Swap Time!

Good Morning ......on what is an absolutely glorious Spring day here in my little bit of the UK.  This is my perfect weather :-)!

Well, I've been a very bad blogger again because most of my time and energy has been taken up with spending time at the hospital with a very poorly Mum.  Hopefully, if all goes to plan she should be discharged back to the nursing home tomorrow and I'm really hoping they can work their magic a second time and rehabilitate Mum to some measure of mobility and at the same time relieve some of her frustration.  The five changes of location during her 3 weeks in hospital (different wards/rooms) have been so bad for someone with Alzheimers.

Anyway, I have managed a bit of crafting 'me' time in the form of this month's Tags and ATCs for the swap organised for a small group of friends by our smashing crafting buddy, Sam (do hop over to her blog HERE where she shares some fab painty/inky makes).  The theme this month was 'black and white for the tags' and 'either monochrome or just two colours for the ATCs'.

TAGS

This first one uses stamps from the really lovely Chocolate Baroque Lace Fragments set.  Like many of my other stamps I've had this for ages and never managed to ink them up before.  The techniques are very simple (as usual, lol) with just stamping onto a black tag using Versamagic ink for the background and then stamping the main image with black Archival onto white card and clear embossing.

 

I fussy cut the beautiful main image and added some Ranger Rock Candy Stickles to the mesh looking bits and Black Diamond Stickles to the stamens before sticking it to the tag.

 

On the second tag I applied PaperArtsy crackle glaze to a black tag and when dry painted it with Snowflake Fresco Finish.  I then applied black Archival ink with Cut n Dry foam through a small section of a fab 12 x 12 Prima stencil.  The dragonflies and words are from Indigo Blu sets.

If you click on the above pic you might just be able to see the touches of Black Diamond Stickles I added to one or two of the 'spots'.  The lattice die cut is one from the relatively new Tim Holtz/Sizzix thinlits set and I love it.

ATCs

  

For my ATCs I used Dusty Concord Distress Inks and one of the oranges (can't remember which one, lol).  I created mountain ranges using torn copier paper with a wooded area in the foreground using Chocolate Baroque stamps.  I can't remember what they're called but they do 2 or 3 sets with 'miniature' stamps on which are perfect for ATCs and I love these tiny trees.

Those are my swaps for this month which I hope my more 'arty' buddies in the swap don't find too boring, lol!

Before I head off to get a couple of chores done (to appease my conscience, lol) I have a couple of photos I took in the garden this past week of the pretty Spring flowers I love so much.

Gentians

 

Clematis 

 

Miniature Tulips (These close up every evening and then reopen with the sun)

Have a lovely day everyone!

Hugs

Lesley  Xx