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.

April Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 I am so pleased with how this month's ATC has turned out.  It really says 'Spring' to me.

 The background is blue acrylic paint with white clouds, then branch shapes painted on.  I used texture paste through a blossom stencil, which I painted in shades of pink once dry.  Tiny gold glitter accents add a bit of sparkle.

The gemstones are kyanite, rose quartz, peridot, chrysoprase, kunzite, fluorite and blue lace agate.  The gemstone of the month charm should be diamond (which I don't have) or clear quartz, which I used instead.

The back is decorated with the April rhyme and photos of primroses and daisies from the garden.
I think this could be my favourite card so far.  On to May!
Edited to add:

Here is a (rather dark - apologies) photo of the seasonal tree as it is at the moment.  It has wooden bird and flower pegs together with my felt flowers and birds too.  It will become an Easter tree shortly.  Chris made the tree shape for me and decorating it is something I enjoy as I mark the seasons.

March Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 Here we are on the 1st March.  Storm Jorge (pronounced Hor-hay) has blown over, bringing wind, rain and hail.  Here is my ATC for March.  It is a little more subtle than January or February, but still has texture paste, glitter and foiling as surface decoration.

 The background is meant to suggest 'breezes' and the hare is for 'Mad as a March Hare'.  The gemstones are sky blue apatite, aquamarine, peridot, white moonstone, clear quartz and chrysoprase.  There may be some prehnite in there too (I really should note down what I use).

The back doesn't have texture and you can see the swirls which represent the breeze a little more clearly. The blue paint background has some white marks made using a tool meant for icing. There is a daffodil too, from a napkin.
I hope that March's weather is a little kinder to the country and indeed the world.

Green, white and a hint of pink

 The snowdrops have been growing away recently and I took this shot a few days ago.  They aren't quite as upright now.

 I noticed my camassia bulbs coming through too, again, this was a few days ago.

 This is what the blueberries looked like this morning.  We had a frost and the coldest night of the winter so far.  Now I know that -5 degrees centigrade is not really cold, particularly when America is suffering -30 degrees centigrade, but -5 is cold enough for me. 

 Hydrangea Annabelle always looks elegant, even with dead flowerheads.  They look really sculptural with a layer of frost.

My palm won;t really be liking the cold, but its frosty leaves made a nice pattern.

Rhododendron Tinkerbird edged with white.

 Even the stainless steel spheres looked a bit more magical and mysterious than usual.

 So, there is the green and white.  Where's the pink?  Well, my camellias are trying to flower despite the temperatures and the fact that it is only January (February tomorrow).

 I really hope the bud survives the weather as it looks as though it will be a pretty flower.  I should really have fleeced it - I hope it's not too late!

Another sort of green - peridot and sterling silver earrings.  The pair on the right went to a colleague at work and the pair on the left went to my mum in law.  They both have August birthdays.  I think they liked them.

March Birthdays

March has been a month filled with birthdays for friends and colleagues and it is times like these that I am really pleased I can make gifts. Above is a memory wire bracelet with aquamarine, apatite, peridot, amazonite and lapis lazuli for a colleague.

I also made a card for her, using the Altenew 'Simple Flowers' stamp set, which has a lovely 'retro' feel. I was pleased with the end result. 

 Another colleague was given this memory wire bracelet, with aquamarine, agate, apatite, amazonite, tanzanite and lapis lazuli.

 I made her card using the Altenew 'Half tone circles' stamp set in shades of blues.

 A friend had their 40th birthday, so I printed some wrapping paper using a Blockwallah stamp 'Curious fox' (as she likes foxes).

 I also stamped the envelope...

...and the card (apologies for the bad lighting!)

Inside the card, I used my dies and die cutter to create the 40 (using glitter card) in a silver circle. I made her a beryl stretchy bracelet with sterling silver spacers, like mine from the previous post, and bought her a Blockwallah Curious Fox stamp. some fox material and a few other bits and pieces which I think she liked.
A good thing about making cards and presents is that it is unlikely they will be duplicated!

More kumihimo necklaces - finally completed

 I have made a few of these kumihimo (Japanese braiding technique) necklaces now and have finally finished three which just needed the ends completing.  I chose colours that I wear at work in the winter.  The purple one above uses 6mm faceted and plain gemstones.

 The blue one uses 6mm faceted and plain gemstones too...

...whereas this blue/green one uses gemstone chips.  I wanted to use the Chartreuse S-Lon cord in a piece of jewellery, so decided to try it out here.

Here's a close up of the purple stones which include amethyst, fluorite, agate, lavender amethyst.

 The blue one has aquamarine, different agates, lapis lazuli and sodalite in it.

The blue/green one has peridot (which matched the Chartreuse cord beautifully), amazonite, apatite and aquamarine.
I really enjoy the repetitive aspect of kumihimo which does become a relaxing and meditative activity.

Update on the wall situation:  the wall man came to have a look at the damage and said that a fence would be cheaper, but a wall could be put back, although not with the old bricks.  However, this would involve foundations four bricks width each side, so would mean the raised border would have to go and I would need to save the plants I wanted and then start again.  We are waiting for the quote...

Finished necklaces

I finally got around to making some necklaces.  The one above features my polymer clay bead, with peridot, aqaumarine, amazonite and apatite chips, both on the necklace itself and in the tassel.  I think the colours of the gemstones really complement the polymer bead.

You may remember that I bought this peridot chip necklace at the car boot sale.  I have taken it apart and am using the peridot from it.

As I was in jewellery-making mode, I also made this necklace, using pearls from a previously bought necklace, aquamarine, peridot, two colours of apatite and amazonite chips.  I spent hours threading the chips onto the beading thread, held it up to judge the length, then promptly dropped the end without the bead stopper on it! Consequently, everything fell off, rolling to the far corners of the room and I then spent quite a few minutes retrieving it all, with a few choice words being said at the same time!  Once I had recovered, I set to and re-threaded it all on again. (Note to self: use a stopper bead on both ends when judging length of necklace!)  However, I do like the result as these teal/blue/green colours are favourites of mine and it is a necklace I shall wear a lot.

Car Boot Sale goodies

With the lure of lots of plant stalls, which is what Chris told me, he persuaded me to go to a local car boot sale on Saturday.  It was a very hot day, but I had the foresight to take a bottle of water with me and we had both put suncream on.  A few years ago, I would have come home with a huge amount of things, but I am slowly realising that we don't have a lot of room for more stuff, so anything I bought would need to be small and easy to store.  I think I did reasonably well!  Above is a rubber stamp with a really intricate pattern, which I thought would work well with polymer clay as well as with ink and embossing powder, to use with paper crafts.

Of course, I needed to try it out and then paint it with my metallic paints, which gave a nice effect.

(I still need to be a bit more careful to keep in the lines!)

 I also bought this little cat stamp too, which worked well.

 I saw some little flower brooches at a vintage fair a few months ago, and although I really liked them, I couldn't justify the price that was being asked,  So, when I saw these, I almost pounced on them!  There is a brooch and a pair of earrings and the little white carnation has broken off something else, but I couldn't just leave it there, now could I?

 Seeing the brooches at the vintage fair made me think I could make something in a similar style, so here is one of my attempts made from polymer clay at the front.   I think I did quite well with the colours!

 I also bought these earrings which I think I shall take apart and use as charms in other pieces.

There was also this peridot chip necklace which I shall also take apart and use other jewellery - perhaps in a memory wire bracelet.
There were a couple of plant stalls and I did buy two lavender plants as I haven't had much success in keeping lavender and would like to try one more time...
All in all, I did quite well, I think.  Small things, easy to store and not costing too much money!