beetlegrass

Valentine Swap Updates

From Kate, what could it be? A heart-n-arrow clasp...

Hand-stitched, machine-stitched, heat-gunned, beaded felt hearts...

   

Revealed! A heart necklace! So beautiful, so perfectly designed to my tastes! It looks really good on, too, but I've not yet mastered the art of taking a photo of myself.

Above: Other treats from Kate! Hand-made ATC album, ATC, and photo corners... Chocolates! Paperchase pins & cards & pen & stickers!

   

Above left: Yummy texture from the ATC album cover; Above middle: ATC with background of album page: stained & beautiful; Above right:  Hand-crafted photo corners to hold ATCS!

Above: Little ladybug pin from the pack. I like that one of them is winking!

I love everything you sent, Kate. I will cherish everything. Except for the chocolates. Those I will just eat. Thank you!

Above: Valentine ATCs-n-goodies from Susan and SueSue and Sonya and Sarah and Regina and Amy! So fun, so pretty, so: thank you all so much! Go here to see all the cards and goodies in photos taken by the artists.

Click on images to see larger.

Valentine's Swap

It was Kate's wonderful suggestion to do a Valentine's Swap! Kate is a fantastic textile artist that I've had the pleasure to 'meet' through blogging. I was excited about this swap, because: not only would I be getting some of her wonderful art, BUT: she had commented several months ago that I should make a snail finger puppet. When I was thinking, "Hmmm, how can I incorporate a SNAIL into VALENTINE'S DAY?", there was that "Ah, ha!" moment of: make a Snail Mailman delivering Valentines! So that is what I did.

I had fun figuring out how to make his shell (kind of a sleeping bag roll with felt), and finished the edges with a blanket stitch in a variegated embroidery floss. His bag gets slung over his chest and shell.

Above: Close-ups of mail bag and little envelopes (addresses Photoshopped out for the ultimate in privacy). I had these little envelopes/cards in my Arsenal of Fun, and just had to draw on them and add the stickers. (Click on thumbnails for enlarged view.)

Above: This is the chocolate box that contained the Snail and his mailbag. I decoupaged Love postage stamps on the top of the box (to continue the postal-y love theme), then spray-mounted a white heart-shaped doily, a Dover publication vintage image, and used some scrapbooking letters for Kate's name.

Above, left: Another chocolate box, this time made to open like a "Soap Opera Box" (i.e.: you can just lift up the top). I crumpled up then smoothed out some brown paper bag paper, cut it an inch or so bigger than the box lid, and spraymounted it, cutting slits at the sides for easier fold-over. Added some of my collection of Love stamps and Air Mail stickers, then a little string. Makes me think of "Brown paper packages, tied up with string..."

Above, right: A sampling of felted wool balls that I've made, figuring Kate could use them in her artwork, or eat them for a FiberBlast. (Those blues ain't readin' true, wonder why that is. Tricky purples!)

Above: A few more goodies: candy for the family, some cupcake liners, and some red and pink fabric squares.

This was fun; thank you for suggesting/inspiring it, Kate! :-)

Take-Another-Little-Piece-of-My-Heart Pins

 

Here are the five little 'treats' that I made to go along with the Valentine ATCs (three posts down). They were made with little wooden squares that I painted black, then sanded down & distressed with an emery board. Then I decoupaged the purple gingham square, the gingham heart, and glued on the itty bitty puzzle piece. After that was dry, I applied the rub-on 'L'. A silver Sharpie marker was used on the sides of the wooden square, the backside, and also for the wavy line around the purple square. I added varnish, then after that was dry, just 'kissed' the surface with a red stamp pad (no lips were involved). A pin backing was glued on, and the pin was complete!

Valentine's ATC Swap

Here's my contribution to Amy's Valentine's ATC Swap, which I'm calling "Love Bug".

The Love Bug has three brads: one to lift the hatch & two to make the wheels spin 'round & 'round. (I like positioning them to look like a hovercraft with the hatch-wing up.) The background color is a piece of scrapbooking paper with words pertaining to love & all that mushy stuff. 

 

Above are the back sides of the cards. The ribbon I found at Michael's Craft Store in the 99 cent bin. I used a gel pen on some of the lettering to give it an embossed look. The red is just a heavy-duty card stock.

We're to also include 5 small treats, which I am 'this close' to finishing. I'll show another time, light & deadline permitting!
(Click on images to see them larger.)

Dec & Cards

Did some Living Room decorating this past weekend...
Here is my desk, showcasing some of my hedgies, dolls, and part of my English postcard collection:

The edges of the shelves are vintage shelf lining that I had leftover from my former house. The picket fence box on the desk surface was made simply using a wooden audio tape holder and little wooden garden markers, everything painted with a watered-down white acrylic paint, and then glued into place.

The pillow on the chair was just a store-bought one, I just dressed it up a mite with the center iron-on decal.  I can never leave well-enough alone, can I? Sheesh!

Flowers are wedged into the convenient holder and held there with my current best friend, Teacher's Tack.  Do you recognize the paper dolls ?  I thought it was working out well to have tulips with these, and so then I went and rounded up one of my Dutch dolls. A theme, you might say...

And look what's sitting here on my desk now...

Remember when I was talking about the Spring ATC Swap? Look at the WAY COOL Spring ATCs I received yesterday!  I got ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) from Dawn, Amy, Emily, Mary, and Kristin-- thank you all!  Amy, who organized this swap, was kind enough to include some goodies perfect for altered art or what-have-you. 

Go to Amy's Flickr photo album to see ALL the great cards that everyone made!

(Please click on any photo to see larger.)

"Spring" ATC Swap

Here are the five ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) that I've contributed in Amy's Spring-themed swap.  Here are the fronts (slight variation, but thought I'd show them all):

And here is the back:

I used stuff I already had on hand: stationery that I've had since childhood & later, Do-Jiggies (chicks with foam tape on back), rub-on lettering. 

Can't wait to see the five that I get in return!

Better Than Bambi

Had some friends visit for the weekend, and here is the adorable mug they gave me as a HostessWiththeMostest gift-- Deery Lou, by Sanrio, the same company that brought you HELLO, KITTY!

I took them into Providence to show them some of RISD & Brown University: dead things swaddled in cotton at RISD's Nature Lab, the entrance to the Freshman dorms (cool tiling), then through Brown quad, up to Thayer Street and the Brown Bookstore, to buy Brown sweatshirts in every color EXCEPT brown-- ha!

Here is a scarf my sister knit for me, modeled by Cheeky, a sock monkey I made like 10-ish years ago:

She also sent me these inspirational books:

Did a postcard swap with my niece, isn't this cool???

Today for lunch I was at RISD once again, "helping" (we use the term loosely around here) with decision-making re: brochure for upcoming Alumni/Parents Weekend.

It was a group of staff, alumni, and one parent.  Whoever thinks that artists are a bunch of cowering-in-the-corner introverts should have been present at this meeting!

I think something was accomplished, and it was fun meeting new people, and like my high school art teacher Mr. Carney always said: "NEVER PASS UP A FREE LUNCH."

See, Mr. Carney?  I listen!

(Click on any image to see it larger.)