FuNkY liTtLe bAg #3

Here's my funky little bag #3! This is the one I finally decided to send off for the swap. I call this kind of crocheting "crazy crochet" because it reminds me of crazy quilts. I basically gather up a bunch of small scraps of yarn, pick one a start crocheting. Once that scrap is gone I stop and add a new color. Sometimes the work goes up and down, sometimes it goes side to side, sometimes I add granny squares or flowers or other motifs. Sometimes these pieces turn out square or rectangular, sometimes they don't! It's a lot of fun and there are no rules. I just follow my intuition and do whatever feels right at that moment with that particular yarn.

3-d Wings

These cards were for a swap entitled "Pixie Dust". The theme was pixies or fairies with 3-d wings. It sounded like something I would like since I like making my butterflies have moving wings anyway. I think they turned out great! You can't tell that most of them are 3-d because they were flattened out on the scanner. The three with pics of my daughter were my usual type of wings - attached only at what would be the "body" of the butterfly leaving the wings free to "flap" - except this time I used only one wing and the "body". The vintage one was different though. I used the full butterfly silhouette and folded it off center so that the wing underneath showed and then put a spacer of folded paper between the two wings to keep the upper wing raised off the card.

My Favorite Mini

This is one of the first mini ATCs that I ever made and I just haven't been able to bring myself to trade it yet, so I guess it's mine. I call it "Flowers in the Rain". I hope it's obvious why. I made it using one of my favorite "techniques"...squirting paint onto the surface and pushing it around with my fingers and/or brushes until I like what I see. (grin)This piece measures only 1 1/2" x 2 1/2".

FuNkY liTtLe bAg #2

Here's my funky little bag #2. I actually made this one with some of the contents in mind. I wanted a bag that would have a sort of ocean theme and this yarn makes me think of seaweed. I put a cut down Pringles can in it to help it hold it's shape and to keep the contents from falling through the holes. I may still add some beads or seashells to this bag by crocheting a rim of black thread around the top.

Icarus

This is a HORRIBLE scan, but I still wanted to share this card because it was one of my favorites from this past week. I call it "Icarus". It was for a swap in which you had to have at least one feather on each card. "Icarus" started because I printed off a fiery looking background for something else and some of them didn't print well. While trying to wait for my muse to speak to me I started playing around with some of the materials I had laying on the table to see if I could salvage one of the backgrounds even with its printing flaws. I tied a few ragged looking feathers together with some black hemp-type string and put that over the printer error and discovered that I liked it. I poked holes in the card and tied the feathers on. It still needed something else though, so I went rummaging in the desk drawer and found my red sealing wax. I melted some on the place where the feathers were ties on to help hold them on. I originally envisioned something much neater, but the wax had other ideas. It started dribbling elsewhere on the card so I went with it. This is one of those serendipitous pieces that just all fell together without me even trying. I love that kind!

Hand Drawn Cats

I just spent about an hour making these cats while the kids are sleeping in. They are for a hand drawn cats swap and I hope they get there in time! I cut my hand on a piece of glass a couple of weeks ago - right where my fingers meet my palm. It kept me from keeping up with all the swaps I've signed up for this month so now I'm scurrying trying to get them all done and sent before their due dates.

The cat with the green background is a simple pen sketch shaded with watercolor pencil. The background is of course painted watercolor paper covered with rice paper (one of my all time favorite backgrounds). I call him "Little Tiger" because I think all house cats have a great fantasy life and often pretend they are wild beasts hunting in the jungle when all we see is "playing". I didn't fill him in completely because I wanted the background peeking through. All of my cats are so sure that they blend *completely* into the background when they are "stalking". I figure he needed to do the same.

"Sunbeam" is a watercolor pencil sketch on cardstock. He got a little muddled but there was no time to redo it.

The kitten is my favorite though. I don't usually like to do "cute" but this little fella' was an exception. He's just a pencil sketch on illustration board.

Vixen of the Sea

Here's one of the mermaids I made last night. My daughter woke up at 11 pm and wouldn't go back to sleep, so I stayed up with her most of the night and actually got a little artwork done in between watching Teletubbies and Nemo. The original mermaid was just something I was playing around with. I had a bunch of scraps lying on the table and one looked a bit like a fish tail. I found a vintage image that fit the size of the "fish tail". I don't like the length of the tail but that was a necessity to make sure it would fit on a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" card. I scanned it, reduced the size and then placed it over a background similar to the one I used for "Lucky". (I really like the way bright, busy papers look when covered with a thin layer of rice paper.) Then I added a bit of gold ink to the bodice and tail to make her stand out a little. I'm not totally happy with this one. It's a tad...bland, but I'm still playing with the basic idea.

FuNky liTtLe bAg #1

This is my funky little bag #1. I've got several more in the works. Once again this is swap material. The guidelines are for this swap were to create a small bag (any medium) and put something inside. I haven't found the right *something* for this one yet. This bag is 5"x5". The leaves make me want to put something nature inspired inside but I'm just haven't figured out what! As usual, I'll probably just know it when I see it. I keep feeling like it should be a card or cards which is why I chose the size I did, but I'm not drawn to making any ATCs for it. If I could find a nature inspired tarot set or something along those lines, that would be cool!

Our "Hannah" boxes

These are a couple of boxes that my son and I did collaboratively. We call them the "Hannah" boxes now because we ended up donating them in memory of a young girl named Hannah who passed away recently due to leukemia. Hannah was the same age as my son (9) and was also an unschooler. Although we never had the privelege of meeting Hannah and her family in person, the story of their lives touched our hearts deeply. When she passed away on February 24 we felt we needed to DO something. Donating these boxes to be sold on the web site set up by other unschooling families was something we felt was appropriate and right, especially since they were created with the celebration of LIFE in mind. We didn't want to simply express condolences. We wanted to CELEBRATE Hannah's short time here on Earth. We're glad that our "Hannah" boxes went to good homes and that their creation benefitted Hannah's family in some small way. (And now I'm off to hug my kids and be thankful that they are both here to hug!)

Lucky's in ATC Quarterly

The ATC Quarterly "Fish Ish" is about to come out. There is a pic of the inside layout on the new ATC Quarterly Web site with Lucky in it! Wanna' see?

http://www.atcquarterly.com/inside_pages.html

There are some AWESOME cards in this publication! I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing it in my mail box!