Black and White ATCs with ...

... a touch of red ...

... I am showing these because they were on my desk yesterday and I did finish them ... however they are far from my best work. I have been felled by the 'Migraine Monster' for 4 of the last 6 days and to be honest it's been grim. If anyone out there has had any success in reducing (curing???) or at least managing their migraines please get in touch - I'm getting desperate ... jacqueline@jchimes.orangehome.co.uk

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Well here's this weeks desk - and congrats to Julia at the Stamping Ground for her 3 year anniversary. I haven't been entering for the whole 3 years and to be honest I'm a bit flaky now - Wednesdays come around too quickly for me!

There's the ubiquitous mug, 3 black and white ATCs and a little pile of new stash - oh and some rubbish - must bin as I go! Hope you are all having a good Wednesday.

PS if anyone is interested in the 'dimensional circlies' mentioned 2 weeks ago they are in the post before this one - they turned out good - not like the ATCs on my desk today - oh well.

Dimensional Circlies

These are the finished 'Circlies' mentioned in the previous post. I know they are not ATCs in the true sense but they are a type of art trading card just circles instead of 2.5" x 3.5" so the ATC description is just how I think of them.

They turned out nicely I think and I really enjoyed making them. I have made a video of these so if you want more details and a closer look I have put the Utube link at the bottom of this post.

The swap specified complimentary colours , dimension, all different and at least 2 layers. This is what I came up with ...

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I'm late to Julia's party again and really don't understand how the weeks fly by so fast ... still my desk today looks like this and as this is my third post since last week I guess there has been some creating going on ...

I'm making 'dimensional circlies' ... I know what you're thinking ... I didn't know what they were either but the swap group 'leaders' have come up with the idea and it appeals to me ... essentially they are round ATCs! ... I hope so anyway. 

We are to use complimentary colours hence the colour wheel (I always have to check) and there are 9 to do all different. My first two are just waiting for their embellishments. 

The contraption at the front is a Bow Easy ... an ingenious and fabulous little tool for tying even and flat bows. 

Hope to 'see' you this week.

Another Swap

I have been making 'pretty' paper ...

... this is made from brown wrapping paper and I followed instructions in Sarah Lawrence's new book called Stitch, Cloth, Shimmer and Shine. It's a lovely book full of inspiring mixed media ideas. As many of you may know Sarah died suddenly last year before the book was published, but it is a great testimony to her and her work.Sarah ran Craftynotions - home of many great products - with her husband.

The paper turned out beautifully and I made this from one sheet of it ...

I backed it with bondaweb and card and another layer of fabric and stitched around the edges to create a book cover. The square and heart motifs were cut from fabric paper (made following Beryl Taylor's instructions in her book Mixed Media Explorations - another brilliant and inspiring artist). I layered them and machine stitched them to the cover and added a few beads to the hearts. The inside pages are a sort of junk journal and I made three signatures and stitched them to the spine by hand. Then I made and added the charm. The book is for a swap so this will be heading off to my swap partner tomorrow.

The photographs don't really do justice to the 'shimmeriness' of the papers so if you want to see them a little closer you may want to check out the video below. You can also have a look at the inside of the journal.

ATCs

Here are the ATCs from previous post ... they are all for swaps

Domestic Goddess

Exotic Dancer

Prima Ballerina

Shakespeare Lady

Pets

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Wow - three weeks since I did this? Not sure how that's possible! If you like to see what crafters around the globe are up to visit Julia's blog here.

This was my desk this morning - just to prove I work in a complete mess a lot of the time and within an approximate 6" square of desk space! It always starts out clear ... but quickly deteriorates however much I tidy as I go!

I've been making ATCs for swaps ... and I obviously stopped tidying as I went somewhere along the way. I'll photo the ATCs properly and put them in the next post. Hope I can visit you this week if you are entering but there are so many now!

Have a good day.

Fabric Tag

A week or so ago I showed some oiled paper on my desk which I was getting ready to stitch onto and make into fabric tags for a swap. I finished them this weekend. The 9 tags are all very similar.

Side 1 uses the oiled paper and this side of the tag is paper based. The oiled paper is made from ordinary copy paper which I have coloured with spray inks in various greens. Once dry I have brushed this with baby oil and then crumpled it repeatedly until it becomes very soft and 'fabric like'. I then iron my paper between newspaper sheets using a hot iron to blot out most of the oil. This paper can then be stitched easily. The flowers (mainly Paperartsy stamps) are stamped onto tissue paper, backed onto fusible webbing and then cut out. Free machine stitching is used to finish off.

The other side of the tag is all fabric and I have used stamped images, some scrim to add texture and free machine stitching to add detail.

Stitching the tags back to back neatly was a challenge! but they turned out OK. It was a time consuming project.

I have packed these up to send and re-read the oringinal instructions - both sides were meant to be on light coloured fabric - oh dear - I really can't face doing them again - hopefully the recipients will like them!