Camille's First Postcard

Here is a picture of my ten year old grand daughter and her handpainted postcard. Camille created the fabric using watercolor crayons and a rubbing panel. She made the snake and then hid him in the appliqued grass She did some free motion work and also created the back. Camille is very artistic...there isn't a horse alive that she can't draw.

Greeley B's First Postcard

My 6 year old grand daughter who is visiting me for the month of June made her first postcard with me. She made her own fabric using rubbing plates. She also used a stencil, paint, beads and pieces of thread to decorate the front of her card. She guided the machine and I did the foot pedal so that she could do her edges. She did a really great job. Her finished card looked as good if not better than some of the cards I have received in my swaps. She also decorated the back of her card. we had a lot of fun making the card...I think I have a future postcard swapper in the making.



Here is a close up of her card.

OPEN THEME POSTCARD SWAP

Just completed an Open Theme Postcard Swap...thought that having a no theme - do your own thing swap- would be really easy. It turned out to be harder...I found my self jumping from idea to idea..and then ending up going back to ideas that I had already used in past swaps. My creative juices just weren't flowing....my goal was to complete the swaps before their June deadline...as I will have my two grand daughters with me for the month of June....and really don't plan on being able to play postcards as much as I would like while they are with me. They are really beach bums, and so there will be many days of just sitting on the beach in the warm Florida sun watching kids scream, splash and catch little crabs. Feel for me. (GRIN)

This is one of my fish cards, background fabric was created using a rubbing plates, used my Embellisher to create the rocks by the plant and repainted the fish from a preprinted fish panel.





This is a stamped card that the wings of the butterfly were stamped on colored areas of pictures from a magazine and then were attached with sealant to the card. The background fabric was created with watercolor crayons and Shiva sticks using a rubbing plate. (I do like those rubbing plates!)




This card is another stencil that I cut...you will notice the women are a little thinner. I stenciled them with Shiva Sticks. The background fabric is done with watercolor crayons and regular old fashion wax crayons. The waves were made with white puffy paint.

STAIRWAY TO THE STARS

I celebrated getting my first Social Security Check in April...which means that I'm recognized as being old and a senior citizen. I now know that with age comes physical disabilities and stupid little mistakes....On May 3rd I fell up the stairs (not down the stairs)...my foot caught on the ledge of the top stair. I fell into my fabric stash which is stored on a metal rolling cart in plastic bins. My head chose not to hit the fabric, and not to hit the plastic bins, but to aim directly at the metal. Needless to say I saw stars, had a gigantic lump in the middle of my forehead and "grew" two very large black eyes. I looked like I was abused! (Abused by a Fabric Stash Rack)

I opted to hide out, to stay in the house and nurse my wounds. For two weeks I tried to avoid mirrors while my dear husband called me CRASH and GOOSE. While hiding out and healing I decided to make a quilt to mark my little accident. I used Shiva sticks for painting the face...they are my newest favorite toy. In fact I tried out all kinds of techniques that I had been playing with while making my postcards. I am going to hang this quilt which is mounted on a black canvas at the top of the staircase as a reminder of the upward fall, it will be kinda of like X MARKS THE SPOT.

It will also be a constant reminder to me to make sure I don't catch my foot on the top ledge of the stairs as I go up them, and to hold on tight to the rail as I go down them.

Thread Painting 101

One of my Postcard swaps is Thread Painting....never had done this before so thought it would be a good experience for me to try. Got the hoop, got the organza, and had all the thread needed....but the hoop dragged and it just wasn't working. So I resorted back to free motion...and did it that way. I was pleased with my results....hopefully those that receive my cards will feel the same way. My pictures aren't the greatest...Sorry about that.

First card is my jellyfish. Free motioned it on fabric that I stenciled and painted. I used 4 layers of organza with different threads in between layers and then used a soldering iron, fused and cut it out for the jellyfish's main body.



My last card is a 2 inch by 2 inch piece of fabric that I fused down and then extended the fabric design by using free motion. I tried to match the threads and colors. This is a technique used in watercolor and I was pleased to find that it worked for thread painting also. The background fabric was created by using Shiva sticks and rubbing plates. It doesn't show up very well in photo...but the background fabric is really neat.

Last of the REAL Women

Here are the last three cards of my Celebrate REAL Women (see previous post for information)

REAL WOMEN

In one of my small postcard swaps we were to design a 39 cents postal stamp as our card front. Since my friend Pam showed me stencils and since I cut my own little happy fat lady stencil, just had to use them on my stamps to honor and celebrate all REAL women. I am going to make five cards and then retire the little fat lady stencils. Here are my first two cards...the backs have not been sewn on.

During a woman's lifetime of living she is suppose to be all things...a daughter...a girl...a friend...a teen...a young lady...a wife....a mom....a grandmother...she tries to be all, tries to please all, and many times because of the media world's image of what women should look like through all their many stages, she looks at herself as an imperfect body image ... she is never satisfied with her physical looks throughout her changing roles. She is always dieting, changing hair styles, make-up, and some even go under the knife. The harder she tries to change her body, the more she realizes that the image she sees in the mirror doesn't match the media's image.

In reaching maturity or senior status, I believe we can and should finally put down that "judgment mirror" and be our own true selves and join in the happy dance of life. We need to relish our curves, our plumpness, our wrinkles, our sagging breasts and butts because they are our badges of honor. They show that we are after all ......REAL WOMEN!