Sunday 10 May 2015

Rain and sun what a combination

Happy handmade Monday to all. Been a week of sunshine and showers. You may remember our cherry blossom tree in a previous post, well woke to a pink carpet the other day, so pretty and have banned Lee from getting out the mower to collect up the blossoms.


A new Magnolia planted last year is just starting to flower, love this colour


Lee has started a new project in the garden, which will mean a visit to a garden centre to stock up on goodies. Been planning to go to Leckford Estate for a long time, owned by John Lewis aka Waitrose.  Longstock Nursery with a cafe, yumm! and also the Leckford farm shop apparently the first supermarket to have a farm shop. Looking forward to this visit, not scheduled in yet but hopefully soon.

On the making front went all nostalgic as Downton is currently off air and had to use up some of my Andover fabric for 2 frame bags, with machine embroidered lace on the front and a lace fan on the back. Not wanting to waste a scrap managed to get 3 lavender sachets with complimenting ribbon and a bit of diamante of course.




Another piece of Downton fabric, this time with branches and berries, adding a free standing lace peacock to the front.


Found out on Friday Lee's aunt's 90th Birthday on Monday, so panic set in but managed a card just hope she gets on time.


Have some embroidery deigns for large postcards as not used before thought would have a play. This is just 1 of the designs done in a vintage tone and pink and grey. Stitched straight onto mottled card stock, the backing card is secured in place with the star design round the outside. Think will be doing a few more of these.





Trading Cards, ATC's and ACEO's

Been a lot of talk lately about ATC's and thought would give some more information. 
Trading Cards have been around in the US for some years and can depict sports to Disney, also known as  Baseball Cards. We had the original football cards or PG tips cards from Nature to Places but I think these were never as good as the USA version. Size for a start.

ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) and ACEO's (Art Card Editions and Originals) should measure 
212 by 312  inches (64 mm × 89 mm). Being this size means they fit inside the standard collectors sleeve, which holds 9 cards. inches

ATC's are given away or swapped, ACEO's can be sold. Both are normally made in collections and are numbered, dated, titled and signed by the artist on the back, these can be bought from most craft shops or you can print your own:


Being this size means they fit inside the standard collectors sleeve, which holds 9 cards. We have quite a few ATC's in the house namely my Disney Signature limited edition collection



ATC's were originally traded between artists, then artists began to sell the ATC's which made them ACEO's. Although the same format they are different as ATC's are never sold. There is a very good inspiration book about ATC's, full of samples of ATC's in different media, a good buy and a fantastic read: 



Hope this helps with a bit more info about ATC's and they are fun to collect and buy

Check out the other wonderful blogs at Lucy Blossom Crafts



Have a happy week 






10 comments:

  1. Interesting to hear more about ATC's, i love your disney ones! What a fun idea to create a range of Downton inspired goodies, i'm sure they'll be popular. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a carpet of cherry blossoms in the garden all year long :) x

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  2. The cherry blossom is so pretty. Love the purse with the peacock on it too x

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  3. Lucy has also been enjoying the blown down cherry blossom - or snow as she likes to call it. It's all I can do to stop her picking up handfuls each time we go out of the front door (its all a bit dirty and yucky now)

    I love your Downton Bags, they perfectly capture the period and I'm sure will soon be snapped up.

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  4. What a pretty pink carpet to wake up to and I do love the magnolia, unfortunately its too cold up here to grow. Great purses and lavender bags. I've never seen that fabric before, looks nice.

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  5. Firstly thank you for talking about ATCs. I think you'd mentioned them in a few blog posts and I didn't really know what they were. Now I do! Secondly can I just squeal in absolute delight at that super amazing embroidered little peacock! That is AMAZING!!!!! I love all your pieces but that is just gorgeous. Have a great week!

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  6. Nice birthday card - hope she appreciated the handmade care! Your little vintage cards are great - perfect for an ATC! I've just taken part in the Very berry Handmade ATC swap and received my third card last week - I didn't know there was a special sleeve to display them!

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  7. Lots of gorgeous creations and I especially love the Parisian postcards xx

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  8. Your embroidered postcards are amazing!

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  9. Your postcards are beautiful and I love the peacock purse!
    I've only ever seen white magnolias, I didn't realise there were purple ones!

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  10. that peacock is amazing- and what a lovely card! my parents garden also has a carpet of pink blossoms :P very pretty x

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