Clown ATCs

I'm part of a monthly Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap group at my local scrapbooking store. The theme for April was clowns/jesters. Here are the cards I created:

Background is patterned paper with a stamped image in two colours and a hand-drawn border. The clowns are actually four different stamps each (head, torso, 2 x arm) and coloured with watercolour pencils. Final touches are another stamp over the top and the two brads in the corner. No two cards are exactly alike this month.

I'm looking forward to seeing what all the other ladies come up with. It's a fantastic group, with a lot of different styles.

Foxy Ladies Layout

So what is a girl to do with half a kilo of buttons? Make a button-frame of course! I had seen the idea in a magazine a while ago and at the time thought it was a nice effect but a waste of buttons. While I was sorting my new stash the other day though I realised that there was not really much point 'saving' the buttons for any specific use. The LO below was for the weekly challenge over at The Boxx. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, but can't get a good photo of it no matter what I do. :(

Challenge requirements were: black and white photo, black white and grey colour scheme, distressing and stitching. I decided to pop a little detail photo in here too, to show off the distressing on the edge of the grey paper and the butterflies.

In non-scrapbooking news I went to see the Gold Coast Philharmonic Orchestra play yesterday. It was quite an enjoyable experience, even if Benn and I were probably at least 30 years below the audience average.

Encourage and Motivate

So this is the latest LO, which I completed last night. It's based on Janine's sketch for the Monday night social scrappers over at The Boxx. I'm almost two weeks late getting it done, but that's the joy of not really having a deadline I guess. :) I showed it to Ben and he thought the flowers were 'really cool'. Since the flowers were the focal part of the 'class' for that LO I think he did well to pick them - I've trained him so well. LOL

 

Other than the scrapbooking I'm still just plugging away doing some research work and trying to get a job. Need to start working on my clown ATCs for the Addicted To Scrap swap next week.

Journal Tags and Buttons

I have signed up for a Journaling Block swap over at The Boxx, where you basically send in 15 journalling blocks and get 15 different ones from other people back. For this round you could send in ones you'd made or pre-purchased ones. I chose to make some of my own to save money and use up some more of my stash. You can see my creations below. I've also included a matching punchie which can be used for the date, or a flower centre or just a co-ordinating embellishment.

I also received a package in the mail today which had me very excited: 500g of buttons from eBay! Like all scrapbookers I have a burning desire to aquire more of everything and sorting the buttons reminds me of when I was a kid and I'd spend time sorting mum's buttons into different piles based on color or shape or size. You can see the stash, neatly sorted by solour, below.

March PAT ATCs

Here is the results of the project I've been working on today. At my Artist Trading Card (ATC) online group they run Pick-A-Theme (PAT) swaps. Basically, you sign up into a group and select the theme you want to receive. In return, you need to make one card for each other group member in their requested theme. It's quite a challenge sometimes, but also a good way to get cards on themes which wouldn't normally get enough interest for a whole swap. These are the cards I did for group 5 of the March PAT, which had to be hand-drawn or painted:

The request was a realistic landscape with moutains. I am well aware that landscapes are not my strong point so this was a challenge. I think I do them better in acrylics, so will stick to that from now on.

This request for for a celebrity portrait. I based this off a photo reference of Edward Norton, my favourite actor. While I'm happy with the picture itself, I don't think it looks like him. I didn't manage to capture his distinctive smile.

The request was for skulls for this one. I actually really like the end result.

This last card was a request for an Art Nouveau Queen or Goddess. The lineart is referenced from an image by another artist who put it up as a colouring-in picture.

That's it from me for now. I have to go catch up on some research, so I'm not sure if I'll get any crafting done over the weekend. Hope you have a good one.

Love Layout

Just a short update to show off my latest scrapbooking LO. I'll be back later today with another project I'm working on. This one is for the Addicted to Scrap monthly sketch challenge. Here is the sketch:

And here is my version of it, using my favourite photo of Ben and I:

Welcome

Okay, so I've made the transition from 'uni bum' to simply 'unemployed' and now find myself with a mass of time on my hands. How else would one spend this than crafting and looking around the net for inspiration? :) I've really just created this more to stay updated with some of the fantastic blogs I've found recently, but will try to pop up some layouts and ATC's as I create them.

Here are some of the most recent LO's I've done:

This is my partner, Benn's, family doggie. She's so wonderful and loving, plus she always comes to say hello to me before Benn when we come visit. :)

An Easter LO, completed on Easter Sunday no less, for the ScrapBoxx weekly challenge. The LO had to contain spotty paper, lace, felt, buttons and purple.