Happy Valentine's Day!

I am not posting a lot about hearts and love today, but I do wish all my friends and family a happy day to celebrate LOVE!  What I do have to share: Pictures! :)

First up are some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) I made this week.  All have been traded already.  I used some of my Gelli-prints for the backgrounds, and pawed through my collection of "extras" that people send with swaps to find some of the embellishments.  I also cut up a florists calendar for some of the arrangement photos.

This was a "jam" which means three people added to the background.  My contribution was the background, and the rest of it was so bad, I tore it all off and reworked it.  It is much more subdued than my usual bright colors, but I liked it anyway.

The next one is for a swap that required the use of the inside of a security envelope for the background.  I had been saving them for a while, so I had a lot of patterns to choose from.  Rather than just using them for the background, I used them for the whole thing!

And here is the card, ATC sleeve and envelope I sent the finished product in. I was quite happy with the overall effect, and I hope the recipient will be!

This is on the loom this week.  Purple, teal and off-white color combination.  Elizabeth has two completed and listed on her etsy shop, and this one should be up sometime next week.

And last, but not least, here is a short stack of outgoing mail from this week.  I just love decorating the envelopes with washi tape!  :)

I haven't forgotten the promised photos of the garden room.  Ornery has been working a little bit each evening, and just about has it ready to add the grow media.  Seeds are sprouting right and left in the little trays, and the temperature is finally tolerable outside. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I will have some good pictures to share.  Meanwhile, there are huge boxes stacked everywhere awaiting the completion of the grow bed system.  They are full of grow stones media, and they are taking up a lot of space in the garage and living room!! :(

Weaving paper and yarn

This week I have been trying to catch up.  But, as the old saying goes, the faster I go, the behinder I get!  So, I finally just quit trying and decided to play for a while. :)

Violets ATC.  Background is sheet music painted with twinks, violets punched from several layers of paper, topped with sheet music painted with twinks.  Added washi tape (of course!) some liquid pearl in the flower centers and some scrapes through white acrylic paint with a credit card.

This one is pieced from various papers I had either painted or received in swaps.  The little houses are washi tape.  I used some glitter gel pens to draw on the little flowers in the field, and some white acrylic on my finger around the edges.  I am liking that messy edge look for some reason.

These two orange backgrounds were in a swap I received last week, and I was feeling the love for them when I was creating, so I used them in both backgrounds.  The heart came as an extra in a swap with one of my favorite swappers, (Hi, Julie!) :) and I liked the look so well, I made a second one.  Both swapped right away.

The weaving on the ATCs above is from the edges of the sheet music I had painted.  I use every last little scrap of those painted papers!!

And, speaking of weaving, Elizabeth whipped out this shawl for my sister Mimi in no time at all!  It was difficult because she had to hand weave every line (as opposed to using her long hook) but it went so fast because she skipped two nails each pass, that it was only on the loom three days!  She only works on these when she comes for coffee in the morning and after she eats lunch, so about an hour a day.

The yarns are purple eyelash and ombre bamboo with purple and chartreuse streaks in it.  Here is a close up of the weave.

And, here is the finished product.  No fringe was needed as the hairy yarn does a nice job of finishing it off.