Long time no blog…

wow it’s been a while since I’ve blogged here. I have been making ATC’s every week for the challenge blog, though I have been running behind. Sometimes I just don’t know where the time goes!

I’ve been in a few inchies swaps. I haven’t taken photos of a lot of my swaps, so I’ll have to find the bags and take some. I did a undersea swap and I have got photos of those. It was lots of fun! I can’t wait to see what others came up with.

Off to a retreat on the last weekend of the month with my mates. We are really excited about it! Went to a crop a week ago. My friend Kylie won a pink Cricut Expressions!! Awesome eh? She’s so kind, she’s lent it to me until the retreat to have a play :) Already cut a few things and I’ve only had it a day hahah! 
I am really hooked on inchies. I am going to try doing 1k of them before the years end…. LOL That is crazy talk! It’s only 4 a day.. going to try. Some will be for swaps, but I will only be counting the 1 that I keep, not the 5 etc that I make :) Gunna be one hell of a challenge! I shall try and post my progress often!

Stuff about Stuff

Car Accident/Insurance

Well I am really happy, mum got a call from the insurance agency and it looks like the lady’s insurance will pay out $3,400. The assessor actually looked at the car as a whole, not just the paint job, which honestly surprised us. We were expecting them to be stingy and go the low end of her market value, even though her car was in excellent working condition. One good thing, in August/Sept while mum was O/s she wanted us to go and get it repainted for her, but the cost was quiet high, so we didn’t.. Good thing too or a few months later it would have been a waste!!

Local Scrapping

Have been having a lot of scrapping with some of my local scrap-a-holics lol. It’s really great to scrap with others, I never achieve much, but I have a good time none the less. I got sick of carrying my stuff around in plastic bags, so I bought myself a tote. It was $62.50 from my LSS, it was down from $125 ;)

Retreat

I am going on a local retreat. It’s held just out of Bacchus Marsh and is at the end of May. I am really excited. Kylie let me know about it, but quiet a few from our scrappy circle will be going. So it will be great!

ATC Challenge Blog

The girls have been doing so well keeping up. We’ve already given away a few prizes. Some more will be coming up soon. Week 26 is our big give away (you have to have done 26/26 ATC’s but if you haven’t been with us since the start that’s ok, you just need to get them all done by week 26.)

The way the year’s flying I’d best think of something for week 52 lol.

Inchies and ATC swaps

There’s another inchie swap on the group. Theme is Nature. I can’t wait to see what the girls come up with!! Signups are open until the 7th of March.
There is also a Wings ATC Swap, signups close on the 10th of March.

Abc swaps

Today’s letter is K – Knickerbockers

Abc Swaps

Today’s letter is J – Jackrabbit

Abc... Swaps

Today’s letter is I - Imagination

Abc Swap

Todays letter is H - Holly

3 ATC’s and a Card

The top card, the man’s world was my first attempt at a local swap I am in, the theme Boy.. I didn’t really like this one, well I just didn’t think it was really boy, more man. So I did the “Harry Potter ain’t got nothing on me” and was MUCH more happy!!!! The button fairy atc is for Australian ATC swaps. The Thank You card is for my Aunt who gave me a lovely bowl and plate as a very late engagement present.. Still the first we ever got LOL!!

Weekly ATC Diary

I have created a challenge blog as part of a yahoo group (ATCs4U). Everyone, including non members, are welcome to participate, if you blog your achievement and put a comment in on the Diary blog, I will be sure to add your picture and your blog link. Here is the blog

How To : Butterfly ATC's

This swap was for YSB, the theme was Butterfly. These are my ATC’s. I really like them they are bright and very shimmery in RL.

**Update**
I was asked how I made these so I thought I'd put the answer here so you can all share in it.

Firstly I stamped with Versamark.
I have a plastic paint pallet(from the reject store) that has Tim Holtz re-inkers in it also has perfect pearls in some of the colours and I just add water when I need to use the colour. So for the background, I rewet the colours I needed and on a piece of white cardstock did a real wet wash mixing the colours slightly.
Then while that was drying on white cardstock I stamped the butterfly in Versamark, then pounced on perfect pearls. (you can see a vid on how to do this on Tim Hotlz blog) misted it with water to set and then cut it out and added the bling.
Stamped the prase and then added the butterfly to the ATC.
Lots of fun!

Been a little slack

Ok I’ve been a bit slack since getting home LOL I haven’t been to blog once, I think I outdid myself while away ;) Got home on the 16th of Nov, then went up to mum’s that weekend, ended up staying there until the Wednesday. She took me to Beauford so Michael could pick me up close to home. Was lovely catching up with her again! Had been so long since we’d seen each other, she left for her trip on the 19th of August.
Since I’ve been home I have done a little craft stuff. I made 3 cards for the Allcraftz 2nd Birthday.. Made my Wizard of Oz ATC’s and Christmas ATC’s for there too.. Made a couple of cards for a Paperstars swap.. Made a Zetti’ish card for a girl in America who ended up sending me 2 cards, because Michael hid her first one while I was away. So I thought it would be nice to make her a thankyou/apology. Hope you like looking!

Abc.. Swap

Today’s letter is G - Girl.

Abc swap

Today’s letter is F - Flowers

 

Abc. Swap

Today’s letter is E - Eskimo.

Abc. Swap

Today’s letter is D - Drama.

Abc.. Swap

Today’s letter is C - Cars.

Abc. Swap

Today’s letter is B - Birds.

Abc.. Swap

 
I’m in an ABC ATC swap at the moment. I am loving it. We’ve already received our first 3 letters back and I have sent of the next letters. I thought I’d showcase them here everyday for the 7 letters that I’ve done.

Todays letter is A – Adventure.

Getting excited

I’m getting very excited I will be going away very soon and I am really looking forward to it! For those that don’t know. I am going to Brisbane for a week and then my best friend, her girlfriend and I are off to Thailand and Malaysia for 12 nights. I’ll be away from home for about 3 weeks.. Will I survive with out ATC’s?? Don’t fear, I have some stuff prepped to take LOL

I have never been to either country so it’s really exciting. I am looking forward to eating, shopping, swimming and getting massages :)
I’ve set up my ABC swap that I am in to post every day over the next 7 days so be sure to stop by and check them out. I have done A thru to G at the moment. I probably won’t get a chance to work on the others before I go away, so you’ll just have to wait :P
Here are some recent-ish ATC’s. The elephant and windmill are country swaps. First India and the second France. The Imagination one is a pink ribbon swap, and the last one was a spring swap.

Addiction?

   
I think maybe I am really an addict LOL I have finally finished sorting all my ATC’s I have something like 600 of the little suckers. Not bad considering I only started making them last April, that’s about 18 months ago.. Which means I make something like 30 ATC’s a month ahahah!
If you click on the picture you can see a much larger version, so you can see some close up.
Ok here is a recent ATC I made for a flickr swap..


A layout I did for YSB last month as part of the monthly challenges. This month there are some great challenges up, but with going away I am not going to be able to play :( I am also going to miss the second cyber crop.. So head along and have some fun for me :)

Last but not least is Michael’s Mothers birthday card. I made it a week or two back. Her birthday isn’t until mid Nov, but I will be away so I did it early.. I hope he remembers to post it haha!!

ATC CJ – Loulou

Here is LouLou’s ATC. Her’s in the final my CJ line. I couldn’t think what to do Linda’s theme was travel and/or postage stamps. So I went with travel and stamped some postage stamps down the side. I used mostly distressing inks, stamps are PaperArtsy and Clearly Impressed. Both of which I love!

I stamped the ticket on white card and inked it brown and tore the bottom, scrunched it a little and inked the top again. The ‘keys’ tag I stamped on the same white card and just distressed it with mahogany ink, added an eyelet and a brad so that it can be turned on the ATC. I hope she likes it.