My ATC is done!

And already sent!

As usually, it was done at the last minute, even though I already knew what I would be making over a month. You might know, through my last post, that my inspiration was a winter drawing that I made. Although a few bits were still unclear (how I would be making the snow and the owls wings), I knew that I would be embroidering most of it, as I did in the end.

For the main bodies I used felt appliqué but to represent wings and feather I  did a simple backstitch for mummy owl wings, although with various threads. For baby owl I used satin stitch. I used a second appliqué for the owl's tummy, and again to give a sense of feathers I used feather stitch.

The owls eyes were really funny to make. Again, appliqué with some embroidering. For mummy owl I used French knot for both eyes, and back stitch for baby owl's eyes.

I decided to use seed stitch to represent snow. The tree was simplest to make, appliqué with running stitch.

I had to hurry a bit towards the end, 

but I still managed to do some embroidery on the back:

It’s already on its way…so now is a matter of learning how my swap partner feels about my little work!

 

Inspiration for my ATC

It's that time once again, time for a new ATC swap! I guess I will always be signing up for this swap hosted by Very Berry Handmade. I am always having such fun when preparing and making these little handmade fabric cards!

As I mentioned on my previous post this time around the theme is 'Winter Comforts', very appropriate for this cold (although not yet quite snowy around here...) January. 

The first time I read about this subject, I could only think about a drawing I made a few years (yes, few years already!) for my baby's nursery. This little drawing is part of a set of four drawings, that represent the different seasons. The Winter one, I think represents winter comforts quite well:

The tenderness of a mummy owl hugging a baby owl on a snowy day... Whats more comforting in winter time?

I still have to adapt and adjust this drawing to fit a small ATC,... This image, its just stuck in my mind for this theme. Even with all the other ideas I was having (and I was not the only one thinking about these!), an evening in front of a fireplace, warm cozy socks, a hot cup of of either cocoa or tea... None of the previous would work for me. So, the owls it is then!

Now its just a manner of working with materials I have.... Again I will use the basics, embroidery, apliques... Lets get to it, then!

I have to figure out how to represent snow .... The simple little balls won't go as well they did in the drawing, and I am not sure if a proper snowflake will do. And deciding about all the colours as well... And thinking about the little wings... Small apliques? So much to figure out!

And a little word of motivation.... Yes, I can do it! 

Just to show off my new projects note book! 

And what about you? What projects are you working on? 

January 2016 already?!?

Oh my, where did the time go?

I have been so very busy lately that I haven't post at all... 

If you follow any of my other accounts, I have showed glimpses of some of my latest makings... I started a couple of posts about them, but I just haven't finished those properly and so I have so many drafts posts on "to be published" waiting list...

I suppose this is normal, because December is always such a very busy month, meeting family and celebrating Christmas. And then, there's the gifting. This year I decided that most gifts for the younger members of my family and dear friends would be handmade. So the past month was all about softies and embroidery projects:

I will later on write a post about each project, the softies templates and embroidery stitches, at least my favourite ones.

I was also chosen to be the godmother of my nephew, who was christened in December as well, and so I made a very special project for his Christening day. And for the very first time, I tried machine embroidery (although I am not quite sure that could be called machine embroidery...)...

I tried to recreate the little angel featuring in the silver medallion, another of our christening gifts. It was quite difficult for me to do all the sharp turns and curves...

Along with all this little projects theres also what normally fills your day, your work, your regular house chores, and of course play time with DS! So literally, these days just flown by.

I am currently working on my ATC card. This is definitely a project that I have to finish quite soon, as it has to be posted this month. This is a very exciting project, with a lovely theme 'cozy'....! very appropriate for this cold season, where you just want to stay at home, by your fireplace, with a hot cup of hot chocolate  and warm socks...

I will be working on that project this weekend, so I hope to have a post about it soon.

My Monday Making: My ATC card is ready!

I finished my ATC!

It was a long work and since lately I found myself without any time to spare I was afraid that I wouldn't finish on time, but here it is completely finished and ready to be mailed:

I was inspired by Miro's painting Catalan Landscape. I absolutely love Miro's bold colour choices and his surrealistic vision.  I hope that my swap partner loves it too! Here are some more details:

Before I decided for this piece, I had some other choices:

But in the end I thought that this picture was looking more fun!

I will soon discover if my swap thought the same... 

What were you up this weekend?

I am linking up:

My Monday Making

I have a lot in my hands at the moment.... Besides the fact that I'm on my last stretch to complete my thesis, I keep adding up projects to make.... My DIY projects are actually a stress relief therapy, they are helping me keeping my sanity... And so nothing better than since I am swamped at work than to get creative... and work on some new projects.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I am taking part of Very Berry Handmade's ATC swap.  I already started to design my little card, which will be featuring part of a painting made by my favourite painter, Miro. Today I was sketching some possibilities, trying to figure out which part should be better featured... 

I have three sketches done at the moment, and I am not sure yet which one will be selected in the end.

But, and since today is Monday, most of the day was occupied by my little man, he was very much into puzzles today!

Which means that the sketching bit just happened late this evening...  Actually at the same time that I am writing this post...:

Which justifies the fact that the sketches are really poorly done. I also had some fun going through my embroidery thread stash and selecting some colour combos.

Again I will be embroidering bits of the little ATC, I think most of it will be embroidered actually, apart  some felt bits...  

But my ATC is not the only project that keeps my mind occupied. I am also thinking about recycling my Kitchen clock, the one featured in this blog post a while back. My current kitchen has a very slick look, very modern, and very very white. And so my colourful wall clock is definitely not the most wisest choice. So I am thinking about repainting the whole clock again! I will let you know how this goes.

And if this is not enough, I am also thinking about making some new wall art to my new living room. I am using this painting as inspiration. I absolutely love this colour scheme, and its exactly this colours that I want to have on my living room, very very much colourful and lively....

I must be going through a teal, hot pink, orange phase. I am always thinking about those colours!

I am linking up:

My Monday Making: Preparing for another ATC swap!

Little by little my routine resumes its normal self. I still have tons of reading to do,... and this reading list keeps piling up!

And this image does not include my pdf collection... nor today's articles... It's just a small percentage of my 'books to read' list. That were suppose to be read a long, long time ago...

But today as it is Monday it's all about my little one. I spent most of the Monday entertaining my little man, we played with Lego, we explored more of our little garden, played some music on his xylophone... 

And he helped me out with some house chores,... yes, he his a really good helper, spreading my laundry all over the garden when I was hanging the clothes out to dry! So, lots and lots of fun today!

However, even with all this excitement, a small corner of my mind was focusing on a little project, the next ATC swap. This time around the theme is 'My favourite...'. It is a perfect theme, as it opens to a multitude of choices.

I was inspired by a take of a fellow swaper, and so at the moment I am focusing on paint art done by one of my favourite artists, Miro:

From left-right, top-down:

Blue II, Blue III, The Gold of the Azure, Harlequin's Carnival

I have been to the Pompidou and was privileged enough as I've seen the Blue's paintings in person... These are massive and really impressive paintings, and seems to me a fun concept to do this is a tiny version as a ATC card. 

I am just not sure that I would do justice to any of these paintings with my still very amatouristic skills on both sewing and embroidery.... However the 'Gold of the Azure' is sure tempting me... I also love 'Harlequin's Carnival', and reproducing just a tiny scene of the painting is another alternative. One of the things I really love about these paintings are the bold colours, as I love the contrasts between these.... I have some fabrics leftovers on my crafts box, so is a matter of finding the perfect match and start it on!

Have a great week!

Hello!

So here I am again, still so very very busy, but trying to get back to my usual routine.

We moved to a new home, and we are still adjusting to our new place, and unpacking... Our living room is more of a packing room rather than an actual living room, filled with boxes with our belongings still needing to find their final place...

But we are so very happy with our new little home! We have a small backyard, which does need some work done, but it's a great place to our little one to run around.... And as always, I find myself already thinking about it's great potential ...  and minor projects! All this to my other's half despair, as usually some of the heavy work will fall into his shoulders. But, I can't wait to get my hands dirty and get gardening and planting! It's a lovely way to play with my little one too, and I find myself already imagining teaching him how how to plant, seed...!

We still have loads to do around our new home, mostly rearranging the furniture around until both of us are happy with the final look. However we did find some free time to explore our new surroundings:

We are living near a major urban park! This park occupies the margin of a river, and has some great views...!
We had lot's of fun watching swans, ducks.... It's a great place for our little one to run around and, as it has several playgrounds, theres a lot for him to explore.

As I have lotttssss of free time, also I have also decided to sign up for the 7th textile ATC hosted by the lovely Very Berry, and so I have to  think about a new little textile card... I will let you know how this goes, I already have a lot of ideas, and some inpired by this post! I am really excited about the opportunity to read all about how the other card swapers are going about this new swap. The possibilities are infinite!

Hope my next blog post won't take as long as this one to go live ....
oh, the joys of moving!

 

Home sweet Home ATC swap...!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I participated in the 6th ATC swap, hosted by the lovely Ali who blogs over Very Berry Handmade.

I was able to finish my card just in time to I post within the deadline... However, and how I explained, all the hurriness caused some slightly imperfections... However I am still very happy with it:

The whole process of creating this card was a learning curve... Next time I will remember to leave some larger margins... I was not able to stitch both parts together from the wrong side and turn it over, and the border that I ended up creating was stitched over some parts of my design...

And here it is...My very first ATC leaving the nest by mail...:

It reached its destination the following day, and my partner was happy with! So I was happy that she was happy with my little creation....

And since this is a swap after all.... On the very same day, even before I posted my ATC card, I received a small package on my mail box....:

With this little beauty inside:

These terraced houses aren´t the cutest? The colours of the ATC I was given even combines with my books that are displayed on the shelf... This little card was made by Jenny who blogs over at the Ginger Bread House.

I have to create more room in the shelf as I surely will be taking part of the next ATC swap!

 

 I am linking up with:

My ATC - Home sweet Home

 I was planning to have this done and over with a while ago, but with all my work and with my other half away this week my free time was shrunk to almost non-existence... So I have been using every single free second existent and non-existent to complete my card... Suffice to say that today I am still far from completing it... I still have to stitch the two halves of it, front and back together.

To get it as it is now, I had to bring it to work today to stitch it during my lunch break... Tonight I will be giving it the extra mile to post it in time tomorrow. Of course with all the hurriness I am inflicting on my little card, it is far from perfect and even further from my initial vision of it. Still looks cute I think!

The theme of this ATC swap is "Home sweet home".  My card´s concept is a story of a young family, mum dad a little baby (Not sure is the baby can be clearly understood though... the white and blue bits are suppose to be the blanket that involves the baby...) that is arriving to their new home. Home in this case has two meanings, as home, the built house, opening the doors to receive the new family... And most importantly home, as your family, home that could be anywhere and anything as long as the family is together...

Here are some pictures of my ATC as it is now...:

I loved the detail of the house´s doors, that can actually be opened! The little pink bow was a last minute idea, but adds some cuteness too... I was trying to have a sweet sweet card. I just hope that is not too childish...

I was able to finish tonight a handmade envelope where the ATC will be inserted. You can see bits of it in the picture below.

It is  a bit different from my original design:

I had to simplify bits of it, dropped the idea of the suitcase and the road... And added some bushes instead...

But the very final judgement will come from my swap partner. I do hope she enjoys it!

  

I linked up with:

 Did you enjoy my card? Stop by this post for the complete finished look...