Laura Rumble - Crafter

Another post I found hiding in my drafts folder...  I'm ashamed to say this was written in January 2016 but I didn't hit the publish button! I was asked by the wonderful Jessica Brogan , leader of the Card Deck Swap , to put together a tutorial for the ATC's I sent in a previous swap.  Here is what I put together... To make these shaker ATC’s you will need some sort of background, a transparent material and some small ‘shaky’ pieces.    I have used a watercolour background cut down to ATC size, and a playing card.   You could use patterned paper, mixed media artwork, magazine pages, book pages, fabric... the list is endless.     I’ve used netting/tulle, vellum and a glassine bag for the shaker fronts.   You could also try scrapbook page protectors, thick plastic packaging and acetate.    I’ve used sequins, beads and punched shapes as my shaky bits – anything small and relatively thin will work... try buttons, woo...

Hello!  I'm here today to share some recent ATC’s… They are part of a deck of cards for Jessica Brogan's swap .  ATC’s – or artists trading cards – are usually small pieces of art (64mm x 89mm) swapped between artists.  Rather than working on a small scale to begin with I work on a larger sheet to make my mixed media backgrounds.  For me this is just playing with watercolours or Shimmerz, acrylics, modelling pastes etc until something starts to form.  Then when I get an idea, I follow it! This batch of cards use quite a few SpiegelMom Scraps products.  In the background I have used some Shimmerz colourings and dazzlerz .  My feature embellishment on some of the cards are the gorgeous Birds of a Feather Felties is Aqua/Blues and Green/Rust.  And of course I cannot make anything without using sequins – I’ve used some from green machine and some from lucky charm . Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I've been working on a couple of swaps recently.  I'll tell you about Jessica Brogan 's Card Deck Swap first, as there is still time for you to sign up and join in!  You can find the details here but my summary is; You alter a deck of playing cards.  You put some inspiring words on each card.  You post them to USA.  Shuffling happens.  You get sent a 52 different cards made by different people from all over the world. Here are a few of mine.  I went with the sequin/shaker trend. As you can see most of mine are slightly different but in the past I have made 52 of the same design. I have parcelled mine deck up ready to be posted and at the end of October my swaps should arrive with me... not sure I can wait that long!!  You have until the end of September to join in and post your cards off - will you join me? Thanks for stopping by!

I think I've mentioned a few times that I have been working on a deck of cards.  Well, they are now finished and have hopefully been safely delivered to America. You can see I have made batches of backgrounds.  If you stick a group of cards to a 12x12 sheet of paper you can paint 12-15 cards as one. This time I tried a grungy look by scraping some of paint off and revealing the cards. You can find out about the swap at jessicaleighbrogan.com/cardswap/ or join the facebook group - you are probably too late for this swap but join us for the next one?  :) Another goal from this swap was to use more of my handwriting and rely less on printed text. I'm really pleased with the two pastel cards at the bottom of this last photo.  I used my handwriting book - The Scrapbookers Handwriting Workshop by Crystal Jeffrey Rieger - and really enjoyed it.  The concentration it takes to write properly instead of my usual scrawl is immense and really knacke...

First up is my desk ... Hmm.  Perhaps the less said the better!  I really should have a sort out but I fancy desking instead! Next I want to share my card deck swaps (deskers don't have to stay for this bit but I reckon you'd enjoy joining in with us, which is why I'm including it in this post) You can read about the swap here on Jessica's blog and sign up here .  Basically, we take a deck of cards, add paint and/or paper, then add a positive sentiment to each card.  Post them to Jessica who shuffles them and sends back 52 different cards from different artists (yes, you are an artist!) from all over the world. These few are ones I have picked out to display first.  I'll swap them round after a few weeks.  Do you like my domino pegs?  :) Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you'll at least consider joining us for the card swap - it's like a super sized ATC swap, and all WOYWW er's know they are fun! See you at your desk x

I've been trying some Found Poetry.  Explained as simply as possible - random words cut from any printed source put together in a different order. I thought this would be really hard and something that I wouldn't enjoy at all... However, it is amazingly freeing, amusing and just so much fun! I'm doing it for a swap... details here .  It is the brainchild of the rather wonderful Jessica Brogan , and in return for your 12 cards, you will receive 12 cards from all over the world in many different styles and designs and colours and some new friends.  Join us, won't you?

I am very fortunate to have found the wonderful Jessica Brogan's card deck swap.  I joined in the latest mini swap with the theme of 'Permission to...'  You can read all about it here . Altering the cards was the easy part for me.  So easy that I got carried away in the creating and forgot to take any photos.  There was paint and there was washi and there was fun :) Then came the journalling and I was struggling (yeah, I know, no surprise there!)  I wanted my 'permissions' to be meaningful to me and not just empty words, and it took a lot of thinking.  Of course here I had lots of time to spare and part way through took a photo... I seem to have deleted my photos of the finished cards... either that or I have "put them somewhere safe"!  Boo!  However they have been sent off to USA, shuffled and sent off around the world.  I can share with you the cards that I received in return... An eclectic mix from all over the world....