Think Monday: Think ATC and Inching Artists

I managed two challenges this week; I'm quite pleased with myself.

This week's theme at TMTA is Fashion. I went for a playing card type of concept, with a glamorous girl whose waistline fascinates and frightens me. I'm not really one to suffer for beauty, unless the suffering involves glue and scissors.



And for Inching Artists, there's a numerical theme.



I really love these inchies! I love them because I used something from UNDER THE MAT. Under the mat is the place where I shove scraps that are just too good to throw away - but I never use these goodies fast enough, and my mat develops hillocks where the stuff has piled up. That's why it's always cause for celebration when I drag something out and use it. This time, it was the cover page from a sheet of Stampers Anonymous unmounted stamps. I cut the numbers out, lacquered them with Dimensional Magic and stuck them down onto a sheet of scrap paper that I slathered with gold paint.

I really need to seek out some swaps for Inchies - I would like to make more. Any suggestions for Inching communities.

Fabric Postcard

The theme this time was "Veil". I chose it, and then was spectacularly stumped by what I should make. I fooled around with some chiffon, and made some burnt, embellished sandwiches, and came up with this:



I don't know about it. It's kind of gone beyond my comfort zone. And velvet? Why did I work with velvet? It shrinks and shreds and changes size and it leaves black fluff everywhere and it is completely evil. On the other hand, the postcard is kind of eyecatching. I think I like it. *is confused*

Inching Artists: Holes

Holes are the theme for this week at Inching Artists. I made an ATC with three inchies, and each inchie has two windows punched into the layers. It's a simple design, but satisfying to execute.

I stepped out for a breath of air...

And suddenly it was February, 2008. Thanks, Debbi for giving me a gentle poke in the backside, to get me blogging again.

So, what have I been up to? I'm working on my postcards for the February swap, which has veered off-topic severely for me. The theme this month is "Veil", and somewhat ironically, it's a theme I chose. So, I wandered the aisles at Spotlight, selected some likely fabric of a veil-like texture, some cerise chiffon that was lovely and slippery and draped beautifully.

It was too tempting - I had to burn it. I'm starting to wonder if I might have a bit of a problem.



It was amazing fun to fling every shiny scrap into the chiffon sandwich - there's sequins, beads, gold leaf, and some really lurid fibres I would never have otherwise used. Once I'd stitched it and burned, it turned out very pretty, and it looks amazing over black velvet, but it's not exactly veil-like. It's too pretty not to use. I just have to figure out how to work it in to the theme. I can do it.

TMTA: Mosaics

The theme this week at Think Monday, Think ATC is Mosaics. I took the chance to use up the leftovers from my Christmas card frenzy to make a set of serendipity-style tiles, and it was lots of fun, and quite nostalgic to revisit a technique from time gone by.



Blogger is being a pain with uploading images right now - I have to host this at my Flickr. *waves fist at Blogger*

I am really, really hoping to play with my Lutradur samples that Debbi Baker sent to me. New stuff! I'm going to burn it! (You can't say that about too many things these days!)

Purple, Gold and Black ATCs

I signed up for an ATC exchange run through Stamphappy, the first crafty mailing list I ever joined. I'm really glad it's still up and going, because it was a great help to me as a beginning stamper, and I've made lots of friends through there.

The theme was 'Purple, Gold and Black', and the brief was to use only those colours, and to make stamping part of the design. This is the card I'm submitting:



I also made a few of these:


I like the contrast between the two - 'Observe' is very old-style for me: neat and precise, with a figure on it, and a well placed word. 'Drama Queen' is more freestyle; the edges are rough, the shape is amorphous and the background is insane. It makes me happy that I don't have to let go of the old style to embrace the new.

Fabric Postcard

I'm a part of a artist's exchange that swaps fabric postcards - each exchange is based on a chosen technique, and this round was using Beryl Taylor's method for creating a stitchable fabric from collaged papers. It's been a while since I tinkered with a new technique, and I really enjoyed watching my stash of fabric paper build up, then taking to it with scissors and knife.



I used my machine set on a wide zig-zag to edge the postcards - it's the first time I've done that, and I quite like the effect of the brown and tan variegated thread. My machine doesn't sound too good - it's well and truly ready to retire.

And then I posted them to the wrong address. *headdesk*

Oh - and another thing:


I won the battle, but not the war; I've still got half a chapter and an epilogue to wrap up the story. But I'm proud of myself - I wrote 60,000 words in thirty days.