New ATC cards

All during the time I was packing to move and since moving I worked on five ATCs for swaps on Craftster.  Three for the Alphabet Swap (we’re doing STU this time around) and two for a Love/Hate Valentine Swap.  Unfortunately the move made my cards late, which made it so I’ve been sitting on pictures for a while now.  This is my third Alphabet ATC swap and my first subject-based ATC swap and I was very happy with how everything turned out.  I received some great cards and was able to turn out some pretty good cards as well.  Of course, I’m always excited to do swaps!

The cards for the Love/Hate ATC swap were my favorites overall.  Coming up with the subject of my cards was kind of stumping me.  I had a couple of pages with different potential cards…until I went to Walgreens and decided to pop into the card section.  That’s when I saw the phrase, “You will always be in my heart” at the top of a card..and that’s all I could see.  Immediately I had this image pop into my head and in the end I went with it.  I love it!  The other card came naturally from the first, and if you put them together, they almost make a whole picture.  I think I might want to try this method again.

On to the cards….

A close up of the robot in his heart.

The card “You will always be a part of me”

Now I can only post two of the three Alphabet Swap cards as one still has yet to be received.  So I give you…

S is for Snob

U is for Unibrow

All of the cards are embroidered and color tinted.

If you haven’t ever checked out the Craftster swaps, you really should check out these two swaps I was in.  Some beautiful work there.

Love/Hate ATC Swap

Alphabet STU Swap

Once the cards were done I felt a bit adrift with no pending embroidery projects, so I decided to start on something new.  I’ve been wanting to learn how to create softies myself and decided to create an exercise for myself.  I asked my niece and nephew to draw monsters for me so that I could make them.  At first my nephew did not want to participate but once he understood that I was going to MAKE what they drew, he was all in!

It’s been interesting to work interactively with the kids to make their creations come to life.  I’ve made it easy by using just felt to create the monsters; but I’m finding that this exercise helps me considerably to build my skills in practical sewing.

So far I’ve completed one monster and am beginning work on the second, more complicated monster my nephew came up with.  Once I’m done with that one I’ll post pictures.  Wish me luck!

Finding My Feet

My whole life I’ve never believed I was creative. My mother and brother were creative.  I was the intellectual one. They picked up a pen and out came an actual picture.  They sat down at the piano and out came actual music; but me? Me not so much.

I thought, for a long time, that writing was my thing.  My space to be creative.  That thing that came naturally, that made me happy, that gave me an outlet.  But I finally realized that it’s not that thing. That thing that pulls something unexpected out of you.  That thing that truly makes your soul sing.  You know, that thing.

I’ve “crafted” in some way or another all through my adulthood.  I think it began with the nesting instincts that came along with the birth of my daughter. Even though I “crafted,” and my family believed me “crafty,” I never quite found anything I felt comfortable with.  Nothing that made me feel as if I were expressing myself creatively.  But then, I never gave myself permission to actually believe that I could go beyond basic crafting to be creative.

Recently something changed within me.  Don’t ask me to define it.  I don’t know exactly when it happened or what caused the shift; but I finally gave in and thought that I could be creative.  I gave myself permission to try new things to find a creative outlet.  Explore new mediums, experiment, fail and hopefully to ultimately succeed.

And thus this blog was born.  I hope you’ll find me, and my journey, interesting enough to follow along.