MY HOME IS MY CASTLE

NOW TRADED
Back in pink mode again with this little collage house. The plants/railings are done using the Squiggles stamps from Paper Artsy, plus a few doodled flowers. It's all about safety and security, with the warm glow of the pink, and the padlock to keep unwanted people out! All arty types welcome naturally!!

EVERY STEP

PRIVATE COLLECTION
Made this in response to the Arty Girlz Challenge which is to use black and white. It also works for the Step Outside Your Box challenge because it was VERY difficult for me to use only these colours, I kept wanting to use little hits of pink or something ... anything! Reasonably pleased with it in the end - the background is intended to represent cracked pavements (or sidewalks if you prefer)! The shoe stamp is one of my favourites by Paperbag Studios and I embossed it so that the shoes almost look like patent leather, except you can't see that in the picture. The leaves are another stamp by Inkadinkado, and I've water-coloured the sections. This is available to swap if you want it!

TRIPTYCH

NOW TRADED Haven't made one of these 3 sided ATCs in a while, but enjoyed doing it. This is for the "Middle Ages" challenge on TMTA

There seemed to be so many things I wanted to do with this theme that I needed to use this format to get them all on! Very much a scrapbooker's ATC with quite a lot of paper for the background, and I used ink to slightly age the silver arch. I was thinking about the lady in her window with painted tapestries on her walls (viz the gold patterned paper). The writing represents a love letter from a promised husband she won't meet until her wedding day. Yes I DO know I have a very fanciful imagination .....

This is available to trade.

NOT HIDING

NOW TRADED
Yes perhaps I was in slightly downhearted mode yesterday? Onwards and upwards - this is another of my brown vintage efforts (note to self, make something BRIGHTER). This girl's slightly guilty "who me" expression made me smile! Isn't it wonderful how a creative outlet can be so healing - I've been having a bad few days, but can still lose myself in making art (or what my family calls "playing"), which makes me feel so lucky.

LEAVE NO WORDS UNSPOKEN

NOW TRADED
I owe the colour scheme for this to the Theme Thursday challenge, which this week is to use orange and black. This little girl looks rather wistful and it got me thinking about how many of these beautiful Victorian children would not actually have survived to adulthood. So the black puzzle piece represents the missing space she would leave in her family, and the jewel her unique place, and finally the butterflies her departing spirit. The wording is my message to everyone never to fail to say the special things - there isn't always time. None of this is intended to be morbid but rather to make us conscious that we are fortunate that our own children grow up healthy and strong.

ART DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT

NOW TRADED
Back in the pink again ... did this for the "Thank God its Friday" challenge which this week was "faces". I'm a bit of a rebel sometimes and didn't want to make anything too pretty and predictable, and anyway I've been waiting for a chance to use this wacky Invoke Arts stamp! I know the picture looks wonky but the real thing isn't ... but decided to leave it like this in the spirit of imperfection that the piece embodies. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it .....

FLY THE NEST

NOW TRADED
Having my grand-daughters here got me thinking about my own girls, and how it seems no time at all since they were little. So continuing with my current nest fetish (and a collage sheet of them) I found this little person who seemed to embody what I was trying to get across. With my grand-daughters I feel like I've got a second chance, when I never seemed to have time just to play with my own, I was always too busy keeping them clean, clothed and fed. I see my own daughter doing the same and there's no way I can explain how quickly they'll grow up and go, yet every generation says the same .....

A LOVELY SURPRISE

Lovely Linda has given me this award and says "I love everything you make and I want to swap with you every time you post an ATC. You have become a very treasured friend in the short time I have known you. Long may our friendship last.(Pass me a hankie.)"
Well how lovely is that? That got my day off to a splendid start!

Now I have to choose some people to pass it on to, and these are the rules regarding this special award:
1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribution to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. The award-winners and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

I'm going to have to think about this a bit more before I publish mine ....

DON'T LIKE SUMS

NOW TRADED
Back to my roots with this one - yes I KNOW it's all brown and vintage, and I can't explain why that presses my buttons but it just DOES, even though I love brilliant colours. This was started off by finding the wooden rulers paper - I remember having one at school. which got me thinking about early days. This little sweetheart looked so anxious about something that the "story" came together in my head (am I the only one who makes pages and ATCs with a story - please tell me I'm not crackers!). That's very often how I work - something, a stamp or an image will set off a train of thought, and I just follow it .... She's up for grabs if vintage is your thing too, as are all the ATCs here unless marked as traded.

GYPSY

NOW TRADED
Found this little image in my stuff and I thought she was probably meant to be a gypsy (or a romanticised idea of one) fortune teller, so the script writing connected in my head with the idea of fate and "the moving finger writes and having writ moves on". The blue background and the moon are because I was thinking that fortune teling is something that belongs in the night rather than the brightness of day. It's a very simple composition and as I wasn't feeling too well yesterday I think I was in a slightly "dreamy" mood (what do you mean away with the fairies)??

SIGNS OF SPRING?

You can definitely see Spring bursting out all over around here, not to mention the fact that the Think Monday Think ATC challenge this week was to do a Spring theme. Now if you know me at all you know that pretty pretty flowers and blossoms just ain't my thing, but I was quite pleased with how this turned out (that means I had fun making it).

The background is done using a stamp which vaguely reminds me of twigs and branches, the nest is from a collage sheet, the leaves and exhibit sign are also stamps and I did the birdy freehand.

KEEPING THIS FOR MY OWN COLLECTION

BLUE GODDESS and a bit of a crisis!!

NOW TRADED
This vintage photo makes me smile - she looks a bit dodgy doesn't she with all that eye make up? Or maybe that's just me - I'm a terrible giggler! This was very much led by the photo which has soft blue tones - thebackground is stamped in white, with a torn paper overlay, and two stamped motifs.

Now for the CRISIS part - I can't make many more ATCs unless I trade some of these, so please PLEASE ask me to trade ... or this blog will get very boring for a while with no new pictures (not to mention the fact that I will get very bored if I can't make ATCs).