Inspirational Block!

With so much on my mind at the moment (mostly university, packing, sorting out accommodation, summer work...) I am very nearly late with my alphabet ATCs. It would be a shame to miss the latest swap but I am out of inspiration!
Thought I would look at other people's work to give me a bit of a boost as I don't want to disappoint the other members of my swap. As I have said before, the Internet is a great place to get started, so here are a few of the ATCs I have been looking at!

(By Ursula the Sea Witch)

 (By Singtatter)

(From Mixed Media Art)

I think to save time, I will try a paper based set this month- normally mine are made using stitching, but having looked at all the ideas online, I will try a collage instead. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Now...what starts with the letter 'K'? Kite, Koala, Kaleidoscope, Kingdom, Kings, Knee, Knickers, Kangaroo, Knots....



Leaf Postcards

So today I got the returns from my first postcard swap which is very exciting!
All of the ladies I received cards from went with the leaf choice (I focused on trees) and they are all quite different!

 (By Annie)

 (By Jean)

(By Sue)

Alphabet G, H, I & J

After quite a long wait, I got some unexpected post this morning in the form of two lots of alphabet ATCs!

(By Bobbie)                                                (By Alison)

 (By Wendy)                                                  (By Amanda)

Mum's ATCs

Although she refuses to join the MixedMediaATC_UK group with me, my Mum has been making a few ATCs on the sly! It was her birthday the other day and as a present I bought her an ATC holder folder thing and also backed a load of her mini patchwork cards as she hadn't got round to it, and then slotted them in. Whilst backing, I sneakily took photos of her work and here they are!

 

So above are some mini patchwork ones, and below is an early needle felted example:

Frayed Fabrics & Wildflowers

After a massive amount of making earlier on this month and last month, I am now sitting back waiting for my returns, which began today with the frayed fabric and wildflower returns!!

Frayed Fabric:



                                     (By Alison)                                                (By Annie)
                               

 (By Lorraine)

Wildflowers:

                                    (By Bobbie)                                                      (By Hazel)

(By Susan)



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!)