Artists' Trading Card (ATC) - November

Here is the penultimate card in my monthly ATC project.  It is again a little more literal, with a simple stencilled background to suggest the breezes and tumbling leaves.  The gemstones I have chosen also reflect the more muted colours of autumn, with oranges and browns.  They are red agate, golden rutile quartz, Tiger's eye, grey moonstone, black rutile quartz (x3) and smoky quartz.  The gemstone of the month is topaz or citrine and I have gone for citrine.

I stamped the leaves, painted them with gouache then cut them out, stuck them on and applied glossy accents to give them a shine (you can just about see it shining on the leaf on the left).

 The back reflects the front, with stencilled leaves this time.  One more left to do and the project is finished.

I am entering this in the Country View Crafts Challenge - 'Anything but a card' - wish me luck!

Artists' Trading Card (ATC) - October

The first of another month and here is my ATC for October.  I used gel prints which I tore up for the collage background in shades of reds, oranges and yellows.  I then stamped pumpkins over the background.  I decided to go with a vintage pumpkin image for the main focal point (which I found at The Graphics Fairy  - a wonderful resource with free images although you can pay and subscribe for more options, should you wish to).

The gemstones have a suitably autumnal feel too, with dyed shell, garnet, red agate, mookite, smoky quartz, tiger's eye and more mookite.  The gemstone for October is opal, so that is added as the charm.

On the back of the card is another image from The Graphics Fairy, of a pheasant, with some stamped and watercoloured acorns and a conker.  This card does suggest autumn to me.
 

Artists' Trading Card (ATC) - September

Where has this year gone?  It seems it was March just the other day.  Here is the ATC for September, focusing on a much more Autumnal feel. The background is more mixed media, using book pages and dripped acrylic paint.  The fruit and berries have had glossy accents on them to add some shine, but this isn't very clear in the photos.

The gemstones are echoing the autumnal colours, with citrine, botswana agate, dyed shell, tiger's eye, red agate and two shades of mookite.  The gem for September is Lapis Lazuli, which is a beautiful deep blue.

On the back, there is the poem for the month and part of an autumn wreath stamp with leaves and berries.  For the first day of September, the weather is lovely with blue skies and sunshine.  

Artist's Trading Card (ATC) - August

The year seems to be going so quickly - it isn't, but it seems that way.  Perhaps this is due to the unusual conditions we have been facing.  Here we are at the beginning of August and my ATC reflects the harvest theme.  I went for a simple image again, with a sort of wheat field, using acrylic paint for the background and stamped images collaged on top.

The gemstones reflect the browns of the wheat - citrine, citrine again, golden rutile quartz, smoky quartz, botswana agate, more botswana agate and tiger's eye.  The gemstone charm is the gemstone for August which is peridot.

The back shows the August poem and a busy bee with some ripe strawberries.  

This card was only just finished in time, due to me being busy with the ICAD challenge.  That has now finished so I can devote myself to other creative activities.

Birthday makes

It was my colleague, Leanne's, birthday last week so I had a lovely time making her cards and gifts.  I used stencils, stamps and dies to make her card (of course, I had to make an envelope as well).

 The inside was decorated with star stencils and little star die cuts.

She has asked for some jewellery - a brown macrame bracelet - this has mookite, tiger's eye, botswana agate and coffee striped agate in it.  (Apologies for the photography as my camera does not like low light levels and in future, I must remember to  use a lamp as well as the main light). The tiger's eye has some lovely colours in it, caramels and toffee, but the photograph is not doing it justice.

 The other thing she wanted was an anklet with black stones.  I made this one using black agate beads and silver plated findings. 

All hell would have broken loose if I hadn't made the traditional 'Russian Roulette Revels Cake' (my go to chocolate cake recipe) with chocolate fudge icing and those innocent looking Revels chocolates.  Yes, I did get a coffee one again - ugh!  Leanne was really pleased with the gifts and the cake.

Jewellery round-up

 As I have made a few pieces of jewellery in the run up to Christmas, I thought I'd create some montages for your perusal.  From the top: a polymer clay and macrame bracelet, made for someone called Robert (you probably realised that!), to replace one his girlfriend had bought him from Turkey and which he'd subsequently lost.  Chris made the polymer clay beads (very cleverly) and I added the macrame.  Next is a bracelet that I made for my best friend in Canada, using Botswana Agate and labradorite.  Under that is one I made for her daughter, our god-daughter, using pink banded agate and black rutile quartz.  The brightly coloured one was for a colleague at work's son, who just wanted bright colours but no beads.

The next photo montage shows a Tiger's Eye bracelet made for a friend who is visiting from London, and then the two finished polymer clay pendants, one with a glitter bead, made for Mum.  The final photo shows a red wood bead bracelet set to a friend who lives in South Africa.

I also made a little something for me, using polymer clay and glitter. I was SO excited to find that there was a special glitter that could be used with the clay and couldn't wait to receive it and start playing.  The beads were made out of scrap clay and then rolled in the glitter, baked and then varnished (so that the glitter will stay where I want it to).  I made the earrings to match and wore them on Christmas Day (and I love them!).  I predict that glitter will feature quite a lot in the jewellery I make in 2013.  Here's to another creative year ahead.