A Nature Themed ATC Swap

 I have recently been involved in a lovely ATC swap with Elaine over at
 Craft Shed Girl - I was so pleased when she let me know she was up for a swap, as we have similar tastes and a love of nature in our artwork! 

This is the ATC and matching box I sent to Elaine, it's based on my current work around the moonlit garden ...

... and this is the beautiful ATC holder and gift tag Elaine sent me...

 Elaine very cleverly designed and made the holder herself - it's absolutely ingenious and such an effective and beautiful way to present the ATC.  I felt I was opening a birthday present when it arrived!

As you can see once you undo the ribbon holding it closed, it opens up to display the ATC which is held in the card groove - and what a stunning ATC it is. Elaine thoughtfully and carefully worked with images, colours and subject matter that she knows I like and if I had sent her a list of my requirements she couldn't have got it more right!!!

This has been such an enjoyable swap - thank you Elaine!

I must add that for anyone interested Elaine has listed her supplies and techniques over on her blog.   

I'm linking up Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Pink and Green Tag

A busy week but I managed to fit in an enjoyable hour spent making paper flowers! 

And a tag that is sooo not in my usual colour range, but I really wanted to use one of the beautiful vintage buttons I found at an antique fair recently.

The flowers were made from scratch (no dies) using this tutorial from 
Such a Pretty Mess.

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday today.

August's Forgotten Stash

Continuing my monthly project of using a forgotten item from my stash, this month I'm using a Tim Holtz butterfly punch. I haven't had it that long but it was purchased on a whim with no idea in mind about what I would do with it!

So, keeping with my theme of my garden at night I played about in my sketchbook and using a resist technique with a flower stamp and some new Distress Crayons I created a moonlit background - perfect for the butterfly punch which now became a moth punch!  I added double layered moths with gold ink edging and a stamped vellum top layer.

I'm joining Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday 

Summer Night Garden Velvet Tag

I'm enjoying working on the night garden theme - and I love this blue/mauve velvet which has a bronze thread in it and seems to glimmer as if in the moonlight.

I used Infusions for the background and sprinkled them liberally on clear texture paste through a stencil for the darker shapes - does anyone else find the powder gets everywhere, or am I just a messy worker!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Crafting Fun

Not much arty crafty stuff achieved this week, but a busy and happy week looking after my nephews now the school holidays are here, and also visiting Jan (our very own Lunch Lady!) for some crafty fun and lots of chat.  

It was a fab day, made even better by seeing Julia too - so much chat and just a little bit of embroidery done on these half finished 'night garden' collages.

Thank you Jan!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW.