Challenge #192 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It's a certain Poobah's birthday this week at the Poobah Palace, Ms. Deena is blowing out the candles.  In honor of her birthday we are asking YOU to take on the theme of 

BIRTHDAYS!!!!! 

Electra here:

I made a layout for my grandson's second birthday.  Well, I made a few LO's but I think this one shows how our family really is a bunch of circus animals.

Truly.  We have fun though.

What did I read once?  "We're a circus without a tent."

That's us.

Deena here:

 it was my birthday over the weekend and the girls at work sent a card around for signing for me...the funny part was that I had this card with me in the pile of cards at work and one of the girls used it to "give to her mom" and lo and behold it comes around signed and lands on my desk....it feels strange making your own birthday card...but hey, what can I say...they like them.

Chat Noir sneaking in very belatedly......sharing two cards I made for friends with birthdays close together.  I always find it hard to make something for a friend because it never turns out the way it looks in my head, but both friends were kind enough to say they liked their cards! This one is for Ann who loves her garden and the colours of spring...

....and this one for Emmy, using some of the colours she loves and a piece of embossed paper that reminds me of the tiles in her courtyard.

And now its your turn........

Share your creativity with us here by

linking your blog post in the comments section.

Challenge #191 - Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)

Artist trading cards, or ATCs, are little 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" (89 x 64 mm for those on the metric system) works of art.  You make of them whatever you want. Make them from paper, cloth, metal, whatever.  Embellish them however you choose.  Your only limits are the size parameters and your imagination.

This fortnight we want YOU to make ATCs; one, two, or an entire series if you so choose.  You can collect them, trade them, use them on other projects (like greeting cards, scrapbook pages, art journals, the sky is the limit).


Let's see what the Poobahs have made for this theme.


Deena -






this week my husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage and I thought this little cutie was a good way to reflect on the past years (all while playing with my glitter pens and dies etc.)

Chat Noir

I remember ages ago when someone asked me to make an ATC and I had to ask what they were..........which seems so unlikely now that I have made so many.  They have become my favourite little works of paper-art.

Tonight I let my heart take over and made use of some of the paper I like the best (at the moment).  My first takes me back to the understated colours I like best: there's woodgrain and grey gauzy ribbon in a couple of different widths, and a scrap of the scrabble-letters paper that I'm hoarding.  

The second one has similar colours along with orange which has become my accent colour of choice.  I like the vaguely creepy feel of the plants shadows....maybe I should have saved it for Halloween?

...and then I found the last scrap of a lovely old TE kit paper, and turned it into a Spring-inspired ATC to complete my samples.  Its the beginning of Spring here in Australia and today my garden has been sunny, heady with the scent of blossoms and noisy with a million bees in among the strands of my willow tree.

Rosemary

ATCs are wonderfully versatile - I've seen them made from everything - fabric, clay, papers of all sorts.  You just have to imagine what you want to make and then run with it.

For this challenge I have three to show you.

The first is a lovely little magical seahorse that I stamped, fussy cut and then put on top of an inked and glittered background - hey, with a magical seahorse you can have an ocean of words and glitter.  

My next one is Love is in the Air and I'm not sure which of the young lovers is thinking blarney and which one feels that this is love...left to your interpretation.

Finally there is a pensive little cat and when I stamped this I thought of the stillness of cats when they want to be still, which is in direct ratio to the energy they expend when they want to be frenzied.

Electra here.  I just finished a VAMP ATC swap.

I wish I looked like these ladies still...

Share your creativity with us here  by 

linking your blog post in the comments section. 

You have until 

September 20

to share your ATCs with us!