As promised, here are some of the ATCs I have received from my friends on the altered book forum. Every artist has their own particular style and techniques.

The theme for this swap was 'This is Me'. We could use the cards to tell our friends something about ourselves. Our favourite colours, styles of art, technique , era, a memorable holiday, the possibilities were endless and some of my friends produced lots of cards. I received back as many as I made and sent out.

I love the diversity of styles, colours and subjects. I also feel as though they have given a little but of themselves when they gave me their cards. Also, this kind of excersise really helps for future swaps as you get to know who likes what. When I work on their altered books etc in the future, I have a much better idea on what they want in their books.

ATCs or Artist Trading Cards, for those who don't know are like the swap cards people collect eg footballers, cartoon/comic book characters.

The card usually measures 2.5 x 3.5 inches, has the art work on the front and the artist's details on the back, plus a series and edition number. For instance here I have seven cards in the series, and so the first one is 1/7 and the last 7/7.

These are some ATCs I made for a recent swap. The set theme was 'Circus/Music Hall. I didn't have many stamps or collage images that I could use for this particular theme, so I sketched the showgirl and clowns.

A couple of the backgrounds have glittered lace - made by laying a layer of double-sided film over the card and applying a piece of lace. Take a dark coloured glitter and press it firmly into the lace making sure the whole of the film is covered. Tip any excess glitter back into the pot. Take off the lace and you will be left with blank bits of sticky film to fill in. Apply a contrasting coloured glitter. The effect is amazing. I used the same method for the headdress and spotlight behind the showgirl - top row, second from left.

The clowns were sketched and water coloured - some of the paints used were Luminarte Twinkling H20s which give a pearlescent sheen.

The background for the Annie Oakley ATC was watercoloured and then a black and white image applied on top. The edges of the curtains are glittered.

I have taken part in about three ATC swaps now and thoroughly enjoy receiving other people's work and learning their techniques. I shall be photographing the swaps I have received and posting them up here too.

This is a parchment craft painting I did whilst I was on holiday in Wales. I always take some projects with me on holiday, because it is the way I relax. It is done on two separated pieces of parchment vellum - A3 in size and ivory in colour. The lady is on the bottom layer with the window frame overlaid onto it.

Parchment vellum has a certain amount of transparency, so you can work on the back as well as the front and the work will show through and give a 'cloudy' look. She was drawn first in pen and ink, then her drapery was painted in water colours. You have to be really careful with paints on vellum, because it 'cockles' terribly when it gets wet. I had to mix the colours I wanted then dry my brush on a piece of tissue before applying a thin coat of paint. It was a slow process, because you have to let it dry before coming back and adding more paint.

I could have coloured her with pencils or even oil pastels, which would have been more friendly to the vellum, but I like a challenge. I did use oil pastel on the back though, to create the shadow behind her. Once I was happy with the picture, I turned over and embossed it on the back. Another property of parchment vellum is that when you use embossing tools on it, you can shape it, and add more dark and light as you create 'hills' and 'valleys' in the paper. It also turns white on the front where there is no paint, and adds highlights. Also, when it is coloured on the back, the parchment will still turn completely white when embossed on the back. For this technique you have to place the parchment on a rubber mat.

The window frame in which the woman is sitting, was also drawn in pen and ink, but painted with pearlized acrylic inks, giving it that leaded light feel. The sides and centre of the frame was cut out using a special twin-needled tool which cuts the parchment as you perforate it, creating an edge which looks like the edge of a postage stamp and adds to the 'lacey' look of the piece.

The lattice work was done on a grid, which has 24 holes to the inch. You lay the parchment on the grid and perforate through the parchment into the holes. You can see the grid through the parchment, and many lacey patterns can be made using the grid. When all the holes are perforated the parchment is removed and then the holes are cut to form the pattern of the lattice work. There is also embossing as part of the pattern.

All the other elements were cut out, painted and shaped and then set with silicon glue, before being assembled for framing. Due to the 3D properties of the piece, it had to be tripple-mounted before framing, but this only added to the look of a leaded-light window. I now have this picture hanging proudly in my lounge and I have a great sense of achievement when I look at it.

Introduction

I am Glynis and am quite a novice when it comes to computers. I have decided that I should strive to learn something new everyday, and today I have been learning all about blogging. Although I am coming to love the computer, my first love has to be arts and crafts.

I have always loved making things, from the time my Mum taught me how to knit and sew. I am now into paper crafts, rubber stamping, painting, collage, decoupage - anything and everything to do with paper. I think parchment craft is my favourite and I like to encorporate it wherever I can into as many genres of paper craft as I can.

Recently I have discovered 'altered art' and this has opened up a whole new world to me. There are so many things one can alter, encorporating all kinds of techniques most listed above and more besides. It was only after I joined a forum for altered books, I realised that I had been 'altering' stuff for years. If a photo frame doesn't quite go with a picture I want to put into it, I change it - paint it, rubber stamp onto it, add embellishments etc etc.

At the moment I am preparing a book for altering. It was quite difficult to find a book that I wanted to pull to pieces. It is quite heart wrenching at first, but later once the alteration is taking place, you can see a new work of art emerging, from something that was falling apart and had pages missing anyway. Anyway, I found this book at the back of my bookcase, the fabric on the cover torn, pages coming loose, and decided it should be the candidate for alteration. I felt bad because it was George Elliot's Mill on the Floss, and it did seem a bit sacreligious to start dismantling it.

Anyway, I have the number of pages I want, and am currently bonding groups of pages together to make 'spreads'. I have decided on a title and a theme - 'Castles in the Air' - Fantasy and Fairytales etc. In my head, I have the cover design and the first couple of spreads. This book is going to be sent around the people of belong to the forum 'Circle for Altered Books', and will be worked on by the artists it gets sent to. In turn, I will work on their books - they will choose their own titles and themes. I love doing this, as it sets a challenge every time you work on a different book.