My easter monday ATCs

Yesterday i had so much fun making new ATCs. I even played with my Adirondack colour washes. I have 11 of the colours but still i want more. Wish they did more colours. Yes, i know....greedy old me :) but they are a product i simply adore.

Last night i won 14 stampers anonymous stamps from a seller in the USA. The lady bought them but is giving up crafts, so she auctioned the lot for $38 plus $11.50 for international shipping. These stamps would have cost me between £7 and £12 each over here so i got a real bargain. Soon as they arrive i will be showing them off. Just hope they arrive fast. These stamps will go with the collection i already have that i bought from the Ally pally in 2002. Amazing how these images are still being sold today,lol!

So here are my new ATCs. I know, Mona is back, but i love her. She is the Lost Coasts Designs Mona Lisa that i got from Karen@scrapz. I love this stamp so very much. Such an easy image to use, but she is very addictive for me. I could use her all the time, but i know people will be borded seeing her.

The jig-saw piece is my own design as i cut it out myself. Mona was coloured using my decorating chalks and then i double embossed her with ultra fine embossing powder. I double emboss everything if it dont move,lol. The ICU 2 ATC is the eye cut from stamp by Hampton Art and is called Diffusion. The image its attached to is a rubber stamp by Hero Arts called Optical Block. And the head stamp is from Scrapz. Its a lovely image that i need to learn to get the best from. The head is coloured with Glimmer Mists from the Moulin Rouge collection.

The sun is out, and im off to play. Got so many ideas swimming around my head. Hopefully i will have another couple done by the end of the day. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday?

Hugs

Tina

xx

Happy Easter Sunday

Just a quick message to say Happy Easter Sunday. Hope you all had a fantastic time and didnt eat too many eggs :)

Today was a magical day for me. It snowed. Not that exciting for some i know, but for me snow is everything. I live in a part of the counrty than never see's snow. So for it to snow today and lay nice and think was a dream. I was like a little kid playing ball with the dogs and throwing snowballs at my daught her Sammie. It was so much fun out there. I took loads of photos for scrapbook pages i plan to do. Every year i buy papers and embellishments just in the hope i get to see snow and it never happens. But today was wonderful. I loved every moment of it. We all came is freezing cold and soaking wet from head to toe.

I was going to make some ACTs but they can wait. Some id 100 times better,lol!

Today Ted the rescue foal met my Duke and what a laugh that was. The went around the field chasing each other. they slipped, kicked and bucked. Now they are grazing like they have lived together all thier life. So i have 2 happy young men who will be good for one another.

See you all tomorrow with more news?

Hugs

Tina

xx

Happy Easter Weekend.

Happy Easter Holidays to you all. Ive had a lovely lazy few days just reading an old batch of Somerset Studio Magaines ive had since 1998. How strange to look at them and see see cards then made with very artsy stamps. Those stamps are still around today and i have a lot of them in my collection. The magazines dont look dated at all. In fact they look more artistic than any of the craft magazines you see today in the shops. The UK is still years behind.

So, you see, ive made loads of ATCs. Ive gone with a collage image theme, but ive made all of my own backgrounds. Ive not cheated,lol! They are all my own creation and yet again ive come out of the comfort zone to try new things. Am i pleased with them? Well??? I wasnt at first. I hated them to begine with as i thought they looked amaturish if you know what i mean? But i tweeked about with them and in the end they gelled nicely. Im very pleased with them now. I wont let anyone see things im not happy with.

The scanner is still not to my liking and ive been fiddling with the settings but they are still a bit bright. The colours are good, rich and bold. Some have Twinkling H20s for a wash of colour as well. Most are embossed to add texture as well.

Anyway, hope you like them as much as i do this time. If you want to swap let me know as im more than happy to do so.

Hugs

Tina

xx

My Easter Egg!

Tonight when hubby got in he surprised me by giving me this hugh Thorntons Easter Egg. Never before have i had an Easter present from him, and i feel guilty as i dont have anything for him.

Anyway, this egg is so pretty i just had to take a photo of it. Well, its Easter after all :)

The crunch came when my youngest daughter dropped the bombshell she saw this egg in Thrornton's , and there was no way she would pay £60 for it. I nearly fell off my chair. All i could think off was how that lovely money could have been turned into lovely rubber for my craft studio. How can they justify charging that for a bit of chocolate and some fancy choc's around the base of it? Rip off if you ask me. Oh well, better not sound ungrateful as im not, but really.....who in their right mind would choose and egg over rubber?

The choc's are very nice, and i will get hubby and the kids to help me eat the egg. If not i will still have it by next Easter,lol! Im not a chocolate eater as i like to keep toned for the riding i do with my horses.

Anyway, next year it will be rubber even if it is egg shaped :)

Hugs

T

xx

She does spoil me!

Thank you Karen for the black Stazon pad. Its arrived this morning with a load more new toys. But of all my new toys the ink pad is the most wanted and the most appreciated. I love it. Ive had a play with it, and what a joy it is to get the best quality image print out. You are a life saver hun.

Some of the goodies have starting arriving from America i ordered last week, and Crafty Individuals sent me the rest of my toys. Got lots of free goodies from them as well which is always nice. I love their background paper pad and the collage sheets as well they sell.

I have made some more ACTs this morning but they are not dry and i wont upload them till i have finished them. Very pleased indeed with how they have turned out. Tomorrow i plan to do a bunch more of them. As we have a lovely long holiday weekend in front of us i plan to make the most of it.

Ive laid another 2 stables as the weather is meant to bad. This morning we had icy rain, so i went into the foaling box and laid a super thick straw bed for Duke. He is still on his own as Ted isnt ready to join him yet. If the weather turns then i shall put Ted, Price and Toby in the stables for protection. Poor Ted has no meat on his bones to keep him warm so he needs a stable.

Have a great day? Im off to play. Ive got some much new stuff i dont know where or what to start with first.

Tina

xx

Some New Toys

Today i took delivery of a load of new toys. The tins of stamps are amazing. They are all wooden backed and you get a lovely ink pad in with the stamps. In each tin there are between 11 and 16 stamps. The birds are so beautiful, and the images print out so fine and detailed. The Paris collection is just so Ohh La la! The stamps again are fine and detailed and i have so many uses for them.

The unmounted stamps are really ornate in the bird theme. I love them, and the images of ladies and children are lush. My stazon ink pad is running out of ink so its not printing off as well as it should be, but Karen at Scrapz has a re inker on order for me. Im blowed if im buying another ink pad. Nothing annoys me more than having to buy a new ink pad when you can use the re-inkers on them. So for now i have to make do as i hate any other black ink pad. I wont use them no matter what. Stazon is the best in my eyes. Right now my poor ink pad is in the fridge upside down to get the last of the ink out of it,lol. I will have to use my Black Soot Tim Holtz distressing ink pad. Lovely, but not as good as the Stazon.

Speaking of ink pads, just took delivery of three new ones. I have the grand total of 77 ink pads and im not jesting either. Some of the pads are between 0 and 7 years old. The older ones are working just as well as they did when i first bought them.

Hopefully the postie will deliver the rest of my goodies tomorrow. I know i wont get the things from america till next week, but im being good by not worry gutsing over them,lol.

Tina

Ted Has Arrived!

Poor Ted arrived yesterday in a very sorry state. He was gelded in the morning ( Casterated for those who dont know), and arrived here very sore. So instead of putting him in with Duke my foal i decided to put him in my 3rd paddock where he would get plenty of good grass and peace and quiet. He is very thin but had a long shaggy fur coat that makes him look fat.

He is being fed 4 small meals a day along with this pain killers and anti bioties which he is on for a week. I have to feed little and often as he isnt used to hard feed and could get colic.

This morning he was really grumpy. A lot of that is due to his pain killers wearing off. He is now in the sun and happy talking to my two others over the hedge.

Maybe tomorrow if he is happy he will go in with Duke.

Here are some photos of him. He looks poor but that is because he is a seizure from the police on certain grounds.

Had a play with my camera

Today after doing the horses i decided to have a play with my camera and the ATCs. Im not at all happy with the scans i do of them. So, as i used to be a freelance photographer i decided i could do better.

Ive made a lovely ATC using stamps from Karen at Scrapz, and the background really is detailed and textured. Using macro on my camera and opening the appature i think ive managed to capture what i want everyone to see.

Have a look and see if you agree? Can you see the embossing and the way i controlled the embossing effects? I never leave anything to chance. If i want a perfect finish then i get a perfect finish. Embossing is something i control, not something that controls me. But saying that i have been embossing for 8 years now. I should know what im doing.

Next week is my anniversery of card making. Oh how i have learnt so much from those years. More about that next week though :)

I guess i wouldnt be a design team member if i didnt have the miles behind me :). Maybe ask Karen at Scrapz and she will tell you why im a designer for her, and the wonderful items she sells.

Hugs

Tina

xx

Here are my two new ATCs i made today. I did make 3 but one of them wont stick, so ive just had to re-do the sticking. As soon as the ATC is glued hard and fast i will load it up. Tomorrow i have a very busy day as i have a new horse arriving. His name is Ted and he is victim of a cruelty case. Cant say too much as the courts have only just released him to me, but this young man needs so much TLC. Here he will live with Duke my foal and together they will learn and love, trust & respect.

Tim Holtz Wings Rubber Stamps

Last week i treated myself to tonz of new rubber from Karen at scrapz. Oh boy, was i impressed with it all. I love my new stuff. But the ones that caught my attention were the Tim Holtz Wings rubber stamps. I got the very large tickets stamp that has 12 tickets on it, the Word "Dream", the little boy and the man. As the man was a little big i had to cut off the wings and reposition them.

Then i coloured both ATCs isn chalks and built up the colour as i went along. I love my chalk sets. The decorating chalks are the best money can buy as the colours are so vibrant and rich, plus they dont come off. You dont have to fix them with spray. So far i have the large set and 3 of the add on colour sets. In the past ive wasted my money on other brands of chalks but they are not up to the job. In fact i think they let your work down.

Ive had my large set of chalks for 8 years now and they are still going strong. Remember, if you want a qulaity chalk set them get these ones.

Anyway, back to my rubber. I got loads of Lost Coast design rubber stamps as well. How i love this company. they make some of the nicest images ever.

This morning i treated myself to some new stamps with birds on them. A set of 4 floral birds. Plus they had some very artsy images and got them as well. Soon as they arrive i will be playing with them as i have loads of ideas.

Enjoy the new ATCs and i hope you like the colours i have picked this time.

Tina

xx

Paris

Had a little play this morning and came up with this Paris ATC. The stamp of the lady is a Paper Artsy. The paris stamps are by Limited Edition which i bought from the usa ages ago. The dragonfly was a brass charm that i painted using the marvey metallic markers i bought from Scrapz.

The image isnt blured. In fact its very crisp and neat. Its just that the scanner and the cropping made it look that way.

Im in a purple, lilac and lavender mood still. Im gonna have a go at pinks next followed by blues.

Have a lovely sunday?

Tina

xx

This ATC has now been swapped.

KAREN

This weekend has been given to me. I dont have to do a hands turn. Eldest DD left home yesterday and its left me numb and shocked. Ive had a few days to get used to the idea, but still, im shocked. Karen has been there every step of the way. Offering me a shoulder to cry on, and good advice. Ive bend her ear something shocking, but never has she told me to go and pull myself together.

So yesterday i shut myself away and made her these ATCs. Its ajust a little bit of me to say Thank you hun for being there and never once pushing me away. means a lot to me.

Ive used crows or ravens or whatever these birds are meant to be,lol. And the backgrounds are my scrap paper i use to ink over. The papers are too good to chuck out. I love them as they look so pretty.

Anyway, Thank you Karen. These will be in the post tomorrow for you.

Hugs

Tina

xx

A Pair of pears

At last they are finished. Even though i say it myself, i have to admit they turned out better than i thought they would. I love the rich colours of them. Thing that i found difficult was the wording. What the heck do you put on Pear ATCs? Oh well, who care's?

They are now done and im finished for the day. Another day tomorrow and its payday for me. I can get all the wonderful goodies from Scrapz that ive had put aside. Must have14 new stamps, bottles of ink and some Tim Holtz goodies to play with. Got a busy weekend ahead of me. Hopefully the goodies will be here for me to play with. If not then i will play with all the stuff i was given by a friend.

Tina AKA Miss inky Fingers :)

Sweet pears has now been swapped.

Learning with new colours

Today i decided id have a play with colours. Got to get out of the vintage look or shabby chic as i call them. So i went for burnt orange and pumpkin oranges, lilacs and lavenders, and purples.

The little fairy sitting on the art ticket was given to me by a friend. Isnt she just the cutiest ever? Might be a bit too purple for some, but i love the colours. I painted her wings with Twinkling H2os, as was her dress and shoes.

The Mona Lisa was just stamped onto semi gloss card kindly given to me by Karen of Scrapz. Great stuff that takes most mediums. I mounted Mona onto a background i made using Ranger Adirondack Tim Holtz Alcohol inks in Butterscotch, Terracotta, and rust. I added some gold mixative to it and a few drops of blending fluid. Then i embossed some artist brown dye ink that was stamped with a script stamp by Penny Black.

The fly me to the moon was a nice easy one. I was playing with inks and making background with a sheet of plain card under my work. I move the card about so got a mish mash of colours from all the inks used. I looked at the card and as a rule of thunb i normally throw it away, but decided to pick a section of the mess and cut it out. It looked so pretty i mounted it to a atc card. Then i stamped on it. Thats how it all come together for me. You would never know this was scrap that would have been cucked away.

Anyway, im working on 2 pear fruit ATCs right now. Looking really lovely as ive used the metallics mixative inks by Rangers. Wont say no more. Let me finish them and then you can judge for yourself.

Have a lovely day folks, and remember....get those fingers nice and inky :)

Hugs

Tina

xx

All three ATCs have now been swapped.

Told myself i need to learn how to do ATCs that involve the basic's like a stamp and inks. This has been one of the hardest challenges for me to do. In fact, ive failed. i just cant get my mind around that kind of ATC. I look at the finished item and it looks naked....know what i mean? I did 4 ATCs and i just did'nt like the effect so had to add the addition of an embellishment or 2 or 3 :)

In the end i felt pleased with the results. Its more me to add a few things to them. I enjoy them better. I also love the little faries and children i add to ATCs.They cheer me up with their cute little smiles.

Thank you to Karen for the support she has given me these last few days. Without her id have been a mess. You keep me going hun, even in my darkest hour.

Hugs

Tina

xx

What a morning its been with the gales. From 5am onwards the winds have blown very hard. We have had rain and snow. I kept the horses in till noon when the winds dropped, but they have come back again. Oh well, the horses are happier out there facing the elements. Stops them being bored. If the gets worse then they will have to come back in.
So here are today's ATCs that i made yesterday and finished off today. The stamps used for the crazy looking ladies is Lost Coast Designs. I bought them from Karen at scrapz. I love this range of stamps. There is so much you can do with them.
The Crow ATC is a favourite of mine. I love birds so when i saw this plate of stamps for sale i knew i just had to have them. They are by a company called Evoke and the plates name is black birds. You get loads on the plate so very good value for money.
If you like any of the ATCs then leave me a message or email me and lets see if we can trade? Im in a good mood as my DD passed her driving test today in this vile weather. if she can hold her nerve and drive well in weather like this then i have no worries.
Tina
xx

Most of these ATCs are gone, but if you see something you like then please contact me. Thanks to Karen giving them a home, well not all of them, she isnt greedy like me,lol! A joke Karen and i share. But she has left a couple up for grabs.

Thanks for looking.

Tina

xx

The Ravens and Mona Lisa are calling....

I'm so in love with Raven, Crow, and bird images. Ive got a few rubber stamps with them on, so decided i needed to use them. Thing is they were not the sort of images that i have in my comfort zone. But once i started playing with them, the more i was addicted to them. I will have to be careful as they could take over. I also cant stop using my Mona Lisa rubber stamp either. I won her from Scrapz. She is one amazing stamp will a million possibilities. Im so in love with her. Anyway, have a look at my new creations. Im off to play some more.

More ATCs at long last.

What a busy week I've had. Apart from crafting Ive been putting in more work on my young colt foal Duke. Sadly his mother Village Cargo died 6 weeks ago to an unknown illness. It knocked me for six losing her as she was a very special girl to me. Ive always wanted a Village prefix Dales pony, so getting her in foal was a dream for me. Poor girl had not not always been so well cared for or even loved like she should have been, but i promised her last owner that would all change and she would spend the rest of her days with me.

Cargo as i called her , was precious to me, and not a day passes that i don't think of her, miss her , or even love her. I do wish she was well and still here with me, but i don't wish her the pain she had to suffer.

Anyway, its because of her i started making the ATCs. My first ATC was in remembrance of her, and what she meant to me.

Last may she gave birth to a beautiful colt and we named him Duke. Such a stunning boy he was as well with his fawn coloured coat and the famous Dales Pony Star on his forehead. He was her pride and joy, and she was mine.

Anyway, back to the ATCs. I had the most amazing mothers day where i could do as i pleased. I got a set of 12 glimmer mists. Such beautiful colours with a glimmer of shimmer. Id not go over boad and say they get a strong effect as you dont, but if you like subtle then these babies are for you. I got the Moulin Rouge set, and the Ocean breeze set. Just perfect for me as i love colours in the sets. I didnt want the golds they do as im bored with too much of that. I wanted colour.

So i got down to ATCs that day and made a total of 12 of them. The fun i had doing what i wanted that day was measured to a memory of being a kid in a toy shop and being allowed to play till i dropped.

Then the next day i made some more. I have to do loads just in case my friends dont like my work. They always seem to have ATCs i want but i never know if what i make is going to be good enough.

Today i have made another 4 as i got some new stamps and wanted to try them out.

The other day i was the gallery winner at http://www.scrapz.co.uk/ . I couldnt not believe my luck when i got the email to say my atc of Dull Women won for the month. I got the best pressie ever from them as well, plus my ATC features on their front page for a month.

Karen the owner has been busy making the most amazing ATCs. She sent me photos of all 12 and i at once wanted them all. Yes, i know Greedy Bitch, but thats me. When i see quality like she produces then i know i have to have the best. You all know i love her ATCs. They inspire me, and they give me ideas to have a go myself.

So today i made more just in case i get the chance to swap her set of 12 with 13 of mine as i owe her a trade from last time.

Here are the first lot of ATCs, and i will load up the other 4 later.

Have a fun day, and feed the mind and soul with art.

Tina

xx