Buried treasure 2010

As many of you will know, Seth from The Altered Page is running Buried Treasure again. This is where we get to pick our favourite posts that we have put on our blogs. Last year was pictures from my nature notebook (still my all time favorite post) so what could I pick this year? Well, as it is getting closer to October (yes, I'm looking forward to autumn already) I thought I'd pick my Halloween post from last year. Entitled 'Halloween treats' it is full of the creative goodies I made for last Halloween - my favourite celebration. I hope you will all enjoy looking back with me.

As promised here are some Halloween goodies that I have been working on. Tim Holtz in his 'tricks & treats' blog post gave some great ideas for creating wonderful arty pieces and Ten Two Studios has some instructions on using matchboxes in the 'project' section of the web site. So I took my lead from those ideas and here they are. Some have been swapped out for group or one to one swaps but all of them were fun to do.

Halloween treats

As promised here are some Halloween goodies that I have been working on. Tim Holtz in his 'tricks & treats' blog post gave some great ideas for creating wonderful arty pieces and Ten Two Studios has some instructions on using matchboxes in the 'project' section of the web site. So I took my lead from those ideas and here they are. Some have been swapped out for group or one to one swaps but all of them were fun to do.

A few pictures of some greetings cards and inchies I made. At the top of the page, however, is a collection of pages from a manifest journal swap. The idea is to take a large piece of paper and write what you wish to manifest in your life on the paper in large, bold letters. Then you add some masking tape over the writing in places and coat it in gesso. Once the gesso is dry you remove the masking tape, tear the page into equal pieces and paint it, collage it, do whatever to make it look pretty. Each participant then gets a page from each person's sheet. It was another new project for me but great fun - even moreso when you realise that each page is a very personal piece of the other swappers.

The next post should be some of my Halloween treasures that I have been making and swapping.

I'm back!

It's been a busy few weeks. I had a week away -not to some hot country with golden beaches, but to my sister's place to dog sit while she went to the hot country with golden beaches. It was great fun for me though. The dogs were brilliant and very good so we all had a nice time. Well, at least I think the dogs had a good time - at least they didn't complain to me.

So after the calm came the storm. I had alot of things to catch up on and have spent the last week and a half sorting everything out. Some of the things at the top of my 'to do' list were some swaps and cards so the following are the photos so far.

This fan is for a swap with one of my ATC groups. We were supplied with a template and instructions and had to produce one fan to send to a partner. This was my attempt - inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Halloween approacheth! Lots of Halloween images and papers have been floating around but inchies and ATCs are the easiest of substrates to cover. I hope the pictures will enlarge for you to read the humorous comments on the inchies.

This is my most recent page for the tip in collaboration. The farm and cat are hand drawn and the theme is related to 'Harvest'.

I have also started my new Open University course - Neighbourhood Nature. I had thought that it would take a more scientific viewpoint on nature watching but it is quite simple so far (and I have got to chapter 12 of a 13 chapter coursebook in five days). There are some experiments and observations that I have to make once the web site comes online (I just couldn't wait to get started with the course which doesn't officially start until the 1st September) so I will look forward to that in the hope that it will stretch my little grey cells a bit more. I can't help but feel that the Open University is dropping it's standards in order to get more people to take courses. As I said to a friend recently, 'They are meant to be teaching university level courses, not kindergarten courses.' But that's the cynic in me.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

I have been busy - really!

Despite the lack of blog updates I have been working hard. Not only did I discover that I have just a few short weeks to get work ready for the local art exhibition but I had a host of cards to make for various birthdays and celebrations and swaps to work for. Phew! Here we are at another Friday and I just don't know where the time is going. I am also contemplating signing up for another Open University course. I've got to keep those grey cells in gear. So far it is between theoretical archaeology and Darwin. Both appeal so it turning out to be quite a decision.

Because some of the cards I have made are for people who might be reading this blog I can't show them right now. But I can show you a few of the other things I have been working on. Two journal pages (front and back), some inchies and some silk beads. I'll put some of the other cards up later.

Flowers!

The weather has been amazing here for the last two days. It has been warm and sunny but with enough of a breeze to make it pleasant rather than boiling. The flowers in the picture are in my garden blooming their heads of like they haven't flowered before and have been doing this for a good few weeks.

I have been catching up with swaps recently. There have been a flurry of brilliant ideas for swap with more in the pipeline so I had to get moving. Here are some hand painted watercolour inchies.

And these are some Greek Mythology themed ATCs. The Pegasus and Minotaur head I drew myself as I couldn't find any images that I really liked. To make the background I scanned some of my 1884 ancient Greek text by Xenophon, printed and painted it then stamped using some of my own design rubber stamps (more about those later). I added some silver foil (which spread for a mile and stuck to everything) and used some Non Sequitur rubber stamp focal images with a little bling in the bottom right corners. I really enjoyed this swap theme (surprise, surprise!)

Inspired by Spring

Just a few pictures to break the monotony until Sunday. I have been making lots of cards recently, a few of which are here. Lots of Spring colours - greens and pinks. There are a few inchies too similarly clothed in Spring inspiration.

Treasures!

Just before Christmas I was the very lucky recipient of a trade package from a wonderful lady in Oregon. It was full of treasures - stickers, cutouts, tags, glitter glue, inchies, chocolate and tea to name but a few. For the whole of the day when the box arrived, I played with everything - the Stickles glitter glue being one of my favourite things. I have not used Stickles before but it is great fun. I was adding it to everything. So inspired was I that I dashed off to Ebay to find more colours. As you might imagine Stickles is playing a big part in my creativity at the moment. It has added some sparkle to my projects without the mess of traditional glue. So I have added a few pictures of the things I made - some ATCs, lots of inchies, a vellum tag (vellum stickers on the tag and laid over some brightly painted yellow card. The yellow shows through the vellum to make it glow with a little colour.) and a couple of mini boxes. The boxes were made from a template I made of a box one of the chocolates came it. I carefully pulled the box apart and it makes a great template for those little gifts you might send - or inchie storage. Needless to say the Winter box is highlighted with white Stickles. It just doesn't show up.