As you can probably tell by my lack of entries recently, I have been lacking crafty inspiration.  This is also due in part to the fact that I have been spending a lot more time outside, working in my garden, which leaves little time for crafts. 

This sudden burst of earring making was prompted by a trip to the new local Michael's store on opening day.  As I walked through the doors I was greeted by a nice woman handing out 20% off coupons.  It was down hill from there.  I didn't even make it past the jewelry department before it was time for the store to close and I had to check out.  Even though I didn't get to look around much, I definitely bought my share of jewelry supplies.  As a result, you can expect to see some new creations within the next couple of weeks.

Here is what I have created thus far, they are available for sale on etsy.com...

My latest swap was a hand crafted 3-D object that had to be related to the Doctor Who television show.  There were a lot of things to choose from, but I was able to decide on one of the Weeping Angels from the episode "Blink".  I'm not very experienced at all with clay, so it's a bit crude, but I'm still very pleased with it.  I was able to be a little more detailed than I thought I was going to be. 

My latest swap was for Owl ATC's.  I could use any medium, as long as there was an owl on it somewhere.  I already had an owl stamp that I had carved about a year ago.  I used that on the first card with some embossing powder to give it more depth.   

For the other cards, I didn't want to use the same stamp, so I decided to draw the owls.  The first one reminds me a little of Gizmo, from the Gremlins movie.  After this realization, I decided to go another way with the next owl.  I think he turned out pretty cute, and reminds me a little of Kawaii.
 

Today, I was feeling the desire to create art, but was not sure what to create.  I picked up a Smithsonian magazine and started thumbing through it.  That's when I came across an article about Charles Darwin.  When I first saw the picture of him, I knew it would be an interesting subject to draw.  I read the article and then gathered my supplies.  Charcoal is my favorite medium; there's something about finding the correct shape in the shading that I enjoy.  This is my first piece of art that I am selling on etsy.

Firstly, I am proud to announce that I now have items for sale on etsy.com!  I only have a few items listed at the moment, but plan on listing more within the next couple of weeks.

My most recent project was for my own swap, a silhouette ATC.  I am pleased with the way it came out, but discovered that doing a portrait silhouette on such a small scale can be quite difficult.  When the silhouette is this small, it's hard to get the details accurate.  

Before starting on this project, I did some online research.  I found that most profile silhouettes  have eyelashes, even when they aren't really visible on the profile.  The ones that has eyelashes have a more complete look.  As a result, I decided to give it a try on this one and I like the way it came out.

I recently completed two new ATCs for swaps.  The first one was simply to be a hedgehog.  The picture that I used as inspiration was of such a cute and adorable little hedgehog, that I wanted to make mine more raw looking.

The second ATC was for a swap called, anything but hearts valentine.  Most valentines are frilly and girlie and again, I wanted something more rough looking.  It is loved themed, but definitely not the type you buy in the greeting card isle. 


   


Artist Trading Cards

I have attempted another new craft as the result of a swap on swap-bot.com.  The only requirement for this swap was that the item was to be tiny, because tiny things are inheriently cute.  The person I was to send my petite craft to leads a very busy life so I decided to make a little room that she could 'escape' to when she needed a break.
 

One of my new favorite crafts are envelope books.  I made several of these last month and gave them to family as Christmas gifts.  I got the idea from Martha Stewart, who got the idea from a book found at an antique store.  I mostly followed their pattern, but substituted a couple of items. 

For the base of the cover, I used cardboard from a box I had left over from moving.  I then covered it with patterned paper purchased from papermojo.com.  The instructions called for book binding tape to bind the envelopes to the cover; instead, I simply used ribbon and tacky glue. 

Even though I substituted some items with those a little less conventional, the results were still striking and well received from those that I gave them to. 


The envelope book shown here is one that I kept for myself.  I have a habit of looking through magazines and catalogs and finding inspirations for crafts and art.  I would snip these images and they would end up scattered all around with no rhyme or reason.  Now, I use my new envelope book to keep these scraps organized in labeled envelopes.  Now, when I'm feeling creative but need some inspiration, all I have to do is flip through the pages of my envelope book!

I did a favor for a co-worker, and friend, by making some silhouettes for her to give as gifts.  The subjects were two little girls that she babysits.  There are different ways of of making a silhouette; Here's a brief description of my method... 

I take a digital photograph, load it into Paint, and black out the image.  Then I print it out onto regular computer paper, cut out the image, trace it onto good paper and very carefully cut it out. 

Would you like to see more silhouettes or get detailed instructions on how to make one?  Then go to me new Silhouettes page. 

I recently joined a website called Swap-Bot.  You can join swaps, or create your own, where you trade goods with people around the country or around the world.  A lot of these swaps consist of hand made items such as ATC's (Artist Trading Cards), Inchies and Dotee Dolls.  I had heard of Artist Trading Cards before, but not Inchies or Dotee Dolls.  Over the past week I have signed up for several swaps and have been busy making ATC's.  I've experimented with inchies too, but for now I'm going to just focus on ATC's.  With Christmas quickly approaching, I don't have much time to experiment; Dotee Dolls will just have to wait.

ATC's have proved to be a little challenging, but very rewarding.  Really, the only requirement is that they be 2.5in by 3.5in.  They can be any medium you wish.  I've collaged, stamped, painted, and sewn so far.  Each ATC swap on Swap-Bot has certain requirements you must meet, this helps to give you a goal to reach for.  It's nice to be creative on such a small scale and to make something simple but beautiful.

Be sure to check the new ATC's page for new creations.

I get a daily e-newsletter from treehugger.com, in which I frequently find things that I wish to share with others; this is one of them.  It is a temple built out of glass bottles. I am always looking for new uses for everyday objects.  I love colored glass, especially bottles, and wish I could keep everyone that I come across.  Imagine seeing the temple at sunrise or sunset, it must be beautiful.  I'm sure my grandmother would have loved it.  Click on the image to read the article.

This website hosting is new to me.  I haven't had much time to work on it recently due to work, moving and our new dog.  I have plans for this site which I'm going to attempt to achieve over the next few months.  One of these tasks is a blog.  As I try new crafts I want to post my results, thoughts and ideas about them.  Some will be successful and some will not.  Learning happens mostly by trial and error, unfortunately, with me at least, a lot of that falls more on the error side.  I hope you enjoy learning with me and please feel free to comment on, or ask about, anything.