First swap of the year

I do love Kimberly's ATC swaps, she is such a lovely hostess, and she is starting 2014 off with a VALENTINE'S ATC swap!

I had to get my skates on with this one, as the deadline is 18th January, and I can never be sure how quickly or slowly a letter/package will get to the States. So I started as soon as I saw her post yesterday, and here they are, in sweet pink and gold -

I started with scrunched up pink tissue paper glued to the tag and very lightly rubbed with gold to highlight the raised bits. I didn't have any Dresden trims ( why the heck are they so difficult to get in the UK? ), so I used a gold paper doily for the tops of the ATCs. I ran a gold coloured Christmas envelope through my Bigshot to get the golden butterflies and flowery scrolls. Needle felted some little pink hearts. Found some pretty vintage ladies and voila, Valentine's ATCs completed!

I had to use my little old Fujifilm Finepix camera for the photos, because my Nikon camera has finally self destructed. Well, not the whole camera, just the standard lens it came with, but I have had nothing but trouble with that lens ever since I bought the camera. It has been in for repairs 4 or 5 times, thankfully under the extended warranty I had splashed out on, but that is now out of date, and the lens is bust. Well and truly. The insides have collapsed and are rattling around in there. Very frustrating. Sigh. Not sure what I am going to do now.

Now I have get started on the first Tag Tuesday tag of 2014, due tomorrow. Hmmm, perhaps a little Belgian chocolate will help to get the creativity flowing.....

Toodlepip xxx