Punk Projects ATC Swap

Last year I made a few ACEOs (well, my version of an ACEO...I don't want to put myself in a category with the real artists) and really loved it.  I love the idea of making art that's so tiny.  :-)  I haven't made any in a while so I was very excited when I saw that Katie from Punk Projects was hosting an ATC swap in May.  I signed up as soon as she announced it.

I wanted to make another felt card (of course) and this is what I came up with.

 

I drew this simple little guy and cut him out of felt.  He looked like he wanted to say hi so I embroidered some letters.  Did you see the four french knots on this card?  I finally figured out how to do that a few weeks ago thanks to this awesome tutorial from Sublime Stitching!  I'm obsessed with them now!

I'm very excited about the ATC I got from my partner. 

It's actually TWO cards that go together as a set!  

Isn't that cool??  I love it so much!  I can't wait to find a fun way to display it.

Have you ever made an ATC?  What did it look like?

Tiny "Art" - Let My Love Open The Door

This is a great song!  It makes me think of all the awesome movies it’s been in and that makes me happy!  ;-)

I think part of the reason I love this song so much is because of what it says to me.  It is a good illustration of what I feel God is saying to me all the time.  When things are not going so great I just have to remember that He loves me and He will take care of me.  That’s what this song says to me.  It’s probably not what Pete Townshend meant when he wrote it.  Oh well!  Everyone hears songs and relates to them in their own way.  This is a fun song to sing along to any way you hear it.  :-)

When everything feels all over

When everybody seems unkind

I’ll give you a four-leaf clover

Take all the worry out of your mind

Release yourself from misery

Only one thing’s gonna set you free

That’s my love

When tragedy befalls you

Don’t let them bring you down

Love can cure your problem

You’re so lucky I’m around

Let my love open the door

I just realized that this is my second Tiny “Art” card inspired by a Pete Townshend song!  I guess I’m a bigger fan than I thought I was!  ;-)

Okay, let’s look at the card now!  :-)  I made this one very simple.  It was more about the meaning of the words than having an elaborate card.  I wanted to have a little something to look at as a reminder of what the song means to me.

I decided to round the corners on this one since the door was going to be squared on the edges.  I just made a little door with a heart button door knob.  I was going to make the entire door heart shaped but I didn't think it would translate in felt.  It would just look like a heart.  So, I made it an actual door.

At first I was going to cut the heart key out of felt but it was so tiny that I couldn’t make it look right.  I lucked out when I looked in my button jar and found this tiny yellow heart button.  It was perfect!  I stitched the rest of the key with yellow craft thread.  I finished the card with my very favorite blanket stitch around the edge.

That’s about it!  It’s just a simple little card, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  It was great practice for my blanket stitch.  I’m trying to get as much practice as I can so that I can improve my stitching for my mini plushies.  I’m going to try to work on one this weekend!  I’m very excited!


What are you working on this weekend?

Tiny "Art" - We'll All Float On

I made another Tiny "Art" card this week. I haven't been having the best of weeks this week so I needed a little reminder for myself that things will get better. I've been pretty stressed at work and I have back problems that were really bad this week.

Then, I've been so stuck on a huge decision that I just can't seem to make. A couple of years ago my friend told me about Etsy and I thought that would be such a great thing to participate in. At the time I wasn't really crafting. I had major confidence issues. But lately I've been crafting like crazy! A few months ago I played around with the idea of starting a shop but I knew I wasn't really ready. I didn't have the ideas in place yet. So I decided to put it off for a little longer.

About a month ago I just had all these ideas all of a sudden! I was overflowing with inspiration! I felt like I had enough to get it all started and then move from there. I never really looked at having an Etsy shop as a big money making thing. For me it's about having another place to share my work. If I make a little money then that's awesome. It's just not the ultimate goal. :-) I had so many occasions recently where I felt like this was definitely the next step I should take. Then came the task of naming it. I've been going through every possible name I think of and they are either not good enough or taken! This week I just reached my peak frustration.

One day this week when I was driving to work We'll All Float On by Modest Mouse came on the radio. It was such a great reminder to me that even though things are not going great right now, they will work out. I just have to push forward and continue making things I love. Some days that's easier said than done. ;-) That's why I decided to make a Tiny "Art" card to represent this song. Now I have a little reminder when I'm feeling down to just float on!

He must be French...he has a mustache!!!  ;-)

I made this one really kiddish but I just wanted to have fun with it. I didn't buy anything new for this project.  I looked at the supplies I already had at home and figured out a way to use them.  I drew a simple little picture and cut it out of felt. I have stitches on there that are probably not even real stitches. But, you know what? I really enjoyed making it! So, I guess it doesn't really matter that it's silly. :-)

I'm still working on figuring out how to do the corners of a blanket stitch so they look right and I'm a little confused about how to end it, but I think my stitches are starting to look a lot better.  They are much more even now.  I've had lots of practice lately.  I love the way a blanket stitch looks so I've been using it in a lot of projects.

So, I will float on.  Work will be good and bad.  Back pain will come and go.  The shop will come together in time.  I'm just going to keep crafting and when the time is right it'll all fall into place. 

Until then, I'm just a girl without a name...doing what she loves.  :-)

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Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad...but it's the middle that counts the most. You need to remember that when you find yourself at the beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will, too.

Tiny "Art" - I'll Cover You

I finished another Tiny "Art" card!  It's made out of  felt and craft thread.  I cut this one down to ACEO size.  It was tiny!!!  I had a different vision of this picture in my head, but when I went to make it the plan wasn't working out too great so I improvised.  I originally wanted to put a smiley face on the umbrella but all the faces I tried looked weird.  I'm thinking I may have needed a darker thread for the rain drops and blanket stitch, too.  Oh well.  I think it turned out okay overall.

This one is called I'll Cover You.  I had the song from Rent in my head the other day and decided I should make an art card for it.  This is what I came up with.  :-)

I started out by cutting my precut ACEO card down so that it was 1/4" smaller so I would have 1/8" on all four sides to sew my blanket stitch.  I drew and cut my umbrella pieces and sewed them on with regular thread.  The rain drops are just a tiny L-stitch.  They didn't come out quite like I hoped but I think you get the idea that they are rain drops.  Then I just sewed the card together with a blanket stitch.  I am slowly making progress on the blanket stitch.  I still have a little trouble making the stitches even and corners are a little hard for me.  Practice makes perfect...so I'll just keep practicing!

I love Rent so much!!  I just had to post the reprise of this song...well, that and Jesse L. Martin is AMAZING!!!  The quality of the video is pretty terrible but it is so worth it!  Try not to cry.  ;-)

Tiny "Art" - "Hoo" Are You?

I made another tiny "art" card, but this time it was made completely out of felt!!  It's actually not quite ACEO size.  I made the graph paper that I drew my pattern on ACEO size so I made the felt a little bit bigger so I had 1/8" all the way around to sew my blanket stitch.  The card I had was rounded on the corners and I liked the way it looked so I didn't want to cut it down.  I'll try to make the next one the right size.  :-) 

This one is called "You are a Hoot!"

I know what you're thinking.  She's making owls now??  Well, technically this was supposed to be an owl with a mustache.  Velma and I have silly conversations about stuff over email all the time.  One day we decided that the owl and mustache trends were kind of strange so we would combine them and start a silly trend of our own.  So, I was going to make a tiny art card with a mustached owl.  I couldn't quite figure out how to make a mustache that tiny with felt or thread so I gave up and just made an owl.  I think it's pretty cute anyway.  :-)

I'm going to have to come up with a different thing to make to help spread the mustached owl trend.  Maybe a big felt plushie or something.  Hmmm...  Any ideas?

I figured out this entire project without a pattern or anything!  Normally I am so afraid to do anything without super detailed instructions and things to trace and cut out.  I am a nerd!  I know this is all very simple stuff, but I came up with the whole thing by myself!  I'm a little proud of me right now...even if it is a completely pointless craft project.  Baby steps!

Here are some famous owls for you to enjoy!

I love, love, love The Sword in The Stone!

Did they ever figure out how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop??

This one just brings back memories.  :-)

I had to include the owls from Harry Potter.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any of the good owl scenes to share.  I had to go with the trailer.

That's all I could think of for now.  Can you think of any other famous owls?

Tiny "Art" - Starry, Starry Night

I have seen ACEO art trading cards on blogs and Etsy and thought they sounded fun.  I wanted to try to make them because one of the blogs I read was having a swap.  I decided that since I am not really an artist I would feel bad sending one to someone who probably actually made something beautiful with their card.  So, I just got some pre-cut cards and started playing.  I thought it would be fun to play around with a tiny picture between projects to kind of wind down and do something I didn’t have to think about too much.

I bought pre-cut cards because it’s simpler and they were really inexpensive.  I’m so glad I did!  I ordered from Fan She Folds on Etsy.  The owner of the shop was so helpful!  I really didn’t know what I wanted to buy since I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do.  I explained that I wanted to use felt on some of the cards so I didn’t know what weight to buy.  She offered to split the order and let me try two weights.  Awesome!  I highly recommend using this shop anytime you decide to buy pre-cut ACEO cards.

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The first card I made is called Starry, Starry Night.  People who read my blog regularly know I love the sky.  Because of this I look at it often.  Almost every time I look up at a starry sky the song Vincent by Don Mclean pops into my head.

Starry, starry night

Paint your palette blue and gray

Look out on a summer's day

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

It's such a sad song but it really is beautiful, isn't it?  It was stuck in my head again the other night so I made my first picture for that song.  It's still stuck in my head!  Good thing I like it!  :-)

 

For this tiny picture I just used glue and extra fine glitter and then I cut out some yellow felt stars.  At first I was going to cut out a white crescent moon from felt and glue it on, but then I decided a white button full moon would be cuter. 

This is not a very good photo.  I had so much to do today so I went outside on my lunch break and just took a picture of it on the back of my felt notebook cover.  :-)

This was a mess up picture but I thought it looked kind of cool with the sparkly glitter.

There you have it!  It’s my tiny picture of a Starry, Starry Night.  I know it’s very kiddish but I’m not trying to make some amazing work of art.  I just want a stress free project that I can work on between real projects so I can still be creative.  I want to try to use more felt on future cards...like I want to completely cover the card in felt and do a fun sewing/felt thing (I'm still have some planning to do...obviously). For now I’m just having fun.  I have a couple of other ideas I might try.  I'll post them as I finish them.