52 Quilts Journal Week 2

Since I was on a role I started the week 2 quilt on Sun. For this one I chose a dark blue and gold print from my sample stash and recycled a crochet sample motif. This is the first try at crochet since I broke my wrist and the sample turned out a little large for an ATC, so here it is on my mini quilt. I stitched it on with assorted brown and cream beads and then joined it to the back of quilt 1 to make a page for my journal. Later I will join this to 2 more quilts to make a signature and eventually decide how I will bind the journal.

52 Quilts Journal Week 1

I have decided to take the challenge of creating a 52 Quilts Journal, one a week for a year. I sure hope I can keep it up so here goes. The idea comes from the Feb/March 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine and the challenge is to use something recycled or found in each quilt. Since most of the fabric I will use is rescued from fabric sample books that were destined for the landfill, I have that covered, but I will try to incorporate something more is each quilt. I have chosen to make my quilts 6 in. X 6 in. My first quilt for the week ending July 12, 2008 is from my fabric sample stash and the recycled item I've used is a mesh vegetable bag stitched down with 2 sizes of blue and greenish yellow porcelain beads. I think I'm off to a good start and will likely try out different techniques I'd like to explore for future projects.

Christening Dress

So here I am with more historical projects. This Christening dress is sewn from handkerchief linen and the neckline and sleeves are trimmed with a crochet lace edging. The centre panel is assorted crochet samples and motifs in white and ecru cotton. Most of the lace was in my stash and I decided this was a good place to use them. The lace on the bottom is filet crochet and I am pretty sure that I designed and charted it. The crochet roses were created for this dress and buttons were collected from family, including one from a wedding dress. I created this dress for a family member a few years ago.

Stocking

Stocking
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I haven't had much time for creating lately but while I was cleaning I came across some photos of past projects, so I'm sharing a bit of my history today. This PNE second place winning stocking is a lace sampler knit with worsted weight yarn with a cotton lace edging added below the ribbing. Burgandy and white flowers and ribbons trim the back. This was made for a niece and there was a bit of a panic when I went to pick up my entries and it was missing. It was soon found with a group entry and all ended well.

Altered Plastic Laminate Pendant

I needed a gift for today and I knew what I wanted to make, but last night I hadn't even started yet. The challenge this week on created byhand is for altered art so here is my filling two project requirements in one. This is similar to the previous Plastic Laminate Pendant, but it was for Leanne of the now closed Ruby Dog's Art House. Since Leanne likes houses and has admired the various forms of my digital house drawing, that's what I used on the front of her pendant. I used microfiche for the window, an old school photo, a key charm and a sailboat charm which also came from Ruby Dog's. The cherish stamp is from the Quietfire Design mini compilation. The back is the same Artella puzzle collage image that I used on Mary-Beth's Tree Fairy pendant.

Complimentary Colours Blue and Orange

I have finally completed 2 ATCs for the June ATC swap and the first one is also my first completed bead knitting project since I broke my wrist is Feb. Blue and Orange Bead Fantasy 1 is orange corrugated with blue handmade tissue and an orange bead knit tag. Blue and Orange Delicate Butterfly is a collage of a recycled butterfly image, pieces from joss paper and ogange beads with the word delicate stamped in blue ink.

Milestone Draw

Well all the names went into my trusty ice bucket and 3 were draw by a totally impartial party, aka my son Jason. The first drawn was Judy, you will receive the copper embossed ATC and the bonus house pin pictured in this post. The second drawn and the recipient of the purple embossed ATC is Angelartistok Ruth C. The third name is ArtCricket Beth and you will receive the silver embossed ATC. If each of you would email me at: okanagan_spirit@yahoo.ca with your snail mail address, I will get these in the mail right away. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who celebrated with me.

Plastic Laminate Pendant

I've just gotten the time to post my latest art piece which I made a couple of days ago. I used a plastic laminate sample and lightly sanded both sides, then painted with a light coat of gesso, rubbing a little off in some areas. Next I stamped white pigment ink with a Stampendous Crackle cube and embossed with Pirate's Gold EP. The front image is a portion of Tree Fairy from Mary-Beth's tree photo mounted on black cardstock and applied with gel medium and a silver dragonfly charm. The back has a metal tag curled over cord and glued on with E6000 and a puzzle collage image from Artella. The ends of the cord have silver beads glued on and fibres are looped through the hole on the bottom of the laminate sample.

Milestone Reminder

Don't forget to check out my Milestone Post and add your name to the draw by posting a comment. I was going to do the draw on June 11 but you will have one more day to get your name in as I will draw late on the June 12. Check back on the 13th to see who the winners are. Good Luck to all and thanks for helping me celebrate.

Journal Page With Tags

This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is to use tags in a project so I finished off a journal page I originally created for the spritzes, sprays and splashes challenge. I printed some notes on the back of the page, because this was also my entry in the Artella Paradise challenge and added the tags with photos of my shawl and a bowl of yarn. The tags were aged with Distress Ink Walnut stain. I then tipped the page into my Zutter bound journal

ATC Mini Shrine "Freedom to Change"

Well I finally made my first shrine last night. This idea has been cooking in my brain since I bought these little black boxes from Ruby Dog's Art House and discovered they are the perfect size for an ATC. For the front I started with a piece of black cardstock cut smaller than an ATC and glued green, purple, blue and white handmade tissue paper on. I then added my house pin from the Byhand Artists Challenge minus the pin back. This whole piece was glued on with PVA. The final step was to glue the metal photo corners on with E6000 glue. Now for the inside left I used a previously made ATC with a Quietfire rubber stamp, beads on wire and a butterfly charm all on painted watercolour paper. Because I wanted this image to stand out more, I glued it over a piece of foam core. The image on the right is another previously made ATC (one of my favourites) with another piece of hand painted watercolour paper for the background a digital image from the internet, faux mica transparency, digital text, wire and beads. This image was glued right to the back of the plastic box. The back was made new for this project and is another painted watercolour paper background and another Quietfire Design quote stamp, stamped with scarlet pigment ink and embossed with amethyst embossing powder. The beads are part of a necklace I recycled. There are some flat clear beads and after stringing the beads together I glued one of these flat beads to the side of the box with E6000 glue.

Celebrating a Milestone

Today I am celebrating a milestone. Now it could be for posting 50 blog entries, I never knew I had that much to say or that I could post somewhat regularly. But no, I think I would need more than 50 posts to rate as a milestone worthy of celebrating. This is for a Flickr milestone. I have an ATC made for the black background Created Byhand Tuesday Challenge which I posted in my Flickr Photos on Nov. 6, 2007. I have been watching for the views to reach a certain number and then I would post my blog goodies. While I was creating a new series of similar ATCs for giveaways, more people kept looking and now this photo has been viewed a phenomenal 2,131 time to date. So now I have a new series of 3 ATCs that are similar to the original one that has so many views. The first is my "Love where you're at" quote stamp created by Suzanne of Quietfire Design stamped on black cardstock with scarlet pigment ink and embossed with copper detail embossing powder. I used a border punch on 1 edge and mounted it on to purple cardstock. This is trimmed with 2 paper flowers layered together with a brad. The second ATC is stamped with scarlet pigmant ink and embossed with amethyst embossing powder on a slightly curved edge black cardstock and again mounted on purple cardstock. The 2 paper flowers are attached with a silver brad. This is the least visible on the scan and is very subtle in real as well, but is my favourite. The third ATC is stamped with white pigment ink and embossed with silver embossing powder on border punched black cardstock and again mounted on purple cardstock. This one has 2 little purple heart stickers added. So now for the giveaway, leave a comment on this post and check back on June 11, 2008 to see if you are one of the 3 names drawn at that time. No need to sign-in but please use a name or nickname so I can identify the winners. Once I have announced the winners I will ask them to email me privately with the address for mailing the ATCs. Winner number one will also receive a mystery bonus to be announced later.

Created Byhand Challenge May 20,08

Created Byhand Challenge May 20,08
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is to create pins.My house pin is a digital drawing with a Quietfire Design rubber stamp, some other stamps, collage image, key charm and a piece of microfische for the window. The second pin is a Quietfire collage image and stamp. The rest of the entries in the challenge can be seen at Created Byhand

ATC Swap May 08 At The Grind

The single ATC is a digital image found on the internet, stamped over with a Paperbag Studios rubber stamp in black dye based ink. The 4 blue buttons are glued in the corners. I really like this one so it may not make it into my swap binder. If I get a second one done before tomorrow that might be put in for swapping.
The same digital image used with a piece of film negative, slide mounts stamped with Stazon ink and stamped with background stamps. These photos can also be seen on my Flickr Photos.

Little Tree Fairy ATC

Another Byhand Artists friend, Mary-Beth posted some photos of flowering trees on her blog and invited us to download them for use in our own projects. I did some digital editing with one tree photo and inserted an image of a little girl which was a freebie from another site. The first has a faded edge, the second a soft edge and the last is left straight. I added on some little glitter stickers, these look purple in the scan, but they are pink.

More ATC Play Time

These are the rest of the ATCs I made last night. The first used a piece I made a few days ago playing with a dollar store paint spinner. I glued the piece onto black cardstock, stamped and embossed the word Play with an alphabet stamp set. I embellished with a puzzle piece, dice beads and a mini domino. This one is the most fun and playful. The next 2 use wallpaper samples for the background. The second one has a Quietfire Design collage image, the word cherish from the Quietfire Design mini compilation and a slide mount rubber stamped with Stazon ink. The last is another sticker from the dollar store sheet and a fish charm.

ATC Play For May

I took time to play with some different stuff last night and made 6 ATCs. These are the first 3, all done on cream cardstock. The backgrounds are rubber stamped with flourish stamps and a background stamp. The first one has a sticker from a dollar store find and the other 2 have my faux postage stamps.

More May ATCs

I worked on these ATCs back on about May 6 so now I'm just getting them posted. I started with unused flower gift cards and re-purposed them for the background. The "Boy" one has a collage image from Quientfire Design and the lettering is purple cardstock run through a Dymo labler and highlighted with white stamp pad ink. The red button was glued on. The "Girl" uses another Quietfire Design collage image and the word sweet stamped with an alphabet set in metallic pink ink then a pink button was glued on.

May Fat Book Page

This is the Fat Book Page I made for the Byhand Artists Yalpha Mingle. I started the same as the journal page in this previous post. I assembled the front and back leaving the edge open to form a pocket for the tag. The tag is a digital scrapbook paper resized to fit the tag dimensions and my "L" quote and info on the back. The front of the tag is a Quietfire Design stamp with pigment ink and embossed with Peidot embossing powder. I punched holes along the edge and added tons of fibres.

Take Time For May ATCs

I have been doing more work on the danglies for The Byhand Artists Danglie Swap, but on Saturday I took play time for some ATCs. The first "Take Time 1" is a quote stamp on parchment cardstock. The whole stamp was too long for an ATC so I just used the quote part and did a torn edge at the bottom, rubbed with Antique Linen Distress Ink. This was layered on light purple cardstock cut with decorative scissors and then layered on dark purple cardstock. I added a small paper flower with a silver brad. The second one "Take Time 2" was done the same way but with a green flower snap added to the bottom corner.
The third and fourth ATC are done on natural coloured chipboard. The third has a quote stamp " Precious Friend" from Kolette Hall, heart and cherish stamps from Quietfire Design in brown Stazon ink, drain plugs used to stamp circles in forest pigment ink and flourishes in cocoa pigment ink. And the last "Altered Art Journey 1" is all done with stamps from Quietfire Design in brown Stazon ink. Now I'm going to do a little work in the yard and then go string beads on more danglies.