February Blissfull ATC Swap - Alice in Wonderland...

What a perfect theme for our February Blissfull ATC Swap Group. It was "Alice in Wonderland". My partner was Celia of Adventures of the Striped Stocking. I knew right away what I wanted to do!

I grabbed some of my favorite Alice in Wonderland fabric and cut and stitched and glued until it looked just the way I wanted it to. I added a tiny bottle filled with sparkling beads, and attached it to a ribbon which I glued into the seam of the card. Then added a tiny note that said, "Drink me". My final touch was an old clock button I had in my box.

I put together an assortment of goodies for Celia, including a Moda charm pack (5" squares), snippets of Alice fabric, threads, tags, ribbon and pages of decals. I sure hope that she likes them!

Celia and I were exactly on the same wavelength!!! I'm telling you, it was uncanny. Look what she created for me! Nearly the same images, but she added type from the book, which I really love! And if you look at the edge trim from the front, it reminds you a little bit of rickrack, but...

look what I found when I turned her card over! Beautiful red hearts. Just like Alice's Queen of Hearts! It's clever and pretty!

When Celia's package arrived, I was surprised to see that it was a rather large padded envelope. Look what was inside. She included beaded trims, large pieces of two coordinated (and totally fabulous) fabrics and a pin wrapped in lace.

Thank you for such wonderful surprises to accompany my beautiful new atc, Celia. I love everything you sent to me! It was a grand swap, indeed.

Thanks also to Wendy at Blissfull ATC Swap blog. Her tireless work to organize our swaps does not go unnoticed. If you'd like to see the other cards, just click here to go to the list of links.

 I'm off to the quilt shop this morning, but today, I'm going with my friend, Tammy. After our coffee group, she and I will be heading to an art show in Sarasota. I think we're going to have a grand day, don't you? I'll try to get some pictures to share with you next week.

A reminder...If you haven't entered my 1000th Post Giveaway yet, be sure to click here to go to that post and drop your name in the proverbial hat. Gotta run!

Ahead Of The Game...

I decided that this year, I'm going to have Christmas gifts finished by October at the latest! That means that I need to do a little each month throughout the year. I don't have that many gifts to make, but it always seems to end up a mad dash in December.

My friend, Krisann got me going to use cloth napkins last year. Less paper use/waste and a nice touch for the dinner table. I made all those napkins (here) for the camper and Handsome and I have really enjoyed using them.

With that in mind, I decided that sets of handmade dinner napkins might be a good gift to have on hand. I think they'll be appreciated, and I can select fabrics with certain people in mind. While the napkins I made for the Flying Cloud are slightly smaller (14 1/2"), I'm making sets of four 18" double-sided napkins for my gifts.

I actually finished two sets over the weekend (among other things), but apparently didn't take a photo of one of the sets. I guess I'll do that later and then save it for of future post showing more finished sets.

By the end of yesterday, I had also cut and prepared one more set. These are the fabrics I chose for the third set.  (Did I ever tell you that I adore paisley?) I can't wait to sew these and choose the fabrics for the next set! I'm actually getting good at assembly-line sewing the sets and they're working up pretty quickly now.

I'm really going to like being ahead for a change! Once I finish this set, I'll be back to working on the Scrappy Dresden Plates quilt and a Blissfull ATC Swap Group trading card this week. The theme for the artist trading card is "Alice in Wonderland". I'm going to enjoy making a card that reflects that theme.

Have a great day and remember to do something fun today!

Blissfull ATC Swap - December...

I had so many things going on recently that I neglected to post about the December Blissfull ATC Swap group! This month's theme was "A Christmas Carol".

I chose the image of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim for mine. I used my favorite fabric, added tiny bells, a shiny star, red silk ribbon, a little holly and berries, and then finished it with Tiny Tim's famous quote: "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

I sent it off to my swap partner on the 15th, and hers arrived shortly after.

My swap partner was Melanie of Rabbit Hole Art. She created a great card! Melanie used the image of Charles Dickens at his writing desk. She added glitter trim, a shiny gem, holly and berry ribbon and word banners. It's another wonderful addition to my atc collection. Thank you, Melanie!

I really enjoy this group. Wendy has all of the themes for 2012 already listed in her sidebar. If you'd like to swap with other artists, just go to Wendy's site: Blissfull ATC Swap Group, where you can sign up to participate. The more, the merrier!

As we head into the weekend, I know many of you might be traveling. I just want to remind you that the next Memory Lane Monday is right after Christmas (December 26th). I hope you'll join in the party and link in on Monday. I'm going to write my post early and schedule it with the ability for all of you to link up.

If you're traveling, please be safe. Enjoy the holiday and the spirit of Christmas. I'll be adding posts throughout the weekend, so if you're home, I'll see you again! (Just between us: I'm posting our annual Christmas picture tomorrow!) There won't be any "dashing through the snow" here, but if you have snow where you are, then Merry White Christmas!

Blissfull ATC Swap - November...

I just received my November artist trading card for the Blissfull ATC Swap group. Our theme was "Thankful", and my swap partner was Cindy @ Cindy Rose's Garden.

I think her card is wonderful! She chose a turkey as her centerpiece and then added the words "Bountiful" and "Blessings" on each side at the bottom. I'm not sure what her technique is, but I can tell you that I love it! It appears to have silver leaf and tissue paper in it. (Perhaps she'll tell me how she made it, but it's truly grand.)

I'm so thankful that she was my partner this month! The Blissfull group is so much fun and I get to meet so many talented artists, employing various media to interpret each month's theme. Thank you, Cindy!

This is my artist trading card for the swap. You can't see it in my photo, but I started with an ivory fabric as the base for the card and then I hand-stitched the green wool to it to make a pocket. You knew I'd add an acorn, right? The acorn symbolizes the beginning of bigger things to come, so it was perfect to embellish my "thankful" pocket.

I cut five pieces of mat board into strips and stitched one of the things I'm thankful for on five different colored pieces of wool. When I was finished stitching, I glued each piece to its own strip of mat board. After the glue dried, they all slipped right into the pocket. Voila! Finished. Cindy should have it by now, so I know it's safe to show both cards to you today.

If you're interested in joining the Blissfull group, you can link here. Just let Wendy know you'd like to participate. It's so much fun!

Thanks again, Cindy! Happy Thanksgiving, partner!

November Blissfull ATC Swap...

I finished my artist trading card for the Blissfull ATC Swap group for this month. Our theme was "Thankful". I had a really long list, but these are the most important things to me.

I'll be sending my card (and a few extra surprises) off to my swap partner, Cindy @ Cindy's Rose Garden today so it arrives in plenty of time to meet our deadline. I'm only showing you a peek at the card until I'm sure that Cindy has received it.

Today, I'll be working on some items to donate to the Boutique for our Disconnected Piecers Quilt Guild quilt show in February. We try to get all the items made prior to the holidays. I'm making a couple of doll quilts (24" square), baby bibs and I have already donated a lap quilt to the cause.

I hope you have something fun and creative planned for this week!

Spooky Mail Delivery...

The package arrived from my Blissfull ATC Swap partner, Donna L. of Postcards From The Studio yesterday. I knew the artist trading card was going to be in keeping with the "Movie Monsters" theme, so I couldn't wait to see what it looked like!

Donna chose The Creature From The Black Lagoon as her subject and created a fabulous card. She called it "Swamp Monster". Isn't it cool?

Of course, Donna added a lot of extra goodness along with her art card. There was a beautiful little stick pin tucked in among ribbons and trim and the sweetest papers! Look at the little deer on this tiny card.

There were so many pretty things enclosed in the package that I nearly forgot to be creeped out by her spooky monster!

Thanks so much, Donna for the great artist trading card and all the extras you so generously included!
Here is a link to Donna's blog. Please stop by and tell her you saw her Artist Trading Card for the October swap. I'm sure she'd enjoy your visit!

Halloween ATC Blog Hop...

Today, I'm participating in Two Crazy Crafters Artist Trading Card Blog Hop for their Halloween Hop - and my theme was chosen by my participation in the Blissfull ATC Swap group this month, too.

The Blissfull ATC Swap theme is "Movie Monsters", so I chose "The Mummy". I've done two versions this month. One to show in the hop and one to send to my Blissfull swap partner, Donna L. (Can you believe there's another one?) of Postcards From The Studio blog.

To create my first artist trading card, I started with a package of Creativ™ Paperclay. I formed the head and eyes and later added the mouth. I had fun painting and prepping the dried form to ready it for wrapping. I used fabric paints on the muslin to mess it up a bit.

After it was completely dry, I mounted black fabric to my base card, added the muslin strips for his her body (It is a "mummy", right?)

  

The mouth is really funky, don't you think? I love the two nasty teeth!

I added an oval cabachon and added "legs" to make it look like an Egyptian scarab. Again, I fit it all on a 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" card.

 

After I finished the original, I photographed it and printed it multiple times on card stock. I glued the full image onto the fabric and then cut out a second head to mount on heavier stock so I could lift it off the card just a little. I wrapped the face with muslin, added the same cab to make the scarab and voila! I hope Donna wants my mummy!

Thanks, Wendy of Blissfull ATC Swap blog 

for the theme for this month's swap.

Thanks, Twyla and Lindsey of Two Crazy Crafters  

for inviting me to join your Blog Hop this month, too! 

You can click here to visit all the other participants.

I haven't done "spooky" or "creepy" before, so it's another first for me. I had so much fun making these cards. I hope y'all like my results.

My Partner's ATC Arrived...

The mailman brought Electra's ATC to me yesterday...all the way from Canada! I couldn't wait to open the envelope.
Inside was Electra's interpretation of "steampunk". Her work is impeccable and very creative. I love what she created!
She included a few other goodies for me to use in my own artwork. So generous, Electra! Thank you for your beautiful artist trading card. If you'd like to visit Electra's blog, you can click here to link to her blog.

Thanks also to Wendy at Blissfull ATC Swap group. I really enjoyed this challenge, and appreciate your hard work matching all of us up.

April Blissfull ATC Swap - Steampunk...

Courtesy of Toxel.com

Are you familiar with "steampunk"?

I must admit that until about a year ago, I didn't have a clue what the term steampunk represented. Curiosity got the best of me at that time and I went exploring.

It reminded me of Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, or the computer games Myst and its sequel, Riven. A curious mixture of Victoriana and the computer age. Gears and cogs coexisting with high tech. I was fascinated.

Can you imagine having a laptop that looks like this? Who even cares if it works? I'd just love to have it sitting on a rolltop desk for decor!
When Wendy at Blissfull ATC Swap blog set our theme for April as steampunk, I panicked. How could a gal who's been making artist trading cards in fabric translate this theme to a card? (Click here to see Wendy's post about our theme.) Back to the computer I went for more research.

Thankful for Google searches, I typed in the words "steampunk fabric", and these are just a few of the images that came up:

Courtesy of Nokhoo blog

Courtesy of Kaboodle

Courtesy of Milicent Brovovich blog

This was just the right amount of inspiration I needed. Thursday I got into the studio and made my design a reality. I decided that I would embrace the Victoriana aspect of steampunk and then add a twist.

I created the bodice of a dress with a ruffled blouse, and then tucked gears and a crystal heart behind the ruffles. The gears ensure that m'lady's heart keeps ticking, even as she hides her heart away for safekeeping.
You may have noticed that I even padded the bodice of the dress to resemble the proper lady's shapely form. (This is the side view of the card.)
I used sparkling beads instead of satin-covered buttons for my tiny interpretation. I linked tiny bronze jump rings together and attached them to the key to Madame's heart.
All of these details assembled to fit onto the front of a 2.5" x 3.5" playing card. In the image above, you're looking at my entire artist trading card - a tribute to steampunk. This is definitely a one-of-a-kind and I'm sending the original, not a digital image of my creation. I've called it "Mechanical Heart", and it's already on its way to my swap partner, Electra in Canada.

I'm thrilled with my efforts. This took longer than most of my other cards, but I think I nailed the theme. I think I also stayed true to my love of fabrics, sewing and garments.

I'm not sure why, but I kept picturing Peta Wilson as Mina Harker in A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen wearing this when I was working on it. (Sean Connery is also in this movie. Excuse me while I take a moment to daydream. sigh) Gosh! I think I'd even love to have a dress, like the miniature I've created, for myself.

I know that I'm probably letting the cat out of the bag for Electra (in the event she reads this post), but I couldn't wait to show you. I promise to show you Electra's card as soon as it arrives. It's coming all the way from Calgary, Canada to North Port, FL!

So what do you think? Be honest now. Do you think I met the challenge?

Spring Is Bustin' Out All Over...

...Well, at least in The Boutique and my Etsy Shop!

I'm inviting you to go to my Boutique here to read more about my "Pre-Vacation/Spring Sale". You can also learn when I'll be putting The Boutique and my Etsy shop in "Vacation" mode. I've added a coupon code there to take advantage of my sale. You'll need to have that just in case you find something you can't resist.
I'm going to be doing a little work around the house today, and then I'm going to settle into the studio to work on my Blissfull ATC group swap card for this month. The theme is "steampunk", and I think it's going to be my hardest challenge of all the themes so far. I finally designed what I want to create, so now it's time to make it a reality. I promise I'll share it when I'm finished (along with my inspiration), 'cuz I really want to know what you think. Perhaps I can show it to you tomorrow.