Guess What? I Finally Finished My Tags!

Because the tags are pretty shiny, the photo picks up a lot of glare, but there they are - all finally finished. My letter for this alphabet tag exchange was U and I have done "Love is Universal" as my design. It was primarily a background technique based exchange, so I had fun with Adirondak Color Wash in denim, Moon Shadow Mists in a couple of shades, Brilliance Silver Ink for the stamping of flourishes, and silver foil to make you think of space/the universe/the sky. I have included a scan of the back and front below as the pile of tags together become bit of a blur!


So that is it for tonight - I'm off to bed.

A much more productive day

Today I re-established my bookmark favourites and of course, discovered some new ones! I haven't been able to "find" all of my old ones but I guess most of them will show up as links elsewhere over time. This morning I also finally finished a canvas for Natalie. She has been very patient seeing as I thought I would be posting it more than a week ago. I kept changing my mind about what I was doing, which is one of the wonderful things about working with beeswax! I had better email Nat and let her know not to look if she wants a surprise. (I need to clean my scanner too I think, judging by all the extra little white bits!) All the stamped images are Oxford Impressions. My picture editing is a bit of a dodgy on this one and the canvas doesn't look that great on a black background unfortunately but I was trying to make sure the white wire hanger showed up.

This afternoon I have been working on my alphabet tags which I think I have mentioned before. It is an international exchange and while it is based around the usual idea of each artist producing 26 tags based around one letter of the alphabet (I have "U"), it is also a background technique exchange and must include a heart somewhere on the tag. The tags are to have pockets on the back with notes about the techniques used.

This makes it all quite fiddly and I have been experimenting with creating a pocket that doesn't impact at all on the front of the tag. I have done all my backgrounds and I'm at the stage of stamping up all the little bits that have to be cut out or punched out and layered and stuck on. Of course the circle punch that is the right size jammed* and I had to go and buy a new one. It is actually marginally bigger and is better suited to the round alphabet stamp that I am punching out. While I was in the shop I had to buy a beautiful colour of Brilliance inkpad that I didn't even know I was missing until I saw Annie's on Wednesday evening - "Pearlescent Olive". Yummy!

* Really really jammed - even my usual unjamming technique of throwing it hard on the floor (carpeted concrete) several times didn't work!!

And guess what this means...yep, soccer season has started here. We'll see a lot of yellow (gold) and black on the clothes line over the next several months!

Serenity Fabric Postcards & Another Little Art Quilt

Pictured above is one of my "Serenity" fabric postcards. I wish now that I had stamped some text on the background fabric to add a bit more depth, but other than that I am happy with them. The theme lent itself to a simple design I think. They don't show up very well in the scan but there are little clear beads sewn on the main vein on the leaves. Feeling quite pleased with myself as these were not due until the end of April.

Finishing these early will give me a bit more time for the 26 alphabet tags I have to make for a collaborative project I have been invited to join. I don't "know" anyone else that is participating other than my online friend Sue in the US who is the reason I am included! It is a truly international exchange with a lot of artists from European countries as well, so I am busy reading a whole pile of new blogs to get to know everyone.

I have the letter "U" and I am currently playing with various ideas. Whatever I decide on has to be do-able in terms of having enough supplies to make 26 plus extras (in case of stuff-ups!) and be something I can bear doing 26 plus times. I hate repetition and generally end up hating whatever stamps and/or papers I use on these sorts of numerically large projects. The end product of course makes it worthwhile!

I have also discovered this morning that despite having boxes of bulk tags, I don't actually have the required size so I won't be progressing beyond the planning stage until I get to a stationery shop on Tuesday.

The photo here is another of the quilts from the 2006 exchange. This one was for Stephanie. Her theme was "Inside" and as she is constructing a box, we each made a panel in the specified size. The panel had to include some sort of window or door or peephole. When the box is constructed the panels will connect at the top through eyelets.

My "Inner Desires" quilt was based on green and purple silk "paper" I made. I stamped on it (music and text images) and while it was machine quilted for strength, I also added lace as an edging and sewed beads on it. It was fiddly creating the window and getting a finished edge around it. I used large mesh screening and a photo on cardstock behind the window.

Ciao for now...