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Christmas tree ornament

Missus Wookie got a die for a 3d-Christmas tree when she bought her Sizzix BigShot. I don't think she had any ideas on what to do with it. Neither did I to be honest. Until I spotted a Christmas tree ornament swap in my Yahoo group. So I signed up solemnly with the intention of using that die. Not sure what I would have done if Missus Wookie had gotten rid of that. I looks good Big Monkey and I thought. It's that trim you know, sells the whole thing...

Zentangle beads

I'm having problems with my browsers. One doesn't so photos the other doesn't do posting. So this is just a test. But a pretty one. I made zentangle beads out of friendly plastic for a swap. Now they aren't perfect or even that good but I'm still pleased with them. Until now I've only managed to produce rubbish with Friendly plastic.


Last swap the recipient has been very gracious and accepted the swap anyway with some advice. This time I hope my swappee likes what she gets. They are very sparkly and colourful. Fingers crossed she likes them. However, I believe I shouldn't NOT sign up for anymore swaps that include Friendly plastic. To be fair though this was a mystery swap and I didn't know that would come.

Postcard swap

It seems I have signed up for a postcard swap. So I decided to do something different from what I normally do, just to surprise myself. It's paper with fusible webbing on top layered with fibre and embossing powder and some more fusible webbing.



Then I ironed the whole thing. That's normally the only time the iron comes out, for art and sewing purposes. I was quite impressed in how it turned out. Then I added some letters and that's that.


Fun and quick to do.

Fabric paper ATC

Somehow I'm so busy I don't get round to take photos of what we're doing although the local A&E might not be the best photo opportunity. But lovely atc's make good pictures. Those are for yet another swap, I'm really happy with them, they came together really quick.
Oh and about the A&E, nothing bad happened at all, just very inconvenient but more later. It's been a while too.

Felted Postcard

I made this for a swap, we had to make a fabric postcard.


As I had those lovely wool fibres I felt inspired to felt the postcard. I really like the feel of it, very soft and warm. Previously I always made a card backing for a fabric postcard but this time I chose some batting and fabric for the back. This contributes to the cuddly factor. I like felting, it's so quick and easy to do. Albeit a bit dangerous at times, it's definitely best to not take the eyes of that needle. These needles are terribly sharp and a punched finger happens quickly. Very painful but the sound it makes is worse.
No blood on this cheery picture of goldfish though, I hope my swap partner likes the card as much as I do.

Art to share

A few pieces of art I made for swaps recently.

Art quilt

I signed up for a Lucky Dip swap and decided to make another Mixed Media Art quilt. I really enjoy doing these even though they always end up wonky and completely different to what I thought when I first start. I only ever start with a rough idea of what I want to create, like a colour way or a feeling. I do like blue and green it has to be said, so my pieces very often end up in those colours. Well, as luck has it at the moment I'm working on an art quilt that actually includes pink! Now that's shocking to me too but I couldn't find a second background piece of fabric so I had to take what was on hand. On both quilts I used a baby wipe. I normally clean brushes with them or paint straight from the bottle. I added a little spritz of a colour spray and that's it for backgrounds. Throw on a few embellishments, add some meaningful words, a way of hanging it up, add some sparkly thing, try to take some off again, try and hide where things were taken off and sew on the Chinese tassel from Hongkong and voila! A piece of art!

Black & White tin

That's a tin I made for a recent swap using only black, white and a touch of gold. It gave me the chance to use up a few things I had laying around for a while and a few very new pieces that I was sure I'd never use otherwise. Luckily it was well received, which is always a relief for me as I tend to worry a lot. Not so easy to create for someone one doesn't know that well. Good fun though. I enjoy swaps, gives me a good reason why I have to get messy in my little hide out upstairs. And then there is always the excitement when a parcel drops to the letterbox with a piece of art somebody made for me. Because sometime during creating I'd forgotten that there's something coming for me too. Dizzy me? Never...