Dragonfly 3 & 4

Dragonfly 3 & 4
Originally uploaded by lubsy1uk

More silk flower with dragonfly ATCs in another colour theme. Available for trade from my Flickr site :-)

Dragonfly 1 & 2

Dragonfly 1 & 2
Originally uploaded by lubsy1uk

These are a few silk flower and paper dragonfly ATCs that I've been creating.

I inked up the backgrounds using Adirondak inks and stamped script onto them and then layered printed text onto the cards before adding the final flower with jewel and dragonfly. Available for trade from my Flickr site.

Something Fishy ATCs

Something Fishy ATCs
Originally uploaded by lubsy1uk

I was experimenting with background techniques and in the past when I've taken the brayer to the inkpad and brayered it over my card/paper, the result is a smudged muddy effect of colours - not really what I want. So this time I thought let me try putting the card on top of the rainbow inkpad and brayer over the top - well the results were far better and each band of colour was clearly visible and bright.

My next thought was, "what if I don't want to see the separate bands of colour, but instead want to see the colours merge into each other flawlessly?" So I remembered water colour techniques and I dampened my card stock with water and then laid it on top of the ink pad and brayered over it with the brayer and the result was beautiful - jewel like colours bleeding seamlessly into one another, without any muddiness or lines. This is exactly what I was hoping for and when I looked at each card I saw an underwater theme emerge and thought of tropical fishes in the colours of the Mediterranean seas.

I added a bit of dimension to each card by stamping bubble wrap on to the cards with Versamark and then dusting over with mica pearl powders. The shimmer added depth to the cards.

I had some fish greeting wrap from PaperChase, that I'd saved from ages ago and thought that would be perfect, so I cut the fishes out and stuck them on to the backgrounds with foam pads and then added some Beadz Accents to represent the sea bed and coral. To complete the scene I dotted air bubbles to the fish with the end of a pencil dipped into white gesso

I'm really pleased with this series and now they're available for trade -get yours before they swim away! :-D

Smokey & Laburnum Tree

SMOKEY

Remember that abandoned blackbird's nest I was telling you about? well we finally took it down when we realised the bird had flown the coop, so to speak and inside was one tiny speckled blue egg. The funniest thing about this nest was one particular item the bird had chosen to use as its nest building material and that was the Caution label it had twined into its nest. I thought that was so hilarious - almost as if the bird could read and was putting up a notice in its home :-D Click on the pic to get a clearer image of the label.

Anyway, I put it on the lawn to photograph it and Smokey came along to investigate, so I thought, "hey great composition!" and clicked a couple of shots of him and the nest. He wasn't particularly interested in it anyway, besides he likes his eggs scrambled or fried - he's too old in the teeth to start cracking eggs himself :-D

We've been having such beautiful, sunny weather lately and one particular weekend we were in the garden and I was potting some plants and flowers and had my floppy sun hat on to avoid the glare of the sun. After a while of being out in the intense heat, I thought I'd take a little rest on the garden swing and dip into the latest issue of Artful Blogging by Stampington Publications, whilst having a cool drink. I got up to go into the house to get myself some water and within minutes of returning I find Smokey on the swing eyeing my magazine first - cheek of it! :-) I managed, eventually to persuade him to let me read it first and like a good cat he relented :-)

LABURNUM TREE
My Laburnum tree was in full bloom last week and now this week all the vivid yellow blossoms are blowing off and are scattering across the lawn like confetti. It's so sad that this tree flowers for so short a while - in a whole year it'll only flower for about 2 weeks and then that's it - doesn't make sense does it? But while it flowers, oh my! I just can't stop gazing at it and thanking God for the beauty of His creation. I love my Laburnum tree, it's given me years of pleasure just looking at it. My kids, when they were little used to climb this very tree and played around on it. I found out later that it's poisonous, but Thanks be to God we've never suffered any harm from it. When it's in bloom it lights up the garden like a golden beacon - I wish it would bloom forever.

Bits and Pieces

ROBIN
This is a little fledgling robin that I discovered nesting on the shelf of my workshop where all my jars of mosaic pieces are. The workshop is in such a state that I haven't used it as a workshop at all for ages and it's become more like a shed. The mother robin probably thought "oh this is a nice uninhabited place for me to build my nest" and so she did. I caught sight of this scrawny little thing sitting atop an empty tin of chocs -it was so cute and wasn't in the least bit scared of me - it just stared straight at me.

I went outside and then I took this pic of it sitting by the window looking out (bottom left hand corner) - it just looks like one of those ornaments you put up at Christmas time :-D Well, the little thing has flown the coop now (so to speak) coz I haven't noticed it in the shed for a while.

ART IN A CARTON

This was the "Art in a Carton" I received from my good friend Shakti, in Spain. You can tell the time and love that she has imparted in creating this beautiful carton and all the wonderful ART inside. I was just "gobsmacked" with the colours and the exterior of the carton itself and the way Shakti had created the closing with eyelets and beaded ties - it truly is a work of ART!

Inside the carton was treasure of beautiful handcrafted goodies, just waiting for me to lovingly unwrap and admire: a gorgeous Art Doll made from what I think is balsa wood and trimmed with fibres, beads, sparkly stones etc, a small handmade book tied up with dark blue satin ribbon that matches the box, a beautiful ATC and a glittery gold leaf - everything was most impressive and I loved it all!

ANOTHER BIRDY STORY

Last week I discovered a birds nest in amongst my passion flower and honeysuckle bushes and sitting in it was what I thought was a blackbird, but now I'm not sure what it is. Can you make out from this pic of it peeking up? Anyway, I didn't disturb it - well, only took this photo but without flash, so as not to scare it. I noticed it would fly away for a while and then return again and sit in the nest but all this week it hasn't been there and I think it's abandoned the nest. Today my hubby checked the nest and sure enough there was one solitary speckled blue egg -cold. It made me feel so sad. We've left the nest there as it is - don't know what else to do really.

Quirky Town ATCs 7-11

Quirky Town ATCs 7-11
Originally uploaded by lubsy1uk

These are the rest of the "Quirky Town" series.

Quirky Town ATCs 1-6

Quirky Town ATCs 1-6
Originally uploaded by lubsy1uk

These are a set of cards I created with my recently purchased stamps from the Ally Pally Show last month. They're by Paper Artsy, who produce such amazing stamps! This particular sheet is called "Architecture"

The buildings are so quirky that I decided to title this series "Quirky Town" - quite apt I thought :-D

I used Adirondak Ink Pads to colourize the background and spritzed them with water to get that blotchy effect. I then stamped and embossed swirls onto the background and added some trim to each card. The buildings I stamped and embossed onto paint swatches and cut them out and stuck them onto the background with foam pads to give them a little lift :-D Finally I edged each card with a Krylon pen.

Now they're all up for grabs and you don't even need a mortgage! - check them all out on my Flickr site and I'm happy to trade :-)
http://www.flickr.com/lubsy1/photos