Lavender Gold by Kathy Greene, Angel Kat Creations

Yipee! My first ATC arrived in the mail last week, much earlier than I expected! This one is “LavenderGold” by artist Kathy Greene of Angel Kat Creations. Kathy is currently a stay at home mom with five kids and three grandkids, and lives with husband Steve in Pendleton, SC, USA. Kathy enjoys paper crafts, crochet, knitting, cross stitch, plastic canvas, and needlepoint, to name a few.

Now this ATC is so pretty — it reminds me of a fresh, dew-filled Easter morning when everything’s in bloom. I just love the colors! Too bad I couldn’t capture the gold butterflies very well in the photo. I’ll have to work on that.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this ATC, even if it’s just the picture. I’m lucky because I got the real thing! Thanks again, Kathy!

Inchies with Wings

OK, here’s the first batch of inchies I made for a swap. The theme is “Wings” so I decided on bugs, birds and angels. I snail mailed them today to my swap partner in Scotland, two days before the deadline. Whew!

I used a variety of materials and techniques here. Clockwise, from top:

Dream Butterfly inchie: Aluminum flash tape reverse-embossed and colored with permanent markers.

Angels inchie: Iron-on transfer on cheesecloth on a washi paper background, embellished with a bit of ribbon and gold dimensional paint.

Harmony Dragonflies inchie: Dragonflies and Chinese character stamped in black ink on red cotton, and dotted with a tiny bit of gold dimensional paint.

Ladybug inchie: Handmade paper with grass and petals serves as the background for a ladybug doodled on red paper and finished with a dome sticker. (Thanks to my sister Choi for showing me how to make ladybugs!)

Happiness Bird inchie: Iron-on transfer on cheesecloth plus a layer each of maroon and white tulle, all hand stitched together, with a hole cut in the tulle to reveal the image. Happiness stamped on a strip of handmade paper and stitched above the image.

All inchies are mounted on sturdy card. If you have questions about any of these techniques, feel free to drop me a line!

Another assignment in Everyday Moodlings, the free online craft course I enrolled in, was to alter a can and make it into a vase. This required painting a recylced tin can, wrapping a strip of fabric or patterned paper around it, and prettifying it with ribbon and flowers.

In my version, I plastered a Pik-Nik canister with handmade paper (recycled from a set of paper window blinds I made years ago), glued a swath of beautiful Japanese washi paper round the middle, trimmed it with gold ribbon, then topped it off with a four-layered flower of handmade paper held together with a fancy brad.

While working on this can, I made it a point to stick to the colors on the washi paper: red, pink, blue, yellow, white and gold. Hence, the gold trim and the layered flower made with blue, pink, red and white paper.  I also patterned the cutout flower after the design on the paper, down to the gold outline and the tiny white bloom in the center.

Actually I’m extremely pleased with the way it turned out. I think it’s the washi paper that pulls everything together — and come to think of it, it’s the washi paper that inspired me a lot with this project!

Note to self: Find time to make stuff!

I constantly need to challenge myself to “make stuff”. Otherwise I’d end up vegging my weekends away and not getting any art or crafts done. Blame it on poor time management! I envy those artists who challenge themselves to produce one piece of art on a regular basis and actually stick to it — like Randel Plowman and his Collage a Day project.

One of these days I’m going to join Sunday Postcard Art, which shouldn’t be that demanding on my schedule (I hope) since the challenge is weekly.

But given my currently hectic lifestyle (yes, I’m blaming the Day Job!), I needed something that would still challenge me to actually make something based on certain criteria, but would not be too tough on my schedule. My solution? An online craft course!

Last month I signed up for My Creative Classroom‘s free course called “Everyday Moodlings”. Every month you’re taught a fun craft or technique via video or PDF, and you have to upload a photo of your assignment to the site for grading. Since classes started last January, I’m like four assignments behind (argh!), and have lots of catching up to do! I’ve already submitted a few assignments, and I’ll post them here next time. For now, I’ve some homework to finish…

An ATC of my cat Piper sleeping on my computer monitor.

“Dream” is an ATC version of a scrapbook page I made titled “Piper’s Dream”. The leaves punched from vellum mirror the falling leaves used on the background paper, and emphasize the autumn scene in the picture.

A totally unplanned effect was the text. I used an inkjet to print on white vellum, and the edges of the text bled into the paper, adding further to the ethereal, dreamy effect. Talk about serendipity!

Parchment fan, dry embossed and finished with peral paints and metallic gel ink. Design courtesy of Janet Wilson.

This fan was made from clear (colorless) vellum, then painted with pearl paints and a metallic gel pen. I used an eyelet to hold the sections together, but maybe I should have used a cord instead to soften the look.

Anyhow, this was designed by Janet Wilson, another of my favorite parchment craft gurus. You’ll find details of the project in her book “The Art of Parchment Craft”.

Parchment fan, dry embossed. Design courtesy of Martha Ospina.

Yes, I’m a fan pf parchment craft, thank you. Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.

Here’s a parchment fan I made years ago. I used cream vellum to capture the look of old lace, and finished it off with a matching ribbon and gold embroidery floss. The design is featured in Martha Ospina’s book “Pergamano Parchment Craft”. Check it out!

Celtic bookplate, gouache and gel ink on parchment

Here’s a copy of the bookplate I actually use. The original was done in gouache and gel ink on parchment paper at a much larger size (slightly smaller than an A4 sheet), and was scanned for printing at a reduced size. The first batch was output with a color laser on plain copy paper; succeeding batches were done on a color inkjet on sticker paper.

Note that the zoomorph — the graphical letter E — isn’t an original design. I downloaded it ages ago from some site I no longer remember, but if you do recognize where it’s from, please drop me a line so I can credit the website. Thanks!