Calender Girls postcard for December

I know I am early with this postcard but we are going to Melbourne for a week and I wanted to get my blog all up to date before we wnt.
The December calendar page was chosen by Neki and I thought if ever a picture said "use the embellisher" this one did.
It reminds me of my "swoopy" photos that I took when I was in Perth in August this year.





This month I had to send to Sharon and I know she has received it already so I am not spoiling any surprises by showing it now.
The reason I sent it off early was to beat the Christmas postal rush.
The background is black wool rovings embellished onto navy felt and then I used wool fibres to form the outer circles and I ran it under the embellishe to blend it all together.





This year we have had a variety of pages that really tested us but at least we can end the year with one of the easier ones.

Postcards sent

The first postcard is my November one that I made for Liz on the Fabric postcards for stitchers group.
The background is another sample that I have used -this one is from my embellisher course with the Thread Studio last year.

The next one is a Christmas swap on the Fibre Fever Group and it has gone to Janny who has already received it.

I make a Crazy patchwork background in creams and golds.

Finally my December Christmas postcard swap with Diana on the Fabric postcards for stitchers group.

I made this one on the Embellisher.

I have decided to get them all done early this year so that I will have December free.

I hope everyone is happy with them.

Tomorrow I will show my last Calender Girls swap for this year.

Fibre Fever swaps for November

I received this needle felted page from Marja for our November swap on Fibre Fever.
It is so well done with circles of wool felted to the background and so many tiny beads scattered all over it-plus the cut out butterflies--I love it.
I think Marja has a blog but I can't find any details about it.





I had to make a page for Margreet whose theme is "with a song in my heart".
I used a stamp to print the heart and the music notes that wandered through the heart.
I hand embroidered the heart and used the sewing machine to stitch the music and then added French knots to the music in the appropriate places.
The cream piece of lace is from a collar and the black is some antique lace that I had .

This is the 11th swap so far from such a lovely group of ladies.

Oh My Gosh !!!!

Several weeks ago Carolyn had a give away on her blog and I was lucky (and I really mean that) enough to be the winner.
Well yesterday when I went to the PO box there was this big parcel waiting for me--it wouldn't fit in our normal PO Box so they left a key in it so I could go to another box and open it to get my parcel out.
I was dumbfounded when I saw this package inside the box.
I wondered what on earth could be inside.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

3 big packages filled to the brim with the most wonderful treasures I have ever seen.

This one was full of Autumn tones--fabric-- papers--fibres--beads--ribbons--embellishments--all there waiting for me to caress.

Then there was this purple one--yummy purple of every shade-tone or whatever it is called.

Again-fabric-papers-threads-ribbons-beads-ephemera-oh the joy----

A close up------

Some hand painted papers-(sorry about the photo but you can get the idea of what it is like)---

Another purple packet-----this one had purple wire in it and silk cocoons and some gorgeous purple flowers with glitter (in the bottom right hand corner)

A close up of the hand made beads and silk cocoons---

Now when I won the give away I thought that I was winning this gorgeous little heart.

I ask you --Am I the most lucky girl to have won this wonderful-amazing prize.
Eat your heart out Janet B--all this purple stuff-----

I bet Australia Post didn't see this little beauty tucked away inside.

Christmas sure has come early at my place.

Thank you so much Carolyn you are indeed a most generous person and I will treasure every little item in this wonderful gift.

Brooches

In our small group who swap monthly we had to make brooches this time and it was Caroles choice.
I decided to use some of my sample pieces from an online workshop that I had done earlier with Lynda and Carol M.
Originally the base piece was orange but I decided to add some Starburst sprays to give it a more rustic look.
Several years ago I had made some one inch tiles from cardboard and covered them with serviettes to add colour and then I added clear UTEE to give a glossy finish.
I decided to add these to the background pieces.
I glued a small one on top of the larger one and then glued these to the base.
Next I wound gold wire around them to join the whole thing together.
I then backed each one with a piece of black felt but you cannot see it because I had to sit them on a bigger piece of black felt to get a better picture.

Four are now on their way to the other ladies and one is mine.

Stitching for Carole

Several weeks ago Carole from NZ asked for bloggers to help her by embroidering a small 5" x5" piece of tea dyed fabric which would be included in a quilt.
I said I would love to and so Carole sent me the fabric and the thread to do it.
The reply that Carole received from bloggers world wide was amazing and she has started receiving the little stitcheries back already.
I posted mine off yesterday and I just couldn't wait any longer to show what I did.
Sorry Carole but I told you not to look didn't I.
The first photo shows you a cropped version of what I did.
First I stamped my image on the fabric using a Fabrico ink pad and I started embroidering with 2 strands of the embroidery floss--this is the centre section--but I thought it looked too bulky so I tried one strand which is the stitching on the left and decided to do it all with one strand.
Carole told me I could use other colours as well,which I was going to but then I saw how lovely the one colour looked on some of the others that she had already received I decided not to.




Here is the finished block and I have used Stem stitch-Lazy daisy stitch and French Knots for the embroidery.
I stitched a border around the flowers with two strands of the floss working it in Stem stitch and I also added my initials.

When Carole sent the fabric and threads I was amazed at the envelope which she had decorated.

On the front left hand side was this lovely stamped image---

And on the back was this wonderful stamped verse.

Carole also included an ATC as a thank you gift for doing the stitched piece.

It was my pleasure to do it Carole and I hope that you like it and it fits in well with the others.

By the way if you want to see some of the others that she has received already just follow the link above.

November Calendar Girls postcard

This months calendar page was chosen by Jenny and she selected an Arthur Rackman page called Fairies in Hiding.
I decided this time to concentrate on the title not the picture.

The outer background is made from Silk cocoon strippings which were coloured with Starburst Sprays.

I tore the centre section out and added a fabric picture of a fairy in a garden.

I added more colour to the fairy using Twinkling H2O's which gave the piece some sparkle.

I am sorry but the sparkle is not obvious in the scan but you can trust me it is there.

The machine made cord couched around the fairy is to represent the tree roots.

I hope Pippa likes it.

The Wanderer has Returned

Today the ATC that Ann in the Netherlands sent to me for our October "flowers" swap arrived after a four and a half week journey.
Oh if it could only talk.

Thank you Ann it is beautiful.

October swaps

The theme for the October swap in the small group that I belong to was Flowers.
I received the top card from Debbi and she has added a lot of different techniques to this one.




This one is from Carole in NZ and she has used a vintage embroidery.

Lastly this one is from Annie in WA and she has used her cuttlebug for the embossed flowers.

My ATC from Ann in the Netherlands has decided to go on a journey to someone elses house instead of coming to me.

Ann is going to send me a replacement.

The next ATC is from Jen in Victoria who I swapped one of my flower pounded ATC's with as well.

Jen commented that she liked the ones that I had done for the swap above so we agreed to do a swap and she had also done a flower pounded background on hers.

This is the flower pounded design that I had made for everyone.

Next Years Calendar

Each year at my local stamping and paper arts store they produce a calendar-well several really.
The idea is that people put their name down to produce a page in a certain theme and they then have to make 12 pages for that month in the theme.
They have to be handed in to the store by October and then the lady in charge constructs the calendar-one page per person for each month and binds them together so that at the Christmas party we are then presented with a calendar each.
Well that how it is supposed to happen anyway.
Last year I participated and the theme was events--I got September and I produced a page depicting Spring-which starts in Oz on the first of September.
Well the poor girls at the store had to make up 3 months of pages because some people did not fulfil their committments and when we received our calendar there was still one blank page because the girls ran out of time to do them.
I decide that this year I would not put my name down to take part but I told the girls if the same thing happened this year they could call on me to make a month if they needed me.
Well last Friday I received the call for help--"When do you need it by" I asked.
"As soon as you possibly can" came the reply.
I decide that I would take all the stuff down the coast with me when we went earlier this week and get a start on it.
I handed the finished pages in this morning and was told they were still waiting for some of the others.
I can't understand the mentality of some people not to fulfil their obligations--they not only let down the rest of the contributors but put a lot of pressure on the girls at the store to make up the rest.
That's 12 pages for each month that has not been handed in.
I will do more if they need me to.
Anyway here is the finished page--on white card stock because nothing else looked any good.
The theme was Seasons and my month was October and guess what?
October in Oz is still spring.
I didn't want to do spring again so I decide to do all the seasons on one page.
Each block consists of a black background and another piece of card on top of it.
Then I added the embellishment to depict that season.




Here is Summer and Autumn.
Summer has sand stuck on with Mod Podge and a small shell was added plus a pair of thongs stamped on purple card-cut out-and attached with mounting tape.
I added some bling on the thongs and coloured the straps in with a silver pen.
Autumn has punched out leaves that were attached with double sided tape or mounting tape.
The titles were printed on the same card and attached above each month.
The calender month was printed onto white card stock on the computer-I then smudged some blue ink around the edges and mounted it onto black card as well.

Winter has a black background with a light grey card stock added onto this.

Then I stamped a snowflake onto silver glossy card using white Stazon ink and attached it with a white brad.

The title was stamped onto the silver card with black Stazon ink.

Spring has a mauve card on the black background with a stamped image of flowers on white card added plus a butterfly made from two punched out butterflies joined on top of each other with a bit of bling added and glued on with glue dots.

I am very pleased with how this all turned out--there was a lot of bits to cut out and mount to make each block but I did it.

And all I can say to those people who didn't do theirs is "if I can do this in a week then you should be able to do something in nine months.

Go figure.

Second Book

This is the second book that I am making as part of the online workshops with Maggie- Lynda and Carol.
In the last post I showed the Doodle book that Lynda showed us how to make and this one is from Maggies instructions.
This is the open book showing the back and front covers.
I didn't use the copper foil on the back cover because I wanted to have one cover with the copper base and one without.


Here is the front with the copper foil scrunched up and glued to the cover.

Tissue paper was added and then sprayed with Starburst sprays.

Now I have to make the spine.