Labyrinth Swap

I haven't posted in a while with all the swap stuff I've been working on. I've been anxious to post some of my items too, but due to possible spoilers I have to be good and wait, at least until I've sent out my packages. :) I'm not sending this one out until tomorrow but I just can't wait any longer.

So first off, I've finally finished with the Labyrinth swap, and what a bunch of fun it was! It's probably been one of my favorite swaps so far. I received a really great package from Pupper. Here's the lot all together:

First there's a felted William ( I heart him - but unfortunately so do my kitties so he must stay hidden for now) and a fantastic miniature felt Jareth doll. Just look at those killer cheekbones! A Labyrinth inspired necklace and cool "bubble" earrings, both of which will go with a lot of my clothes.Here's an amazing Door Knocker jewelry box. The clay sculpting is fabulous- I could never even dream of trying to make one of the door knockers!

Then there's a gold necklace and dangle earring set which will be great for faire.

Finally here is a William the Worm "Ello" sign and a William mini calender. Can you tell he's one of my favorites? :D

There's also an owl candle (not for lighting- he's too awesome), but I somehow forgot to take a solo picture of him.


Now for my package to Pupper. For starters we have a couple of knitted items. First off is the requisite Owl item! :) I love owlies, especially the one in this film. Barn owls are so beautiful. Here are 2 cotton owl potholders, pre-blocked. For the eyes I used some glittery copper ribbon. When you're dealing with the Labyrinth, you always need a little glitter! :-D

The next item up is the William scarf I made. I used Wool-ease for some warmth and I think the color works well. It's a simple garter stitch scarf with fringe and has a great "squish" factor. I do wish however, that I had made it a little longer. I didn't have my second skein of yarn with me though and and I was getting anxious to finish it. There's really nothing wrong with the length but as a personal preference I wish it were longer.


This is the largest item. I wanted to try my hand at a mixed media painting. I've dabbled in it before but I wanted to try something on a larger scale. I really didn't want to go 20x24 but I started playing around with some ideas and it just kind of happened. :)

I started off with some stucco, acrylics and gel medium...

It eventually made its way to this, with the addition of printed images, glass bead texture medium, foam & rubber stamping, Stazon, and a LOT more acrylic paint and gel medium. :) I love the way the colors came out, although the pictures do it absolutely no justice.

I think my favorite bit is the goblins in the bottom left corner. The words surrounding the picture say "I wish the goblins would come and take you away...)" Other quotes include: "What's said is said" and "What a pity". We all swoon over Jareth but for this I really wanted to showcase his meaner side.


Next is something I had commissioned for my partner by my best friend and an amazing artist, Jeanne Hunt (jeannebaby on Craftster). She's been working on some watercolor paintings and I was absolutely blown away. I really wanted one for my partner so I asked if she could do a small 5x7 Ludo painting. It truly puts my work to shame, but here it is anyway. :D The color and detail are absolutely perfect and the fact that she painted them without even referring to a photo is rediculous. She's seriously amazing.



Finally we have my favorite piece for this swap. The Junk Box. My apologies for the drawn out description but I LOVED working on this piece. My partner loves the character of Agnes, the old woman who lives in the junkyard outside the gates of the Goblin City. I really wanted to make something to represent her so from my love of altering boxes I came up with a little treasure chest.

It started off as a cast off in the $.99 bargain bin at Gabriel Brother's (and you better believe I stocked up on these awesome little boxes!). From there it got covered in Barbie doll toys, buttons, and other odds and ends found around the house. Hey, it is after all a junkyard scene!

For some texture on the sides I went the way of toilet paper and egg shells. I know it may sound weird but it really gives some great effects! Finally a layer of gesso topped it all off and it was time to get down to the fun part!


I once again broke out the acrylics, gel medium and iridescent paints and went to town. I wanted it to have a dark and ugly feel about it so I went with grays, blacks, and greens. I didn't want it too ugly though so shimmery purple and golds helped with highlighting. I used 3 flat backed marbles to mimic Jareth's crystal bubbles and finished it off with some black glitter (not in the pics though :( )


I wanted to inside to really *pop* so I stayed with the purples and painted the inside. Finally I added a quote from Agnes and felt to the bottom.


Edited 2/8/10
Okay, okay. So I have to admit that for some reason, when looking at all of my swap items together it didn't feel like it was enough. I decided to make one final item right before I packaged everything up to ship off. Every goblin friend needs to feel like they fit in with the crowd, right? Of course right. So I made these:
This was my first attempt at horns and I think they came out pretty well. Granted they look a little more "devil" like and I really wanted to add some texture but I was on a time limit since I still had to make it to the post office by 5:00. You can't tell in the picture but they actually are a slight shimmery copper with a more matte, muddy color over top.



I really hope she likes everything! It was such a blast to work on this swap!!

Thank you GeekCrafts!!!

I was pretty excited yesterday when I received a message from Shayne of Geekcrafts.com. It turns out they wanted to feature the little crocheted Underpants Gnome that I made for the Craftster Fairytale Creature swap on their blog! What?! Heck yeah!! :-D Thanks again Geekcrafts!!!

http://geekcrafts.com/crocheted-underwear-gnome/#comments

Please go check out their site- even if you aren't all that geeky or crafty you'll get a big kick out of it. You want to see a toaster made from a VCR? How about a Barbie turned into a zombie? Or maybe a full size quilt featuring scenes from Lord of the Rings? Well folks, you'll find them all here on Geekcrafts!

http://geekcrafts.com/

Swap time!!

It had been so long since I'd done a swap that I couldn't help myself when I saw so many great topics posted on Craftster. I ended up signing up for 4 of them! They're spread out perfectly so I'll be able to complete them each on time. The themes I signed up for are the Labyrinth, Jane Austen (yes, again), the Princess Bride and a Handspun & Handcrafts swap.

The Labyrinth swap is almost complete. I can't post too many details since I don't want my partner to know what I've made her yet. This has been a really great swap for me so far and I hope my partner likes what I've made her as much as I've enjoyed making them. One of the items is sort of a new craft for me, though it's a variation of things I've done in the past. Just one more item and the package will be ready to send. I have already received the package from my swap partner but I wanted to get everything of mine done before I opened it. I should be all ready on Monday! I'm really excited to see what she's made for me!

I just got my partner for the Jane Austen swap last week and I'm soooooo very excited!! My partner has offered to make me a Regency dress! I was absolutely floored when I read her message! I have some ideas as to what to make for her in return but I'm waiting to hear about some of her preferences.

I received my Handspun and Handcraft swap partner today. This is going to be a quick, but fun swap. I get to make some lovely handspun yarn for my partner and they will craft something fabulous for me. I'm really excited about my partner - she seems really fun and her talents with polymer clay are just amazing. She has her hands in all sorts of crafty pies so I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

So here it is...the Shakespeare Swap. Ah, this one was a creative one for me. I used a lot of things that I haven't used in a while and even some new stuff.

Here is the whole package that I sent to my partner:














This is a close up of the Witches Brew jars that I made. Each of the jars are for a different item that was listed as the ingredients for the potion made by the witches in Macbeth. Adders Fork... Month Old Toad... Wing of Howlet... Wool of Bat... Tongue of Dog... Toe of Frog...













My partner likes purses and I found this amazing fabric so I knew I had to use it for this lovely pleated clutch pattern that I've been wanting to try out. The clock fabric is a nod to her favorite quote from Twelfth Night "The clock upbraids me with a waste of time". The fabric is 100% cotton, lined with a medium brown broadcloth and has a magnetic clasp closure.













Finally the monster of all projects..the Macbeth Book shrine. I took several of her favorite scenes from the play and tried incorporating them into the book somehow, using a ton of different techniques and supplies. Some of the scenes shown are Great Birnham Wood, Lady Macbeth after reading the letter from her husband in the beginning, the fight scene at the end between Macbeth and MacDuff, and of course the banquet scene with Banquo's ghost. Along the edges of the "pages" is the famous "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" quote and finally there's a nod to the doorkeeper with the large metal door handle on the front of the book.
































Here is the wonderful package that I received!!

First up is the Midsummer Night's Dream tote that I've been using since the day it arrived. It's made from a recycled, thrifted wool sweater. My partner over dyed it this beautiful dark green, then embroidered the trees, felted it and then beaded and embroidered some more. So cool and so fun! I've already gotten a ton of compliments on it!

















Here's puck along the side holding a bead flower.















The super soft lining fabric.



















How amazing is this - it's an Emma Thompson/Beatrice doll from Much Ado about Nothing!! Knit from head to toe - even her skivvies. And if that isn't impressive enough already she made her outfit. It's even removable so that I can dress her in other Emma Thompson roles!! I love it!

































Finally here's the Romeo and Juliet cuff. I wish you could see the details on this! It's scenes 2-5 from the play and it's just amazing! I wish I had a closeup of the wedding gown - gorgeous work, and such a clever idea. It's soooo comfy too. I've already worn it several times!






















*** all photos taken by my wonderful swap partner astormorray! ***

Quite an undertaking for the Shakespeare swap!

So, I have been working on this project for the Shakespeare Swap. It's much more work than I anticipated! I can't say what it is but these are some of the techniques and items I have already used:
-sponge painting
-letter stamping
-embossing
-painting
-collaging
-felt
-fabric
-creating 3-D objects with paper
-gold leafing

Whew!! And I'm still not done.

The Golden Girls Swap!

I LOVED this swap. When I saw the original post about it I just knew that I had to join, and I'm so glad that I did! I had a fantastic partner who totally spoiled me and while working on the projects for her I really got into a craft that until know I had just dabbled in, but know really enjoy and want to learn more.

The main idea that I had was to make one item that showcased each girl and then one to incorporate them all. The magnet tin is for Rose. While magnets don't directly relate to her, I thought they were kind of lighthearted and frivolous - much like Rose. :) The tin was originally a Camel cigarette tin. I covered the top with a photo of all the girls and added a string of pearls and some antique buttons that I had laying around. The final touch was a layer of diamond glaze over the whole picture. Inside is a set of magnets with pictures of each of the Girls on them and some scenes from the show. The quote that I used is from one of the most popular episodes - where Dorothy and Rose are writing their song about Miami.



































Next up is Sophia. Since she is the famed cook in the house I decided to make an apron, with her infamous line "Picture it, Sicily... " on the front. I found this super cute fabric with the sheep on it to symbolize the farming village she grew up in.


























On to Dorothy. Being the intellectual of the group and a teacher I turned a mint tin into a book and made some bookmarks. One is a book thong and the other is a ribbon slide bookmark. Making these and playing with jewelery findings really got me in the mood to make some jewelery. These were one of my favorite swap items to make. I even made another of the ribbon slide ones for another friend of mine. :-D Oh! And the quote for Dorothy reads:
Dorothy "I have a date"
Blanche "with a man?"
Dorothy "No, Blanche, with a Venus fly trap"







































Finally we come to Blanche. Being so full of herself, and that fact that I wanted to play with my jewelery making stuff some more I decided a jewelery set might be fun for her. After all, she does always have to look her best! I had a 7 Gypsies glass top tin and turned that into the jewelery box. I used my wonderful Tim Holtz alcohol inks on the lid to keep that sheer look and under the lid added the quote to some white Bazzill. For the base I took a scrap of some pretty blue fabric that I had and put it over a circle of cardboard and added some fluff and voila! A nice puffy base. The jewelery itself is really simple - just some eye hooks, glass beads and pearls, but being the first bit of jewelery I've ever made I really love the way they came out. Simple but sweet.


























Last but not least there is the item for all the girls. Being that whenever they have a problem or have something to celebrate they head into the kitchen for some cheesecake I couldn't very well leave that out! I made a set of cheesecake recipe cards. There are 5 recipes in all. There's a little bit of everything - you have your classic New York style, the no-bake cheesecake and even some yummy fruit ones!
















All of the pictures were taken by my awesome swap partner jloveg. This is what I received in return - she went all out!!

-super cute Rub Ons that are absolutely perfect for some scrapbook pages
-two lovely little fabric flower pins. The blue and yellow one reminds me of some pattern paper that I have.
-a blue and silver butterfly pendant - very Dorothy indeed! I think I have a silver chain that will hold it perfectly!
-3 clever magnetic bookmarks with the most perfect quotes on them! I've never seen that type of bookmark before but they'll definitely come in handy on the road!
-cheesecake!!!! in the form of very yummy looking earrings, a necklace and a key fob. I love that the necklace and key fob are whole cheesecakes and the earrings are little slices - so cute!
-there's a nod to Rose with some sweet little sheep stitch markers. I don't have any stitch markers at all so these with definitely come in handy!! I can't wait to try them out! I'm going to have to make a cute little drawstring bag to hold them in my needle roll so i don't loose them.
-a Dorothy paper weight with the quote "How come whenever my ship comes in it's leaking?" A perfect Dorothy quote- love it!!
-last but not leastly two bags, both different styles- one paisley and one with big, lovely, pink flowers. Paisley is one of my favorite prints, and it's funny because the fabric used on the lining is the same fabric that I used a while back to make a Regency Era gown! The bag with the flowers will be PERFECT to carry crochet/knitting projects.

Thank you jlove g for making this such a great swap.

Swap, Swappy, Swap, Swap. The 1950s and Jane Austen

I've been kind of obsessed with Craftster swaps lately. Not really sure why.

In January I did a 1950s swap. I had a WONDERFUL partner and she made some amazing things for me. Maybe that's why I'm so hyped up on swaps right now - she got me into a great crafting groove!

So, without further ado, here is the package that I received from perlabella!














A 50s Corvette cozy. I keep my cell in it since i have a terrible habit of dropping it. :-P



















Since I've become so domestic since moving in with Bri I got a lovely green potholder. I like to use it when I bake. ;)


























I absolutely love this decoupaged box. It came to me holding a fantastic little beginners embroidery kit but since the color of the wood and all the red in it matches my kitchen perfectly I've turned it into a recipe box.














This might be my favorite item - the embroidered roller girl!!! Isn't she perfect? I just love it!

This was the package that I sent to her. :)




























She's a big Lauren Bacall / Humphrey Bogart fan so I when I found this stencil of Lauren Bacall I knew it was perfect.






















I LOVED working on this. The pic just doesn't do it justice. It's three 4x4 canvases, each with a pic of a pretty pin up. I edged each pic with a mix of black acrylic paint and texture medium. Then, while that was setting I added some black, blue and green rhinestones. Lastly I added the chunky black ribbon to hold them all together and make them a wall hanging.














Here is a teal and brown quilted sleeping mask (with matching bag- not pictured here) because really, what true 50s girl doesn't need her beauty sleep?
















This is a small wooden box colored with walnut ink and a gold shimmer walnut ink. The letters are MM rub ons. Inside the box was a set of Bogart/Bacall magnets. Each one is a shot of their romance on screen. :-) Super fun little project.


Now for Jane Austen. Here's what I sent:
This is a cameo wall hanging using a stucco texture medium. This picture is actually in its half finished phase, before I added embellishment around the edges and the ribbon to hang it from. I am an idiot and forgot to get a pic of it completely done, but this way you at least get an idea. Oh! And it's the supposed silhouette of Jane Austen.


Since I had seen that my partner makes Regency gowns I made a work apron so that the pretty frocks won't get dirty.


This is a wooden keepsake box with another famous pic of Miss Austen done by her sister Cassandra. Inside was a small drawstring bag holding two sets of glass marble magnets, one set for Persuasion and the other for Bride and Prejudice.