ATCs

Made some ATCs in the past few days, it's a good way to use up some of the scraps which get left over when making bigger projects. I used lots of different techniques - stamping, embossing, distressing etc. Was fun making them!

Cardboard and loo-roll mini BIA-tag album

Made this album using a lot of recycling materials - cardboard for the covers, loo-rolls for the pockets and cream coloured packaging for the tags. The buttons have been *rescued* from old clothes and stored in my *treasure tin*. The cardboard for the covers was distressed and inked with T.H. inks in weathered wood, brushed corduroy and lettuce, then sprayed with *My tattered Angels* glimmer spray in wheatfields and garden fairy, powdered with some *perfect pearls* and given 2 coats of glimmer mod-podge. The loo-rolls have been flattened with my *Big Shot*, covered with 2 different papers - I think from K & Co, and also coated with mod-podge. Tip -after covering them I put them through the Big Shot again so that the glue bonds better and doesn't cause air-bubbles. Used 1" BIA O-wires to bind it, and then decorated the little album with lots of bits and pieces from my *treasure boxes* - ribbons, wool, flowers, magic mesh, cut-outs, die-cuts, some *bling*, nostalgic pictures, plastic animal stickers from the toy-shop, animal transfers, clock-faces etc. The tags have been distressed with T.H. inks in the colours used above, and patterned using a T.H. *Scroll* mask. Each one has been stamped with owl pictures, and I added some quotes about wisdom and owls. Was great fun making it, hope you enjoy looking at it!

Mini BIA Album

This album has chipboard covers and mini envelopes to hold the tags. The envelopes have been distressed with Tim Holtz inks in broken china and brushed corduroy, and then stamped with archival ink in black. The small stamps are from *Sousan Design*, the large clock from *My tattered angels* For some I have used masks from Tim Holtz. The Tags have been die-cut using the packaging from the T.H. masks. I used quotes about time, printed on to brown paper. I kept the embellisments sparse, some words, notes, clocks and owls printed onto overhead transparency foil, a few flowers, some clock face cut-outs, some ribbons, string and paper clips. The paper-clips have been covered with coordinating papers. The covers have been covered with paper from *Graphics 45*, and embellished with a T.H. *dog-tag* and a watch face, fitted into some clear plastic packaging cut to fit. The two labels at the front are from other products and have been distressed and stamped, the smaller one has an added die-cut from grunge board. Was fun to make! The quotes used are:

Love makes time pass
Time makes love pass

Time to remember

As if you could kill time
without injuring eternity.
Henry David Thoreau

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.
Louis Hector Berlioz

Time goes, you say? Ah no!
Alas, Time stays, we go.
Henry Austin Dobson

Men talk of killing time,
while time quietly kills them.
Dion Boucicault

Time heals all wounds

Sunday is Muffin Day

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

My First Card from 1951

While clearing and tidying one of my drawers this week I found this card that I made in 1951 for my Mum. I was 4 1/2, so I think it was an achievement! It's been written on rough post-war paper using pencil and coloured pencils. I remember making the card and that my brother picked wild flowers from a bomb-site nearby, which we placed in a cup for Mum.

Rest in Peas....

Well, they've gone. Soon they will be winging their way to their last resting place. They have been my loyal companions for 2 years now, have kept my feet warm in winter, slept next to my bed at night, were always waiting for me in the morning when I rolled out of bed, or when I came in out of the cold world outside. I feel lonely without them, and cold. Then I had to dispose of them - my wonderful sheepskin slippers. The problem was - where, and how?? In Düsseldorf, garbage is collected by the Awista. They give us bins for everything. Black bins for household garbage, brown ones for *bio* things which can be composted. Blue bins for paper. Yellow bins for plastic and metal. Containers spoiling the view on every corner where you can throw in brown glass, clear glass and green glass. Containers for old clothes (packed and bundled) or shoes (tied together in pairs, please!). Once a month they collect old furniture. We have a recycling yard round the corner where there are giant containers, not only for all these things, but also for garden rubbish like leaves and branches, for scrap metal, for small electric appliances (like toasters, coffee machines etc) but NOT for computers, TVs or LARGE things. These have to be taken to other specialised recycling yards. And once a month they have a special collection at the yard where you can take DANGEROUS things like old paint tins, batteries, acids, chemicals and old oil cans, to name just a few. Our garbage gets treated very well here, then they earn money with it. And the monthly, compulsory fees for their services are also considerable. Once a year we even get a free calendar which tells what you can put where and when. This was the problem. Where to put my sheepskin slippers? Normally, I could have bundled them and taken them across the road to the old clothes container. I mean, they are not worn out. It's just that I had to dispose of them because every time I took them off, the smell of decaying sheep was sooooooo strong that I nearly fainted. I had thought of trying to extract the gas they were giving off and marketing it as an anaesthetic for minor ops. Or would it have been more suitable as something for biological warfare? This was the problem. Did I have to take my slippers to the monthly collection of dangerous goods? Or could I dispose of them in the black bins? This morning I made a decision.
The offending articles were packed in a small bin bag, tied well, and I sneaked outside in PJs (the grey-pink striped ones) and my leather biker jacket and put them in the black bin. There they came to rest, not on a bed of roses, but on a heap of veggies, mostly peas, which were in the bin. As I said at the beginning - Rest in Peas!!

Getting screwed....

Well, don't be disappointed, but this is probably NOT about what you may be thinking. Last night I couldn't sleep again, so decided to get on with my crafting. Whilst getting things out of my scrap cupboard - actually it's my wardrobe, but somehow the scrappy things have taken over, and in the meantime my clothes all look scrappy too, as they are bundled up into the smallest compartment to make space for the important things in life - I spotted an album, which I thought would be good for a few LOs. Took it out, and saw why I haven't used it - somebody (????) had taken out all of the page protectors. No problem - I found a pile, got my screwdriver and unscrewed the album. Spent the next ten minutes on my hands and knees, crawling over the floor with a little torch looking for the screw I had lost. Thankful to say I found it after kneeling on it. The screw did not get damaged, I'm not so sure about my knee. By then it was nearly 2 a.m., I have hardly slept all week, my finger-tip skills had dropped to an all time low, and my frustration tolerance level was sub-zero. Took the album, after clearing enough space on the table to put it there, fumbled the page protectors - why are they always so slippery? Why do they fall under the sofa when they drop off the table? Why are transparent page protectors so hard to see on the floor? Why do they attract dust better than swiffers? - onto the screws, and tried to get the top parts of the screws screwed back in. 2.30 a.m. and almost finished. Then I saw the pile of cardboard strips which should have been alternating with the page protectors. I refrained from screaming as it was in the middle of the night. Start all over again! Unscrew screws. Page protector. Cardboard strip. Page protector. Cardboard strip. Page strip. Cardboard protector....they just didn't all fit on the screws. Rootled in the draw and found some little tubes to lengthen the screws. Fumbled them into the album. Page protector. Cardboard strip. Page protector. Cardboard strip....up to ten of each. 3 a.m. and still trying to get screwed. Why didn't that last screw fit any more? 3.15 a.m. - DONE!! There's a title on the front of the album - *Happy Days* (that title is so sick it sucks!). But with the title at the front, the page protectors had the openings at the bottom. 3.30 a.m. Put the album back in my scrap-robe, under a large pile of other things. I can't even throw it away without having to get it unscrewed to separate paper and plastic for the dual system recycling bins. If I ever find it again, please remind me about sleepless nights, lost screws, bottoms up and a lot of frustration....