bookmark and some ATCs

Here are a few things I made last month for some swaps but never had the time to post them.

melody of love

A few nights ago I did the book page with the flower print. I had a rose from Mother's day that the petals were about to fall off so I thought I would try to use it as a stamp. I love the effect and will have to do it again in the future.

On May 1st Richie and I had our eleven year anniversary (from the time we started dating). Time sure does fly.

more ATCs

I'm missing my art journal and think tonight I will have to play in it for awhile. Lately I've been doing a lot of swaps on swap-bot.com for ATCs and homemade postcards and I haven't had time for my journal. They are fun to make but I think I will slow down on the swaps so I will have some time for other things.

depth postcard

I printed a photo that I took awhile back over a 4x6 collage I made. I used a super thin layer of mod podge in matte to make my collage and waited until the next day to run it through my printer. I was worried it would ruin my printer but I just couldn't resist...lol. Printer still works fine :)

ATC's for swap

So I've been getting back into doing swaps on swap-bot. I thought it would be fun to make some ATC's. I still have 4 more to make but that swap doesn't need to be mailed out until the 22nd. I had so much fun making the postcards that I thought I would use the same idea for a series of ATC's. I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to make the masks and stencil. The other 2 are for a swap using only acrylic paints and nothing else. It was a little challenging for me. I never realized how often I go to grab my pens for detailing. For the black I used my neopaque acrylic paint and a super fine detail brush. That stuff rocks and I would love to get it in white as well.

handmade postcards for a swap

For the butterfly postcard I cut an old shirt gift box to 4x6 and lightly sanded the shiny side to give it some tooth. I then laid down some papers on it with soft gel medium and toned them down with some white gesso. I dabbed on different colors of acrylic paints with a makeup sponge until I got an effect I liked and then toned it down with a little gesso. I dripped on some pearlescent liquid acrylic and ran the empty dropper back and forth and up and down. I laid a piece of paper towel down, lightly pressed, and lifted to give a nice texture in the liquid acrylic. I waited until it was dry so that I wouldn't loose the texture before putting a butterfly cutout down and sponging on some dark blue acrylic paint over and around it. I let it dry overnight and then detailed the butterfly with a Signo silver pen. The autumn postcard is made pretty much the same way just leaving out the pearlescent liquid acrylic. I really need to get some more colors of that stuff because I love the sun-up blue that I have.

Picnic

Charlotte had her first picnic today. We meet Richie on his lunch break at the park in Cocoa Village. I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pretzels. It was a gorgeous day and I'm glad we did something to enjoy it. I forgot the camera or there would be pictures :(
I've never made a postcard and thought I would give it a shot for a swap on swap-bot. I hope she likes it.

I actually got to make some stuff

I got a good picture of Charlotte yesterday which is not really that easy. I took it without the flash and most of them turned out blurry but this one isn't too bad. I was trying to get a good one to put on the card for her Grandpa's birthday.
I've been having fun doing some swaps on swap-bot. I made these bookmarks for a handmade bookmark swap. The corner one I made using a corner off a junk mail envelope. I hope she likes them.
I made this necklace/earring set for my mother-in-laws birthday. I saw the necklace in a beading magazine last year and loved it. I was really pleased with how good the earrings came out. I'm usually not very good at my wire wrapping but I didn't really have any nicks and the shapes came out good.

Well I'm a slacker and haven't taken down the Christmas tree so I better go get started on that while Charlotte is asleep.