hosing my very first swap on the DoCrafts forum called Handpainted. It is a really simple swap, just paint, no embellishments nothing fussy just paint. Now this seemed like a really good idea at the time but its so DIFFICULT to paint so small! I had forgotten until I started how hard that is. Still, miss out a bit of detail, dig out the teeny brushes and its not so bad I dont think. These are two so far, but I dont know that these are definately the ones i'll use, i'll see nearer the time I think. Both are watercolours on watercolour paper.

MORE HOLES!!

This is number two for Sians Holes swap. This didnt quite turn out the way i'd have liked but I think its okay. It turned out quite bulky and a bit messy but I guess old boat portholes might be a bit messy too. This was made with a sheet of REALLY thin veneer stuck onto mountboard with a big hole cut out. Then layered with more veneer and foam and then painted till it warped (oops!). The porthole is little metal circle that I cropodiled to within an inch of its life and set eyelets into. Then brushed and acrylic painted to dull it a bit. There are eyelets everywhere thats what is making it a bit messy as its kind of uneven. Some net added for fishing, and a little roled canvas that i ran through the printer is at the top and when you untie and roll down the back you get a little underwater scene.

HOLES!!

This is for a hosted swap again on the DC Forum (Note to self: Must broaden horizons!!). This one is hosted by Sian, her swaps are always great. The rule for this one is that there must be a hole all the way through the ATC. I've called this 'The Vault'. Its a piece of copper (I originally did it in aluminium but it was a bit too thin and looked rubbish) i've embossed/debossed and eyeletted and bradded (words) to within an inch of its life. The 'vault' door opens so thats the required hole. A hinge added to the door and everything alcohol inked and its done. I had painted with acrylic to dull it down originally but it was horrible so it went along with the aluminium.

Ink and a Splash

This is for a hosted swap on the DC forum hosted my Helen. I love drawing pen and ink, but this one your allowed a bit of one colour included. This is my first one, i have done another but not sure i like it yet. Better get to work on some more!! Oh and this is drawn on brilliant white paper, my photography skills are getting better and better :$

There was a crooked house!

This is my Round Robin journal page for Heidi. First I just want to say that this looks BAD in the picture, I cant take a photo to save my life! I went ahead and made this as Heidis lovely page has gone AWOL in the post :( I know that Heidi is quite fond of her houses, so I decided to make some with a difference. I know its a bit odd but I like it and hope very much that Heidi does too? Well its made up of mountboard with ice lolly sticks chopped up to make all the bits (its about a half inch think - sorry!). Now I have to tell you all, it is not easy trying to find plain old lolly sticks here, they're all multicoloured, so I had to cover the whole thing three times in gesso before I could start to paint!!It is covered with a mix of acrylic paint and an irridecent mixative, then highlighted with some wax rub ons and the edges are all sealed with alum tape that has been alcohol inked. Oh and the base of the page is ripped card to make it look like a wall, although i think it might look more like water, but thats fine too. Lastly there is some glossy accents in the house windows to look like glass. I'm not sure if it needs something else so I'm going to look at it for a day or two and think about it again then.

I DARE YOU .... AGAIN!

This I dare you is for Fushia. Lynns dare was to make an opulent looking gothic arch, so I decided i'd try to make something that looked kind of gilded. I think it does. I also REALLY wanted to use my new stamp so I did that too :) The background of the arch is perfect pearls which has flourishes stamped over the top in green distress ink. The little lady is on acetate and painted with H2Os. There is then some organza curtains attached. The frame is clay painted and painted some more :$ It actually lost a little of the detail but thats okay it makes it look older. To finish it off i've attached a gold chain with a little glitter bead that looks like a glitter ball since she's on stage. I do hope its okay! Its scary when someone sets you a challenge and they have something in mind but you dont know what it is.

I DARE YOU!!

This is my I dare you for Joey. My dare was to make an altered matchbox and here it is. It doesnt photograph very well but I like it in real life. Its all covered in aluminium tape and gold foil tape in places, then alcohol inked. You cant see in the picture but the base of the inside drawer is a piece of aluminium that i've embossed to say time. Then there are some watch bits and dials set into UTEE. On the top is a piece of gold chain holding a little gold bead, you cant see it but it is there. The outside is again alum tape and gold tape and inks but with the strap of an old watch attach to look like a belt holding it all together. Fingers crossed she likes it okay!

My Round Robin Page for Femmy

Well I think I might just love the vintage look now. As a rule I dont like to work with images or vintage or collage, so this has all of those!! And I'm really pleased with the result. In fact I might keep it lol!! This is for Femmy for her theme of outdoors. I struggled to come up with an idea for AGES and had a rummage around trying to decide what to do. I found a few images I liked and then came up with this lot. The background is collaged and gessoed (a word?), then inked round the edges, a few bits of veneer type stuff for driftwood is on the bottom, the fella in the middle is an image stuck on card them triple embossed with a bit of distress ink to blend him in a little, the same for the Ocean sign on the bottom right. The rope is string knotted around rusty old washer type things from the toolbox and then the string was distress inked in brown and green for rust and seaweed. I do hope Femmy doesnt mind a bit of dimension in her page, but flats just too hard!

My Round Robin Page for Astrid

Well this is the first page i've made for the return. Scary! I really dont do collage or vintage often so I do hope its okay and Astrid likes it. I had fun making it. The background is collaged and then overpainted with gesso and sanded. There are more paper overlays, mainly textured paper with a coloured core so I could sand a embossed image from it (although its pretty much covered up now). There is the acetate little girl, I didnt really want her shiny but I wanted all the text and bits to show through and I'm rubbish at image transfer so went for the safer option. There are little nursery rhymns around in there too, lace, brads, distress ink, flowers, german scrap, charms and im sure some more. Fingers crosssed Astrid likes it ok!

Sculpture Weekend

I almost left it too late to make my atcs for the Sculptured Head swap on DC but I managed to get a bit of time here and there the past two days. I originally planned on moulding my heads from scratch but time didnt let me do that, so instead I used moulds and added some bits to make them different ... I hope! Medusa is made from a mould I made from one of my mums ornaments and I added clay snakes. Theres red and green gems for eyes, acrylic paint, metallic rub-ons, encaustic wax and utee background. Some ink and stamping and its done. Garden guy was pretty much along the same lines. These photos are awful, I just cant use a camera at all. In real life they look more textured and more colourful.

Mesh Ones

The very lovely Sian on the DC forum is hosting a Mesh swap which requires you to use mesh on your atc. So here are my efforts for this one.

This one is called In the Pink. The background is two atc sized pieces of acetate, both of which have been alcohol inked, then the mesh was sandwiched between the acetate sheets. The tile on the front is stampboard.

This one is called Mesh it up. It has lots of UTEE'd bits and acetate and alcohol inks and wire, beads and forgot what else :)

This one is called Man. He is sitting on a meshed, embossed and inked background and the Man himself is a debossed copper bit, i've never been very good at this but i quite like it. Its been inked and messed up a bit. He was a bit shiny before.

There is another one but I have to go now or i'll be late for the challenge!!

A couple of my piccies

I was the host for the DC challenge this week and the theme was hand drawn so here are a few of my bits. They are all graphite pencil on bristol paper.

Round Robin - My Page

Well hopefully this is second time lucky!! Its almost finished just a bit or two to finish off once its completely dry, but was photographing so did this before it was done. This one is encaustic waxed, UTEE'd tissue papered, clayed, acrylic painted and wax ruboned. I think i like this one :)

Now I'm sure!!!

Well I have decided that i definately dont like, thanks to everyone who commented i appreciate it. I will keep it cos i can't deface something with Becca on it, but I definately don't like it lol. I've started number 2 and it drying out before a paint job ..... fingers crossed I like this one, times running out!!!

I'm taking part with another 11 ladies in a round robin journal. This is maybe going to be my page. My theme is 'imagine'. This is not how i imagined this to look :$ The irony! I just dont know if i like it or not, so if anyone has a look please be honest. The page is 6"x6" mountboard. The sky is make of torn textured paper and overpainted with acrylic paints. The water is (or was) crackle paints which i didnt like to i overpainted that with acrylics, irridecent paints and wax rub ons. The rays from the bottom corner were done using a dry bruch technique with acrylics, put a couple of dragonflies in there and painted over again to hide them a little. The ladies face is just an image i found and then painted over and drew all over the top with metallic markers and pencils. The little flyer is my angels face (the picture didnt take so well) stuck onto grungeboard wings and her crown is because she is a princess :) Some metal magic around the edges and a tag finished it off. I just dont know :(

Sketching

I managed to draw a few pics for my next challenge on DoCrafts today, I wouldn't normally upload on here until the challenge was complete, but I was pleased with this one and i have to chop a few bits off to make it fit on an atc for the challenge so made the exception this once :) Its just a pencil drawing on bristol paper.

Watercolour Painting

I'm hosting my first swap on the DoCrafts forum and its a theme of Handpainted so I decided I should maybe show a couple of my paintings. I painted this on the request of my mum a few years back. She has this hanging in her kitchen. Its not what I'd normally choose to paint and the glasses are a little wonky but its okay. I dont do rulers when I'm painting :)

Not sure how this one escaped the blog before now (might be the awful photograph), so thought i'd put it on. A5 encaustic for my lovely mum. Or she was lovely till she put this in a book and didnt hang it on the wall yet!!

UNDERWATER

I had entered into a swap on DC with an underwater theme, sadly one of my cards went missing on the way to its new home. So I have finally made a replacement. I had originally planned to recreate the one that went missing, but when I saw this picture I couldn't resist doing this instead. Its pencil drawn and then drawn over with a quickle glue pen and embossed in black, watercoloured (pencils) and then a bit of acrylic to finish it off.

This atc was supposed to be for a swap I am doing or ABSA (altered background, something altered) BUT as I was uploading on the DC site I realised that I may have omitted the something altered :$ How I managed that I can really say, but for someone who cant remember the day of the week its not really all that surprising! Anyway, the background is made of cork which was painted with acrylics, then overlayed with another layer of cork with the keyhole cut out, with some mesh background. Thde cork has been painted several times as it soaked up all the paint and then covered in crackle glaze. A few bits here and there and its finished ..... was finished. Can I fix it? Dunno, watch this space ................

Oh, and I got this idea from an altered box i saw somewhere sometime, but it has escaped me now.

Been trying to get my BRAKs out on time so made a few this week. This one is made up of alcohol inked photo paper which i then blasted with a heat gun to get it to bubble, i quite like that. Then a horrid flowery frame was covered in silver ep to make it non horrid and the 'photo' is eyes stamped into fp, not that you can really tell from the picture, but that is what it is. Few bits and bobs and its finished.

Metal Man

I was rummaging around last week and came across my dads toolbox. My dad passed away almost eight years ago and it used to hurt too much to go looking, but i actually had fun. Oh my goodness he was a messy man!! Bits of old everything electrical in this toolbox there was (he was an electrician), but i found a few bits and decided to make an atc out of the bits as a reminder of him every day when i'm in my craft room.

Also thought it only right i upload this atc as my blog is called bright eyes as thats what he used to call me :)

Matchbox Mania

The world has gone matchbox mad! I love them! This is for a 1:1 swap on DC, I do hope the recipient likes it okay. I used the matches to make a teeny easel. Not sure what that has to do with a sealife theme, but I did it anyway ..lol!

Don't you just love handmade

I bought some stuff to make my own moulds, so me being me i have the patience of nothing and wandered around my mums house with the pots looking for things to make moulds from. I made the one in this picture from one of her ornaments. I like her a lot. Who needs Krafty Lady what about Crafty Paula!! LOL! The rest of the atc is alcohol inked background, few fibres, words stamped on tissue and stuck on and a little metal frame. Done.

Arte y Pico Award

My Favorite Five are Listed on the Right x

Teeny Tiny

This is a matchbox i made for a matchbox swap on DC. I've not made one before and its just so small! I had nothing to put in there so I got making. I made the base of the inside with air dry clay pressed onto a floral textured stamp and cut bits for each corner. The roses i made with air dry clay. The little butterflies were made by making a 'mould' out of friendly plastic with a charm pressed in, then i removed the charm and made clay impressions. They're not perfect but are things ever?! Then the whole lot is painted with acrylic and has some wax rub ons and a few other bits here and there. I think i like matchboxes a lot!

Gothic Arch

My first attempt at a Gothic Arch for a swap on DC. Not seen these before and wanted to have a go. I liked working on this it was a good size, but it was weird having more space to fill!! Not very sure if this actually works, looks different than it did in my head. Theres a bit of everything on there and I had to wait on the arch drying 4 times before i could put it together :( Think I'll make some more tonight.

Watercolour Painting

I painted this a while back now when i had time and patience to do it. I love watercolour painting and when i look at these pics i miss it a lot. Maybe if i learn to get by without sleep i could start again. Not sure what to do with this now i've found it, but im sure ill find a place somewhere!

Something for me

I'm always making things and swapping out (which i love ...but) i decided it was time to make something random for Paula. My OH bought me a boxed mug from my wee one on mothers day and the box was all pink and girly and he asked what i'd put in it (i throw nothing away, he knows me so well). So I decided to make this :) Not what he was expecting i dont think!! Its only part done and has a long way to go, but i quite like so far. Its simply a box of Paula. I've played about a bit with image transfer, albeit unsuccessfully (hence the acrylic paint job in the top right corner). Having fun anyway ..... updates to follow .........

ATC with a difference

Well this is an Artist Trading Card without the card, the base is made up of mosaic tiles on a clay background. Maybe should be an AATC (alternative ATC)?

A Few More Bits

Some more ATCs for swaps I have entered.

The Phantom of the Opera

UTEE Masks, the Melting Pot is my new best friend i think :)

All you need is a great big melting pot

Well, I saw a post on the DC Forum about Melting Pots. I've always wanted one, looked at them many times and been too miserable to part with £40 to buy one, so when i saw they were going for £25 I had my excuse. Heres a few i've made, just need to practice to get good now!!