A Whole Host of ATCs!!

Gosh, I haven't posted anything on here for weeks! (I blame my Dad who has been hogging the computer with all my photos on all over the Easter holidays.)
Since my last post there has been quite a lot of ATC correspondence: I have received my returns for the Embellished with Beads swap, almost sent out some more Alphabet ATCs and received two lots of entries for the Tangled in a Fish Net Swap which I am hosting!!

Firstly to my gorgeous 'Embellished with Beads' returns:

( By Linda)                                                                 (By Wendy)

(By Liz)

The bottom ATC by Liz is actually very textural which the photo hasn't really picked up on. The red part appears to be a sort of felt which has had sections soldered out of it then painted orange. The tiny little beads are gold, and quite fragile as they keep dropping off!

Secondly to my April attempts at the Alphabet Swap:

I feel a bit guilty as I still haven't posted them off, although I haven't had the March returns back yet so hopefully it will be OK. I just haven't had enough time to get large letter stamps!

I did try and do the lettering with the hot melt glue gun (a very handy technique I learnt from one of Maggie Grey's books where you fill a bowl with water and then make shapes with the glue on the surface. You can just pick it up out of the water afterwards and it won't stick to anything!) however I don't think they really worked very well and I didn't know what to do with them afterwards so I discarded that idea and went with this instead:

I was hoping for a sort of antiquated look with the vintage lace (donated by a very lovely anonymous lady who gave all sorts of things!) I think the letters could possibly do with a bit more definition- or just something else!- but I'm quite happy to leave it at this. A sort of drained, sepia look. And of course the little embroidery techniques which I am very fond of!

Thirdly to the ATCs I have received so far for my Tangled in a Fish Net swap:

I haven't had many of these so far, most of the ladies asked for an extension so I won't get any more for a few days. They were originally fabric cards but changed to any media after a lot of questioning.

The first exciting set I got were from Becky:

 

This is a paper set and I think the image behind is of crab pots?

Then this afternoon I got some more cards from Wendy:

As each card is quite intricate and different, here are close ups of all the cards:

 

So I think that's all for now with these fabulous ATCs!! Stayed tuned for the next post!