ATC for 6 degrees

I made this little ATC for Lani's lesson  "looking for angels" over on 6 Degrees of Creativity on Ning. Lani asked us to make a portable piece of art (like an atc) with a "Duchenne smile."  This is a picture of my grandmother sitting in a field of daisies which was taken over a hundred years ago.

 (She is about 16 in the picture, and she passed away around age 60, roughly 60 years ago.)
The flowers were a gift from a swap I did recently, I put some stones in them and touched them up with glossy accents. Around the card is ball chain.  The banner reads "love begins with a smile" which is my spin on a quote from Mother Theresas,"Peace begins with a smile."

Botanical matchbox swap received!

I just got tons of art mail in the past two days.. Last one to post today will be this matvchbox from deedee for our botanical matchbox swap.
its quite lovely, and it came with some tiny extra flowers and beads.

Swaps received!~

Got this cool pin from Charlene C. It looks like metal up there on top but feels like maybe its friendly plastic. the charms hanging below are really interesting!

This pin came from Ruth Daily. love this Cat! I think it is shrinky dink fabric.. and to the left of that she also sent a zentangle type of  atc.. very nice!

this pin came from Gina in England... It has a lot of texture on it and possibly some melted plastic? she also sent along a bunch of other goodies you can see some in the picture.

I also got this one from Joy. this is like a collage with various textures, and has a shine to it from the materials.

This was a great swap!

Valentine goody box

So, I am in this Valentine goody swap, I am surprising myself that I am doing this since I am still waiting on my Christmas goody swap box too show up. The person said she mailed it... late.. but that was Jan 6th. I do like to beleive it will be here any moment and I am going to be so delighted.
I have not had much luck with swaps lately, between the Christmas goody box not showing up, and the christmas matchbox boxes, one no show, one came long after Christmas (but it was lovely).
Not in such a good mood either, still hurting from my injury last fall.

Hmm not very impresive in the photo either. It has little legs and antique sides. the top velcros close. those flowers (lol) they do not look so dreary to me in person!

So, as too keep busy I am doing this...  So far I have used a large matchbox I began altering during the holdiays, did a few... I also decorated a little notebook to go in it, ... but it dosn't fit! I made some clips for the notebook too.  trying to come up with some other ideas to put in it.. got some fun stuff from the dollar store (self inflating balloon, erasers) and some candy. Anyhooo... blah blah blah.. here is the picture..
think I will have to do more to this box.... no rest for the weary.  oh, and here is the book...

                                                                             I may be doing this over again too. I am trying to find out if I can cleanly cut one of these tiny notebooks in half. If so, will re-do.. would love it to fit in the box. Also, it is was coordinating.., but it sure as heck does not look like it does from these pictures!

Steam punk pins finished

So I did them all over, I did these on dominos instead. I got these dominos on ebay, colored them with alcohol inks, edged them with a gold krylon marker, and used tiny compasses, ball chain, clock parts (sky blue pink, ebay, holtz), small gems, and glued them all on with glossy accents. I like how the tiny clock hands look like a tiny pair of scissors.. hee hee.
Simplier lines and more appropriate for the swap folk. I still like the other ones quite a bit, but I fear I may be alone in those feelings. I think these definately look much better in person.
take a look at these.. I made 5, two without gems, 3 for the swap.

Steampunk! (Unfinished)

I am trying to put together some pins for a swap. I was thinking when you go steam punk it tends to get larger, and with the "bulk" it would be a good idea to put the pin on a ribbon or chain of some sort... who wears pins anyway? So, that was my excuse for going bigger. These are all under 2 inches though, but they look huge in this picture.  I used covers from remote starters I picked up at the materials warehouse for a song awhile back. (They would take anything to get me to stop singing and leave the store)  I painted them silver, and I am glad to finnally use some of them!

                                                (LOL those are my feet  on the floor below!)

The other parts are charms, washers and chain from the hardware store, found objects, old jewelery, couple of clock faces I glued on using glossy accents. I don't think a single piece is finished yet, everyone of them could use a sprocket and a nice backing.... still just playing around.

a puzzle piece.. yes a puzzle piece.

I did this one on a Holtz fragment. It has a paper back (so far). I like it cause its shines and it looks better than in this picture. The little gold things are some wire I twirled

This is the back side of one.. I put some tiger print fur (I have tons left over from covering my ottoman) on the back of some, love how it looks cat like from the back!

Ok.. this is one of those pictures that you can't upright no matter how hard you try, tilt your head to the left, the top is on the left side, I used twigs from my yard wrapped with wire, washers, chain and sea beads, so its a sea-steampunk. I can see here the chain is off its mark, perhaps when I fix it I can re-photo it and it will be in the right direction.

I hate buying sprocets or any other thing I should be able to find for free. Perhaps I should have married a watch maker. Donations happily accepted anyway :) I tried making my own sprockets using shrinky dink and Holtz gear molds, did not attach any yet. The tiny sprocket is the right size but it looks a bit plastic. (Of course that is largely due to my shrinking it in hot Utee).

Botanical Matchbox swap

I have been working on a few little art projects while I am recovering from an injury. This one is for an upcoming swap over on Millande. It is a botanical matchbox .. I made a little tag book to go inside from brown kraft paper with a tag punch.
On each page is one word which in total says "take time to smell the flowers." I made one for myself (as I have learned to do). Sometimes people don't follow up with their end of the swap, like the last one I did.   So here is mine..

I made the little butterflies using a picture off google images and covered it with glossby acccents, when dry I pinched it a bit so it had some body. The lovely green paper was from a matchbox swap I just got from Australia... if I can find a picture of that one I will post.. it was very inspiring.

If you can't tell the flower in the box is supposed to be sprouting from the ground.. hence the beads (seeds) and root (hemp cord) below it.

OK.. I am back to edit. I changed the insides,made the flower prettier (they are yellow and pink now with a spangle) and changed the tail to curly wire with a spangle and one bead...of course this is like the 4th time I have changed the tail. . I like it better, take a look.