Sunday 17 April 2011

A Flock of Mixed Media Birds

 
The latest Art Sisters Exchange is all about mixed media birds and yesterday I finished mine.  There are nine of us in the exchange so once again I have broken my little promise to myself about not joining exchanges where I need to make lots of the same thing!  The funny thing, though, is that I found making these birds to be almost meditative (well at least once I make a prototype that I was happy with and then later, except when I stitched two to the wrong backing pieces!)

I wanted my birds to be a recycling effort and to be simple in style.  The front of the body and the wing is crumpled recycled brown paper packaging.  I painted the body parts patchily with gesso and then stamped them with a new little abstract stamp that I love.  The wings are plain and then stamped with another favourite new text stamp called "Jack and Jill".  I wanted to make my birds with materials I already had so I've used a piece of fusible fleece and another piece of quilted calico (both of which I must have had for at least 15 years) for the middle layer and backing.  The fibre, buttons and beads likewise all came from my well-stocked craft cupboards.  The trickiest thing was sewing all the bits together without making too many holes in the paper.

I'll share the results of the exchange later in May when all the other birdies fly over here.

And to finish - last weekend we had a family brunch for my husband's birthday and once we'd finished eating, a couple of uncles (our two youngest sons who are of course now young men) took charge of the "keeping the nieces (2 & 5 year olds) occupied" department.  Neither son willingly participates in photographs very often (especially if there is the remotest chance I might share the photos beyond the family) so I took this quick snap as I just loved the symmetry of the four of them.

Monday 4 April 2011

A Beeswaxed "Bee-Themed" ATC Exchange

This is the result of the recent beeswaxed "bee-themed" ATC exchange that I participated in.  Lots of bee goodness!  The scan is not brilliant - the ATCs were sliding around a lot on the scanner!  All of the other participants were American and the wonderful Kimberley Hopkins was the organiser.

Clockwise from top left, my ATC, then ones by Heidi Elmendorf, Darlene Hagopian, Kimberley Hopkins, Connie Fendley & Joyce Rainwalker.

And an update on my mixed media birds - my first prototype (experiment?) with a gesso-ed brown paper front and a quilted back looks OK but a bit too plain for my liking.  I think I am going to stamp the paper first on the next one and see if that makes it more interesting looking.







Sunday 3 April 2011

Mixed Media Hearts!

Here are the results of the fantastic mixed media heart 
exchange that I participated in back in February 
when of course all things heart dominate! 

The hearts hanging in my "bliss box" (aka my little papercrafting room)

Another view - the lanterns look so pretty at night!

Gaye's adorable heart
Gaye's packaging - a beautiful pocket
Sue's gorgeous heart - showing the little lacy heart that lives in the pocket on the front of the heart

Margaret's beautiful layered heart & stitched envelope (I don't think Margaret has a blog)
Jacky's gorgeous recycled linen heart
Kasha's sweet felt heart
Nic's very unique wrapped heart (love the shell dangle)

Nic's lovely tissue pattern packaging
Vanessa's lovely recycled jeans pocket heart (I don't think Vaness has a blog)
Another view of Sue's heart - this time with baby heart tucked back in its pocket!
My heart
 My next project is very similar - 
mixed media hanging birds - 
still playing with ideas at this stage but 
I need to settle on one and get on with it as I making nine!