ATC CATCHUP

At last I have found the chance to blog the ATC swaps I have received over the last few weeks. Sorry to the girls for taking so long, but the wait has been worth it when you see the lovely cards.

The first 5 are from Hazel (Dido's Designs). I love the subtle colours of '2 little girls' and 'sparkle flutterby'. A bit of distress inking there me thinks. The sparkle continued onto 'batty' the Halloween card which made me laugh. 'Sweet Christmas' has a couple of sweetie brads on it which look like my hubbie's favourite sweets. Better keep this one away from him! 'Fairy Aurora' has a beautiful washed background. The little angel has sparkly wings and I just adore the wish rub on in the top corner. Lovely cards which will go on my Flickr then into my collection. Thanks Hazel.

These 4 beauties are from Sharon. I so laughed when I saw the 'Halloween' card. This would have been a good entry into Heather's Halloween swap. 'Gingerbread Friends' looks almost good enough to eat and every so often you can see tiny, tiny stars on the background. I like the inked edges on this one. 'Christmas Post' is a little stamped image that Sharon has coloured then highlighted with glaze. The shiney background sets this card off. It's really quite lovely. The final one in this batch is 'Time Flies'. The background is a stamped image with parts, ie. the clock and eyes, brought to life with glossy accents. I think I see some stickles on the bow and other clocks which help bring the whole thing to life. Thanks to you Sharon.

Now these beauties are from Sonia who I spent a lovely 'crafty' day with a week last Thursday. 'The Sixties' is a bit of nostalgia. Ban the bomb, flower power etc. Can't believe all that was nearly 50 years ago. 'Star Gazing' is a sparkly scene. Lovely little puss cats looking out at the heavens - or maybe a few mice! Just look at the tree on 'Winter'. Such a lovely image which Sonia has highlighted with stickles. I love the holographic matt to this one. 'Stargazing 2' is especially clever because Sonia has stamped the image then cut out the face from another image and 3D it onto the base one. This makes the card. Altogether a set of neat, thoughtfull cards which I love. Thank you Sonia.

And now, here are my Angel swaps from Heather, plus an ATC that she made and sent me for Christmas.
As you can see, I received Heather's angel ATC which I am over the moon with. It's absolutely gorgeous. My ornament is the fantastic wooden bag that Sheila made. How lucky am I then.
I shall put all these photos on my Flickr. Please pop on there for a nosey.

THE CRAFT GARDEN MONTHLY CHALLENGE

Now that the 12 tags have ended, I have been able to make a scrapbook page for the December challenge over on the Craft Garden blog - see my blog list on the right hand side for details.

This month's challenge was to use a sketch to create a page, card, etc. These challenges give me the opportunity to create another 'Toby' page, which is what I have done. The little photos were taken in each of the 4 motorhomes we have had because, as you may know, Toby always came on holiday with us.

ALTOGETHER NOW

Here is a picture of all my tags together. Even though I made them, I was amazed at the variety of techniques which really became apparent when viewed side by side.

I may complete last years now!!!!!!

THE 12TH TAG

Well, Tim saved the best 'til last.

I have wanted to make grunge flowers since I saw them at CHA earlier in the year. Today was the day.

I didn't have the Sizzix die that Tim used, but I do have a 6 petal daisy die and as he said that almost any 6 petal flower would normally do, I proceeded. I did find however, that the petals were a bit long which made the cuts off line. After much fiddling, I finally made 2 roses.

The red rose is coloured with fired brick ink and red perfect pearls but the blue/green one is coloured with craftynotions spray inks. I used Hero Arts gems to make my own sparkly swirls. The photo is bad due to light, or lack of light but if I can, I intend to photo all 12 tomorrow in order to email Tim and hopefully, win the grand prize!

I have sooo enjoyed these past 12 days, so I send a great big THANK YOU to Tim Holtz for giving his time to create the 12 Tags of Christmas for the 3rd year running - roll on 2010!

PS Looking at the state of my hands, I bet Tim went to bed last night, laughing his head off knowing how many crafters throughout the world would have coloured fingers today. I've used everything, including blending solution, but nothing is working!!!! It's such fun.

TAG #11

I really love tag #11. The reindeer is so gorgeous. Had to get DH to cut it out for me because cutting grungeboard inflames my thumb joint. Another downside of advancing years.

Anyway, I knew I couldn't make those brads so there was no use bothering about them. I have covered buttons with material before and went off looking in my sewing boxes to see if I had any blanks left, but I hadn't. The simplest thing to do was cover large brads. I found one already sporting a spotty material so I used that as it was. I covered the largest with a Santa picture and the medium one with a little sticker. All a bit of fun.

I have had a ball making these tags this year, so tomorrow will be a bitter sweet day. Sad because the game will end but at the same time, poor Tim must be feeling the pressure so he well deserves a break.

I wonder what #12 has in store for us?