Vintage Beauty.

Its seems a long time since I've blogged, so I thought a beautiful vintage lady would be nice!

Vintage Swaps

Thank you for all your really great work on the Vintage artist trading cards, I know you will all love your return swaps.

I will pop them in the post tomorrow so hopefully you will get them soon. There has been a few postal strikes but I think they have stopped for the time being so it should be safe to post them.

Have a great week and enjoy your art !

ATC SWAPS

This months artist trading card swap is VINTAGE and the closing date is the 15th September.

After the September swap I will not be doing any more for a while. When and if I can start again I will announce it on my blog. I want to say a huge thank you to all the swappers who have contributed and wish you all continued crafting happiness.

Much love, Stephanie x

Floral Artist Trading Card Swap

The Floral ATC swap will be posted out on Monday morning.

Once again, thank you all for joining in. I hope your returns bring a touch of summer to your collections. The rain here has certainly kept the gardens green and the flowers in bloom.

Definately some of the best bits about England are the pretty gardens and the lovely english flowers.

The next swap will be in September and will be on a Vintage theme. I have decided not to have an August swap as so many people will be on holiday.

I am enclosing with your swaps the details of another monthly swap that was sent to me. I hope you decide to send some off but please dont forget this one :-)

I hope everyone has a great summer and enjoys their holidays wherever they are !

Floral ATC

The theme for this months ATC swap was Floral.

This is a finished one of mine made for the swap. The technique was quite an easy one; the backing is card, onto this I laid a page from a vintage gardening book and cut it to size. The pages from this book are very old and yellowed so get used a lot, especially when I am doing a vintage theme. I bought the book from a charity shop and love it!

I used a green ink pad to wipe around the edge of the card . I like to do this as it gives another dimension and adds to the aged look. It bleeds gently into the paper and finishes off the edges. My favourite colours to use for this are ochre and brown or other oldish looking shades but it will work just as well for a bright and zingy card with lovely vivid colours. Sometimes I then dip the edges into embossing powder and give it a zap with my heat gun, but for these ATCs I decided to leave them with just the hint of colour.

I then took a playing card which had flowers on the face, cut it in half diagonally and glued it to the front of the card, leaving a gap around the edge and through the middle.

The little leaves that I stuck randomly down one side are punched from a variety of different coloured papers. Inexpensive but effective!

I hope you like my design. Today I am sorting all the ATCs out and will get them in the post on Monday. Have a great and Arty day x

Free Downloadable Images.

Here are some lovely vintage ladies to use in your artwork. Just right click on them and save. Resized they are great for artist trading cards, zap pages or Decos.

Have a great day and enjoy your art !

ATC Swap - Wild Animals

Thank you for taking part in this months swap which was Wild Animals. As always a great selection of Artist Trading Cards arrived , and due to my hand still being a bit sore , my friend Ingrid came over and has sorted out all your return swaps and they will be in the post tomorrow morning.
The next months swaps are as follows :
JULY - FLORAL
AUGUST is a month off as most people in the UK have their annual holidays then.
SEPTEMBER - VINTAGE
OCTOBER - AUTUMN

These are all mixed media swaps and are 4 for 4

I have scanned a selection of this months ATCs and the picture is above. I havent added the pics to the photo page that I usually put them on due to a problem with bandwidth.
I hope you are enjoying great weather and having some fun with your crafts.

ATCs and general ramblings!

Well, I cant believe its Artist Trading Card time again! I have one more set to receive then I'll be ready to swap them out for you all.

I wont be making any myself this month as I had an accident and badly bruised my right hand, so no crafts for me for a while. Its amazing how you adapt and I've become quite good at left hand typing :-) The swelling is going down now so hopefully I'll be back crafting soon.

Yesterday, after brilliant sunshine here for several days, we had a storm. The noise from the hailstones was unbelievable and it looked just as if it had been snowing!

The picture is from my front window looking out at the hail, it was far too stormy to go outside and take the picture!

ATC swap - Oriental

I would like to give a very warm welcome to this month's new players.

Thank you for joining in and I hope you enjoyed the theme.

Our May swap was "Oriental" .

I have sorted them all out so that your swaps will be in the post on Monday morning.

As always, I enjoyed seeing your interpretations of the theme and I hope you all enjoyed it and that you will enjoy your returns.

The individual ATCs have been photographed and can be seen here :http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses

The next swap is "WILD ANIMALS"
which as always is open to new players as well as the regulars.
Closing date is the 15th JUNE and it is a 4 for 4 swap.

I am enclosing another ATC swap letter in some of your envelopes. Its a great way to get lots of ATCs. I am still receiving them from all over the world because of the last letter we had.

You just need to send out 6 ATCs to the names on the list and sit back and wait for the ATCs to arrive!

Have a great week and enjoy your art!

Birds of a Feather ATC Swap.

I hope everyone had a peaceful and happy time at Easter.

I have just changed my countdown banner to a Christmas one but dont panic - first we have the beautiful summer weather ahead of us!
Thank you all for your lovely ATCs, they have all been photographed and sorted and they will be posted out to you later today!

I am sorry but the images haven't turned out as clear as usual, by the time I had realised that my photographic skills weren't up to much, I had already put the ATCs in the envelopes ready to post.
This month we had the Birds of a Feather theme which must have been enjoyable as once again we got some great ATCs.
I have uploaded individual pics into our photo album which can be accessed here: http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses

I hope everyone enjoys their swaps.
The next swap is "ORIENTAL"

which as always is open to new players as well as the regulars.

Closing date is the 15th MAY and it is a 4 for 4 swap.

Have a great week and enjoy your art!

Ribbons and Lace

Thank you all for your lovely ATCs, today I have photographed and sorted them all and they will be posted tomorrow!

This month we had the Ribbon and Lace swap which turned out some great ATCs.

I have uploaded individual pics into our photo album which can be accessed here:
http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses
I hope everyone enjoys their swaps.

I have added a small goodie bag this month with your ATCs.
The next swap is "Birds of a Feather" which as always is open to new players as well as the regulars. Closing date is the 15th march and it is a 4 for 4 swap.
Have a great week and enjoy your art!

Ribbons and Lace

The March ATC swap is Ribbons and Lace.

The closing date is 15th March and I have some really lovely cards arrive in the post already.

I'm sure all who participate will love their swaps. Its nice to work with things other than paper and ribbons are certainly a beautiful medium.

Some time ago, I was sent an ATC "pay it forward" letter. It involved sending out 6 ATCs to people on a list, then adding your own name and passing the letters on. Its been great! I have received lots of lovely ATCs from all over the world, I am so glad I participated!

The image I have for you to use in your art is a lovely 1920s girl with a rose and wearing pearls, I think it has a simple beauty about it.

As always, to use the picture just right click on it and click on copy!

March already!

The window above the altar at St.Marys, Lakenheath.

I'm not really sure where those February days have gone! How nice that the weather is improving and the evenings are getting longer. My favourite time of the day is late afternoon when we take the dogs to the forest for their run. The beauty of the trees and the peaceful walk is a real tonic. The dogs are so funny to watch and they each have there own way of exploring.

Harry, my powderpuff, is on the look out for birds all the time and stands upright like a meercat trying to see one in the trees! She couldnt catch one if she tried though, as she is rather clumsy for such a small dog!

I have noticed that there seems to be a growing trend in Decos and ATCs for Cemetery Angels and the Gothic style that goes with them. Personally I prefer the vibrant colours of Stained Glass Windows.

I hope you enjoy these pictures.

ATC swap February

I cant believe its that time again, but the middle of February is already here and I have sorted all your ATCs and they will be posted later today or tomorrow morning.

It's always great fun to sort the cards out and everyone always loves Hearts!

I have uploaded individual pics into our photo album which can be accessed here:

http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses

I hope everyone enjoys their swaps.

The next swap is Ribbons and Lace which as always is open to new players as well as the regulars. Closing date is the 15th march and it is a 4 for 4 swap.

Have a great week and enjoy your art!

Vintage Ladies

Another lovely postcard that you can use for your artwork.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner an English rose is perfect.

Just right click on the image and then save.!

Gypsy Lady Postcard.

This is a lovely image of a gypsy girl. You can right click on it and use it for your artwork.

Have a great weekend!

ATC Swap - WINGS

Thank you all so much for joining in this months swaps, after the Christmas break it is nice to get back to art work again!

The picture above is a random collage of the ATCs received and the individual entries can be seen in the picture trail album here :http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses .

As always it was great fun sorting them all out and seeing all the different art work.

Your swap ATCs will be posted tomorrow so hopefully you will get them soon.

Next months swap is entitled HEARTS.

I look forward to seeing all your art work again.

The closing date is the 15th February.

Everyone welcome!

ATC swaps and thank you for all my lovely cards!

I would just like to say how overwhelmed I was to receive so many cards and ATCs for Christmas!

Thank you all so much for being so thoughtful, they are all lovely and a great addition to my growing collection.

The group swap this month is entitled WINGS and I will be posting all your swaps out to you on Monday.

Once again it is very interesting to see the different interpretations on the theme.

I hope you all like your return swaps.

As you can see I have been very busy recently hence the lack of blog posts, but I'll try harder now and get back to regular blogging!

Have a great weekend!

November's ATC swap - WINTER

Thank you all so much for joining in this months swaps, it has been great sorting out all your lovely Winter themed ATCs. The picture is a random collage but of course cant show them as well as they look in your hand.

This month we have had lots of different sorts; from collage, wax painting and embroidered,
a lovely arty selection.
Your ATCs will be posted tomorrow so hopefully you will get them
within a day or two. The individual swaps are in the picture trail album here :http://www.picturetrail.com/englishroses

Next months swap is entitled WINGS .
I look forward to seeing all your art work again.
The closing date is the 15th January.
We wont be having a December swap because of the Christmas post, so rather than have the worry of ATCs lost in the postal panic, we can take a break and look forward to the January swap!
have a great day,
Stephanie.

Autumn ATCs

Here are 2 ATCs I completed for a swap entitled "Nature in Autumn"

Its 6.30am here and there is still a very heavy frost on the grass outside. It looks as if it has been snowing! I expect that will mean the end of the fresh tomatoes and lettuce from the garden.