Another swap over

I recently participated in a swap on Swap-Bot I had to alter a matchbox with the theme being "Glitter Makes The World Go Round".

I make a shabby chic style flower using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die. I wet the flower and scrunched it up and left it to dry. Once dry I covered parts with Glossy Accents and then sprinkled with Diamond Dust. I also recovered the already glitzy cherubs with kindy glitz to give them more sparkle. The other little flowers are made from Die Namics rolled rose dies and just blinged up a bit. We were told that it was not a filled matchbox swap but to my mind giving an empty matchbox is like gifting a purse without a coin inside - very bad luck!

So I glittered up a flower I already had, cut out a butterfly sorry but can't remember if it was a die or a punch and glittered the butterfly and a scroll. The last thing to do was to wrap the box and attach a tag. Yet another blingy flower.

All in all very blingy/glittery and pretty.

Swap-Bot Summer Challenge

I recently took part in a Swap-Bot Challenge swap. We had to make something for our partner that used a graphic that was supplied to us.

I had a real challenge on my hands. I wanted to make something I knew my partner would like - but what to make for someone who loves all things halloween and witches. There was nothing else for it I had to grunge and distress them. I made a little witch ticket book and used the flower tickets to make little tags.

Above is the box I sat the tag book in. As you can see I did use a flower ticket as part of the decoration.

Here are the book pages with the tags. My apologies for the quality of the pictures.

I always try to make the presentation of the gift equal to the gift instead. I wrapped the box in black crepe paper, tied some black ribbon around and topped it with a handmade flower that I added diamond dust to then glitzed with black glimmermist.

I hope the recipient loves it as much as I do. It was the first swap I have done that I was truly reluctant to part with.

The other man in my life ......

I have another man in my life besides my dear husband and son. His name is Tim Holtz and is my creative guru. If you look around my craft room you will find plenty of evidence of my love affair with all things Tim. From my Vagabond to my sanding block to the little metal findings. If you haven't discovered Tim yet I might suggest you visit his blog . Not only is he creative he is also extrememly generous and often gives away products to people for just commenting on his blog.

Here are some tags I made at a workshop using Tim Holtz Ranger products

Organisation required ....

Only I would send out two swaps to international partners then realise oops have only sent one. This was discovered when I found an ATC and envelope of extra goodies in my shopping bag. The dilemma then being that what did i send to whom as I know I definitely sent two packages. So I came to the conclusion the only thing I could do was to resend to both partners. This of course meant I had to remake an ATC. So I figured that instead of just re-doing the one I did before (just incase I did happen to send it to the right person) I would just create a new one. So here it is. Must say I am pretty pleased with it. Just a shame you can't really see the glitter on the wings. This has also led me to the conclusion I need to be more organised otherwise who knows what the postman will be dropping through peoples letters boxes next. That reminds me I can't find my scissors .........

Art and Craft

craft/kraft/
Noun: An activity involving skill in making things by hand.
Verb: Use skill in making (something): "he crafted the chair"; "a beautifully crafted object".

I aspire to be known as a crafter, at the moment I would say I dabble. I recently started making ATC's. These are small cards 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches that are "miniature works of art". Even that term scares me, to me someone who creates a work of art is an artist not a descriptive I use for myself. Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso they are artists in the truest sense of the word. Here are a few of the ATC's I have created. I leave it to you to judge whether they should be considered art.