Craft Day and Babies

We had a craft day at Karla's earlier this week.


Mary brought the "Your Vintage Gluebook" swap ATC's to sort for mailing. What an amazing sight, and how lucky was I to be there to see them all!

These are the beautiful ATC's I received in the swap...

Vintage Figments

rosalieackerson

penny4thoughts

friedaquilter

creativelenna

bleintz

Beth brought her new puppy, Button, with her. Between naps, and other necessities, he found plenty of things to do...here, he's helping Karla choose papers;)


We've missed Shawn and Bethany at recent craft days, but they were back this time with their family's newest addition, Ford! His first craft day and, at 8 weeks old, he too filled the afternoon with naps and other necessities. He's a sweet little boy! I can't believe I hardly took any pictures that day but fortunately Shawn took some, including one of Ford on this quilt I made for him...


The question now is whether he will be the productive crafter his big sister has become--Bethany was busy cutting and glueing before Shawn could unload everything from the car to the studio, lol!

Have a safe and happy July 4th!
Marilyn

Here a Swap, There a Swap...

Oh my, two weeks since my last post! Where does the time go?!

Most likely fun times spent with these two cuties...




And I've also enjoyed some time in the craft room. I made a couple of potholders for the KC Modern Quilt Guild potholder swap...

(fronts)

(backs)

We swapped them at last week's meeting and I came home with two amazing potholders!!

This one is from Jaime--isn't the fabric adorable?!


And this one is from Alex--I love the purple and gray, and the grommet!


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An ATC Swap in Mary's Your Vintage Gluebook Online Class is soon and I finished my six cards this afternoon...


This has been the best online class--Mary is an excellent instructor and shares so much information and beautiful images too! I need to show you my lesson pages, and will do that soon, but for now you can see some lovely work in the class Flickr group.

Marilyn

It's a Circus Around Here!

It seems, recently, that many of my regular-blog-reads have noted how long it's been since they last posted.....and here I am thinking the same thing! What's up with that, I can't even explain.

I've been in the craft room and I've been makin' stuff...like these Itty Bitty Circus Book pages:


This is the last Itty Bitty Book Club Swap for a while. The head itty-bitty is taking some much needed time off--through the end of the year. Eleven swappers signed up for the Circus book and we were also invited to make more than one page if we wanted to. I always like a thick itty-bitty...hehee, I really like saying "itty-bitty". I found several great circus images out there on free image sites and decided to make three different pages (3 X 11).


Speaking of great images, for the backs of my pages I used three of them from the Logomachy Cards set I purchased from my friend Mary at her Green Paper Packages Shop. I added my blog information to them, but still a bonus page, don't you think? Mary also shares many wonderful free images on her blog, Green Paper.

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It seems like there is less of this

and more of this

in our backyard today! Raking vs. blogging.....I'll get back to you on that!

Marilyn

Swap, Swap, Swap.....and Swap?

I'm excited about the start of Doll Quilt Swap 7...last night, I received the email with my secret swap partner's name and preferences. Now I can start "stalking" their blog and flickr photostream and hopefully get some ideas about what I'm going to make for them. The quilt is to be mailed by September 15th so I think that will give me plenty of time...famous last words?!

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A swap that I have finished and is ready to mail is the Itty Bitty Book Club "Children's Fairy Tale Book Swap"...




...2.75" by 3.5" cards, twenty two of them ready to send to Mary Ann who will swap them out with the other swappers' cards and bind them on the left side. I think it will be an adorable little book. The deadline for cards isn't until September 1st so I'll have to wait a while...but worth it!

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Here's a sneak peek at the mini quilt I completed and mailed today for the Swap Til You Drop "Summer Lovin'" theme...and how many times did I sing that song while sewing this little quilt?! (heehee)


Laura should receive it early next week so I'll show the rest of it then:)

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Finally, remember the mermaid I made for the Under The Sea Swap? She was waiting for my swap partner, Bairbre Aine, when she returned to California after holiday back home in Scotland. Bairbre Aine named her Mipsy.


Sadly, the little seagirl that Bairbre Aine made for me has not arrived yet :(
She was mailed from Scotland, so we are both hoping that she is just delayed someplace along the way.

Marilyn

More Miss Frenchie's

A few more pictures from Miss Frenchie's April in Paris show...


and a look at my purchases. These adorable Bingo cards are


from Beth's booth.


Next to Beth was Karla's booth where I bought a pretty flowery tray.


And on the tray are two French chocolate cards purchased from Gwen (French by Design at Mission Road Antique Mall).


Mary and her sister were there Friday night too.


Mary and I swapped ATC's recently. She sent me this one using a lovely opera singer image. I love it!


Mary is an incredible artist and does awesome collage work! You really should check out her blog if you haven't yet been there!


She wrapped my ATC in lace and ribbon and mailed it in one of the delightful
envelopes she creates--a gift in a gift:) Thanks VERY much, Mary!

Marilyn

Playing with Puppies, Fabric and Gifties

On Saturday, Shawn, her daughter, Bethany, and I drove out to Karla's for Craft Day. Beth, and a new crafting friend, Mary were there too. We actually did get some crafting done, but I didn't take a single photo of the gorgeous papers that were being added to journals, tags and atc's. I couldn't resist just taking pictures of the three puppies playing around us in Karla's studio. Her yorkie, Twinkle, recently had puppies--six girls. Three had already moved to their new homes, but we had so much fun playing with the ones that were still there. They were so sweet and cuddly!


Isn't this one of the cutest faces you've ever seen?!
And that's lucky me getting to cuddle with her! (Shawn took this photo.)


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In a different kind of playing, I had some time yesterday to work on, and finish:) my red and aqua charity block for Project Improv, the project I talked about here.


Also, please, take a peek at two more wonderful gifties I won during the One World~One Heart giveaways.

From Nikki, a lovely fabric ATC. The hearts are cut out of fabric paper she makes that really sparkles! She also dyes the wool for her pieces. Thank you, Nikki!


And from Melissa, this grand assortment of collage sheets and accents from Paper Imagery Designs. Thanks, Melissa!


I think crafty gifts are one of the best kinds of mail!

Marilyn

The OWOH Love Continues!

I was so fortunate, during the recent One World~One Heart event, to be the winner of some very LOVELY giveaways! Please let me share with you.

From Anne, these incredible ATC's--she really has a way with creating color and texture (check out her blog to see lots more)! Thank you, Anne.


From Linda, a beautiful bracelet made with glass beads, silver spacers and charm! Thanks, Linda.


And from Diane (who does some amazing image transfer work), this lovely mixed media picture, "Mother and Child", and also some little extras that I look forward to using in my own work! Thank you, Diane.



In addition to their beautiful gifts, I've also made three new friends and found three wonderful new blogs to visit...definitely a gift that keeps on giving!


Marilyn

So, What Happened To M-T-W-Th-F?

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted!

Where has the time gone?!
Well.....I must admit I've spent a lot of time visiting blogs that are participating in One World~One Heart. The last time I checked, there were 781 listed!

I think I've visited 275 to 300 of them and have already discovered LOTS that I want to revisit. It's unbelievable how many talented and friendly bloggers there are out there, and thanks to this one blog event, there's opportunity to find them.

I've also been creating artist trading cards for a "Women" themed ATC swap. I do enjoy making them...it is interesting to me, though, how some come together fairly easy and some not so easy. I don't know what makes the difference--I just try to go with the flow.





And I'm working on tags for Karla's Puppy Love Tag Book Swap. I've finished the backgrounds so far.

Next comes the really fun part...adding the puppies!

Marilyn