Wonderful Mail

A few days ago I received some beautiful cards from some of my internet friends and I just have to share them with you. My friend Judy, who previously sent the beautiful dragonfly cast paper card shown in an earlier post, sent me an equally lovely apple card using a packing tape transfer. She says an apple to keep the doctor away, but I guess I'll just have to keep seeing him until my wrist is back in proper use. She also sent me 2 apple transfers to use in my own art, and what a good choice, as I have a particular fondness for apples. Thanks Judy.
Donna C. sent a beautiful card with an embossed hand, and that extra hand is certainly something I could use right now, thanks Donna. Along with the hand, she tells me she hopes it's my wrist bones doing the knitting these days. that is good for now and the bones do need to heal, but I sure can't wait to do some real knitting soon. Thanks so much to all my friends who have wished me speedy healing.

Background For Byhand Artists Swap

Well here it is, my first attempt at left-handed art, well actually one-handed, with my right arm in it's cast. The byhandartists Yahoo Group are having a background swap, so before signing up I gave a trial run and found I could handle this technique, so now I am in. I started with a piece of single-sided black corrugated cardboard approximately 12 inches by 14 inches. I used matt medium to glue torn pieces of handmade tissue paper in purple, white, blue, tan, light and dark green onto the cardboard, pushing it down into the corrugated grooves. This is finished with four coats of the matt medium, allowing each coat to dry before adding the next one. I added a small amount of Spun Gold and Silver Morning craft acrylic to the finale coat, but that does not show up very well, perhaps there is not enough of it in the gel medium. And here are two of the pieces cut to the required size of 4 inches by 6 inches.

Of Valentine ATCs and Breaks

I had this nice post I was getting ready about some ATCs I was creating for the Grind swap in the theme of fabric and fibre, but was going to do more before I posted. Well since on Wed, Feb. 13 I opted for this glamourous fashion accessory which goes with everything, I only got 2 done. So since my art work is limited until the broken wrist heals, I have decided to show you what I did. I found these wonderful hair elastics at a dollar store and with 2 per card there was lots of ribbons and potential. I used this great image from recycled cardstock and punched holes down one side. I tied the ribbon and some fibre into the holes. For the second ATC I mounted it on black cardstock and lettered "Valentine" with silver gel pen. I spaced the holes further apart on this one, so there is not as many pieces of ribbon and fibre. I did get to the monthly swap at the Grind and these 2 were quickly swapped along with 2 others I had.

2008 Birthday Book part 2

Sorry for the strange order on these posts. I started the first part, then could not upload all the photos to one post, so had to break it into two. Page 8 is yet more coffee stained watercolour paper, scan of crochet lace, another cast paper, Quietfire Design quote stamp and a "silk wrap" pocket with small tags and a hidden message. The back cover is another area of the same scrapbook paper as used on the front cover and the final touch is beads added to the binding fibres.
If you would like to see the Byhand Artists Valentine Mingle version made for Yogi, visit my Flickr Photos

2008 Birthday Book

Here it is in all it's glory and probably more detail that you ever wanted to see. I had a lot of fun with this and started with a trial run by creating a similar book for the Byhand Artists Valentine Mingle which ended up going to Yogi. I learnt how to do paper casting to include in the book and got plenty of help along the way from Yogi and Linda T. I proceeded with designing the pages. I had chosen to use a 7.5 X 9.75 composition book which I had purchached from the dollar store and then realized that the signatures would be too large for printing the digital part of the project. I needed to do a hinged signature and got a suggestion from Yogi to use twill tape and from Suzanne to sew the twill tape to the pages. I ended up stitching without thread in my machine to get nice even holes for sewing and them did the sewing by hand. So thanks to Linda T., Suzzane and Yogi for helping me create her gift and the Birthday Book for my mom.
I removed the pages of the composition book and used scrapbook paper on the outside and inside of the front and back cover. I place 3 of my paux postage on the front cover, one is from the cast paper magnolia and made for this project. On the inside of the front cover I used a Quietfire Design rubber stamp, which is a Christmas stamp, and I masked out the word Christmas and replaced with the word Birthday. Page 1 has my blog header image at the top, a scan of some of my crochet lace, a cast paper glove with a heart and is done on coffee stained watercolour paper.
Page 2 & 3 have a digital scrapbook background and digital images. Page two has the cast paper magnolia, a cast paper heart and a heart charm. Page three is more Quietfire quote stamps, some digital images, a doll which has butterfly wings added and an old school photo of myself which has been tinted.
Pages 4 & 5 is more coffee stained watercolour paper with some digital images, my crochet lace and lots of rubber stamping, some of which are more Quietfire Design quotes and embellishment stamps.
Page 6 & 7 have a background scan of my knit linen lace centerpice and more digital images. The pocket on page 6 is formed from scrapbook lace image and has a card with a quote stamp on the back and which can be removed. Page 7 has an old key on a card, a tag in the pocket and a tassle added to the fan image.

2008 Birthday Book page 2

2008 Birthday Book page 2
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

On January 27 I posted a cast paper magnolia and promised to show it in a finished project, well here it is. I am working on a birthday book for my mom and this will be page 2. This had digital scrapbook background and collage images with a heart charm and cast paper magnolia and heart. I have most of the pages finished and will soon be binding them into a book using the cover from a composition book.

More Green ATCs

I've done some more green ATCs, this time weaving 2 shades of green plastic or nylon? ribbon of unknown purpose. The first one is the two colours woven then mounted over a piece of text from a book. The text is not very visible and the stripes were a bit of a surprize. The pre-made green sticker is the final step The second is the same ribbon woven with strips of book text. I think I'll explore these some more and see what happens.

Green ATCs

Well, I've taken a break from some bigger projects, to work on green ATCs. These can be completed quickly and one of the themes for the Byhand Artists monthly ATC swap is green, so some of these may make it in the mail for that swap. I have done several green themed ATCs and was having trouble coming up with fresh new ideas, but I think I may be on a roll now.
The first of this group is "Spring Beauty 1" which starts with a base of moss green cardstock. The image is mounted on gold paper and forms a pocket for the tag and the final touch is fibre with some green in it.
"Spring Beauty 2" starts with the same moss green cardstock and has some pewter transfer foil added. The image is added onto the background and the tag is torn and glued down. The same yarn that was used in the first ATC is used again for this one.
The last of this group is "True Friends 1" and starts with a dark green cardstock and I've added an image of 3 sweet little children. The overlay is stamped with a Quietfire Design rubber stamp in Timber Brown Stazon ink and is held in place with 4 brown brads.

And Another Valentine Countdown

Lisa Vollrath at Ten Two Studio is also running a countdown of some lovely Valentine images. Again this is for a limited time and is offered as linkware.

Valentine Countdown

The Artist's How To site is running another countdown similar to the Christmas Countdown. There are already some wonderful images with more to come so collect them before they are gone.