Alice in Wonderland ATC's

I have made a couple of Alice themed ATC's for the Make It Monday's challenge this week. A little late but then better late than never. I always like to look for a different angle and I hope both of these are a little off the beaten track.

The first is a little piece showcasing the Mad Hatters Tea Party in a garden setting. The template for this house and woodwork came from Dan's Blog, My Crafty Life, on which he regularly posts useful templates on a Saturdays. BTW I have called it the garden party, just to be different.

This atc,called i'm late, is a nod to the scene in which the white rabbit is checking his timepiece after losing a white glove. he is late for a meeting with the queen of hearts! Alice follows him down his rabbit hole and so begins her adventure in wonderland.

The only issue I have with these is that I think the main characters are too small and because of the original are not black enough to provide a sufficient contrast. I must learn to try and size these these and possibly modify them where necessary before printing them out. I think these are from the original book illustrations.

Both of these backgrounds are from the set I bought on Etsy, see this previous post

back again with more watercolour aceo's

Sorry for the time since my last posting, but I have been away to Dublin to attend a funeral. The second this year unfortunately... I guess that it is a consequence of growing old that one unfortunately loses relatives at an increasingly unhappy rate. This was actually an aunt of my wifes, who had suffered a long and debillitating illness and in a way it is a blessing that she has finally passed away. On a brighter note, we met some cousins who my wife had not met for decades and have established contacts which we hope will last.

I have a couple of watercolours to show in this post, don't know if I was compensating for the past few months but they are a little bright and colourful, certainly not what I had in mind when I started them but out they came. I was at my art group yesterday, idly looking thro' a magazine for inspiration (not an easy task!) and decided that I simply had to do something as I was procrastinating and time was passing. I have got into a frame of mind where I need to complete a painting there and then, maybe a consequence of painting in such small format. Anyway here they are:-


The first is a fanciful picture of Bamburgh Castle, a much painted view across the beach. I have done this myself more than once which was probably what caught my eye last night - thinking it might be easy? The red sky came about because I wanted it to be different to the image in the magazine and in a convoluted way my son had just come back from Stonehenge, where I had painted the stones with a similar backdrop quite recently.

The second is of a sunrise over a lavender field, I assume that it was Provence in France, although I did not look too closely at the accompanying article

Both are very loose and impressionistic, which I have always loved as a style. Although it could be my laziness and the lack of a need for accurate drawing. I am listing both on Ebay, I will let you know what happens.

make it mondays - GYPSY theme

I seem to be hopping around from one thing to another at the moment and I am not sure that this is really a good thing. Still, I enjoy doing what grabs me and I generally go with the flow. Here is another ATC made for the Make it Mondays challenge On GMS. I spent ages trying to find vintage gypsy images on the web, In the end I just couldn't find anything that I thought would make a "different atc so put the project to one side. Blow me down if I didn't come across this image of the flamenco dancers in a magazine... and it struck me at once as "just the job". A couple of fabric flowers with their stems removed, a "sun" in gold foil and my alphabet stamps completed the collage. Have to admit I actually bought a sheet of painted backgrounds from etsy and this one seemed to fit perfectly. Here it is:-

I called it "Viva Flamenco - Ole!" I thought the colourful elements contrasted very well with the background, something new for me. I usually start with a colourful background and then use fairly monotone elements. Always ready to learn though.

aceo watercolour paintings

I have also decided to post a batch of aceo paintings here. My first love is painting but I seem to be doing so much in the way of ATC's that I don't seem to have very much time these days for painting. I have however decided that this week at my art group I am going to get out a larger sheet of paper and do a couple of portrait sketches - just to see if I can still draw. Like any skill, if you don't use it you lose it and I am determined that that will not happen. keep your fingers crosssed for me and I may well post the results here on Wednesday.

Anyway here are a couple of paintings in the aceo format. The trouble with these is that I am painting what I think will sell on Ebay. I don't make a lot of money/profit from these sales but it does give me a little cash-flow to replace materials which I am using constantly.

storm clouds


the house next door


headland

talking about replacing materials I have just bought my first packet of shrink plastic; seen lots of atc's made using this and kept thinking about it but todady I was taken (by she who must be obeyed) to a garden centre and they had some small packets (6 x A5 sheets for only £1.99) so I gave in and bought some just to try it out. watch this space!

Another week another set of ATC's

Wow, it has been a busy week but have finally managed to get a little time for some creative crafting. These are four cards which I have made for the Make it Mondays challenge on Lisa Vollrath's site.


The first two are based on a theme of ITALY, for these I have used downloaded travel posters and made simple collages. Sorry for the clarity I used a camera rather than my scanner and did not use a tripod - MUST learn!!!

The next two were for an earlier challenge based on the colour yellow. I have to say that I had a great deal of difficulty with this. Usually colour is not an issue for me but I had nothing in yellow and couldn't stamp in yellow (so I used gold!!). had to think hard about this one. Again the photos are a little blurry. I had some 3-D stuff to photo and tried to get them all done together, I will remember next time.

This is not one of my normal atc's, I do not usually use these sort of items but I had been given them with some bits and pieces and after all they were yellow. The paper used for the background had been painted by dragging acrylic with a spatula, an idea from the Go Make Something site which I have used several times now.

This one is also a little different for me. Quite a sparsely decorated card. I painted the background with sparkling yellow watercolour, let it dry and then stamped and embossed the geisha. the butterflies were die-cuts and the text stamped. The whole thing is covered with a voile material (gold with white bobbles randomly included). I would normally use a lot more to make this sort of card but I just like this.

well that's enough for now, back to the gardening......

ATC: great uncle wang

"my great uncle wang "
Originally uploaded by shadfan66

This is a collage which I did for last week's challenge (theme: oriental with a twist) from Maggies Monday Musings (MAMMA).

My twist is that I don't normally see men in oriental themed cards.

It is not only a challenge but also a one to one swap. the entries are randomly paired at the end of the week and swapped between members involved. Great fun not knowing which of the great atc's you are going to get. Enter more than one and it is even more tantilizing.



If you are into atc's get on over and join us, you know you want to!

(Just found out I can post to here from Flickr, hence not my usual format. My id on Flickr is Shadfan66 (don't ask!) which appears below the photo. However I find that I have had to come and edit the posting anyway so will probably not be using this feature again - I miss the bells and whistles).

ATC's for Make it Mondays

Well here I am again catching up with the challenges and swaps that I have set myself. Life is simply too short. These two new ATC's are for the Make it Monday's challenge set by Lisa Vollrath.

The theme was Mona. I nearly called this "gerroutofit, it's my frame" but decided against it at the last minute. It has been collaged from various images and die-cuts.

The deliberate mistake is that the hands are the wrong way around, the thumbs should have been pointing inward - try it!

On the theme of holidays. The background was made by layering strips of various papers and the images are from three different family photos. the crown was stamped and coloured with permanent markers.

This last was also made with a swap in mind so is not available. Check out my atc's for trade on Flickr, at the top right in the sidebar

Well off to carry on with the crafting!

Margaret's Monday Musings ATC Challenge

This week Margaret's challenge theme was The Sixties, and great fun was had by all. I was surfing and searching looking for inspiration when I came across a series of fashion drawings (apologies to the artist) which seemed to be too good an opportunity to miss to do a small series of atc's.



My main memories of the sixties are the music and this is shown in two of the cards. The Twist by Chubby Checker was a hit in summer 1960, probably earlier than many people would recognise as "The Sixties", but there you have it - right at the beginning. The second song Aquarius which was featured in Hair, the Musical (1967) was always a favourite of mine. I actually saw this show twice at the Alexexandra Theatre in Brum. Here you can see the lyrics and take in the atmosphere of this song.

The other two cards in the series reflect more a spirit of the time. I guess like any generation we thought that we were going to change the world and this was reflected in the music, the clothes and much more. The next card reflects this feeling. Lastly, two other things stand out as quintissentially sixties; Mini skirts and mini cars. Mary Quant designed the first and Alex Issigonis designed the second, the austin morris mini minor. A real engineering revolution which is still felt in car design today.







See Margaret's challenge blog and the associated MAMMA Flickr album, in fact why not give it a go. It is a challenge with a random swap feature if you want to join in.