It's Christmas time

UGH! I need someone to show me how to use my camera, I've had it almost 3 years and I still can't figure out how to get it to zoom in and focus on things. I hope these pictures are at least clear enough to see what they are.
I am in a swap to make 2 sets of 6 charms that are Christmas themed. I knew right away that I wanted to do a snow man, and mom had some Sculpey clay that she bought a long time ago, so I used some of that. Originally they had red scarves on, but they darkened quite a bit when I baked them. The white also was not so white when it came out of the oven. So, I bought some paint and retouched the white, the carrot noses and put a coat of green over the red scarves. I still need to repaint the eyes and mouth, but otherwise I'm done with them. They are so cute, I had to make an extra one for myself.
I couldn't figure out what I wanted to make for my second set, I considered just making one set, but I like how the bracelets look when they're more full. Then I thought doing an ornament might be nice, but I couldn't figure out what to make it out of. I finally decided to needle felt some, but I didn't have the right colors, the only solid colors of roving I have are orange and a nice summery green, not so nice for Christmas.
I went to a local quilting shop and bought some little bags of red and green for $1.00 each. When I opened them up today, I realized there's a lot in those little bags, they will last awhile. I was going to try and wet felt the ball, but I couldn't figure that out, so I settled on needle felting. I did 3 each of red and green and put tiny circles of the alternating color on each. I think they're very cute as well.

I hope everyone in the swap likes them as well.

I am also in a swap where we decorate 5 chipboard shapes, I received Santa hats, and all I could think about was a regular Santa hat: red with white fur, I knew people wouldn't want that. I thought I'd use some red foil, my friend Loretta gave me, and put white paper on the "furry parts", and then put a vintage Santa image on the red foil and spray some gold webbing over the top. After gluing on the red foil, I had some ripped book pages out for another project and thought those might work for the "fuzzy parts", so I glued them on. The hats look really cute, I'll try and get some pictures up soon. I'm having a hard time finding a Santa image I like though.

Another swap I'm in, I have to decorate a chipboard house and make 5 charms to hang from the bottom of it. I did a birthday ATC for a member in my collageatcs group of a mermaid underwater, and thought that would be perfect. I glued ripped book pages onto the house and painted it with blue and green paints. I'm looking for a mermaid image I like, but I'm going to put some seaweed looking plastic along with some tiny shells I have and some sand. I think it will turn out very cute. I will also get pictures of that up when I get it done.

Happy 234th Marines!

Queen of Hearts follow-up

This is what I finally ended up submitting for my Queen of Hearts swap. I figured out my other cards just didn't quite have enough embellishment, and now that I go back and look at them, they sort of do look like a beginner made them. I think if I put a little more into them, they can look better.
For this card, I already had the background, a texured gold piece of paper, I rubbed my mellow moss and Green Galore Stampin Up classic ink pads over it. I have quite a few old books, so I took pages of one, ripped them and then rubbed the edges with really rust su pad. I stamped the face on a piece of fabric and colored it with chalk. The crown is a foam stamp, that I used in a almost dried up Colorboxpetal point pigment option pad called Alchemy, the color I used is Goldrush. I'm really disappointed this stamp pad dried up, I think the top got loosened sometime, but it's a gorgeous ink pad, I plan to buy another one some day. I added the pink heart and clear circle gems as a little embellishment to the crown. When I laid the head and crown on the book page, they seemed to be hanging in air, so I cut a little piece of red doily heart, flipped it over to the back where it looked pinkish and glued everything down. For the Q, I used a sticker, only I didn't have enough "Q"'s for 6 cards, so I had to change some "O"'s as well with black permanent marker. The heart is a shell charm from Hobby Lobby.
I think these cards came out much nicer, though I still really like the others. I've noticed with some of my artwork, I seem to fall into a rut and don't put near as much into them as I should. People in the new group I joined won't be taking that, so it's a good push to keep going in my art.
I already signed up for more swaps in this group, and have a couple ideas for them.
1. A Christmas Chipboard book with 5 pages. Each person has a different shape (I got a Santa Hat). Once we get them all decorated and back to the hostess, she will string them all together to form a garland that we can hang up.
All I could think about at first when I saw the hat was to decorate it like a normal hat, but now I'm thinking of adding some red foil to the bigger part and adding some kind of vintage Santa photo, then adding some white fur stuff to the top of the hat (I bought some neat stuff at a sale this weekend), embellishing the Santa photo and then covering the whole thing with some gold webbing I bought.
2. A House Chipboard piece and 6 charms to go with it. We will get the charms back on the bottom of the house from 6 different artists, plus a different artist for the house.
I have no idea what I'm doing for this one. I'm hoping people will post pictures and I can get some inspiration from those. The only thought I have is to cover it with book pages.
3. Christmas Charm Swap. Each person will make at least one set of 6 charms that are Christmas themed (but not religious). The hostess will swap out the charms and put them on a charm bracelet.
I have already made some polymer clay snowman charms and they are cute. Only problem is they darkened a bit in the baking, so I need to buy some white paint to paint over them. I think it'd be cool if it were iridescent or pearly. I signed up for 2 sets of 6 charms, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with the second set.
I love these charm bracelet swaps. It's so much fun to make the charms and see what everyone else makes. I rarely wear charm bracelets because I get caught on stuff, but I sure am displaying them.
4. Glittered Mucha Swap. We make 4 ATC's with Mucha girls (an artist) and decorate them, making sure there is some glitter on all of them.
I haven't started these either. I haven't even thought of what I'm going to do. But, they sound like fun.
5. Fabric Book. This isn't a swap, every week we get a set of instructions to do a page for the book. This lasts six weeks and in the end we have a little fabric book.
I bought the fabric, but am thinking of waiting for all the instructions to come out, and adding some quilt batting in between the pages so they're a little bulkier and sturdier.
6. Altered Filled Matchbox. You decorate a slide out matchbox and include some 3D items in it.
I haven't officially signed up for this one yet, I want to make sure I can do it first. But I think it would be really fun. I also have to find a matchbox. I don't use matches for anything, my stove is electric, and if I light candles I have one of those flame things where you just push a button.

I am looking forward to do all of these. Unfortunately I never get started on them. I started a new job at the library, so I get up early to go to that, but I have about 4.5 hours between jobs that I certainly could be working on them.

That hurts

For some reason Blogger won't load the insert picture thing, so, remember this post about my Queen of Hearts cards? You have to scroll down to the bottom. I received an email today from the hostess of the swap saying she didn't think my cards were good enough. As much time and effort and thought that I put into those cards, you'd think they'd be good enough.
It never feels good when someone tells you your work isn't good enough. I did this to someone in my group awhile back and now I guess it's karma coming back at me. I still judge people's art, but I generally do it in my own head now. I know most people put lots of time and effort into things they make and I think it's rude when someone says they don't like someone else's work. There are certain people's work I don't think are up to par with mine, but I still want to trade with them and encourage them to do art.

The hostess of this swap said she could send my cards back to me and have me add more to them, fix them herself, or send them back unswapped after the swap was done. I'd like to know what other people in the swap think. She said they seemed like "beginner's" cards, and that my cards showed very little effort in construction. Personally, I think she should swap them out anyway, but I'm bias. I told her she could go ahead and send them back to me and I'd make up another set. But, that leads me doubt myself, what if this other set she doesn't like either. It sounds more like she doesn't like my style. I am mostly a collage artist, meaning I find objects and put them together until they look finished.

Holiday cards

Here are the cards I made yesterday. This first one has a felt stocking with wooden stars in the corner.
This one has a small felt snowman with wooden stars.

This one has a bigger felt snowman with a wooden star and candy canes.

This one hasa felt Santa with a sleigh.

This one has a paper Santa with a plastic Rudolph

This one has a felt Rudolph with a plastic gingerbread man.

This one has a paper tree with a plastic star on top and a plastic sled.

Anyone have ideas on prices? I'm planning on sending them with white, red or green envelopes according to the color of the cardstock in the background and in a plastic sleeve.

I also have a couple white snowflakes on black and a card with a felt penguin that needs a little touching up. I'll post those tomorrow. If you're interested in any of these, I can put them under reserve.

Weathering some cards

I'm behind again, I know it. Here are my September ATC's for my CollageATCs Yahoo! group:

In the left one I used the moon and the "fog". It's actually cotton batting. The moon, bat (which you can't really see), ghost, tree and pumpkin are all buttons from a button mix bag I picked up at Hobby Lobby (I love buttons). The other pumpkin is a sequin I had lying around. The grass is from sushi, a friend of mine had some sushi one time, and the green paper wrapped around it was so cool, I asked if I could have it.
In the right one I used the cloud and the start of the rainbow. It's supposed to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and if I could have cut the button in half right, it would have looked like a pot of gold. The rainbow is colored with markers, the "gold" above the button is a sequin, the pot is just paper, and the flowers are al stickers, I had a hard time getting those little flowers to stick, they kept coming off.

The card on the left I used the small white snowflake, the iridescent snowflake and the face. The face was a plaster face one of my group members made and sent to me. The other white snowflake and the rest of the snowman as well as the hat are all buttons from a button bag.
The card on the right I used the sun at the top colored with markers, and the sun punch that is pretty much covered by the yellow gem. The yellow strip is a background I made with reinkers, and the bottom strip is from a magazine.

The card on the left I used the white flower background, which was a punch sent along by one of my members; the green sun, that's a stamp of mine and is affixed on a chipboard tag; and the foam lightening bolt that's being used for a stem. The leaf is a sequin and the grass is more from the sushi.
The card on the right I used the 2 tornado pictures, the one on the left was the ISU gymnastics teams keychain schedule. I saw them and knew they wanted to used in art. The other one is some clip art sent in by one of my group members. The green circle on the top is a sticker that came with the energize word, they are on a piece of black paper.

The card on the left I used the two cloud pictures, one is a stamp and one is a sticker; and the umbrella punch the ladybug is using. The bottom piece is from a magazine and I just layered some leaf stickers and the lady bug sticker on top. The rain is colored with markers.
The card on the right, I used the lightening, which is clip art sent in by a member; and the cloud, which is part of the stamped image the cloud in the previous card came from. The tree is a sticker and the grass is some more from that sushi.

The card on the left I used the star which is a button and the snow which is some kind of clear crystals a member sent me. The tree is a tiny plastic "stained glass" ornament, and the other snow is just paper.
The card on the right I used the yellow stars, the yellow sun and the snowflake. The sky paper was something I did awhile ago, it's sorta marbled using ink. The mermaid is a poufy sticker, the snowflake in her hand is a brad. The sun is glued onto two buttons.

I decided to make some Holiday cards and try to sell them on Etsy. They came out really well. I plan to scan them tomorrow and then add them here for people to see. But I will be adding one a day on Etsy until I have them all listed. I'm thinking about $7.00 per card. They're regular sized cards with layered paper and some embellishments. I'd love feedback on price. I'll get them posted tomorrow, so you guys can use your expertise in what you think I should price them as.

I also made some birthday cards for my cousin and grandma. I'm trying to make more cards to get in the mood of making more stuff for etsy as well as use up some of my supplies. I wanna do more embellishment on boxes too. I already got some stuff for a Christmas present for my friend Loretta where I'm going to be embellishing something with orange/copper colors. I think it will come out nice. I want more useful things as well. I know cards are nice, but once you get them most people just throw them away. People need more useful things. Any ideas on what I can do for useful things?

More ATCs

I was at the post office today, mailing the beauties below and these beauties, and this guy in front of me had a piece of clothing in a plastic bag. He gets up to the window and tells the mail person he wants to mail this to this address and have it there by Saturday, the mail person told him his options, but said he needed to put it into a box first and then come back up to the window. It was like the guy just thought the mail person would do it all for him. I bet mail people have a few stories to tell.

Anyways, like I said I was going to mail these pieces below. They are from two different swaps in the new group I'm in.
The first is a Ladies Vintage Wallet, we had to make a wallet out of paper and decorate it in Victorian style, and because Blogger spit out my pictures backwards, the first picture is of the inside of the 'wallet'.
I took a piece of white paper and distressed it with a Mellow Moss inkpad from Stampin' Up, then I took a script stamp and stamped all over it. I took some gold printed vellum roses and glued them onto the 'wallet'. I also added the pink lady, the stamps, the nostalgia tag, and the ceramic square.

The next picture is the outside of the 'wallet'.

The outside is distressed with the mellow moss ink and the script stamp as well as adding some gold mesh rectangles. On the front, I cut out the "Life's Journey" from a piece of packaging, and then pieced together the "MY" with clear stickers onto a neutral background and affixed it to the wallet. I piled three mini shells beath it. On the back I added the green button and the two paper beads (I'm not really sure if that's what they are, I got them a long while back from someone), I also added the blimp on green paper and the green doll dress.

This next picture is of the whole wallet with tags, ATC's, calling card and Victorian letter all tied up together and ready to be sent. To see the tags and ATC's, go here.

This next picture is of the cards I did for the Queen of Hearts swap. We were supposed to do our artist's rendition of a queen of hearts card. My first set had nothing to do with the queen of hearts except for the fact that you could tell I used a queen of hearts background. I decided that didn't fit the theme, so I tried again. I remembered I had some American Doll paper dolls and thought if I could find 6 regal outfits I could use them as my 'queens'. I originally was going to just mount the head and shoulders of each doll as that was all that would fit, then I thought it would be cuter if I scanned the whole doll and shrunk them to ATC size. So I scanned them onto photoshop and then used GIMP (free program, if you don't have or want to pay for photoshop) and shrank them to the correct size. I glued them onto actual playing cards that I had covered the faces of. I stamped the "Q" and a heart in the correct places and they were done. I'm very happy with how they came out.