The Message 2

I really enjoyed making the last ATC and felt that there was more to the image in my mind.  I have changed the format from the standard ATC size to allow more complexity.  This piece does not have the Swap-bot mascot since it is not for the official swap-although I think I may send it to my partner.  Like the last card, it is a combination of hand painted and commercial papers, cut collage style. 

The Message & Curiosity

I am not doing too many swaps these days but I could not resist the 100,000th swap on Swap-bot.  It has over 600 participants all over the world.  The only real requirement is that your handmade piece of swapable art must have Ernie, the swapbot mascot it it.  I hope my partner likes her ATC.  I call it The Message.  Below is a card I made a while back for a Steampunk swap, I call it Steampunk Curiosity.  Sadly, it never reached it's intended recipient.  Darn South African mail!

Fabric Yardage

I am very excited to share my fabrics finally printed on a yard.  The yellow, Big Five Dots, and the green, Big Five Babies on Clothesline were created to coordinate.  I orginally created Big Five Babies for the Project Selvage competion.  The pink design, Protea Petals Pink, is one of the ideas I have for floral based patterns.  I will be using this fabric to test some diaper cover designs.  I also will be adding some fabric squares to a quilt.

New Napkins

I have been using cloth menstrual pads for a while now.  They are more comfortable, environmentally friendlier and more economical in the long run that disposable.  The ones I own are great but I was still relying on disposable for overnight because I had not yet purchased any of that size.  Well, instead of buying, I decided to make my own.
I looked at flannel at the store but realized I already have plenty at home.  I have some old flannel receiving blankets that even my baby girl has outgrown.  The great thing about using these is that I would have probably thrown them away thinking no one would likely want old spit-up stained blankets. Additionally, they are very soft from use and washing.  My inserts are made of old toweling and even my template is cut from recycled cardboard.  (The cardboard was narrow and that's why the 'wing's need to be extended out.)

For heavy overnight conditions, I drafted an extra long pad.  My template utilizes the 'wings' design to hold the pad in place.  When I was satisfied with the dimensions, I traced template on the wrong side of folded flannel, taking care to extend and round out the 'wings' and cut out the pieces. ( I would recommend extending the 'wings' so they would cross the entire width of the pad.) The slit for the pad insert should only be traced on one of the 2 flannel pieces.  I first sewed around the stuffing slit and then sewed the two pieces, wrong sides together using a zigzag stitch, although it might be easier to sew the pattern and then cut out the pieces.  A serger would be very handing sewing these if you have one.  I then used a straigh stitch on the wings.  I used conventional snaps on the wings (not pictured.)  I placed them by experimenting with the fabric in hand.
The insert is just toweling cut out in a square about an inch shorter than your pad.  I then folded the outsides right and left edges 1/2 way to the middle and then folded it in again making a long rectangle as seen above.  I then zigzag stitched around the open edges. 
The free pattern is at the end of this blog entry.  
If the idea is interesting but you are not ready to sew your own; Glad Rags is a fine company to purchase ready made napkins.

Life & Death

Life and Death.  OK, so really this post is not so dramatic as that, those just happen to be the themes of today's ATCs.  The top card is "My Favorite Perfume" which is based on Garden Path with Chickens from The Salon, Exhibit II series of perfumes, which is my favorite BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) scent.  I love their perfumes.  Some of my favorite are Hetairae, Jezirat al Tennyn, and ITASÔ KANSEI NENKAN JORÔ NO FÛZOKU.  They have many traditional kinds of perfume and many which are not.  All of there perfumes have literary or artistic allusions.  I also love their t-shirts.   Back to the card, the base is commerially painted bronze paper that I painted metallic green leaves on to give depth.  I then created a composition with paper flowers, focusing on the jewel tones.  I drew and glued on a little sexy fairy to roll around in the garden.  Garden Path with Chickens is a green, floral perfume with a salty, sexy smell.  Mmmmmm.
The death images were created for a Day of the Dead swap.  The skull on the black background was the original card I sent to my swap partners.  Sadly, those cards were never received--true for about half of the items I mailed through the South African postal system.  The cards with the red border were the replacements.  The black original background and the new red border are both flocked (velvet) paper.  The new card has a black commercial paper layered over.  The skulls are hand drawn and cut out.  I then stamped them and added further embellishments with rhinestones and colored pencils.