Getting Back into Creating

I haven't created anything for so very long. The other day, I decided I needed to make some simple Halloween ATC's and send them off to my Yahoo! group. Yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's for some fall items. I've started up swaps on my Yahoo! group again, and had to make the packets for October's swap. Here's what my kitchen floor looked last night:

 Those are the pieces for the swap. Among the paper and stickers are a couple interesting bits: rubber rats I picked up last year(I only wanted one, but just like the potato chip commercial, you can't have just one), some monster toothpicks, some silk leaves, 3D acorns, some spooky charms, and some orange brads. I can't wait to see what my group creates with them.

Last year, I signed my mother and I up to create something for a festival of trees. Last year when we went, my mother commented that we should make something, and when I picked up the pieces I won in the silent auction, I signed us up. My original thought was to make an art piece for the silent auction, my mother wants to decorate a wreath. She has a great idea, but she has been so busy with things with my grandmother (she had a stroke earlier this year, had to be moved to a nursing home, and last weekend my parents cleaned out her apartment, we don't think we'll be celebrating her birthday next year), I'm not sure she'll have time. I'm still hoping to do some kind of art piece. I think this will be nice:

It's kinda dark, but that back piece is a greenish organza piece folded four times, there's 3 doilies layered on top and an green flower bead in the middle. There's seam binding on the edges. I'm thinking of making it a wallhanging. I'm not sure if I should keep the 4 folds, it looks better than the sheer one layer of the organza, if I do, I'll add some quilt batting under the fourth layer on the back, and some kind of cord to hang it. I think it will be really nice.


I also signed up for a few swaps in my other Yahoo! group today, and am doing the Fall Button Floozies swap again this year.

What are you guys creating?

Under The Sea

The other day, I wanted the ocean, so I started this piece:

I started by mixing a couple of blues and painting the canvas. My first thought was to use some of the massive collection of shells I have. After adding them to the corner, I was looking through some inspiration on my computer and decided I needed a mermaid. The one I chose is from The Sum Of All Crafts blog. After that I decided I needed some seahorses around her. I went to Micheal's, The Dollar Tree, and Making Memories on Wednesday, but couldn't find the right ones. I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and found the blue ones, and decided the yellow one I had to begin with (also from The Sum of All Crafts) would work well. The blue ones are layered paper with googly eyes.
Now, I'm stuck, I know it needs more, but I'm not sure what. I think it needs more dimension and probably some plants, but I don't know where to start.

Any ideas?

Cake Swap

I joined the Merry Unbirthday Cake Swap and heard that my partner received her cake, here's what I sent her:

 She said she liked brights, and flowers. So I covered the box with green tissue paper and the top with tons of different flowers. Some are buttons, some are beads, some are silk, some are paper, there's a couple gems in there as well. I had the hardest time figuring out how to decorate the top, you can see the circles of paper under some of the flowers. The dragonflies are buttons that I clipped off the shanks and colored with alcohol ink.
Here's a look at the side:

 I ran ribbon around the cake, and adorned it with gems.
Here's what I sent her:

More flowers, the red ones are pins, the yellow one is to top a package, the tealish one is a magnet. She also said she liked whimsical doo-dads, I had a hard time figuring out what that meant, but I hope I did well. There's gems, some F tags (her name is Frances), some ribbon, tiny canvas tags, ribbon, and some birthday cake stickers.

I also added a Happy Birthday necklace in the box.

Here's her blog, go there to see what she sent me, and her pictures of the stuff I sent her.

Hat box swap

I signed up to participate in Michele's Hat Box swap, here's what I made for my partner:

 I started with a brown paper heart box from Hobby Lobby, I then covered it with dictionary paper (even though you can't tell on the top). I had a hard time figuring out how to decorate it after that. Finally, I decided to use a doily (because my partner likes doilies), but I was thinking it needed a way to separate it from the background. A couple weeks ago, I bought a gallon size ziploc bag filled with seam binding, so I picked three colors that went together and glued them onto the top, it's actually gray, pink and blue, the gray looks kinda green. I had the hardest time getting the blue to stay down, as it was a lot more crisp than the other two, and you could definitely see the creases from being wrapped around a card. And then I had an even harder time figuring out what to put on the top (especially after seeing how cool Michele's was). I have a ton of these wooden roses, I keep buying them cause they're so cool, so I chose pink/purple, white and green to go with the seam binding. For the edge of the lid, I glued buttons on that I got in another swap.

For the sides of the box, I finally decided to cut out flowers from a vintage embroidered dish towel. My partner said she liked vintage things.
I also had a hard time figuring out how to package the lid of the box without squishing the roses, I finally flipped it upside down, so they nestled into the box. I hope they stayed on throughout their trip.
Monday afternoon, after I mailed the box, I realized I was supposed to add something I made in the box, I really suck at reading lately. So, I emailed my partner and said I'd get something made and mailed out to her before today (Friday). And then I fractured my tail bone on Tuesday. Needless to say, it's been hard to sit comfortably and create something, but I did make her a tag:

The tag is covered in vintage book paper, it was covering the insides of a book, the cameo I found at an antique mall, and the trim on the bottom is vintage from a garage sale. It's funny that I used the cameo, I actually picked up two of them at the antique mall and really wanted to use them on the box, but it being heart shaped, I couldn't get them to look right.

Button Floozies needle book swap

I participated in the Button Floozies needle book swap. Here's what I sent my partner:

 It's all handsewn and vintage except the felt. I found a great pattern in a book at the library and went from there. I found it's extremely hard to cut felt straight, it kept coming up crooked. The front is the white button flower pattern. The back is part of a doily with a purple button. The trim on top I bought at a garage sale last year. Check out Michelle's post on it, I also sent her some items that aren't in this picture.

And, I'm still having a hard time adjusting to this new blogger, so these next pictures are backwards. Here's what I received from my partner, the inside is green velvet with felt for the needles.

 Here's the outside, very beautiful, I love the fabric she used.

I love my needle book, don't get me wrong, but part of the reason this was a button floozies swap, is that we were supposed to use at least 5 buttons in the pattern.

Spring Jar Swap

Here's what I sent my partner for the Spring Jar Swap. The front:

 The back:

 I took some tissue tape and applied it to the lip of the jar, and then added some lace on top of it. The top of the jar is covered with green tissue paper, a vintage pin and some paper flowers. I used butterflies to decorate the jar, one's from a napkin the other is stamped and colored by me.
Here's what I put in the jar:

 buttons,

 some vintage jewelry, Easter stuff, and some candy.

I felt like I didn't have enough stuff in my jar, so I added some linens in the box.

I had an extremely fun time with this swap, I hope to do it again in the future.

Vintage Petite Spring Jar Swap

I participated in Michele's Vintage Petite Spring Jar Swap, my partner was Julie. I received my jar on Thursday, here's what I saw when I opened the box:

 And here's the jar:

 Here's what I found inside the jar: buttns, trim, shell beads, chocolate, and a tiny matchbox.

 A close-up of the matchbox:

 And the contents of it: a piece of trim, flower gem, pom pom and a piece of ephmera.

I sent Julie's jar to her, and will show you what I sent her when I know it's been delivered.

Thank you to Julie for sending me such a cute jar and cool things inside, and thank you to Michele for hosting. I would love to do another one of these in the futute.