January swaps

Last year (during my blog black out) I took part in an art swap where we made odd sized art. Essentially this was like making and swapping ATCs except that the size of our "canvas" was roughly a sixth of an A4 sheet - to fit into a ring binder wallet with six pockets.

Once we had all filled six spaces with swapped work we realised that another six pieces were required to display through the backs of the pockets so we are making more to swap in January and February in two sets of three.

Here I have made two using gel medium to transfer images on to a sprayed walnut ink background. I did make a third (well the first try actually) that went a lot wrong.

As a result I used some more of the background and old sewing patterns to make the third and a reserve just in case.

In 2012 we are also doing a monthly postcard swap with an alphabetical theme. For January we are making two double sided cards themed on A and B. I'm hoping, though it hasn't been mentioned yet, that when we get to the tricky ones like X,Y and Z we only need do one side! That way we should get all letters done in 2 months too.

Here is my ecclectic mix of things inspired by A and B. First a mixed media abstract - does what it says on the tin.

And on the reverse some good old fashioned plain stamping.

And for B a some ink blots and collage elements.

And more collage on the reverse with some stamping thrown in.

12 days of Christmas

I belong to a wonderful group of crafters who swap work and various themes throughout the year and every year we do a 12 days of christmas swap which involves each of us making 12 of the same item. Our marvellous coordinator then makes up a parcel for each participant with 12 different gifts from each of the other participants.

This year I made tag calendars and Christmas tree ornaments to send.

And in return I got 3 very beautiful and different brooches...

 Three clever and useful stationery items: a note book, desk calendar (with drawer that was full of chocolates) and a magnetic post it note holder now displayed on the side of my fridge...

Two lovely crafty books, one to hold ATCS and the other with pages each showing a useful prompt to kick start ideas for projects...

And three amazing stitched creations, a purse, a seasonal book mark and a case which I shall use for one of my many pairs of glasses.

Huge amounts of thanks go to the very talented artists who created these beautiful gifts for me.

Some of my work next time as evidence I haven't really done absolutely nothing during my blogging blackout.

Resolution number 1

As 2011 ends I was sitting guiltily at the PC trying to remember the techy bits of blogging after such a long absence, and yes I know I only have myself to blame... and it has taken me another couple of days to get round to transferring pictures from my camera so not a great start!

However, full of good intentions, New Year Resolution 1 starts now with a massive catch up and confessions of failure ready to start 2012 with a clean sheet or in the case of 365 journalling a modest sized Moleskin notebook with watercolour paper pages. Perhaps working smaller will make it easier to keep up.

So to get the confession out of the way first - I haven't finished my 365 journal, by which I mean I haven't journalled since September although I did make all the lovely inky backgrounds ready. I really struggle with the journalling part anyway and by the end of the year I just didn't feel that writing more of the same about day to day activites and grumblings about various bad stuff going on was what I wanted to do.

I'm blaming my decision to go freestyle on such large pages.  It was always going to be hard to fill the space so I resolve to try again on a smaller scale and try to keep going in 2012.

So whilst I get started here is the evidence of last year's almost done pages.