Sunset Silhouettes

This is a bit of a new avenue for me as this weeks project is making postcards rather than ATCs. These are supposed to be 6" by 4" (although somehow I got my measurements wrong and mine are more like 5.75" by 4"- I'm sure people won't mind though!).
The theme for these postcards was 'trees or leaves' and I decided to try and do a sort of sunset view. Looking on the Internet, I was particularly taken with this image...

Loved the delicate branches with the bold verticals of the tree trunks themselves!
So to begin my postcards, I painted a background onto calico using a variety of oranges, reds and yellows with lots of water to try and blend them into each other.

Then I cut out a silhouetted tree landscape in black felt, having worked out where I wanted the trees using tracing paper, and tacked it to the background.

Finally I dragged out the sewing machine and let myself loose, free machining on leaves, delicate branches and tall grasses. I have to admit I am really pleased of the way they have turned out- I think they work really well!!

I may find myself making a lot more postcards in the future!

Angel In My Pocket

I have finally finished my Triptych Angel ATCs after lots of deliberation and experiments. I decided to use image maker to transfer my photos of the angel onto fabric, with a vague idea of then stitching into the photo, maybe following the outline of the wings onto the two outer panels. This idea was all well and good, but when I tried to transfer my contrasted blue photo onto a light blue fabric, the paper wouldn't rub off very well and the image cracked and started to peel until I gave up in frustration. (For those who haven't used image maker, it is like a kind of glue which you paint on top of a printed or photocopied image (photos don't work as you can't rub the paper off), then lay glue and image side down onto a piece of fabric. Leave to dry for a few hours and then using water and a sponge (or your fingers, whatever works best for you) start rubbing off the paper, leaving just the image behind! Magic! (Until you realise you are rubbing too hard and the image itself is coming off)) It didn't seem to matter how many times I went over the image, when it dried, there was still a layer of white paper concealing the image.
In the end I scrapped that and tried again, using both a blue version and a more natural coloured version on natural cotton. When rubbing off the paper this time, the blue version again seemed to need more work to get rid of the paper (it may have been the type of paper which was causing issues), but the natural version came out a treat, with just enough paper left on it to give it an aged appearance.
I decided against stitching into the photos in the end, instead using two more ATC backing cards as the outer panels, folding them around the central panel so they were slightly smaller. These I left mostly blank, apart from the first two stanzas of the poem I had chosen, and some gold painted decorative corners. To keep the triptych shut, I used a button and a loop of embroidery thread to complete the look.

There's not a lot to this card and I think to improve it, I could have worked more on the inner flanking panels- maybe using watercolour images behind tracing paper, or printing the text rather than writing it as my handwriting got a bit more erratic with each card. Still, for a first attempt at a themed triptcyh swap, I'm quite proud of them! (And I have still got the blue photos so I can try some more experiments!)

My Birthday!

So yesterday was my birthday and I had a fab day, helped my the vast amount of ATCs I got, both through the post and from my Mum! Here are the lovely cards I got in my birthday bag from my Mum who had been stitching in secret:

Together they basically mean that I was 19 on the 19th! The letters have been raised by cardboard underneath the fabric and then secured by incredibly neat stitching. One of my favourite birthday presents! I also got lots of bits and bobs for my ATCs, little buttons, brads and storage boxes, folders to keep the cards in and cardboard backings. So lots of excitement yesterday!

The postman also brought my a lovely present in the form of my Rust and Made With Wool ATC returns.
Here are the Rust cards:

                                     (By Hazel)                                                        (By Liz)

(By Susan)

Here are the Made With Wool cards:

                                      (By Lorraine)                                                (By Hilary)

(By Susan)

Frayed Fabrics

One of my themes for the end of the month is titled 'Frayed Fabrics'. I admit I was stumped as to how to go about this swap (as I seem to be a lot lately!) and a google search didn't provide much inspiration.
In the end I came up with the idea of using a jacquard woven fabric and using the back with the floating threads to provide colour and 'fray'. When put into practice though, stitching a border and some squiggled shapes to hold the threads when I cut them, the back didn't look nearly as nice as the front. I sighed and slumped back in my chair feeling defeated when my eye fell upon some frayed and twisted strips of sari silk I had picked up at a craft fair.
Arranging a few on the front of the ATCs it looked lovely and abstract- not really what I was aiming for but I continued anyway, reasoning that I had several more weeks to come up with an idea for the frayed swap. Here are the failed experiments turned abstract art:

I tried again, using a different part of the heavily patterned fabric, with different shapes on....

 ...but it still didn't look frayed enough.

Despondent, I was about to give up for the day, when I suddenly arrived at the idea of using the circular sections of the fabric, stitching around the circles and then cutting and fraying the middle. I could use a reflective surface underneath (like shisha mirrors!) and base my idea on the pattern of the fabric. I had experimented with fraying the edges on all of the previous ATCs as the fabric used frays really nicely. Here are my final cards!

All essentially the same- same section from the repeated pattern, stitching using black cotton (although if I'd had some, I'd have jazzed it up with gold thread in the bobbin), frayed circles with tin foil underneath, a circle of frayed and twisted sari silk and the frayed edges. I suppose it doesn't look much for the amount of work that went into coming up with the idea but I like them.

Elegance and Flowers

After several months of waiting, my E & F Alphabet ATCs have finally arrived!!! There was a bit of a sequence of delays including a host change which meant that we are now a bit behind on the whole Alphabet swap and I am still waiting for two sets to arrive (which won't be until the end of the month at least as we are giving others time to catch up). Still, these are lovely and well worth the wait!

(By Annie)

(By Paula)

Weeping Angels

I have signed up for a swap on the theme of triptychs (which for those who don't know, means that I have to make three 'panels' that fit together- you often find wooden painted ones in churches depicting biblical scenes). I have received a triptych ATC before, you may remember the mermaid one by Sue, so kind of know what I have to do.

As well as being a triptych swap, we also have to include an angel. I didn't have any ideas at all so had to research it on the Internet (a fab way of getting inspiration). I quite liked the photos of angel statues in graveyards and was thinking of taking my own images and then editing them somehow when my mum suddenly produced a tiny, miniature angel. I was a bit unsure about getting any good photos of it as it is so tiny but had a go (super macro is a wonderful setting on a camera!) and produced some really nice images! I then zoomed in on these photos and played around with inverting the colours or adding coloured tints (you really don't need fancy programmes, I changed my images using a combination of Paint and Microsoft Word!!). Here are a few of my experiments:

One of my original images of the angel sitting on a step in my back garden.

 A zoomed in image (this was done on Paint) and an inverted colour version of the same image.

 Changing the contrast can also be interesting, and is easy to do on Microsoft Word. I really love the inverted version of this. It has an almost creepy and sinister appearance which goes against many depictions of angels. The slightly grainy appearance is due to moving it between the two programmes and enlarging the image however I really think it adds to the overall effect and will probably be the image I use on the actual cards.

So I was thinking of having the angel photo in the middle panel and then some writing or a poem on the other two sides. Again I foraged the Internet and came up with this really cute poem.

Angel In My Pocket

I am a tiny angel

I'm smaller than your thumb:

I live in people's pockets

That's where I have my fun.

 I don't suppose you've seen me,

I'm too tiny to detect:

Though I'm with you all the time,

I doubt we've ever met.

Before I was an angel....

I was a fairy in a flower;

God, himself, hand picked me,

And gave me angel power.

Now God has many angels

That He trains in angel pools:

We become His eyes and ears and hands

We become His special tools.

And because God is so busy,

With way too much to do;

He said that my assignment

Is to keep close watch on you.

When He tucked me in your pocket

He blessed you with angel care;

Then told me to never leave you,

And I vowed always to be there.

So I've got until August to make these cards so I will let you know how they are coming along!!

Nature Is A Living Tapestry

The title of today's post comes from a quote from my latest and last set of Leaf ATCs. I was literally only waiting for these to come before I swap them out, so I finally get to choose which cards I want to keep! This is actually quite difficult as I like far more than three cards so will have to be pretty hard on myself to narrow it down!
Anyway, here are the latest ATCs from Hazel!

 It has a really nice textured background with random raised shapes which goes really nicely with the other components on this ATC.