Twenty Twelve...

I promised a bunch of people I had two resolutions for this year, one is to blog more - and hopefully across all my blogs.  The other is to tweet the Apocalypse - because so many people think this year will be the end...

2011 was not a particularly good year overall.  I was too wrapped up in myself and my "problems" to see the broader picture, but a trip to Canberra last week to visit my sister and my father in his nursing home, as well as a few other things have helped put things into a bit better perspective.

I have done a few things craft wise, in the past few months, building on the Swaps for SCS I entered.  There was a caffeine card swap:

This is the basic layout of the six caffeine cards for the swap.  They ended up being 6 by 6 inches because the size of the coffee pot to make the other items have proportion.  The coloured paper is the tablecloth and was cut with my Nestibilities.  I used brown ink and fine embossing powder to make the brads brown from silver to look like coffee beans.

These are the remaining five.  Colouring that many coffee pots and cups took ages but I really like the effect.  I used copper coloured stickers to write the word "Coffee".  The colours are crap but clockwise from top left are pink, purple, orange, yellow and the one centre is blue.  Photos are taken with my mobile phone which seems to be not a good idea.

I received five lovely cards in return and I hope I will remember to photograph them soon.

There was a Christmas card swap:

 I nearly forgot this one, so it was a little bit of a rush job.  The photo again was from my mobile phone, so not the best colour wise, even though I put it through a colour "fixer".  The matt is actually a mauve colour.  The angel is also painted with blender pen and stamping ink, much like the Koi in the earlier post.

But I think my favourite had to be the four seasons ATC swap.  I made sixteen ATC's four for each season - and received 16 in return.  Again I will have to photograph the return ones because they are just so beautiful...

My cards :

Autumn

Winter

Spring

Summer

Yes the winter is an actual knitted piece.  My thinking being that here in Australia we don't have snow, so snow themed card wasn't really appropriate.  However, like the Northern Hemisphere, there is always knitting.  So with some wooden skewers cut to size, topped with a card end.  

But, seriously, it is very expensive swapping and as things are at the moment I can't afford it.  I understand it is fair enough that we pay for our own postage, and I don't begrudge that.  I just can't afford it just now.

However, the items I received in return for my swaps have convinced me that I am not really much of a stamp "artist" - partially because I cannot afford, nor want some of the gizmos and gadgets  that are available to make cards look more "professional"...  I am happy where I am ...

I have some other craft items, but not yet photographed and many UFO's, all for another blog later....