Upcycling my ATC's !

Church by Furryboots

Red leaf by Lyndee

little girl by Bottledolphin

I have been making and swapping ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) for over 5 years now and have amassed quite a collection. They feature all sorts of themes, colours, materials and techniques!

Most ATCs sit in folders or on my desk at work and I have a great display of Christmas ones in my lounge at the moment.

Some of my regular swapees have given me permission to reuse or upcycle them into new cards - and here are a few I have recently converted.

Cricket by SandyPonty

What A Lady - Craft Stamper Stamp!

I treat myself to a subscription to Craft Stamper magazine, because it is different from the other card making magazines and it always has a great free stamp!

Although I am not good ( and don't have time) to try out all the interesting techniques they use with gesso, alcohol inks, distressing etc - I admire those who can produce some fabulous work.

This month stamp is a head and shoulders portrait of a  1920's lady from the Milliner Misses range by Rogue Redhead Designs. 

Over on Docrafts there is a monthly ATC swap  hosted by Kathleen, using the free stamp, and it always encourages me to have a play and experiment with the stamp for this. These are this months offerings from me!

Christmas Card Marathon is nearly over!

Although I only started in September, I estimate that I have made over 200 cards so far, half of which have gone to the Cancer Information charity in Ipswich. Yesterday I sat down to write out my cards ready to send to family and friends, and couldn't find designs suitable to send to a couple of them, so despite having stacks of cards left over,I will be making more today (note to self: cut down on the cute cards, they are not everyone's cup of tea)

Mind you, I have got a large plastic crate crammed full of Christmas papers, stamps and embellishments. There must be something in there to inspire me!!

Fab Card Making Session!

Just got home from from visiting my friend Francesca, where we had a long overdue card making and chatting session.

We both recycled old Christmas cards to make new ones for this year - using some of Francesca's large pile of punched out snowflakes to add a bit of sparkle to them!

I made 7 cards but Francesca made a bit less, because she had to take time out to make a delicious lunch!

I also had a play with some of her new Christmas stamps and love this Christmas tree one - I thought it was very stylish, so stamped off a few more to use later.

Gold & Vellum Christmas Cards

Just a selection of gold and vellum cards - although I have made many general Christmas cards, I am stumped for some special, personalised cards for my close family. I hope inspiration strikes soon as its only a month to go!

Purple & Lime at Christmas???

I wasn't sure about this purple and lime colour scheme by Craftwork cards - they didn't seem very traditional or Christmassy!. 

However they have started to grow on me and do look clean and modern - perhaps they will do for the cool and hip twenty somethings in the family!

Polar Bears

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - been laid low with the dreaded Winter Vomiting bug.

Just feeling better now - knew I was ill because I didn't want to do any crafting. These cards both feature 2 polar bears staring at the stars in the sky and I love both of the images - they are so evocative!

Forever Friends at Christmas ...

A selection of a few 'Forever Friends' Christmas cards I made this week - I must be going through a bit of a cute phase!

Christmas Cards for Pagans

I have a couple of friends who are Pagans and who don't really want to celebrate Christmas, but I don't want them to miss out on cards, so I have made these "Winter Wishes" cards which I hope they would like instead.

I now have a blog where I sell cards suitable for Pagans to send or receive over Christmas time at pagancards.blogspot.co.uk

Modern & Bright ..

Not my usual style, but I wanted to use up some freebie papers from a magazine and get out of my comfort zone! 

I think these Christmas cards will probably end up going to some of the teenagers in the family.

Scraps Away!

A few more Christmas cards made up with left over scraps from other cards! Feeling chuffed about making a small dent in my paper pile!

Bearly Mine has a fabulous pile of candy which even includes a new Epson printer!!!

Scrappy card

At long last, a  Christmas card made using up some paper scraps rather than creating them!

Lucky Me!

I was lucky enough today to win a free NitWit Potting Shed  download from Papercraft Essentials today - I love Nitwits and have several of their digital collections already.

Then I was told that a card of mine has been picked as the Star Card in the latest edition of Making Cards Magazine! As good things come in threes, I ought to rush out and buy a lottery ticket !!

A Herd of Reindeer

I've now had a bit of a Rudolf phase in my Christmas card making as you can see!

Sorry - yet more red Christmas Cards!

It will be a red, red Christmas..

For some reason I seem to be making a lot of red Christmas cards at the moment - not sure why?

 I don't know about you, but I never know how a card will turn out when I start, I just start with the main image and play around with papers and embellishments until  I like the results!

Tatty Button - Robins Present

I was lucky enough to get one of the Craft Barns Goodie Bags on Saturday - they sell out very quickly! 

For only £15 I got over £50 of stuff including a lovely Tatty Button stamp called Robins Present. As soon as the parcel was delivered in Thursday I just had to have a play.

I had great fun colouring her in with Promarkers in different colourways and making up these Christmas cards.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit ....

Getting into the swing of Christmas card making, although it still feels too warm at the moment ( I mustn't complain though!)

Went to a car boot sale this morning and got some real bargains - a pair Swarovski snowflake candlesticks for £2.50 ( they sell for about £20 each on eBay) and a large pad of A4 Xmas papers, snowflake punch and set of Christmas embellishments for only £2, well pleased!