Fall Cards

This month, the theme for my CollageATCs Yahoo group was Fall. I generally don't make mine until I get the other group members and then I can get inspiration from them. Well, I've had my craft stuff all other my floor for awhile, so I figured I'd just go for it. Here they are:
I got ideas for the two on the left from the cards found below. For the third card, I found the brown sparkly leaf on my floor and based everything off that. Everything but the leaf was from the collage pack.

This card inspired the brown card above. I thought about doing a pennant like theme with the leaves being the pennants. All the leaves are from the packet, and the word is from some stickers I bought. Unfortunately my word stickers must be kinda old because I am having the worst time getting the sticker to stay. I found the above pennant card in the 2011 January/February issue of Papercrafts magazine.

The sunflower card was inspired by this one. I like how I paired the golden colors together. The sunflower is the only piece from the packet. I also found the bird card in the 2011 Jaunary/February issue of Papercrafts. In the magazine, it's a color challenge, but I loved the sketch for the card, so I just went from there.

Next month's theme is buttons.

New projects

What have I been doing lately? Or what have I realized I need to get done, now that it's October?
I signed up for a Pretty Pennants swap on one of my Yahoo groups, and realized it needed to be in the hostesses hands by Oct 15th. Last time I posted it, I hadn't quite decided on the edges.
I tried doing some embroidery that waved sort of like ric rac, but it did not look good. Then I remembered these nice tiny trims I got a t a yard sale and attached them.
And once again, blogger has deleted one of them, the third one has little tiny flowers for the trim. Now I need to figure out how to finish the back, take care of the fraying on the top edge and figure out a way to hang them. I have a piece of quilt batting on the backs of them to give them more support, but I still need to actually finish the back and add my information. I think I might just add eyelets for the hanging part. I also realized how empty the top third now looks, but I think the front is actually done.

Next up, I have to do one more ATC for my Yahoo group for last month, the theme was Kawaii, and I have to say it's really not inspiring me.

You totally can't tell that that blob is a cat, I embellished the flower that's on his head.
Here are my other member's cards:

I also have to finish my Altoids box for a button swap I'm doing, and put together the fall packets for my Yahoo group. Sometimes procrastination is not good at all.

What projects are you all working on?

Showing my art

Yesterday, I had some of my art pieces on display at the library. I don't have a picture of the whole table, but I do have pictures of parts of the table in succession.
This first one shows some embroidery pieces on the right, they are both in process. I think the dragon piece is done, but I don't know what to do with it. The bag still needs some decorative work done on it. Next you can see the ATCs I've kept for myself, the Outside of the Box challenge is propped up on a piece done with the Serendipity technique.
And moving right along to the left, there are more ATCs, on the top you can see a tile I decorated, 3 altered metal boxes, a framed tile made with UTEE, a frame that illustrates a William Wordsworth poem I did in high school. You can also see the bottle from the previous post and the fairy that will be in the next post.

And finishing up here, you can see a couple altered books (one done by my mother for a birthday), and the piece that won me the Hall of Fame fibers award at my senior art show in high school, a purple rosette to take to state at the county fair, and a blue ribbon at state fair (not that I'm bragging or anything). There's also business cards in the foreground. And in the background, you can see a tiny bit of a blue altered board book I was working on.

I'll see if I can find close-ups on some of these pieces in the coming days.

I showed all of this for 5 hours at the library, people could just come in and look at things as they pleased. I was part of a program called Celebrating Lifelong Creativity, along with a group that put together airplanes, a watercolor artist, a group that wrote pieces, a local senior services group, a knitting group and a paper cutting artist.

Gypsy ATCs

For April in my CollageATCs group, the theme was gypsy. I had a horribly hard time with this theme. Finally I looked through the clip art on my computer and found some images that were supposed to be gypsies anyway, so I printed them out and added to them.
Starting on the top left I added purple mulberry paper and then covered it in glitter, the piece from the package is the trim on the right side. For the girl in the middle, I colored her dress and the pieces from the package are the brown sequins and the black gems in the middle of them. For the lady on the right, I cut her out, added her to a background and then colored here with chalk and added the pink beads, feather and gems all from the package. For the lady on the bottom, I cut her out, glued her to a piece of mulberry paper, colored her with chalk and added the red gems and red flower from the packet.
I think they turned out pretty good.

Bugs

I know, it's been awhile, I have such a hard time getting myself motivated to do art lately. I did finish some things for a swap on Friday, but it's a surprise swap, so I'll post those later. Here are my cards for the March swap in my CollageATCs yahoo! group The theme was bugs. The tulip picture is from the back of an Our Iowa magazine. The green background is from some memory makers packaging. The bird is from a piece of scrapbook paper. The layers on the last background as well as the blue piece are all scraps from my floor.

I should have those swap items up next week or so, the swap was for a 9 days of Easter swap. So, I'll get 9 packages back from the hostess and will open them up the 9 days before Easter, I'll do a post each day, so stay tuned.

January Snow ATCs

WOW! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted on here.
Anyways, here are the ATCs I did for my collage group for January, the theme was snow:
Starting in the top left hand corner: All the paper on the backgrounds are from a winter set of cardstock I got for Christmas in 2009. In the top photo I used the snowman and the giant snowflake at the top. I used some new blue staples to fasten the snowman onto the card, and a white spiral paperclip from my supply swap. On the right hand photo I used all the snowflakes. The reason the picture is so blurry is because of the brad I added to the middle of the silver snowflake.
In the left hand photo on the bottom I used all the images.
In the right hand photo on the bottom I used the snowman and the snowflake images. The crown is a metal piece.

All the cards are backed with chipboard that I received in my supply swap.


I'm doing horribly on being creative lately. I joined the One Heart One World blog event with my other blog, and I decided to give away garage sale finds. Since this year we were to send our prize out within 3 days of the end of the event, I didn't sign up with this blog because I prefer to make my prize. And I didn't even think about the event until it started.

Some art

Here's what I've done in artwork lately:
My collageatcs group did Vintage for December, and I had to use some of my new items laying around.
Starting at the top and going left to right: I used some 'packing tape' I bought at Micheal's for the background and then layered a piece of book on it and then the boy on the turkey from our package.
Next I took some patterned blue paper, colored the lady with chalk, glued her down. I also colored in a black strip on the edge and added the string of pearls. The pearl clusters in her hair are also something I bought at Micheal's. The string of pearls, and the lady were in the package.

On the next card, I layered a vintage dictionary page for a background, and then added the poufy wallpaper, which was in our package, I thought it looked a little dull, so I colored in some areas with black gel pen. The lady was also from the package and she's colored with chalks.

Starting on the bottom and going left to right: I used an old Bingo card for the background, rubbed some red distress ink from my supply swap on it, the beige card and the fish were in the package. The crown is also from my supply swap.

Lastly, the background wallpaper was in the package, I added a light blue paper and layered the Remember quote, which was also in the package.

I decopaged some tiny wooden bowls for a friend for Christmas, I've been reading on other blogs of people doing this and I decided to try it. I learned to use a thinner paper and use my hands a lot. They turned out pretty cute, and my friend loved them.

I'm still waiting on my stocking swap. I contacted the swap hostess and she was infuriated, and said she'd send me something, that was over 2 weeks ago.

I did sign up for a Valentine's Day swap, where you send things to each other. The hostess said she had the perfect person in mind for me and they would not flake out.

Happy WOYWW

Hello all,
I'm back participating in WOYWW this week. I finally finished my cards for my Halloween swap for my CollageATCs yahoo group, exteremely late, I know. But, I was the hostess and as we weren't doing anything for December, and everyone's busy with other things, nobody seemed too bothered. And here they are:
Starting in the upper left hand corner: I used the orange vellum and the 'Trick or Treat' bag. I had the Lisa Frank jack-o-lantern sticker, and the sunglasses used to be a pin.
I used the orange vellum and the jack-o-lantern punch. I thought it would be neat/creepy to have a set of eyes peering out from a leaf pile. All the leaves are diecuts I bought at a garage sale this summer.
I used everything but the background. The black bat and moon are buttons, the smaller buttons are from a plastic bag, and the house is a punch. I used gold spray webbing on the background.
I used the tiny 'Boo' piece, it's from a plastic bag. I thought the old couple looked kinda creepy.
In this set, starting in the upper left hand corner: I used the orange vellum ghost and the foam witch's hat. The ghost is glued onto a piece of lined cardboard and then onto an old book page. The trim on the top and bottom is some green leather.
I used the candy corn paper, and the candy corn stickers. The background is another piece of old book page. The lady is a stamped image given to me by a friend.
I used the black tissue paper covering the spider. I started out with this flourescent yellow plastic spider, I tried to color it black with a sharpie marker, but that didn't work. Then I remembered this technique I read about on a blog of covering something with tissue paper, so I did that with some Mod Podge, and then added the gold pearl powder to it, I covered it with more Mod Podge, so it wouldn't rub off. This is my favorite of the group. I still have to paint the hourglass red, but I love it the way it is now.
The last one, I used the web and the spider.

If you don't know what WOYWW is, head over to Julia's and check it out.

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Hello everyone, I'm back to creating (that's what happens when you enter swaps and deadlines come up). These cards are some I created for the yahoo! group I host (collageATCs), August's theme was Artists Choice, where everyone made their own cards instead of my sending out a packet of stuff.
Last month I received a great packet of stamped images and mulberry paper from one of the members in my group as part of a Christmas in July swap, this month I used some of those papers.
I really love the orange one below, the elephant is from a set of earrings I bought at a garage sale this summer.

If you have no idea what WOYWW is, head on over to Julia's blog, to snoop around other people's desks.

I love reading your comments.

Fun in July swap

And now they're really out of order, so bear with me. In my collage ATCs group we had a gift swap for July. My partner was Judy G, and my package arrived yesterday, I was tempted to wait until tomorrow to open it, but after I royally messed up a cake I was baking for my coworkers, I decided I deserved a little pick-me-up.
These are a pack of water colors, all closed up they came looked like the green bundle below.

There was an extra little gift in the box for my birthday (tomorrow), and I wasn't going to open it until then, but then my plans got rearranged, so I decided I needed to open it today.

Way inside the package, were these cute paper earrings that I'm guessing Judy made. Very cute.

And here are the earrings inside a frog box I found inside my present.

And here is the really cute frog box. I LOVE IT!!!

There were quite a few things in my package. A lot of paper, here is the mulberry bunch.

And here is the rest of it. The blue sparkly piece at the top there, is actually a piece of mesh fabric.

This was in the bag with the items in the next picture. It reads "Pearl Ex (mix with mat medium). I've never used pearl ex, and I don't think I have any mat medium, but I guess I better get some, so I can see what effect this gives.

These are the Pearl Ex. The blue one is actually #686 Turquoise, and the pearly one is #674 Interference Gold. The little "pills", I'm not quite sure about them. At first I thought they were those little creatures you see at stores that you drop in water and they grow.

This is a ball of turquoise fiber, the color is massively wrong on this picture.

Then there was this little package, and it was in the picture at the top of the page.

Here are some stamps. The three circly ones are those little stampers that have their ink with them.

I'm not really sure what these are but the box says Tria Inks Six-Pack 6 Pantone by Letraset colour inks. Tria Inks in 298 Pantone colours, Blender and Extender. Create custom mixes & tints. Use in Tria Brushpen, Letrajet Airmarker, refill Tria Markers.... Looks fun to play with.

She also sent a ton of stamped images and punched pieces. I didn't want to get them all out of the bags but there's frogs, butterflies, people, animals, birds, trees, and a lot more. Can't wait to use them.

And here's the card she made. I think it's tea bag folding but I'm not sure.

And here's the little box that my frog box was in.

Fabric ATCs

For my CollageATCs group, April was fabric month. I had originally envisioned everyone sewing at least one ATC, but by the time I remembered to send an email, I already had one packet back from someone.
I decided I would just go ahead and sew all of mine. I took 10 pieces of the largest fabric from my packet and used them as backgrounds. I ended up blanket stitching around the fabric, with a piece of quilt batting in the middle, and then gluing a piece of paper on as a backing.
Starting in the lower bottom left corner and going clockwise. I used the background piece from my packet, sewing the blanket stitch in brown thread and then sewing the buttons on with a turqouise thread. The buttons are from numerous mixed button bags from Hobby Lobby. I used the background mosaic looking fabric and the two butterflies from my packet. I used a light green thread for the blanket stitch around the outside and a variegated yellow thread for the chain stitch to attach them to the fabric. Marilyn was part of a napkin, but I liked the image so much, I included it in the packet. I chose a piece of pink matboard as the background and glued a piece of black lace to that, and then put Marilyn on top of that. I colored her hair with chalk.

Starting in the lower left hand corner and going clockwise. The background fabric was stitched onto the the quilt batting with a simple running stitch. The dragonfly is a sticker. The golden butterfly and the background fabrics were from the packet. I attached the golden butterfly with orange thread and a chain stitch. The background geometric fabric was from the packet. I attached the plastic snowflake with some light blue silk thread. The background flowers and the red shirt were both from the packet. I had bought a packet of die cut people at a garage sale and thought that would be perfect for this piece, I couldn't decide on what to use for the skirt, so I ended up using a piece of blue paper. The cat is a button. Everything except the dragonfly is from the packet. I attached the wavy red fabric with a chain stitch in blue thread following the waves in the fabric. I attached the gold butterfly with pink and orange thread and a chain stitch.

Starting in the lower left hand corner and going clockwise. I thought this quartet looked like they were singing happy birthday in a restaurant, so I added the "Happy Birthday" sentiment to a piece of fabric in the packet and the birthday cake button. The background is also from the packet. The butterfly and background are both from the packet. I attached the butterfly with a chain stitch in green thread. The background is from the packet. The bat is a button, and the flower is from a note someone sent me. The background and the butterfly are both from the packet. The butterfly is attached with a chain stitch in variegated yellow thread.

Bright colors for spring

My CollageATC's Yahoo group's theme for February was neon, I was very happy about that, I'm so sick of drab boring colors. Here are my cards for that swap:
The left one here, the background is a piece of paper I was given that's glued onto some cardstock, then I sewed the yellow trim onto the bottom and added the two lighter colored leaves (those are punches that were in the packet), the darker leaf is a foam punch I had. The flowers are some fake ones from my stash, the pom poms were in the packet and the other flower has a square brad for the center. The card on the right, I glued the orange paper I was given to card stock and then sewed the green trim down, the butterfly, and both flowers are buttons from my stash and the sun is another piece provided.
The card on the left, I glued yellow paper that was provided onto some cardstock and added the palm tree and butterfly sequins from my stash, the orange circle and pink star were provided. For the card on the right, the background paper is some handmade paper I purchased, the orange leaves are from my stash and the green leaves were provided. The dog house is a button from my stash. The green circle, yellow button and sequins were all provided.

The card on the left I sewed the pink, purple, tie dye and green felt that were provided in the packet together and then glued them onto a piece of blue handmade paper that I bought. For the card on the right, I used a piece of paper from my stash and added the blue trim, green tissue paper, yellow foam (that the frog punch is mounted on), the frog punch, the blue/green fabric (that the leaf is mounted on) and the leaf that were all provided.

The card on the right has a background from a paper stack I got for Christmas, the blue foil corners are from Hershey macademia nut kisses (which you can only find in Hawaii), I then added the pink punch, the green and yellow paper, the purple circle (which is under the blue circle), wrapped a green plastic circle in more foil, then added the two buttons on top. The punch, circle paper, purple circle, plastic piece and buttons were all provided. For the card on the right, I used the blue handmade paper that I bought, enhanced the design on it with a white paint marker, added the plastic circle that was provided and then a white button on top.

The card on the left everything I used was provided. I had a hard time getting the squares to stick to the background paper, as the pink stripes have some kind of crystals on them, and finally ended up using glue dots.

The card on the right, the background paper is some handmade paper I bought, then I sewed the green, pink and orange beads onto it.

Also, found some more blog candy for you guy's: Jacque's Joie De Vivre is giving away
1. 1 roll of 1/2 inch scor tape
2. 1 ladybug box with chocolates
3. 1 lady bug Tilda stamp
4. 1 pack of white Magnolia cherry blossoms.
All you have to do is add a comment to her post and spread the word. The giveaway ends on March 4th at noon.

January's Black & White

OMG, I'm behind again, seems to be the story of my life sometimes. Anyways, for my collageATCs group, the theme for January was black and white, now a lot of people in the group decided to only use the colors black and white and they turned out gorgeous, but by the time I put my cards together I was plenty sick of white and gray, so I added colors.
The top two cards here, I was given the background on the first one and decided to add a bunch of brightly colored buttons to it. On the right I was given the background and the piano keys, I thought for sure it needed to be a music themed card, so I added the music sheet and the lyre(I'm not really sure what this instrument is), they're both from a box I received a Christmas gift in.
The left card I was given the soccer ball, this little girl was on that same Christmas box and she looked like she was playing soccer, so I made her play soccer, it's just her and markers. On the right I was given the background and the black things in front of the flower pot. I received that flower pot in a gift exchange through my collageATCs group, and you can't tell from the picture but those black things are velvety feeling.
The right card I was given the photocopied money and the currency quote at the bottom of the card. The background (that you can't really see) is a bunch of bright colored circles, I was orgically going to put another piece of paper with circles onto it, but when it didn't look very good on the background, I took it off and it left behind the black, which I thought was pretty cool and did that to the whole card.
The left card I was given the snowman on the top, the tiny snowman in the bottom right corner, and the googly eyes. I collect snowmen, so I have a few snowman stamps, I felt I needed a nice snowman party on this card, after I layed them on it, it needed something more, so I added the snowflake ribbon and the googly eyes.

The left card I was given everything on the card, the presents on the side are a ribbon, and the snowflake is a domed resin sticker.
The card on the right I was given the owl and the beads hanging down from him. The background paper is from a big 12x12 stack of paper I got for Christmas.

The card on the left I was given all the elements, I just felt they needed a little color, which I added with markers.

The card on the right I was given the teacups and the cup quote. I was originally going to color in the cups with pink and green to go with the background, but after I glued them down, I liked the simplicity of them and left them alone.

This month's theme is neon. I usually wait until the end of the month to my cards, because then I have everyone else's cards to get inspiration off of.

Made my day

Sandy left this comment on my blog today:

"I can handle bright and cheery colours - we've got snow squalls at the moment and it feels like forever since it's been warm.

I'm a Central College Pella Iowa alumni but it's been a couple of decades. Please enter me in your draw and thanks for entering in mine. I love meeting new people and reading their blogs. It's like permissible evesdropping."

I love her last sentence, I thought that was pretty funny today.

UGH! I'm supposed to be making cards for my yahoo! groups latest swap, Black & White, but I'm having the hardest time getting motivated. What gets everyone going when they have to make stuff but can't get motivated?

I find sometimes, if I just open my closet door (yes, my creating space is a closet, very sad), and get everything out for my swap, then it comes to me. Sometimes when I'm creating packets for my yahoo! group, I can see certain cards I'm going to make. Like for this one, theres a piece of white paper with black and white circles all over it, recently I bought myself a bag of mixed buttons (big weakness there) because they had all these bright and happy colors, I think one of the cards will have these buttons in the circles.

Mythological Creatures Swap

So, last month for my collageATCs group, we did mythological creatures. It was fun to see everyone's interpretation of the theme, here are my cards:

I like tags, can't you tell. In the left picture I used all the fairies , the card is just paper with layered paper at the bottom using some decorative scissors I got for Christmas last year. The tags are ones I had in my stash, the one on the left is chipboard the other two are just plain paper. They're all attached with jeweled brads.

The card on the right I used the mermaid. I took a manila colored tag and pressed it into Stampin Up Classic Stamp pads of Ballet Blue and Green Galore. The background is when I did a bunch of backgrounds with some spray mists and added random stamps to them.

Lots of times in the swap items, I send out items that have white around the image, seems to happen a lot with stickers, and that white stuff drives me nuts, I always have to trim it off.

The card on the left I used the cupid, you can kinda tell from the picture, that he's stuck on something, he was a window cling on some clear plastic, other people had used the cupid, and he had a hard time being stuck down, so I decided to just leave him on the plastic (as he was pretty well stuck to that), and I added the love tag with a jeweled brad and the rose in the bottom corner.
The card on the right I used the witch and the frame she's in. The frame was around another item that looked like a bunny with wings and antenna, it was a stamp my mom bought in Mexico. The background is from when I was making backgrounds one time and painted it with metallic paints and then added stamps, the gold piece is just a piece of vellum.

The card on the left I used the fairy, it's a stamp I bought through Stampin' Up, and in the stamped image, she had some kind of fairy dust trailing along behind her, so I added blue glitter glue and some ancient gold embossing powder, that you can't really see in the picture. Someone else in the group used a mermaid stamp that had her hands outstretched with a shell in it. I thought the plastic lyre would fit perfectly with the music paper in the background.
The card on the right I used the dragon image, I had the Asian character stamp, and stamped it in the ancient gold embossing powder, then glued the dragon onto a tag and lightly covered it with gold paint.

The card on the left I used the kokopelli, I just added the sun punch and the sun stamp, both from previous swaps.
The card on the right I used the mermaid. She was stamped in black on white paper and had a comb in one hand and a mirror in the other, I didn't like those so I took them out. Her hair is colored with some orange glitter glue, her body is colored with chalk as well as her tail. Her shells are colored with some aqua paint (that took way too long to dry) that I picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I had the water paper in a paper stack, and added the sand (from our back porch waiting for winter) and the tiny shells that I acquired on a vacation.

The card on the left I used the angel image, you can't tell very well from the picture, but I stamped another angel on top of the one I had and embossed the halo and wings with the ancient gold embossing powder. The background is a gold patterned piece of paper with mica flakes glued on top.
The card on the right I used the phoenix and the feathers. A phoenix is a bird that rises from the ashes, so I cut a flame out of a metallic piece of paper I received from one of the members of by group and added the orange glitter glue to it and some extra flames. I really liked this one.

Weathering some cards

I'm behind again, I know it. Here are my September ATC's for my CollageATCs Yahoo! group:

In the left one I used the moon and the "fog". It's actually cotton batting. The moon, bat (which you can't really see), ghost, tree and pumpkin are all buttons from a button mix bag I picked up at Hobby Lobby (I love buttons). The other pumpkin is a sequin I had lying around. The grass is from sushi, a friend of mine had some sushi one time, and the green paper wrapped around it was so cool, I asked if I could have it.
In the right one I used the cloud and the start of the rainbow. It's supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and if I could have cut the button in half right, it would have looked like a pot of gold. The rainbow is colored with markers, the "gold" above the button is a sequin, the pot is just paper, and the flowers are al stickers, I had a hard time getting those little flowers to stick, they kept coming off.

The card on the left I used the small white snowflake, the iridescent snowflake and the face. The face was a plaster face one of my group members made and sent to me. The other white snowflake and the rest of the snowman as well as the hat are all buttons from a button bag.
The card on the right I used the sun at the top colored with markers, and the sun punch that is pretty much covered by the yellow gem. The yellow strip is a background I made with reinkers, and the bottom strip is from a magazine.

The card on the left I used the white flower background, which was a punch sent along by one of my members; the green sun, that's a stamp of mine and is affixed on a chipboard tag; and the foam lightening bolt that's being used for a stem. The leaf is a sequin and the grass is more from the sushi.
The card on the right I used the 2 tornado pictures, the one on the left was the ISU gymnastics teams keychain schedule. I saw them and knew they wanted to used in art. The other one is some clip art sent in by one of my group members. The green circle on the top is a sticker that came with the energize word, they are on a piece of black paper.

The card on the left I used the two cloud pictures, one is a stamp and one is a sticker; and the umbrella punch the ladybug is using. The bottom piece is from a magazine and I just layered some leaf stickers and the lady bug sticker on top. The rain is colored with markers.
The card on the right, I used the lightening, which is clip art sent in by a member; and the cloud, which is part of the stamped image the cloud in the previous card came from. The tree is a sticker and the grass is some more from that sushi.

The card on the left I used the star which is a button and the snow which is some kind of clear crystals a member sent me. The tree is a tiny plastic "stained glass" ornament, and the other snow is just paper.
The card on the right I used the yellow stars, the yellow sun and the snowflake. The sky paper was something I did awhile ago, it's sorta marbled using ink. The mermaid is a poufy sticker, the snowflake in her hand is a brad. The sun is glued onto two buttons.

I decided to make some Holiday cards and try to sell them on Etsy. They came out really well. I plan to scan them tomorrow and then add them here for people to see. But I will be adding one a day on Etsy until I have them all listed. I'm thinking about $7.00 per card. They're regular sized cards with layered paper and some embellishments. I'd love feedback on price. I'll get them posted tomorrow, so you guys can use your expertise in what you think I should price them as.

I also made some birthday cards for my cousin and grandma. I'm trying to make more cards to get in the mood of making more stuff for etsy as well as use up some of my supplies. I wanna do more embellishment on boxes too. I already got some stuff for a Christmas present for my friend Loretta where I'm going to be embellishing something with orange/copper colors. I think it will come out nice. I want more useful things as well. I know cards are nice, but once you get them most people just throw them away. People need more useful things. Any ideas on what I can do for useful things?

Flying Away

I am so behind. I totally meant to update on the 6th or 7th, but I was dealing with relationship issues, then I was dealing with cleaning my apartment last week, and this week has just begun.
Anyways, here are my cards from my CollageATCs Yahoo Group August's Flying Things Swap:
In the lower left hand corner I used the bluebird with the red ribbon (it was a stamped image that I colored. In the upper left hand corner I used the bat button, it may be a little hard to see as it's a black button on a black background. In the upper right hand corner, I used the toucan image. In the lower right hand corner I used the UFO, the dinosaur, and the little brown image, it's actually a bear in an airplane.

On the left side I used the two ladybugs, the red one's an eraser, and the bee. I wanted to create something really cool with the bee, as I have been reading this blog lately (and she loves bees, so I wanted to be noticed by her), but I couldn't wrap my mind around something really neat, and I was the last one to make these, I wanted to get them done Friday night, so I could swap everything out and get it in the mail on the 5th. In the upper right hand corner I used the balloons and the kite. I've had that image of the boy hanging around awhile and decided this was the perfect time to use him, I embellished the image with actual string for the balloons and a wire for the kite. In the lower right hand corner I used the 3 lady bug images, enhancing their spots with brads, and the tiny silver bug.

In the lower left corner I used the green ladybug, the green butterfly, the blue dragonfly (inside the butterfly) and the white foam bug (who's been stamped with swirls in green). The green butterfly started out as a hairclip, but I couldn't think of something really cool to do with it. Upper left corner, I used the airplane and the kite flyer. Upper right corner, I used the dragonfly (on a sunglasses lense), the blue butterfly gem and the butterfly ribbon. Lower right corner, I used the owl, the bee and the bug.

I totally planned to have wicked cool cards, but since I was working at the bookstore from the 18th of Aug through the end, I was just so tired at the end of the day. I know, I had from the 1st through the 18th, but it was a pretty busy month, my brother came back on his way to Okoboji, among other things.

Don't get me wrong, I love my cards, I wouldn't have used them for the swap if I didn't, I just wanted them to be better.