croque-choux

April's 6 x 4 fabric card

Well it's the last day of the month, and I just finished my April entry for "6x4 lives", a monthly journal- style postcard challenge started by Sharon over at inaminuteago. Last month I made a dragonfly card, this month a butterfly one with a quote that I printed out on t-shirt transfer paper awhile back, and a little Japanese fabric from my friend Simone in L.A. - the pretty butterfly was from Sandy in the U.K. The angelina fibers and metallic threads are, as usual, hard to photograph, but I hope this gives an idea of the actual card. I'm off to add it to the Flickr group now...

Paper, no fabric.

A small collage, just because. Not something I often do, although I admire collages done by other people.

Pick a card, any card

A handful of cards, and the "ATC webcam" which my son thought was real funny for some reason :o)
Here is my latest ATC. I'm enjoying this trading card format and doing free motion machine stitching in such a tiny space... I'm thinking that it would be fun to stitch an entire card game!

Bag of links

Cool things over at paperforest. That's where I found a link to these awesome Japanese paper robots you can download and make!
While I'm still thinking about paper toys, here are some odd ones from readymech. My son likes these- but he hasn't seen the robots yet :o)

The world of playing cards, and an altered playing card swap.

Artforms in nature- original high-res plates (as in illustrations).

and...
Thank you George Clooney.

New digs for the Mac

I mentioned productivity in my last post. Here is one way I found to increase my sewing and crafting productivity: move the computer away from the sewing machine. This was not pre-meditated, but an accidental discovery! We moved the computer totally out of my sewing/bricolage area and thanks to Ikea it now has it's own desk of sorts. It's all downstairs now- and I'm no longer tempted to "check my e-mail real quick (yeah, sure)" before I start working on a project. This must be a little like people not having a TV and reading more... TV is not my problem though, because I rarely watch it- but when I do I'm usually stitching something at the same time. Nope, no tv problem here just an iMac problem, because man when I get on this computer, it's all over. 2 other good things about having the computer downstairs:
- I have more space for the sewing and craft stuff
- Other people (like my dear daughter in this photo) are tempted to use it more often, so if I can't have my iMac I go for the next best thing: my Viking.

It's in the bag

I finally finished this jeans bag which I started during Sharon's bags of fun challenge, and now my daughter is the happy recipient. I was going to embellish it a little more with a touch of hand embroidery or beads, but Ombeline wanted me to keep it simple. Probably just as well, because this way I spent more time on making the handles nice and sturdy, and doing a good lining with an inside cell phone pocket.
Not only did I finish this, but I also took out one of my quilt UFOs and did some needle turn appliqué, and worked on another little thing. What lead to this sudden productivity? I straightened up my craft and sewing area. I really should do this more often because not only is my space neater but I actually found a 10€ bill while I was putting things in order- talk about instant pay off :o)

Backtack III

Backtack III is up and running, and I managed to sign up this time! Good thing I'm a night person, because signups started around 1 am my time, and within 1 hour and 10 minutes the quota was reached. So I'm pondering what sort of softie I'll be making for this and sifting through my black and white fabrics. My partner is Eireann & this is her site.

Make a wish

Normally, they say to make a wish here when you eat your first strawberry of the year, so that's what we did. Yum! I had to photograph these before they disappeared at the table because the colors were so striking. Not often that I find inspiration in the middle of making dinner :o)
Oh and, Vive l'EEC, 'cause these berries came from Spain- it's still a little chilly/early in France for such beautiful strawberries!

ATC tree

Here is the 2nd one I made using the same painted background fabric used in the previous ATC. I was toying with the idea of entering this in Whip up's first whiplash competition (fun idea!), but it's so tiny and I really was hoping to come up with something much better (and bigger). The only thing this ATC has to do with their "everyday creativity" theme is the fact that the purple tree trunk here was a scrap of ravelled silk on the floor and was on its way to the trash, but then I thought it would make a neat atc-sized tree. (ATCs are only 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches big, so that gives you an idea of the tree's size).

i HEART ullabenulla

Ullabenulla... I love this blog. Big time. Whenever I visit Ulla's blog, I sigh over all the eye candy, and art, and lovely objects- everything is so inspiring! I get all wistful, and then I feel like teleporting myself here to the shop where she teaches classes in altered books, etc. Why aren't there places like Castle in the Air in France??