A T C 's . . . . new ones

So I spent today in a creative muse and managed to make my first three atc's since May, wow that's a long time, but of course I havent been doing nout in the meanwhile, as my blog shows I have dipped my toes in other creative past-times.

Most recently I have to say a huge thank you to those of you who have commented on my previous post on journals, Ive taken the first step and Ive gessoed up some other pages (sanded before, thanks Dyan) but now Ive got to think what to write, gotta be circumspect as the kids might read it, I shall wait for the muse to come, and I shall share it with you when it does.

Had a lovely saturday out and about with hubbie and youngest, really chilled and relaxed, today however was a different matter, homework needed doing and god how hard is it to keep reminding and nagging kids to get on with it, aaarrrgggghhhhh.

My youngest ended up having a bit of a gaga breakdown, (helped on by homework nagging) turns out he is not enjoying senior school and hasnt made any friends, finds the work really hard and is spending breaks on his own, also one of the kids from his old school had a fight with him this week, wants to go to a different school where his mates are, what can you do, so lots of positiveness and keeping an eye on him, and hope that it all settles down, he is going to go to some after school clubs so hopefully will meet some other kids that like his sort of things, fingers crossed for the little darling.

So here are my three ATC's images are from Lisa's altered art and I just loved this set of three, backgrounds with distress ink and old dictionary pages and some random stamping, hope you

like them they are available, particularly if I owe you one, OOPS.

hope you like!!!

Journalling

Had a mooch around a charity shop the other day and picked up a dictionary which I can rip to pieces as required for crafty projects, and a book bound kids board book, which I thought I could use a base for a journal. So gesso at the ready and I pasted all over the first double page spread, then left to dry overnight. The next day I checked out Dyan's blog as she has a tutorial on journalling on her sidebar, and got out the distress inks and my tim holtz masks, and away I went, it was really enjoyable. Thought the water spraying bit took most of the ink off, oops perhaps I was a bit too enthusiastic, but I carried on, but then what to write, so here you are my first attempt, what do you think?Came across a few problems, wanted to put a picture of Dyan on, decided image transfer would be good, not too in your face, so copied her header and printed off (hope you dont mind Dyan, it was only for this, honest Im not going to use it for my blog, LOL), then applied medium and put on the page, was really good and left it to dry properly. When I rubbed the paper off (gently, honest), I took most off Dyan's face off and then all the gesso lifted up as well, oops. . . . grrrr

So gritted my teeth and re gesso'd , decided this time to stamp Tim's umbrella man, but then eureka moment, decided to use my new Ferro paint and stamp into that, oops looked horrible so tried to wipe off gently, away came the gesso again . . . .grrrrrrrrrr

So gritted my teeth (here we go again) and re gesso'd, still going to use the stamp but radical decision will use ink, had to re blend it in again as a lot more gesso came off this time, should have took a picture of it at the beginning before I wrecked it (twice), anyway tried to blend the gesso away with some distress ink. OMG gesso starts lifting again, aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh, so leave it alone and when dry put some clear crackle paint over the area and cross my fingers, wont touch it again, so here is a close up of both pages . .

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think, for those people in the know, should i sand the glossy page before the gesso, would it stay on better then?

Bat Photography . . . easy as 1,2,3

sat and watched a bat swooping over our neighbours garden for quite a while tonight, then decided to photgraph it, here is the evidence a photographer hard at work in search of that elusive shot . . .

now do you see that slight blacky grey blur across the two white lines in the sky, that's a BAT !!!, compare it with the other shot, see its most defn a bat, LOL

Some more cards

Here are the cards I have made for my BFF Jo who is *0 this coming week, and for my niece and her mum. I only have my son Taylors 16th to do, then I can play to my hearts content and go back to ATC's etc until the end of October, yee hah.

Went out to dinner at the local pub last night with my husband to celebrate the wedding anniversary, it is the first time we have gone out and left the kids on their own, they behaved brilliantly and we loved the freeedom of it and remembering why we married each other, and no it wasnt cos we are hormonal, shouty, grumpy etc etc.

Then proceeded to sleep through till 12 this am/pm! even though the orchard next to us was being harvested, I think I sleep too much, I do love my sleep though, but hate waking up so late feel like i have wasted half the day, what can I do though, Im asleep, LOL.

Card Making head is on . . .

here are three of my most recent ones, for my mum, mum used to make all of our clothes when we were little, so this makes a change from another flower card, good thing I didnt have to make clothes for my kids as making clothes for Barbie was never a success, and I tried to knit when first pregnant but my OH said to stop as it wasnt good for the baby, bit stressie I think!!!"Happy Birthday tomorrow mum",

for my husband for 21 years of marriage on Thursday, and doesnt it feel it some days, LOL

and then getting ahead for my friend Sue's birthday, used some tips from Linda at LB Crafts from the August issue of Craft Stamper, she did a beautiful butterfly but I had to go with the dies I had, so a cupcake it was and then just grew the card around it, hopefully she will appreciate it, as a fellow cardmaker, and remember standing at Linda's stand in April at Ally Pally watching her and Leandra create the magic, could have stood their all day. Crossing fingers that we get to go on their next crafty weekend in 2010. Might have to stop spending so much on my crafts though. got another five to go, then I suppose xmas will need to rear its ugly head. This year I must remember to put all my xmas stamps on ebay that I dont use, before the season is on us, perhaps that can go towards funding my crafty weekend.

Hope you are all well and happy and being crafty.