Ok, so with the da Vinci's out of the way it was time to crack on withsome Vintage Beauty and Vintage Lingerie, oh.... and some Altered Mona Lisas while the stamp was out. There's a lot but they're all a bit different. All these swaps are hosted by Teri.

I've been very busy with atc's lately - a few days holiday and no interruptions meant I could crack on with Teri Chenin's da Vinci chunky book page swap and ...tara...THEY'RE DONE. I've put a few up in the holder and here's a photo of them. Close ups will follow at some future date. For this swap there are 22, and the backs are decorated too. It was a mission I can tell you, especially since I only have one da Vinci themed rubber stamp which is of the Mona Lisa.

Wanna see the cards I've done on a Paris theme swap this week? Here they re.... I have used microscope slides and have attached them either with super glue or a glue pen. I had to wait for natural daylight to avoid flash flare from the glass. Lots of work in these ones but very enjoyable. I loved working with these images from artchix - what a great fashion era!

After having spent toooooo much time on atc's recently, I had a rest last week and did some well needed housework! But with a new order of craft materials waiting to be used from artchix and collagestuff, I was eager to get cracking on some 'Vintage Christmas' swaps.

The samples of tiny original sheet music I have used is 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'. Interestingly I took this from a pamphlet I found which was from Christmas 1942. It was given to Catholic prisoners of war in their food parcels. If that could have told a story! It was a shame to cut it up but as with any old book pages and found objects, I look on art cards as a way of recycling stuff, or appreciating old things in a new way.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite tonight from the 9 cards below.... but it's probably 'A Kiss from Sant', 'cos it makes me smile each time I see it! Cross dressing or feminised male subjects are not universally popular although I think they are fun so I shall keep this one for my own pleasure. I tend to make more than I need for a swap then keep my favourite. If you don't do that you end up with tons of cards from other people and none of your own work!!

These cards are going into a Vintage Christmas swap hosted by Teri Chenin for the Yahoo group VintagePhotoImage.

Just when I had told myself it was late and I should be clearing away my craft items, I got inspired to create these cards for a swap called Cemetery Statues (ATC World) hosted by Teri Chinen.

There is such beauty in old cemetery art. Here I have tried to capture the stone texture, the overgrown and mystical air in these seven cards. The images came from a collage sheet from www.collagestuff.com. It's a lovely sunny morning here in Essex and the sunshine has helped with the photography.

Let me know with your comments if you like the cards...

Vintage Sepia Themed art cards

I did the following cards today for a VPI swap entitled Vintage Sepia hosted by Teri Chinen. The backgrounds were all done with old book papers, given a coat of old-fashioned glue then acrylic paint to give a crackled effect. I used found and purchased items, chalks, lace. metal embellishements, brads, glitter glue etc.

Halloween atc's using negatives

I love incorporating found items into my art....


These two cards use colourwashed scrunched tissue paper and pva glue onto mount board as a background. The embellishements were rubber stamped fimo clay and mica powder. The spider is a rhinestone brooch, and the wild hair on both was the fringe from a '60's shawl.

I've had a very busy couple of evenings... so here are some atc which use photographic negatives on mount board for spooky effect. They are for a Holloween swap I am taking part in soon.