From bright to dark

These are my samples of organza layers, embellished then heated with heat gun and overstitched, I now have to make them into something acceptable or even swappable. One thing is certain - my room is a total mess, not only paper everywhere but now piles of fabric - what joy!

Goody bag surprise

Had a nice surprise thro' the post yesterday, Wendy had sent me a goody bag of fabrics and fibres, loved the colours and they cried out to be an ATC - pictured here, the fibres are due to be embellished.

First go!

Well heres my first sample from the embellisher - a sort of Tulip (postcard size) - I used wool tops then added some machine stitching , not too bad for a first go I hope, am going to get the fancy fabrics out next and have a go at layering.

Why do we do it?

We see a challenge / swap and think 'I can do that ' and sign up for it then - Panic - catches us out every time because once it's fact we can't think what to do - or is it just me that has this problem? Anyway both commited swaps are finished and tomorrow I can have a go on my embellisher , just can't wait any longer.
The two atcs here are for an alternative background and altered item swap so one is leather with dominoes and the other metal (tomato puree tube) with a jigsaw piece, hope they comply with the theme.

Arrived today!

My Embellisher arrived today and is set up on a table awaiting its try out but have made myself finish some ATCs for the US swap site, aren't I being strong, the thing is I know that once I get onto it nothing else will get done. The ATCs here are some spares I made over the holiday.

Crazy patchwork heart

This is one of the hearts that I worked over the weekend, I had seen some like this on flickr and of course I had to have a go, I really enjoyed working it and liked the end result result

Abominable

Guess who got caught in a snow fall going to fetch the Sunday papers?(That I never read), still it made for good stay at home crafting weather.

Too Rough for Penguins

This was the sea off Redcar on Good Friday

Happy Easter

Heres hoping you all have a Happy Easter and that the promised Arctic weather doesn't materialise. This ATC pictured was from Trudy in the chain swap.

Much less than perfect

Have just finished my first Gothic Arch using fabric and paper, I saw the picture on a cd and remembered I had some fabric that would go well with it and off I went but it is definitely less than perfect as it has a positive 'bump' on one side that is more noticeable since I edged it, never mind - not bad for a first - must do better next time - how do people get them perfectly shaped?

"Gadgets"

After watching a demo at the NEC on friday I thought I'd attempt some brayering, I'm reasonably pleased with the result and have turned it into a birthday card for OH, would have liked a more even colour but can't seem to get it as I think it should be, still can only improve ( I hope). I bought an embellisher at the show but have to wait until after Easter for delivery so lots of ideas swirling around for when it arrives, I saw some lovely work done with the machine and just hope that I can produce something like.

Have been working on pages this week for a book page jam swap with Jan and Wendy, took some working out what to do but got there in the end,I will upload the pictures later. Off to the NEC tomorrow to the Hobbycrafts and Sewing for pleasure shows, hopefully will be able to stock up on "neccesities" (in truth - what do I really need?)I am planning on checking out the Embellishing machines to see if there are any good show offers otherwise I will buy one back here.

Spending far too much time looking at blogs and different sites but It does give you new ideas, too many in fact, need to stay up all night to try the different things out. For this ATC I coloured the backing fabric with spray inks,wasn't sure if it would work but seems ok, then I added some stamped images (using staz on) and machined on a transparency.Must get back to paper, I seem to be stuck with the fabrics at the moment.

The Domino epidemic continues, I'm not so adventurous as some so tend to stick to the simpler things altho' I would like to branch out to assemblage, I saw a domino wall hanging on a site today so have made my own smaller version which I think has turned out quite well.

Copper Boquet

Most of today has been taken up with taking my Mother to her hospital appt and then out for lunch, didn't get home until late afternoon so not much crafting today, this evening I managed to make an atc for my groups' Goody bag swap and then because I enjoyed doing the Domino I made the Copper Boquet atc using my metal bits, again I'm pleased with the result, must find a glue that sticks metal firmly so I can do away with the brads.

I remembered I had bought some metal 'things' at the last craft show I went to so this morning I coloured my Domino with Alchohol inks then stuck on copper mesh,wire and filings, punched out some flowers from aluminiun coloured with A Inks , stuck them on and gave them a faux gem centre - Voila! an altered domino with a lot more texture

A couple of things.

My swap partner in the atc chain swap asked for a tag card so I made one with a difference, a fabric tag atc using a transfer onto fabric for the picture,I'm pleased with it so hope it comes up to scratch for her. The domino was coloured with Staz on and stamped also with Staz on, embellished with gold ink and'gem's and made into a pendant.

Beautiful Gift

This picture shows the opened out Needle Case that my friend has embroidered for me, it is a beautiful piece of work particularly because her hands are very badly affected by Rhuematoid Arthritis, a few of the buttons on the piece are from my grandmother's button box, this is really a gift to treasure.

Garden Visitor

We had a strange visitor to the garden yesterday morning,thought at first it was an anaemic Pheasant that had lost its tail but after checking out the bird book we decided it was a Partridge come to check out our pear trees or most likely blown of course by the very strong winds,haven't seen it today so hopefully it's found its way back to its proper enviroment.

Fabric day

Have just finished my first piece of Crazy Patchwork in atc form,am really pleased with it even tho' the embroidery is a bit uneven, haven't done those stitches since I was a kid (just a few years ago!!!). Made two more atcs - the purple one is layers of Organza, machine stitched and embellished and the red and green one was a disaster that was used up in a different way, I hope someone out there will swap with me.