Sunday, April 28, 2013

A Bit of Everything for March and April Swaps

I sent this lot to Debbie House (USA) for the Inchies-onexone March and April swaps.


March swaps included 4 Purrfect (Cat) inchies and 4 Analogous Twinchies with spring time theme.  The cats are stamped on and placed over thread ends all knotted together and wrapped over the whole inchie, while the twinchies are done with die-cut.  The following are a duplicate set of all the swaps for my own collection.

April swaps included a set of 4 inchies of pastel watercolour background with tatted butterflies, 4 inchies stamped and embossed, 2 Moos, 2 thrinchies, and 2 ATCs.  I cut and folded some flowers on 1 of the Moos and folded a pair of butterflies for the other - turned out very Japanese-looking because of the papers!
I did more of the movable ATCs after the March ATC session in Bisahn Library.  For the "Up and Away" ATC on the left in the photo below, pull the bottom string to move the balloons up the sky and pull the top string to bring the balloons down.



For the Bookmark exchange on the NEEDLESnCRAFTS group, I received 2 very lovely cross-stitched bookmarks and a tag from Margaret Wong (Malaysia). Margaret has matched the colour and theme of the  backing fabric, tassel and gift to go along with the bookmarks and tag.  Cross-stitch is something I couldn't do well, so they are extra precious to me, thank you, Margaret!


Kristine did another flower arrangement in school, this scored 86 out of 100.  I like the colour combination.



Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Fluttering Butterflies, Colourful Blooms, All Tatted

Joey need some little gifts for her 10 senior school table-tennis team players who are graduating this year.  I tatted for her a whole lot of flowers and butterflies with magnetic bead centre.  They are not very strong to hold paper to metal surface, but look quite good though on their own to brighten up any place and will certainly work as a needle minder. 

I really did a lot of tatting this past month, not just the flowers and butterflies, but also  bookmarks.  They are for a bookmark exchange on the NEEDLESnCRAFTS group.  I sent mine to Maria Silva in Portugal.
  
For last Thu ATC session in Bishan Library, we did drawing using the carbon paper way, but with crayon instead of usual carbon paper.  I never really like working with crayons, I can't stand getting bits of crayons all over my hands!
The theme for the ATCs we swapped was "Everyday".  I used the paper bags of the peppermint and licorice tea I drink to do tea-bag folding, and cut the black outline of the tea cup.  Background embossed with embossing folder and painted with watercolours.


(Going clockwise from top right) Swapped ATCs from Maggie "Cubism", "Rabbit, Circus, Circus" from Rita, "Smile - Bow B" from Moses, "An Apple "Everyday" Keeps the Doctor Away" from Jennifer Lum and "Teh-C ("Siew Tai")" from Richard.  I especially like the way the clown holds the rabbit on his palms - the composition and add-on to the background clown look just perfect.
Kristine is having her floral arrangement lessons in school again.  This scored 83/100.