Free as a Bird - a freedom collage ATC for Sunday Stamper's challenge to celebrate Sunday Stamper's 100th. http://pinkleart.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunday-stamper-week-100-free-as.html

I thought I would make some inchies based on ideas around "freedom" but then decided it would be more free if I just stamped and tore small images on left over bits of paper, and then I added a few left over jewels and a butterfly stamped on vellum that I made ages ago and never used.

For all the inchy fans out there - don't forget to check out inchy by inch http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/ and they have some fabulous blog candy available now !

Something Completely Different - letter H. Not such an easy letter, but there are a few good ideas for H. I've made another ATC (what a surprise !) - this one is H for Happiness and Hearts. I love this stamp - Happiness comes to us more each time we give it away - it seems to be the perfect wording for ATCs. Anyway, I've now made 4 letter themed ATCs this month for the challenge, and they ought to be swapped or given away, so if anybody reading this would like to receive an actual ATC from me, please let me know, and the first 4 people (who can supply a UK postal address) will get them.

An inchie on the letter M. After a while, M made me think of Martinis, and James Bond, whose boss is called M. So I embossed a martini onto colour-core card, inked it with silver, added some silver glitter, and put it onto a bit of glittery silver card. The first version I made had the embossing rubbed back to reveal the card core, but I didn't like the effect, so remade it like this. Sorry its another terrible photo - I thought the bright sunshine would help show up the glitter but its just given me a horrible shadow on the left hand side instead ! Its supposed to look very sophisticated, being all black and silver, but doesn't quite work. And the martini glass is a bit too big to fit on an inchie - still I had fun making this. http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

An ATC for Art Pieces on this week's theme "Numbers". I made three inchies, coloured with watercolours, distress inks, and sakura pens with a bot of glitter on top, and put them on an ATC coloured with blue and green distress inks. http://artpieceschallenges.blogspot.com/.

Here is an ATC on the theme of pearls, using a vintage image from Craft Stamper magazine, some pink and white pearlescent paper, and pink, white and blue pearls. I thought that pearls go with vintage really well. The picture doesn't really show the pearls very well - some of them are pink. This is my first ever ATC for Art Pieces - a weekly ATC challenge blog. See http://artpieceschallenges.blogspot.com/

Here is my Something Completely Different Challenge. D is for Dots, with a Domino, Dusty concord Distress ink and a "Diamond".

Here at last, very late, are the ATCs I made for Something Completely Different's ATC swap a few months ago, and (above) the four super ATCs I received. Love the keys one with the plastic on it, but it broke when I put in the scanner tonight - so sorry. Oh, wow, what a struggle to get these pictures to upload and post - don't know what I'm doing wrong but its finally going right !

Today I went to the Stamping and Scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace. Bought a few bits and pieces, met two of my crafty penfriends in person, had a good time. Only swapped 6 ATCs, though - not a lot of people swapping this time. Came home and made an ATC for the Something Completely Different take a letter challenge. B is a Brown Bear with a Blue Balloon.

Today I have used my day off to make some Vintage ATCs for the Artist Trading Club's monthly swap. Lots of fun. Many thanks to Craft Stamper magazine for lots of super vintage downloads, and other sites too ! Not my usual thing, but I did a bit of distressing. I had some lovely lacy flowers in stock, and a card of old buttons that I bought in a charity shop ages ago - not sure how old they are. But they were too good to use as such, so I scanned the card of buttons, printed them off and cut out pictures of them not the real thing.

Photos of some Easter flowers.

A couple of "With a Flourish" ATCs for Craft Stamper magazine's swap - a flourish bird and flourish best wishes using Crafter's Companion papers and an Anita's stamp with some purple glitter. I'm still experimenting with scanning pictures in - these were scanned directly rather than taking a digital photo first. I think they better in real life than in the photo but they're not my best work !

Yesterday (Holy Saturday) I spent a very happy morning in church helping to arrange flowers (photos to come when I remember to take my camera to church) and then I came home and started painting some more watercolour backgrounds for ATCs. My next task is to make some flourish ATCs for Craft Stamper magazine, then I need to create two "April Showers" ATCs for this months swap with my crafty penfriends in Brighton, and vintage ATCs for the Artist Trading Club. I also succeeded in importing some of our digital photos onto the computer. Today (Easter Sunday) my challenge in the afternoon was to find and post a photo as part of my profile. Its not a very good photo but it was taken after a balloon ride - part of my 50th birthday treat given to me by my husband, although the weather did not permit us to fly on a balloon until several months after my birthday ! We had a great time, and the winds were such that we flew quite near our house and were able to take some pictures of our part of Reading in the evening sun before flying right over Henley Town Hall and landing in a field near Booker airfield.

Sorry its not a very good photo, but this is the first one I have ever posted !

Still trying to set up a blog and get access to it to keep posting.

Today I made an ATC for Something Completely Different, using the letter W. After painting a blue and black background on Watercolour paper, I added Words, a stamped Watch, and a White, Winged butterfly (which flies around the watch - thanks to Michelle Jackson-Mogford's Funky Greetings workshop at Olympia last month - see http://www.mjm-thearttart.com/).

This morning, Good Friday, we did craft activities in our local church hall for very young children. I helped them to decorate candles with hand moulding wax - not so easy if your hands are cold, even though I softened the wax on top of a microwave wheat pad first, but we made some interesting Paschal Candles and had great fun.