Wednesday 31 July 2013

WOYWW - Top Secret!

Please bear with me if you're popping in from WOYWW, I have a little story to tell, which explains why What's on my Work-desk is TOP SECRET and guarded by my trusty paper dragon.
 If WOYWW are just a collection of meaningless letters to you you need to hotfoot it over to the wonderful Julia's 'Stamping Ground' and click HERE to join in the fun! But back to my story! Why is my Chinese dragon keeping guard over my work desk?  A couple of years ago I wandered into a pretty  little shop near The British Museum called Blade Rubber Stamps. Once over the threshold I was in an Aladdin's Cave crammed full of inks, papers and the most amazing rubber stamps. My favourites were a quirky collection of designs rejoicing in the name 'Paper Artsy'. I couldn't resist buying some and I settled on an 'Ink and the Dog' plate. I noticed Paper Artsy had a blog, so casually I checked it out. I was hooked! I fell in love with Lynne Perrella's designs for Paper Artsy and started buying the stamps online. When a mistake was made at HQ and I was sent the wrong Lynne Perrella plate, I was allowed to keep it and Leandra kindly replaced it with my original choice free of charge! The elves, she told me, did sometimes make mistakes when under pressure! Wow! Such generosity and they employed elves too ! Then last spring I expanded my crafting activities, having a go at making some exploding Victorian boxes from Cafe Retro Art Gallery, which I heard about on Helen Cain's blog! I decorated Kristin's RCAG boxes - she's also a supplier who really takes an interest in customers' work - with PA images. I sent a pic to her and Leandra just to let them know how much I loved using their products. Kris featured my boxes on RCAG Facebook page and Leandra sent back an email saying I really ought to blog! Me blog? How? Magpies and technology = nervous breakdown! But she assured me it was not so very hard and - although I have not always been the most accomplished blogger - Magpie Heaven kind of got off the ground, thanks to advice from lovely people who started to follow me, and since April it's been amazing creative fun and I've learned so much about crafting! Thanks to WOYWW I've made lots of crafting friends and creating has become a huge part of my life and - I have to add - kept me sane through some tough times. Now that is why WOMW is TOP SECRET this week! Still puzzled? Well, towards the end of August all will be revealed! What I can show you on my workdesk/ dining table (!) this week are materials I'm planning to make into a card for my step-sister in Switzerland, it's her birthday in August. It's going to be my first chance to use the Lynne Perrella stamps I won in the Paper Artsy draw a while back.
 I'm off now to take a peek at other desks and a little bird told me there are lots of secret craftings going on out there!!!

Saturday 27 July 2013

'Just for You'

Darcy has been absolutely phenomenal over at Paper Artsy this week! If you want to check out some of her incredible projects, including an adorable giraffe - yes - a giraffe! Click HERE.
I wanted to play along, but just before Darcy posted fabulous garden party ideas, we had a party to celebrate Mr Magpie's early retirement. I would love to have thrown another party just to have a go at these brilliant makes, but - well - call me a wimp - 2 parties in a week seemed a bit excessive! I've always wanted to make my own paper, but I didn't think there would be time and the giraffe - well that was way too ambitious: I haven't even had a go at the Geisha kitty yet from last time yet! There was the tin watering can, which I loved, but I had nothing like it to alter! Then I remembered! Lin @ Art from Herts had sent me two little tins to alter. I decided to make them into hand-painted gifts.
I painted the tins with Gesso as Darcy did her watering can.
Then I decorated the insides by painting with Fresco Finish paint in Guacamole and lining with some Prima paper. I painted the outsides with Fresco Finish greens and blues.
I also made some wrapping paper using Darcy's idea of brown paper painted with Fresco circles and stamped with PA images. I used a Hot Picks plate and carried on the theme with a couple of corrugated cardboard tags.
And here are the gifts inside, one for Isaac and one for Matilda - our Magpie Brood! I painted a scene with puffy clouds on my tin lids and stamped on some leaves and grasses, embellishing with shrink plastic medallions of  Lynne Perrella Geishas in shrink plastic frames covered in Treasure Gold. I received a consignment of Polyshrink from Paper Artsy earlier this week and I wanted to experiment, so I also made little tiny shrink plastic birds from a Tim Holtz die!!! Here is a close-up.
Matilda has been in Cyprus and we've all missed her, so on Wednesday we'll celebrate her return to the nest with little gifts! Thanks Darcy for inspiring me to paint on tin with Frescos and to make my own gift wrap - so much more personal and thank you Lin for those lovely little tins to alter! Have a great weekend anyone who had a peep and thanks for dropping by Magpie Heaven.



Friday 26 July 2013

ARC - Into the Woods!

Time for the ARC hosted by the incredibly creative Darcy at Art and Sole again. Click HERE if you would like to find out more. This month I've been reading 'Gossip from the Forest' by Sara Maitland. I originally bought this book for my husband for Christmas because he loves woodland walks. After last week's rather disappointing choice, reading this has been heaven! Sara Maitland devotes one chapter to each of the different months of the year and in each she describes a walk she's taken in a different area of woodland. What she reveals is that woods are truly enchanted places! Not enchanted in the sense that you have to have a degree in necromancy to understand, but in an everyday way. Magic happens in woods, they are places of transformations - caterpillars turn into butterflies, tiny saplings grow into ancient oaks, fungi sculpt themselves into weird and wonderful shapes. Her descriptive powers are so vivid that you truly imagine yourself with her - or if you prefer - in the solitude of whatever area of woodland she is describing, your mind rambling along the paths she hints at. This book is not just about the woods alone, it is also about what fertile ground they can be for the imagination and Maitland discusses the importance of woods to Fairy-tale traditions. The sub-title is 'The tangled roots of our forests and fairy tales' and she skilfully explores both!
Curling up with this book has been like walking with a wise and well informed friend who never wearies you with information, but just stimulates your imagination and encourages your spirit of adventure and discovery! I love how before the book even begins she explains that the meaning of the word gossip has changed to become something quite negative as so often words associated with women's lives and lore have done. To begin with a gossip was a name for a godparent, someone contracted to be a spiritual sponsor at a baptism, then it changed slightly to mean a woman's female friends invited to be present at a birth until eventually it becomes a word for idle chatter! Maitland says the 'gossip' of her title refers to spiritual talk that 'we all need in times of trouble' and she goes to the woods and the ancient store of fairy lore for this! At the end of each chapter she re-tells a fairy tale for modern times.
I can genuinely say that I loved this book. It made me realize how magical our woodland heritage in Britain is and how much the forests have shaped our imagination. Of course forests all over the world are equally magical and equally under threat! The sun-dappled ambiguous light of woods is exactly the right light in which to see fairies, so for this reason I chose to decorate a fairy shrine from Retro Cafe Art Gallery for my artful response. If you click on the images you can see in a little more detail.
These shrines are basically fairy shaped with wings and a little chamber at the centre and you can decorate them any way you choose. I decided to make mine an Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking-Glass fairy. This is because woods are a kind of wonderland in which extraordinary things become ordinary like in Lewis Carroll's dream world. I made a stand for my shrine from chipboard dabbed with Paper Artsy Fresco paints to look like grass and I sandwiched a Crackle Glazed frame between the two sections to suggest a mirror opening out and leading into magical worlds. I gave my Fresco painted Alice Crackle Glaze wings. I gave her antennae because I imagine fairies to be like a species of insect and that they might actually resemble insects in this way. Alice is all about shape shifting, something fairies are heavily into! And woods are, of course, full of shape-shifting plants and creatures. Alice experiences being very tiny and very tall and complains about this, but the caterpillar explains that this is something he has to accept as the norm! The Graphic 45 butterfly resting on the toadstool at the entrance to my Alice Fairy Wood may well have once been that very caterpillar!
Here is a close-up of the miniature wood inside my Alice Fairy. There is a tiny imitation tree and a paper-cut bird's egg. Behind the mini-playing card is a painting of the miniature wood beyond. As I created this I thought about the magic of hearing a rustle in the undergrowth and a tiny creature darting across your path so fast you could hardly glimpse exactly what it was - a rabbit in quite a hurry to get somewhere maybe? Or sometimes that rustling is a bird eyeing you suspiciously, and what a magical metamorphosis happens every time a brood hatches from an egg in a nest cradled in the arms of some ancient tree! Maitland talks about the magic of the woods partly being about seeing that particularly butterfly land on that particular leaf!
Because the shrine is 3D I wanted to decorate the back too. This paper cut of a little boy's head from Retro Cafe Art Gallery reminded me very much of how my son looked as a child. Although he is 22 now sometimes he comes on walks with us in the woods and one of his favourite stories remains 'Alice'. The tiny block on the back of the shrine is meant to be a stand; I have turned it into a book, painting pages edged with gold onto the sides and adding a tiny piece of book text describing the white rabbit. Alice gazing at the little boy so far and yet so near to her is cut from a RCAG collage sheet and placed onto a tiny water colour I did of the grass and the sky. I like to imagine that Alice on this side has just emerged from the enchanted wood. I'm off now to view other reviews and artwork. Thank you so much for stopping by Magpie Heaven to read my review and take a look at what I created.



Tuesday 23 July 2013

WOYWW - Phew!!!

Hello and welcome to my work desk today! Hi there to Artwolf, my new follower, all my followers and any visitors dropping by Magpie Heaven today. I have to admit that this is What's on my Work-place Tuesday not Wednesday! If you haven't a clue what I'm chattering on about, click HERE and discover the best blog hop around ! Julia Dunnit's the hostess  of WOYWW, where you can snoop around crafters' desks and make lots of new crafty friends into the bargain. Wednesday is going to be a busy day with the Magpie daughter, Matilda leaving for Cyprus at 4.30 am and then the newly retired Mr Magpie and I are off for a day out. I'm not sure where we're bound yet, but I hope it will be somewhere with lots of shiny things to see! Here's what's on my desk today!
It's my journal spread for The Alpha/Dictionary Challenge over at the Craft Barn. At this point I'd almost finished. Sorry for the bright sunshine that makes it difficult to see. By the time this goes out it will be posted so hope that's OK! If you would like to see in a little more detail you can click on the image. It's so hot and humid at the moment I feel as if I'm dissolving into a little magpie puddle. I've also been working on one of the Fairy Shrine Kits from over at Retro Cafe Art Gallery for the Artful Reading Challenge on Darcy's Art and Sole blog, which is, I think, this Friday.
If you turn it around this is on the reverse side!
It's shaping up to be a busy summer in Magpie Heaven too! It all kicked off with a garden party yesterday to celebrate Mr Magpie's early retirement with some of Mr Magpie's ex-workmates - a lovely day spent in really nice company. Kevin is returning to continue with the kitchen 'make-over' at the beginning of August and Mr Magpie has lots of days out planned - no doubt to escape the mayhem! Once that kitchen is done I'm going to be busy creating Magpie Treasures to make the kitchen homely. And - Dianne - those key fobs are looking great on my key plaque! I think how pretty they are every time I pass them in the hall. I'm going to try to get round to as many desks as I can before we go out! Hope to see you and catch up with what's on your work desk!



T for Tryst! - Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge.

I can't believe we're onto another letter in the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary Challenge already. Click here if you would like to find out more about this challenge to illustrate dictionary definitions either in your own altered dictionary, or in an art journal or on ATCs - the possibilities are many, but why not just take a look over at The Craft Barn and you'll discover just how a whole collection of talented artists and crafters are exploring words and their meanings in original ways.
 I've chosen the word 'Tryst' for this week's letter T: a journal spread about secret meetings in secluded places.
Although in my dictionary, tryst was defined as a pre-arranged meeting, I have always associated it with lovers, especially those of long ago whose liaisons were forbidden or - at least - dangerous! A couple of years back I taught students 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' and I was struck by how certain descriptive passages were reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. This was a novel about forbidden trysts and the consequences for women of risking their reputation for a few snatched moments with an admirer. For my journal page I took two Pre-Raphaelite paintings and did little copies in the middle of my journal page, which I then hid behind a stamp by Crafty Individuals of a shuttered window stamped onto card painted in the same colours as my background. I cut round the shutters carefully with a craft stiletto so that it is possible either to peep through into this past world of clandestine meetings...
or to open out the whole image like a card.
The page on the left is based on Hughes' painting 'April Love' and it reflects Spring, new love and daytime.
The page on the right is a farewell tryst and I tried for a twilight feel with moths instead of butterflies and more shadow than sunlight. If you click on the images, you will be able to see in a little more detail.
For the backgrounds on both my pages I dabbed on Frescos in shades of green: Hyde Park, Tinned Peas, Hey Pesto, Limelight and Sage. I stamped leaves on in Versafine green and added tissue leaves and a poppy from paper napkins. My moths are Paper Artsy stamps and a Retro Cafe Art Gallery paper cut moth. I also stamped some script from a Paper Artsy plate on the inside of the window shutters with Coffee Archival ink.
I used a die-cut of a Tim Holtz book-plate for my definition, painting a layer in Fresco Holly, Crackle Glaze and then a layer of Guacamole. I edged this with a little Treasure Gold.
The butterflies on the left page are cut from Graphic 45 'Steam Punk Debutante', a design alas no longer available.
The blue butterflies were stamped onto the background in Peacock Feathers distress ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder so they do glisten in real life! This technique was inspired by a beautiful canvas I saw on Alison's blog 'Words and Pictures'. Her dragon fly really gleamed and reminded me of Ellen Terry's beetle wing costume. The bird is a Retro Cafe Art Gallery paper cut.
It's been so hot while I was painting and photographing and writing up, I'm worried I have not made much sense! Everything seems to have been created in a kind of stupor! I began to envy these doomed lovers in their shady rendezvous! I'm off now to check out other Alpha-Dictioneers who I hope have not melted away in all this heat!






Friday 19 July 2013

Asian Acetate

Over at Paper Artsy, Carol Quance has been using some beautiful Paper Artsy stamps in really imaginative projects one of which included acetate. Now, this may seem unconnected, but today my Magpie Mate went in to work as a Maths teacher for the last time - he's taking early retirement! He's a true Magpie too and he's had twenty-two years to hoard all kinds of things at work: oh, dear most of them have found their way into the nest over the last week as he empties his desk! But one really useful acquisition has been a big box of acetate sheets. Here is what I made with some...
I loved Carol's stunning pink and orange image, but I wanted to create an Asian themed card. I love all things Asian and on Tuesday all my birthdays and Christmas came at once when I received an amazing piece of Happy Mail from a very generous crafting friend, Dianne, aka Magpie Cousin! I used some of her lovely hand-coloured paper for my card and some of the beautiful, Chinese paper she sent me. I decided to make a middle section to my card with acetate butterflies stamped  from a Paper Artsy 'Wings' plate and little antennae made from what I think are meant to be flower centres for handmade flowers - my mum found them in a charity shop and gave them to me. This was quite a challenge and  was it difficult to photograph! I took the picture is taken in our conservatory. The painting on the door my daughter's first 'commission' when she was about eleven and I love the cheery colours and shapes so much I've never wanted to paint over them!
I love playing with Shrink plastic, but I didn't have any of the jewellery 'bits and pieces' needed for Carol's gorgeous bracelet design, so I compromised and added an embellishment to the card made from a piece of Shrink Plastic dye cut in an oval shape with a dye-cut Shrink Plastic frame. I stamped the same Lynne Perrella lady on my Shrink Plastic as the image inside the card and edged the card with Graphic 45 paper of an Asian design.
The reflections on the acetate made photographing it difficult. Hopefully if you click on the images you can see in a bit more detail. This paper had a lovely water-colour texture and the layer above it was gold leaf and terra-cotta. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the glitter of the gold under the image in a photo, but it does gleam irl! I edged down one side with some braid, which is probably more Indian than anything else, but it seems to blend in with the mood of the card, I think. I added two little motifs from the LP plate over on the right.
As Carol pointed out, acetate cards are a challenge because you can see the back of everything! I covered the back of my image with another piece of the beautiful water-colour paper. The Graphic 45 paper is double-sided so there is a design whichever way you look at it, and I created a little dye-cut frame from double-sided Prima paper too to place at the corner. This shows through the card like a looking-glass in the background, I think. I had no dye-cut of flowers so I adapted a snow-flake dye, which I coloured with alcohol inks with a pearl at the centre. I fixed on the butterflies and flower with glue dots. I was really pleased with the effect of the layers of acetate, but unfortunately it was difficult to capture the full effect.

I have decided to make this a card to wish my DH a happy retirement! Here it stands  with a nice cup waiting for some China Tea to be poured. We'll get out the Champagne later! Thank you, Carol for such inspiring and beautiful projects this week.


Texture, Vintage, Flower with an Oriental Flavour

This fortnight at Dragons' Dream Tag it on Challenge - click HERE to find out more - the recipe is Texture, Vintage, Flowers. It's been so hot just lately I wanted to go for really cool colours and make my flower a water lily. The colour combination I chose reminded me of Chinese Art so my tag is vintage, but I used a vintage image of a Geisha so it's vintage with an Asian twist!

I painted my tag with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish acrylics in Bora Bora, Inky Pool, Mermaid and Ice Blue. I then added a little Crackle Glaze here and there and then stencilled through a Crafters' Workshop Harlequin Stencil to give my first example of texture. I also worked some Treasure Gold in White Fire into the cracks. If you click on the images you can see the texture in a little more detail. I then fixed the top layer of a paper napkin, which I bought from the giftshop of our local 'Fan Museum' (Yes, we have a museum entirely devoted to fans!) onto the tag with Satin Glaze: I was pleased with the way the stencil showed through!
I added further texture with  Grunge Paste through a flower stencil, which I thought looked rather like a sunburst. I die-cut Tim Holtz pediments from card and Crackle Glazed them before adding them to the top and bottom of the tag. I also added a gold embossed stamp from a Lynne Perrella Asian plate. The water lily - also from a Lynne Perrella Paper Artsy Asian plate - was stamped in Coffee Archival ink several times onto card painted with Bora Bora. I then cut out the flowers and layered them to create depth.
I used the same technique with the lily in the bottom right hand corner. I added slightly singed peacock feather gauze fabric dyed with Broken China a Tattered Rose DIs as extra petals and glazed this flower with Glossy Accents and a little Treasure Gold.
At the centre of my tag is the vintage image of a Geisha. In the photo she is leaning back on a sofa, but on my tag I thought she gave the impression of floating through the lilies on a beautiful decorated barge on an ornamental lake. The glittery embossed carp, attached by foam pads,  seems to be leaping up from the tranquil waters and three glittery embossed butterflies flutter by! The Crackle Glazed pediment at the foot of the card suggested to me the prow of the barge. I used some colourful fibres, a gift from a dear crafting friend, aka 'My Magpie Cousin' to hang from the edge of my tag and as they flutter in the breeze they could almost be reflections in the water. My finishing touch is some more of the lovely fibres my friend sent me used as a loop to hang the tag...
My Geisha of long ago is dreaming with the Dragons on the water on  sultry summer day! Thank you, Dragons for letting me dream with you this week!

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Our Creative Corner Challenge

When I discovered the 'Our Creative Corner' challenge (please click on the blue words to find out more) recently I had to smile. A dear old school friend of my mum's had asked me to make an anniversary card for her nephew and his wife. I had some ideas and asked for a nice photo of the happy couple to help my inspiration. I wanted to evoke the memories of a long and happy marriage in my card for them.  By return of post I received a photo of Owen and Pat, an angle-poise lamp growing out of Owen's head so that he looked like a fugitive from an episode of Doctor Who! Furthermore - just the arm was remaining in the foreground of somebody who had been snipped from the photo! I set myself the challenge to create something with this as my starting point! And then I spied Our Creative Corner and that spurred me on further! Here is what I came up with. Please click on the images if you would like to see in more detail.
I started with a piece of A4 card, which I folded in three, using a score board. For the first page of my card I used a vintage photo of a couple I think from around 1920. This is not Owen and Pat obviously, as they would be very elderly indeed if it were! I printed out the image and distressed it with Tim Holtz Distress Inks - mainly Frayed Burlap and Tattered Rose. I then stamped on my card with a Crafty Individuals Script Stamp in Versamark and some Stampington butterflies from the plate Butterfly Girl in Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, which I then embossed with clear embossing powder. I built up layers of Bo Bunny papers painted on the reverse side with Bora Bora Fresco paint and stamped with a Paper Artsy script stamp in Coffee Archival ink, rolling and curling the edges; stamped elements included a little postcard stamp from a Lynne Perrella plate stamped onto Fresco painted card edged with Frayed Burlap. There are also stamped tickets and a coupon. I then edged the reversed side of the paper with White Fire Treasure Gold. I made a paper feather from some Bo Bunny paper with musical notes and this reminded me of how the two lovebirds would be creating a nest and beginning to build memories so I added two lovely speckled eggs from Retro Cafe Art Gallery's paper cuts. So that first page symbolizes the memory making when we take the first step on the journey of marriage...
I used a piece of seam-binding coloured with Distress Inks in Broken China, Tattered Rose and Walnut Stain to convey the idea of captured memories, when this is opened you can see the feather a little more clearly and also the embossed butterfly from a Paper Artsy Ink and the Dog plate called Wings. I dusted the feather with a little Treasure Gold along the edges and added a Prima flower.
If we open the card those captured memories start to flutter out. I tried to evoke the idea of shared interests like a love of poetry with the John Donne extract from 'An Anniversary'; shared holidays captured in the background stamping of the Eiffel tower and what looks like an Italian cupola. Butterflies and roses suggest the romance and joy of a long and happy marriage - forty-five years in this case, so lots of shared memories! I attached a die-cut of a Venetian ticket to the top corner above Owen and Pat, using an eyelet and a piece of narrow ribbon. And there is that photo! No sign of the angle-poise or the cut off arm! I die cut a copy to fit in a BoBunny die cut frame and the alien headgear vanished! I also glazed it with a mix of Satin Glaze and a tiny hint of Mermaid Fresco so that it would tone in with the rest of the card. The frame is edged with roses from a paper napkin attached with a thin layer of Satin Glaze.
My mum's friend particularly asked that the number 45 be displayed prominently so here is the card opened out. And then the last page alone with the important number in its Spellbinders frame. The group photo stamp is from Stampington Butterfly Girl and symbolizes the memory of a child's first school photo, as so many anniversary memories are also reminiscences of growing children! The card is edged with Gold foil Dresden trim.
Here is a close-up of the Crackle Glaze frame and the napkin rose inside it...
I also made a little clock from an old Non Sequiter plate, which I edged with Gold UTEE. The centre is a tiny napkin anemone with a gem. The sun face is from part of a Paper Artsy Lynne Perrella stamp. The striped paper is Graphic 45 - the reverse side of some Japanese lanterns. If you look on the last page again you will see a tiny stamp with one those G45 lanterns on it symbolizing celebration!
 I do hope that Owen and Pat will like their card and that it will stir the happiest of memories.
I should like to enter this card for the Our Creative Corner Captured Memories Challenge.




WOYWW - Magpie Heaven!

What's on my work-table today! A treasure trove for a magpie! And it's all thanks to my Magpie Cousin and a wonderful blog-hop called WOYWW, the brainchild of the amazing Julia, that put us in touch! If you want to have a good nosy at what great crafters are up to right now click HERE.Yesterday I was making a card when the postman knocked with a package. It's so hot in the UK at the moment and things are still in a bit of a muddle as we wait for the work to start on the kitchen again ( it's no doubt going to get worse before it gets better...never mind) so I opened my package in the shady magpie garden - and what did it contain? Treasure from my dear, Magpie  Canadian Cousin, Dianne Marcoux!
There were the beautiful key fobs she had made me to go with my key plaque: you might remember the family keys were hanging from some rather disreputable bits of string! I photographed them with my new garden ornament - a very bright, glittery  toad-stool, which you might be able to spot peeping out behind the the geraniums! Please click on the images if you would like to see more clearly.
This was not all: my Magpie Cousin was so generous! She sent things I would have chosen to bring back to the nest myself if I'd spied them! I dressed up my favourite garden statue.
Now my new things are on the table and they are all so precious I have to find a home for them and start using them in projects. Dianne labelled everything with really lovely little personal notes.

Look at those exquisite Chinese papers, that vintage lace and the wonderful Genko leaves I will coat and use in projects!
Dianne also sent me some wonderful photos and postcards which I will scan into the computer and then use. 
I couldn't possibly cut up such lovely original images!
I just love these fibres and these darling little ladies!
These images are just the tip of the iceberg of all the lovely, lovely things Dianne sent. I intend to use everything at some time and my head is just crowded with possible projects now: handmade books, cards, the sky's the limit - I have the stash of my dreams!!! 
I took many photos but I must try to keep this short! I decided to store the Oriental cards and papers in my Asian wallet with my supply of ATCs and tags.
Here is a peek inside...
I love everything and my daughter, Matilda was very taken with the butterflies!
I also won the Paper Artsy Draw on Sunday and the stamps I chose arrived along with Dianne's package -...
I really am in Magpie Heaven now! Have a great creative week everyone stopping by. I will try to visit when I can tear myself away from all these lovely things! There are many, many more - stick pins, papers, fabrics. Thank you Dianne and thank you WOYWW for introducing me to some wonderful crafting friends.