3 things...

Thing 1:
Oh, I need a  picture of thing 1 and thing 2! Never mind! Thing 1 on my list is the giveaway!
Congrats to... ....drum rolll please.....JASMINE of Nature's Whispers! Jasmine won my Blog Action Day giveaway of a Water themed fabric collage. Congrats! It will be on it's way to you soon.

Water themed fabric collage from 99% recycled fabrics.

Thing 2:
I signed up for LaWendula's ephemera swap...and here's what I am sending her.

Fabric bits (lace, vintage lace flower, teeny-tiny daisies...) Paper bits ( hand made paper,nest lino print, vintage cigarette cards, bird book pages...) Odds and ends (Round discs from an old kids game, hero buttons, bottle cap, brads...) The butterflies are fabric and cut out from the print of an old pajama top. Too beautiful for the rag bag! I made the card (with the bird of course!)  from an old photo album page, cigarette card, fabric and papers all either recycled or gifted to me.This will all be on there way to Eliza from Druga Szesnascie very soon.

Thing 3:
It's PULP REDUX! I spent 5 blissful hours buried in the pages of Kim's book yesterday and my final page is not only 99% finished the whole lot is all glued into place in the book. Wahoo! This book is being posted to Debrina's .
Here's a sneak peek of what I did...

My representation of the British flag. I opshop trawled for months looking for the right image for Kim's book. I found souvenir tea towels, scarves and tablecloths from nearly every country but Britain! In the end I conceded and stitched something instead. You know what I will find now I now longer need it don't you? haha.

 

It's been very productive in the land of Pulp Redux lately. Alicia has finished her stunning pages in my book....

A small part of Alicia's contribution to my Labyrinth book.

Artwork and photo by Alicia Caudle.

Lisa Jurist has also been working on pages for Alicia's book "The museum of forgotten things." There are fabulous peeks on her blog and you can see all the work Alicia's done in my book here. It's a bit of a maze to find it all...Alicia decided to keep in with the theme when she posted!

Next post....The big reveal!

Home Sweet Home!

Check out the names on the issue slip...I wonder who 'lover boy' is?

It was a great relief to have my son finally discharged from hospital after a long 11 day stay. Unfortunately he's still unwell and at home. This sure has been a long road! Thanks to all of you who sent your well wishes, they are really appreciated and much needed! We've got another appointment with the Doctor tomorrow and we've started my son on a gluten free diet (I'm gluten and lactose free) so hopefully it will do the trick and we'll back on the road to recovery in no time. Here's hoping!!

I haven't done any art in ages and the call of my papers and threads is getting deafening! All up it's been about 4 weeks of no play and I am seriously craving some quiet time lost in the textures and colours. It's hard to find the balance between family and art.Actually, I've come to the conclusion that sometimes there is no balance. Sometimes the needs of one quite simply outweighs the other and nothing can be done to balance them out. I must say though, that even though there's been no play it doesn't mean no fun. I've managed to visit a few blogs (literally a few! please don't feel left out if I haven't made it your way yet!) which has been refreshing and inspiring and the postman has been bringing me wonderful mail!

I took a few photos of some of the things a blog friend, Danit sent me. She has just shifted back to Israel and I was lucky enough to be sent some of the things she needed to find new homes for!

This image came from a wonderful old first aid book. I'm already planning the collages for next years ICE and I think this book is going to be very useful! The image above is also from a book Danit sent me.

Old wooden stamps. They are a wonderful mix of old and new. Aged wood and rubber with glitter-ink remains on them!  I am really drawn to the old wood and text I am not sure if I should use them or display them!

Wooden bingo numbers. Off centre and quirky- just the way I like them! I had actually received a few of these before in an art swap with Danit but I've used them so you can imagine how happy I was to see these in the mail!

Look what else arrived! No wonder I am itching to play! This is Kim's book for the Pulp Redux Collab  (see her blog link on my side bar) and the pages you can see are Alicia's and Lisa J's. Their links are also on the side bar if you're curious! I still have Alicia's book here (remember Charlotte?) and my next post should be the final installation for my part in the "Museum of Forgotten Things" story. It's been painfully close to finished for what seems like forever now! Watch this space:)

Paper Swap.

Badge designed by Egmont van Dyck.

Lawendula of Woven Letters organised a paper swap on her blog. Thanks Lawendula!

Here's 2 of the 4 envelope pages I did in a book for my swap partner Deb of Dryadart's Weblog.

I made the pages from old book pages. The thread is entirely decorative and I left the 'bad' side of the stitching exposed because I liked the rawness of the mark making. Each pocket of the book has something papery inside and I also tucked in a few things between each page. You can see pics of the contents below! The idea was to send 7-10 things in a regular sized letter envelope so that we didn't have to spend a small fortune on the swap. As it turned out I made mine too fat (by 3mm I kid you not!) and it became a small parcel instead of an envelope and that made it $5.30 more expensive to post and required a customs declaration form. Needless to say I came home and repacked it with the same stuff, just flatter!

The contents....French to English dictionary pages, colour plates from old encyclopedias, embossed leaf on handmade paper, bird image, nest print, gold serviette, NZ ephemera.

The ephemera includes some postal things, a Tiki playing card and a found shopping list.

Below: The book closed as my partner will first see it. The string reminds me of the parcels wrapped in brown paper and string that my Nana used to send. It took me a while to realise where the string binding 'thing' was coming from (you may remember my Disco postcards) and then one day it occurred to me! It was a connection with my Nana and my childhood. I am sure I won't be the only one to remember those parcels though!

Altered Playing Cards

ACE of Spades. Recycled match box, recycled postage stamps and piece of fabric from my new tie addiction.
2 of Spades. Recycled bird image, magazine image, scrap fibres for nest and heart/paua charm from broken bracelet.


These altered playing cards were done for the montly swap on my Alternative Artists group and are currently on their way to the USA!


The first is another Ephemera themed card and the 2nd is "Inspirational" and I'm quite pleased with both!

Ephemera Altered Playing Card

Found note (something about Paki not coming because she has extra baby sitting to do...) XYZ index tab, wrist band from my medical ID bracelet, American postage stamps and postal markings, sewing pattern paper. Ace of Spades playing card.

I altered this playing card for the monthly alt.playing card swap on my Alternative Artists Yahoo Group. I can see the connection between this collection of pieces and my 'pilings' and 'nests.' It's funny how it just happens like that!