Happy Birthdays

I think these postcards should have arrived at the birthday homes by now so it's safe to post pictures.  Cindy and Sheila have the same birthday, so they got almost the same card!  Ladies, if yours has gone missing, please let me know!

I made these two postcards for the January birthday swap I belong to on Stitchin' Fingers.  For the background, I used the trimmings collage I posted about in July.  I stitched it to a purple fabric so some color would show through and then added beads and trinkets.  The weather has been pretty gloomy around here all month, so I needed to use the sunglasses and give them a summery feeling.  And what could be more cheerful than a little sunshine and music on your birthday?

A little side fact I found interesting:  There are two birthday swap groups on SF this year.  Both groups had two January birthdays . . . and all four are on the same day!  You can't plan for things like that to happen! 

Now to get back to the February postcards.  Theme?  Why, Valentines, of course!

Wednesday WOW - January 27

See that light?  It's SUNSHINE!!  It will be gone again tomorrow, but sure was nice while it lasted.  Not sure what this project will look like yet.  Pulling fabrics and making notes today.

First Traveling Page

As I've mentioned before, I belong to a group that is doing a year-long fabric book page swap.  The "badge" in upper right corner of this blog will take you to the group blog where you can find lots of interesting info.

But this post is about the first page I made for Debi.  Her theme is Shabby Chic Vintage.

After doing some web research (I'm not sure I know what Shabby Chic Vintage really is!) I settled on a plan.

I started with an old handkerchief envelope that has a nice edging and a cutwork pattern. I’m sure it is not hand done, but it probably dates back to 40s or 50s. Not “vintage” if you are my age, but I technically . . . .  Then I printed a Dover clipart advertisement for corsets onto cotton fabric and stitched it down with some floral trim and added a few pieces of ribbon/eyelet lace.

Then I pulled out all the buttons! Oh my.  With my own collection plus some from MIL and Mom . . . well, those buttons yielded some interesting pastels and whites which I stitched pretty much at random on the page, along with various sized artificial pearls.

For the back of the page, I framed one of the pictures from a current fabric some of my friends and I have been enjoying.  The look of a fabric is from the 40’s, but the sayings are definitely modern!  I added my label and sent it off to Debi.  She tells me it has arrived - and she loves it!  Well, of course she does.  How could she not?  LOL!

My theme for next month is All Creatures Great and Small.  Lots of ideas brewing for that one!

A Different Sort of WOW

Not only kind of What's on the Worktable, but Holey Moley WOW!  Look at this carefully, folks, you may never see it again.

The worktable is CLEAN! 

You probably wonder how in the world that happened, dontcha?  Well, you know how cleaning one little spot just highlights how dirty the rest of it is?  Before you know it, that little spot clean-up job turns into a major production!

What I was cleaning up was a bit of splattered paint from this:

I've been pondering taking some kind of class on Art Journals.  Thought I'd try a few free exercises first, though.  This one came from Caspiana I believe.  Once a background was prepared, I went through magazines looking for pictures from a provided list:  smile, something red, the letter A . . . that sort of thing.  It was fun and relaxing work, and I'm amazed at how pleasing this arrangement looks to me.  Great for sparking some creativity.

Now, to get busy messing up that worktable!

Postcards for the Holidays - a little late

One drawback (minor) to being in postcard swaps is that I shouldn't post here until the cards have reached their destinations. When they go overseas, that can take quite awhile. And in the meantime, I've moved on to something else. And I forget. Not good.

Stir in the Christmas rush and stress, plus some postal strikes, and foul weather . . . and here it is mid-January before you get to see my Christmas postcards! (Unless you are one of the fortunate few to receive one, of course. ;-) )

OK, stop talking and start showing, huh? I made these to swap:

And here is what I got in return, from Gina and MaryLou:

[CORRECTION: Oops! I got that first postcard from Sheila in Scotland. I knew that! My swap with MaryLou was in October . . . wrong holiday! Thanks to Sheila for being so good natured about my absent-mindedness.]

MaryLou's is on the top. They are both really sparkly in real life! Now, don't you feel all Christmas-y all over again?

Then, while I was on a roll, I made some more postcards and sent them to some special friends.

I wish I could have sent them to everyone, but even good things have their limits.

I just sent out some postcards for January. But you will have to wait to see them. I think it's only fair for the person who it's made for to be the first to see it. Well, I think so anyway!

Wednesday WOW - January 20

Gads!  What an awful mess!  Good thing that is NOT where I was working today.  Here is where I spent most of the day:

That is the last block in progress.  Woohoo!  Now to put them all together.

You might have notice that I've only posted the Wednesday WOW for the past several weeks.  Things have been rather discombobulated around here.  (Spell check ok'd that word.  Amazing!)  We are getting back on track, though.  Hoping to have more regular posts now.

Wednesday WOW - January 13

Getting back into the groove.  You will be seeing more of this one!

Do You Tangle?

Zentangle, that is.  I am probably one of the last people to discover this activity.  I've seen several bloggers mention it and finally got curious enough (or found a link to!) to go over to zentangle.com and take a look.  Then I read the Cloth Paper Scissors article and looked again!

There is an old saying that "when the pupil is ready the teacher will appear" and I think I must have been ready to try this out right about now.  Not that I am really on fire about this or anything!  But I am finding an hour or two of learning a new doodle is very soothing. 

I'm receiving the monthly newsletter now and going through the archives a little bit at a time.  I think you could use this to jump-start creativity or as a warm-up to get the creative muscle ready. 

So.  Do you zentangle?

Wednesday WOW on Friday

Well, you might notice this is NOT Wednesday!  Nevertheless, this is what I was working on Wednesday.  I could probably think of some pretty good stories about why I didn't post this two days ago . . . abominable snowmen and supernatural pugs (?) would be included . . . but in the end I would have to admit the truth. 

I forgot. 

Just like that.  Not very interesting, huh?  Maybe I should dig out the Abominable after all.

A New Year Cometh

Welcome to 2010!  

I hear there is some discussion going on about how to pronounce this year.  Not that anyone cares, but for the record . . . I am saying "Twenty-Ten."  Do whatever you want with that!

Last year, you remember I set up a kind of complicated Goals system. It worked reasonably well and I did get lots of projects done in 2009. My readers (that’s you guys!) were very encouraging and that helped me stay with the program all year. Follow through isn’t really one of my strong points, so I am quite pleased with how I did. It was successful enough to try again some time. Just not this year.

I can hear you. You are thinking “and why not?” Short answer? We’d all perish of boredom! Let me ‘splain.

I have signed up for some monthly challenges/exchanges/group fun whatevers for this year. So if I were to post monthly goals they would all start out the same way! And since I do intend to keep up with all of those monthly projects, the monthly reviews would all be the same, too. Not much reason to check up on my progress that way, is there? Plus, if I get too far behind, I might get too discouraged to even post anything for y’all to see anyway. We can’t be having that!

So. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and some planning (and re-thinking!) and  decided to give you an idea of what to expect this year. I won’t be posting a regular list of goals, but I will be letting you in on what I hope to be doing.

Block/Exchange of the Month

 

I have signed up for a Thimbleberries BOM at the local quilt shop. I think the pattern is really pretty and can hardly wait to get started. I’ll for sure be sharing each month’s progress. As I posted earlier, I have joined the Traveling Page group and have already started working on my first page. These pages will be traveling to new owners each month, and I will be expecting to have one for my own book to arrive each month. I’ll be posting progress reports on this blog and on the Traveling Pages blog, so stop in over there when you think of it. I will also be participating in the Stitchin’ Fingers fabric postcard exchanges. That group generally has a monthly exchange and there is also a birthday group. Oooh. My birthday should be lots of fun this year!

WIPs/UFOs/PIGS/SINGs

I have way, way too many projects that are either partly done, started and abandoned, or collected and not started. I really really want to work through some of these projects this year. In case you are wondering:

• WIPs = Works in Progress. Project has been partly done and I don’t consider it abandoned - yet.
• UFOs = Unfinished Objects. I abandoned this project at some point, usually for a lame reason, but with the intention of finishing it eventually.
• PIGS = Projects in Grocery Sacks - or boxes, or bags, etc. These are usually projects that have not actually been started. The materials and pattern, etc., been collected and it’s all ready to go whenever I am!
• SINGs = Stuff I’ll Never Get to. This could be a UFO or a PIGS with the major difference being I have acknowledged it is a lost cause. I need to give it up and recycle the materials into something else.

I’ll be writing about these projects as I work my way through them. You might get a few laughs out of it!

Learning Fun Stuff

As I looked at a list of projects that I’ve been wanting to do lately, I tried to see if there was any recurring theme. Something they have in common. Mostly, what I am seeing is that they involve learning a new technique or trying a new material. You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that I love to take classes. And I have already identified some classes I want to take this year (check out the list at Joggles - they are great!). Clay sculpture, beading, embroidery. There’s so much out there to play with! Oh yeah! And some classes I’ve taken in the past and never quite finished. Heh, heh. Do those count as UFOs??

Well, the year sure filled up fast, didn’t it? On second thought, let’s skip ahead to 2011!  Nah.  Then we'd miss out on the fun!