New pincushions

Here's the pincushions that I made this week. I think I'm addicted!! lol lol First of all I made a monster (see my previous post), then a few (well, more than a few!) cats ... then a Scotty dog ... then I HAD to make an owl - or two - or maybe even three ... :-)
Just as well they're going out for sale on Saturday, coz I think there's a few too many pincushions even for me ... lol

I've got a few more ideas swirling around in my head, so stay tuned. xx

Monster pincushion

This afternoon - while I should have been making more dolls - I made this monster pincushion. Now, it's not a "monster" cause of it's size - it literally IS a monster! lol

I bought a kit to make one quite a while ago, then decided to use the pieces for patterns - and it's taken me this long to get around to it. Once I started tho, it only took about an hour to make. I cut out the top piece, put on the eyes, mouth etc, then pinned it to another piece of felt. Did running stitch around it, stuffed it with sheeps wool, then cut around it. Fun and easy - and now I have a pincushion for my worktable. Which means, the one that I started (the mini sampler) will be given to my mother for Christmas - I hope she'll like it.

Art doll tags

Art Doll tags, made in Feb 2010.

The tag doll was made for an ATC-Art doll swap - and I enjoyed making it soooo much that I decided to make tag doll cards. I started with a shipping tag, and used one of my favourite stamps ("Carpe Diem") for the body - I love her serene look.

Hmmmm ... I think I feel a tag doll swap coming up for Crafty Frenz ...

Yellow Art Doll

Art dolls - one of my VERY favourite things to make! Yellow, not one of my favourite colours ... so, combine them both in an ATC Art Doll group swap, and this is what you get - a bright yellow art doll, that I enjoyed making!

I had to search through all my supplies to find enough yellow stuff for her - cause she kept saying "more, more, more" ... lol ... greedy tart! Still, I think she knew best, cos she turned out fine.

A NEW YEAR!!

It's been a YEAR since I last posted on my blog!! WOW ... didn't realise that it had been so long! A bad year ... full of family and personal crisis ... that I'm very keen to put behind me. 2010 is going to be a GOOD year - full of art, crafts, good friends, loving family, and good health ... you hear me 2010!!

Anyway, I have done a lot of crafting this last year - kept me sane! Many, many cards - you'll find some at my card blog HERE ... I've been neglecting THAT blog too, but that's going to change this year as well. Here's a couple of Gothic Arch ATCs that I made for my Weird n Wacky Art group swap - I LOVE Gothic Arches!!

So, onwards and upwards - more to come! Thanks everyone for your friendship and patience, I appreciate you all.

29 Days of Giveaways

Chrysti of "The Altered Abby" is having a 29 Days of Giveaways on her blog - check it out ... she's an amazing artist, and a wonderful person!! Thank you so much Chrysti!!

Blog award

A few weeks ago I received an email from Jo Anne of Paper Cat's Page telling me that she had a surprise for me and to check her blog…well, to my surprise, she had nominated me for this award! Thanks SO much for sending it my way, Jo Anne, I am so honored that you thought of me!

In accepting this award, I agree to:
1. Display the logo and link to the one who awarded it.
2. Nominate at least 7 blogs to receive the award.
3. Add links to those 7 blogs on your blog.
4. Leave the nominees a message that they had been nominated to receive the award.

So for my part of the award commitment, I name the 7 blogs below who I feel deserve the award for various reasons. I want to encourage all my readers to follow the links and discover some cool blogs to visit that you might not have discovered yet!

My 7 recipients are: stay tuned for this - I need to make a decision!
I know you will enjoy visiting these wonderful ladies and their blogs, so do it soon if not right away! In addition, I have quite a few really fun and interesting blogs on my blog links that you might want to check out as well!

Blog Action Day

October 15th is Blog Action Day - click here for more info. This years theme is the subject of poverty.

Poverty is not only a pressing issue, it is a complex one. It's easy to think that there isn’t much an individual can do. Fortunately this isn’t the case at all. With activities ranging from advocacy and professional contribution to charity and financing, there is in fact many ways that we can act.

You can find a range of resources about poverty, about what the average person can do as well as dozens of post suggestions and ideas in the Blog Action Day Resources section.

Alice in Wonderland postcard

Alice in Wonderland/Through the looking glass - what a fun theme! This is one of my favourite stories, and I so enjoyed making this postcard. I printed out the picture (black and white) onto card, and then coloured it with watercolour pencils - without the water. The words were made with a Dymo printer, and the edge with a gold marker.

Black and silver 3 x 3's

I recently was asked to be a co-owner of a Yahoo group - Papercrafting & Trading - they mostly trade 3 x 3's. This is such a fun size to play with - they have the same amount of space as an ATC, but are square instead of rectangular. I sent these to Maggie for her Sharpie Scouts swap - they're done on black and white cardstock, using a silver gel pen, and a black sharpie.

WORDS ATC dolls

These were made for Diana for Februarys ATC Art doll swap.

ATC dolls are ALWAYS fun to make, and I was very impressed with all the Word dolls that the participants made - I think everyone enjoyed this theme!

The doll on the right is made from a stamp that Wendy bought back for me from Australia, and so is the face stamp on the doll on the left - thank you Wendy!!

Strange Holidays

Strange Holidays indeed!!

These were made for Maggie - for a Weird n Wacky ATC group swap. The theme was "Strange Holidays", and as you can see, I went for an outer space/alien look for mine. I loved making these - W&W swaps are always fun!!

Pink 3x3's

These two "Pink" 3x3's were made for Jo Anne - she has started a Pink Collaborative book, and I sent her these as a contributor. 3x3's are so much fun, and I really enjoyed working in pink - not a colour I normally use very much of - except for feminine cards.

Pretty as a picture

This is a skinny book page I made for Rebecca for NZ Stampers SB swap - I have had so much fun with this swap, and have tried quite a few new ideas and techniques.

For this page I used my new Flower stamp, and my favourite Flourish stamps - these are so useful, and I'm very glad that I bought them at Paperific. I would love some more, I've seen some gorgeous ones in online stamp stores that I feel I MUST have !! lol

Our SB swap is now finished, but I think that Chris is going to host another one - I'm sure that I will be involved!

(Did you notice that I did a vintage theme again? It's getting easier every time I do another one!)

Precious Paper card

This card was made for a "Precious Paper" swap - we had to use some of our paper stash - something that we have squirreled away, and not wanted to use because it's too "precious". I was given this paper quite a while ago, and really didn't want to use it up - I'm not sure if I can get any more - but how can I justify buying MORE paper if I don't use what I already have!!