Happy Solstice!!!

My swapping buddy made me these cute little foam sunshine faces! I just had to turn one of them into a Summer Solstice wand! They are so cheerful! I'll bring this one up to Koke'e tomorrow to celebrate the Solstice with some pals!

Happy Summer Solstice!

It's so Charming!

I don't know why, but lately I've been making charms! At first I thought I'd put the charms, all hand made, on a charm bracelet. But some of these charms are getting too large! Go figure! Anyway, I decided that when we get settled in our new home, I'll put a chain around the edge of our home altar & hang all these charms on it! Now just something else to do with that bracelet!

The shell on the left is a paua shell. I used a hand drill that my DH made me...it took over 700 cranks to carefully make that hole! I found out the hard way that if you go too fast or hard, it chips! Ack! Slow & steady. Didn't make many of these. Only one other for my swap buddy. She also got one like the one in the upper right.

The middle one is made with one of fabric beads I made. I guess it wasn't embellished enough, so I had to turn it into a sunny charm! On the reverse of the silver sun is the moon. These all have been a fun break...and a different use of my wrists!

Swaps! Not to be forgotten!!!

OK...finally got some pics of swaps with my neighbor pal!!! These first 2 pics were from swaps a few weeks back...these are what she swapped to me!! Gotta love those little "Round Tuit" pieces! And the lovely little cane pieces. May have to use one of them on a new WIP!

This is this week's swap! We do whatever we feel like, so this week she made me these 2 sparkly ATCs! They are more magic in person! Gotta love glitter, but it can be hard to photograph for me!

And since I'm doing this certain WIP, I made her the 2 charms you can see below:

Kept 2 for myself for my WIP!

Swap Time

My pal was a little behind on swaps, so I got 4 inchies this time! Now we're both caught up on those at least! :) I may drill holes in these to put on a charm bracelet. Or....

Happy Earth Day!

So what do artists do on Earth day when their DH's are in the garden? Well, this one went out to the garden, got a couple different leaves, & made leaf prints for the swap with my pal. You can see them above.

Here's a couple close ups:

I found out that cucumber leaves are very fuzzy on the undersides!

Makes a very different kind of print!

And finally, Earth Day wishes on the back!

Hope you all had a wonderful Earth day!

More Mini Tags!

For our swap this week I added tags to the mini book we started. For these I tried to use just near complementary colors. I used ink and colored pencil. And I attached string like you'd use for a balloon or a kite this time of year! :)

ATCs & Swap

So for my swap this week, I made some totem animal ATCs. Gave a couple to my pal, & kept the rest. It's always is nice to have some extra hanging around.

Here's a couple close ups...recycled catalog images, stamped images, feathers, artificial sinew, some turquoise nuggets, etc. Ended up with 11 total...until she got her 2! I'll have to check to see which ones she chose! :)

ATC Swap

My pal & I continue to swap twice a month...and I forgot to post this one! It was the one before the mini tag book. Ah, well. Just some cute fabric fused onto interfacing, beaded, embellished, backed & buttonhole stitched all around. Makes for nice little ATCs. Actually got the idea from another pal who is a fabric artist. So many fun things to do in this world!

Mini Tag Book

So my pal & I have still been doing our bi-monthly swapping. This time I decided to make some mini tag books...or at least get 'em started. We can add more to them as we want to. We usually make 2 items for each of us. One to keep & one to give away. This time I made 2 tags in each mini book to get it started. I wanted these to be positive little books for whoever gets them!

Holiday swap with my pal!

We kept up our swaps until the holidays overwhelmed us! Here's the 4 ATCs (Artist Trading Cards for those who don't know) I made for our bi-monthly exchange. Not sure if you can see in the first picture, but at the top left is another ATC I worked on using some black stock my pal gave me. I like how it looked with the colored pencils.

But I also liked my little watercolor snowpeople! They are all unique just like we are! And yes, the mountains on 2 islands in Hawaii do get snow! Haven't ever seen a real snowperson here yet tho'! However, there are ALOT of inflatable ones!

Bi-monthly swaps

Just finished a journal swap with a pal here in the neighborhood. We decided we wanted to continue, but do something else. So we made a list of things we "could" do, & then we choose to do 3 or 4 to swap...one for each of us, & one or two to give away. My pal made me some beaded "inchies", and I gave her some small watercolor cards. But something's wrong with my camera & I keep getting a smudge mark or two in my pics. Sometimes I can crop 'em out, but not in this one. So if you see something that looks smudged in future posts, that's why!

Beaded Face Swap!

Well, we just finished the Beaded Face Pin Swap! You can see all the entries here.

I received one of bobbi kirk's beautiful pins! She's like one of the Queens of beaded pins! I was so excited! It's just beautiful! I emailed her to ask if I could share it on my blog & she said yes! So here it is! You can also see her other work on her website, or on her blog! She's an incredible artist! I'm so glad I did this swap!!

Beaded Face Swap

Boy, I've wanted to be in Sassy Art Goddess's Beaded Face Swap for a couple years now & finally figured out how to do it this year. I know. I'm slow! :) Anyway, she finally listed this years pieces here so you can check out mine & everyone else's. There's some great pieces. (Timaree! You're right next to me!)
Since it was around Halloween time that this happens, I decided to use a glow in the dark face that I molded. Here's a close-up of the beaded piece.

Here I tried to get a pic of it glowing in the dark! :( NOT a great pic, but in person it's more fun!

And here's the final piece...as you can tell, I hope, the face is 'sposed to look like a moon with a bat shape behind it! :) I added a backing and sent it on. Now I just get to wait for my swap pin to arrive!! I wonder which it will be!

End of Journal Swap

Been doing a journal swap with a pal for over a year! We are just finishing up the last page this month. So I wanted to show some of the pages that I've done in hers & mine. They sure got fat!!!

This was a happy page I did in my journal:

This was a Dottie Doll I made for my pal's journal. We had to keep her on the front. Apparently she complained about being inside a book!

Ya know those free Tibetan paper prayer flags you get in the mail? Well, this is how I used them!

This was a stamp I made from an old Roman coin. The owl is our family totem. The metal piece says "Believe". I know the owl gives me wisdom from learning about it's ways.

This is a popsicle, moveable, just fun page! My journal was mostly themed about Joy; my pal's was mostly about Spirit. All the same, no? ;)

This one I did when I was a little down & trying to cheer myself up!

This was just another fun one! :)

This spread I did to show that darkness cannot hide light! There's a candle in the pocket with the words hidden under the Divine page.

This one was about Fear and Faith...Oneness and Duality...and my sometimes difficulty in understanding.

There's alot more pages I haven't even photographed yet, so I'll add those at another time. Not sure what my pal & I will do after this, but I do know it will be fun!!!

Face Pin Swap

Here's a face pin I'm working on for a swap...it's a swap I've wanted to do for 2 years & finally managed to figure it all out! Now I just have to get it done & mailed! You can read about it here & also see the previous years' pins! Lots of talent out there!

Swaps Galore

OK...so some other things I've been involved in are swaps. All kinds of different swaps. Here's just a few that I've recently finished, or am almost finished.
First, my pal Jo and I, just finished an almost 2 year journal swap...hey, we like to take our time! :)
Here's a pic of my finished journal:

Then I did an ATC swap with my pal Azlina in Malaysia. Her country's flower is the hibiscus, & it's our state flower. It's the first time I beaded on a preprinted fabric instead of one of my own photos:

And 3 of us are just finishing up a Bendi doll swap! This is what they looked like when they started awhile back. I wonder what they'll look like when they're all done?! Mine is the middle one. I tinted her using bogolan fini...a mud cloth technique from Africa.