A quick post on my most recent ATCs for a Docrafts swop. The theme was William Shakespeare, quotes from, which initially I thought would be easy as of course he was a master who produced reams of quotable lines and couplets. However, when I got into the research, I found it was more difficult than I was expecting for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to include the text on the card, so I couldn't have anything too long as an ATC is a small environment. Secondly, manyof the beautiful and colourful similes and metaphors do not easily lend themselves to simple images - they were too complex and rich for my pea like brain.

Eventually I settled on two. The first was from Macbeth and is the quote from the witches - "Double double, toil and trouble, let the cauldron boil and bubble". It would have been wonderful to have included the famous spell recipe with eye of newt etc but that would be far too big for a single card. I used a dark blue base card which was painted with cobalt blue Twinkling H20 to give it a real depth and glimmer. Then used some DCWV chipboard stickers of mystic themes/images. On the base, a print out of the quote mounted on mirror card and affixed. Finally, clear crystal gems to give accents in the top and bottom.

The second quote is by Portia in the final act of The Merchant of Venice and is about a good deed being a candle in a naughty world. For this I got out my Twinkling H2Os and started with a deep cobalt blue background. The candle is in Oyster, with a Celestial yellow flame, and around it I did a variety of irridescent colour beams (gold, violet, red). Finally, when the paints were dry, I used my glue pen to outline the candle and lines between the flames and applied a bronze glitter. The quote was then affixed to the bottom of the card.

As a Thank you to the lady organising the swop, I made her a RAK. On a blue card base, I stuck on some pale blue Anna Griffin paper. In the bottom corner, a sticker saying "Hope". Across the middle, a brown and blue spotted ribbon, with a flower attached by a brown mini-brad. Very simple, but I think very effective, with pretty, clean colours.

Next challenge, a medieval themed swop.

Here I am again. I took advantage of the intermittent sunshine this afternoon to take some photos of the scrapbookout in the garden. The thinking was that the light would be good, and it would avoid the need for flash, which tends to bounce off things when I photograph crafty things indoors. So it was a good opportunity to experiment. I've attached some photos of a few of the pages and the album itself. While I was out there, I got on a roll, and photographed a few plants and have put those up on my other blog.

The postman brought two ATCs today from the Turquoise swop on Docrafts - lovely. Also had a delighted thank you from my friend's daughter, for whom I'd made a Gothic maze book. I posted it yesterday, and it arrived this morning safely, and she's thrilled with it, which is such a good feeling.

On Saturday I went to another craft workshop at Inkspot, our local craft store. This one was on using shrink plastic - a technique I have wanted to try for a while but have been a bit nervous of attempting. Our lovely tutor was able to give us lots of attention as there were only two of us there, and I was able to make three presentable cards, each featuring shrink pieces on the front in a variety of different shapes, colours and sizes. I now feel more confident about trying out some of these at home, and think they could make some stunning Christmas cards, so will report back if attempts are successful.

This coming Saturday, there is a workshop on making star and other shaped cards with a possibility of also doing waterfall cards. I have never made a waterfall card, although I was very tempted by a kit on QVC this afternoon, which featured waterfall, lantern and wonderful exploding boxes. After a lot of dithering I eventually succumbed to some K & Co (now, there's a surprise) greeting cards.

What I have been particularly busy with lately is a mini scrapbook, now complete, which I have put together for Andrew's parents. It's their wedding anniversary in August, and we have lots of nice digital images of them, taken when they visit us or vice versa. This mini scrapbook came with a K & Co kit, which I really wanted for the paper, diecuts and cards, and I'd had it on the shelf for ages while I wondered what to do with it. Eventually inspiration struck, and I gathered together a selection of photos, including scanning some older ones, even one of their wedding day back in the 1960s. Gradually the page layouts came together, with a lot of the K & Co papers working well, but I also used some lovely Anna Griffin ones. To my surprise, these blended remarkably well with the others, with a soft palette of sage greens, creams and wedgewood blues working well with the slightly brighter vintage pastels of the original kit. I am going to try to photograph the pages in daylight, and if this is successful, will post here. I'm really thrilled with the way it has turned out - some really attractive pictures. Andrew had a look at the finished item and thinks his mother will love it. The actual album itself is very pretty with a soft yellow cover, green check trim and a design of crisp daisies. Each page is 8.5 x 8.5" which is a nice size to work with, allowing one reasonably sized photo per page, with room for plenty of embellishments, labels and trims. I think this will be a lovely gift for them and I'm personally delighted with it. Scrapbooking is not something I've done much of before, but I can see how it can be very enjoyable and worthwhile especially for special themed books like this.

As promised, an update on the Fathers day card I made for my FIL. On June 7th I went to a craft workshop at Inkspot on using Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fibre, and was eager to incorporate one or the other. Fantasy Film didn't lend itself to any obvious themes for him, so I decided to make a card decoration out of Fantasy Fibre. After the workshop, I had bought two little pots of the Fibre, one in a pretty lilac and the other in a lovely deep bronze/green colour. That seemed to be promising, and I had in my card stock a nice deep bronze square card and envelope. So I made a kind of random shape with the fibre and used it as a backing for the centrepiece. With the strong colours and textures, I decided that a simple approach would be best. As you can see from the picture I layered an initial R (his name is Roger) on some layered cardstock, with small brads in the corners. The coloured card is mounted on Mirri board to give it a bit of pzazz. I was pleased with the finished article.

My next workshop is this coming Saturday, again at Inkspot, when I'm booked in for a session on Shrink Plastic. It looks a fascinating technique but I am a bit nervous of trying it, so hopefully a session with a tutor will be the equivalent of stabilisers on a bike.

Some other good news - Busy Bees called during the week. They have a series of one and half day quilting workshops over the summer, after their main class programme has finished. One of these is a half day session about making a chicken. I had put my name down for it when I was attending classes, but the list had filled. However, the session was proving so popular that they were considering holding an overflow class. Fortunately, this is now the case and I'll be attending in August. My DH was rather bemused to give the message "The chicken is GO" but he's used to me now, after nearly eleven years and has learned not to be surprised by many things.

Some delays since last posting but I have not been idle. Cross-stitch first. I have started work on a lovely sampler which has been calling to me for a couple of years. It's from Cross stitcher magazine, and is designed by the late Sheila Hudson. Generally I love her designs and have stitched several smaller ones in the past. She usually designs beautiful flowers and one of her characteristics is that her designs generally use only whole stitches and virtually no backstitch, fractionals or French knots. This particular design is called Potpourri and features several flowers that make up a typical bowl. I am stitching it on pale lilac aida, which works well with the colours in the design, and when complete it will be framed and probably put in our bedroom. I will post pics as it progresses and of course when it is complete.

ATCs. Some photos attached of latest swops. Local Heritage, and the monthly colour swop which for June is Turquoise. I enjoyed doing the Turquoise ones as I had lots of material to work with. Both cards were painted with a light layer of Twinkling H2Os in Navaho Pearl which gives them a subtle shimmer. I also show a roses design RAK for the organiser.

For local heritage, I worked with the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Brains brewery and Felinfoel ales in Llanelli. Brains sponsor the Welsh rugby team, and their brewery is still in the centre of Cardiff right by the railway station. If I take Andrew in to the station to catch a London train early in the morning, the air is filled with the most delicious malty smell around the brewery. Felinfoel Double Dragon is one of the first beers I ever drank, and very local indeed to my upbringing. No comments on the alcoholic theme emerging!! A blue butterfly RAK for the lady organising the swop is also shown.

Card making - I've been busy making a lot more for greyhounds, to boost depleted stock levels. Next challenge will be a Fathers Day card for my FIL.