Two More Tip-In with a Twist Pages

It would seem that lately I've been so busy trying to catch up on all my swaps so much so that I haven't even had time to post them. I'm not sure at all when that happened but it must be a good thing.

With only one more partner left to swap with after these two pages I feel a sense of relief that this wonderful swap is finally coming to a close. Unbelievably this swap started back in October with a new partner every 2 weeks. I know I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I signed up but I really feel that this experience has opened my eyes to some really great possibilities in my art. It was actually through this swap that the big-eyed bird was born This partner had expressed a rather fond rememberance of a bee instance from her childhood and loved bees for it. Weeelllll, who am I to not do a bee page for her? As soon as I saw that this particular idea popped into my head. The execution of said picture from my head proved a little more difficult than I had imagined it to be but after everything was said and done I am more than pleased with the results.

The opening that the bee is going into is actually cut out and you can see his little head poking through the opening on the back side.

See?

Of course these bees are truly getting their "buzz" on...

My next partner stated that she liked the birds I do and loved colors...hehe, another lightbulb lit up over my head and this page was born. The birds are actually cut out and the little wings fold up and the backsides are painted just like the front for a truly 3-D effect.
Hehe, the worm.

I was a little worried that he might come across as way too cartoon-y but I think he's great.

I've been finding that when I use a scrapbook type paper for the background it's much easier for me to do my illustartion on a seperate piece of cardstock, cut out the figure and then glue it on.

I do wonder if I'm making more work for myself than necessary but I can't seem to help it. It's been working for me and I'm almost afraid to change.

Creative Life 4x4 Chunky pages

Another bird page you say! Someone somewhere is really tiring of the big eyed bird I'm sure but he sure is an easy staple to go to when he's needed and for the most part not many people are as familiar with him at ATC's 4 All which is where these pages are being swapped. I really do hope the recipients like him as much as I do.
I really do need to stretch my wings so to speak and see what else I have up my sleeves. Surely there is something besides birds up there...

I also neglected to take care to keep that 1/4" space at the left clear of "stuff". Eh, dress me up but can't take me anywhere *tsk tsk*
I had fun with my fibers on this one for his feathers and all the other elements save his legs are all paper except the one odd watch part.I enjoyed playing with all the colors and did manage, this time, to make one extra to keep. He is blue as well.

I would have liked to keep the yellow guy but the one I'm keeping had diificulties with that 1/4" edge more than the others so it will be the one that stays here.

I do like how the random words showed up for me and seem to fit the scheme of things. It was very much not planned.

Another Chunky 4x4 Page

This page I made early on and decided I couldn't part with it so have been holding on to it. I finally decided I needed to release him out into the world but I couldn't have picked a better home for him than the one he went to.

I made him with more construction site finds. Copper wire bits for his legs/feet, wood laminate pieces for his wings, a metal "thing" I was told later that is used in the installation of A/C ducts and is just a punch-out and a plastic gear from the inside of a mechanical white-out machine thingie (hehe) that I just could not resist!

Wow! This is my scan of the page and below is the picture that my partner took. I may have to re-think how wonderful I assumed that my scanner was, hmmm...This is the back side and is an old photo from my beat up old 1954 LIFE magazine. I've used the heck out of that magazine but it's still got lots of "LIFE" left, badda da!
I can hear the collective groan from here so I'll stop, hehe.
I finally carved me a "babbetto" stamp so now I can just stamp my name around on stuff. Granted it looks like I hurriedly carved it as I did but I rather like it si it will do for now.

This is the wonderful page my partner sent to me and I LOVE it! How freaking cool is this?!

Oliva is apparently a brand of cigars that her husband doesn't like much but she sacrificed the band for this wonderful crown and I just adore her taggie necklace and wand and especially the way she attached the tab on the side with brads and using a ticket stub.

Huh, and I thought I was being clever cutting mine out. Funny how we both had the same idea and approached it from completely opposite directions.

The back of the page is as wondeful as the front especially as she used a rat as a familiar for my muse. I just love everything about this.

I'm thinking it must be rather apparent how much I like this piece as it's the first art piece I've put on this blog that wasn't something that I had done. I'm also thinking that provided no one I trade with has a problem with it I might would like to start adding the wonderful artwork I get in return on a swap. Yeah, I'm liking that idea!

One more Chunky 4x4 Page

And seeing as how I had the same partner with this swap as the tip-in with a twist swap I figured she must need another bird so here he is. More found items form the construction site. The wire I used for his legs and the material I used for his body. Can you guess what it is?



I'll wait...





Got it yet?





It's those chewing gum bubbles that you push on one side to pop out the gum. It made it a little more difficult to scan because of its dimension but I loved the way it came out.

The words inside the bubbles says, "The early bird chooses his guests" Hehe...

The words around his wing are simply Fly fly Fly in the ransom letters she said she liked so much.

The backside with some more of that pretty scrap book store paper. I love this pattern.

I also carved a stamp for myself with my user name so I can use it on these pages. It also fits the size of an ATC...yay!

A new Tip-In with a Twist Journal Page

*sigh*


Was I supposed to have this much fun doing one of these and especially, is it even considered a tip-in at this point? I could not help myself. It started off innocently enough with the background and I loved the color combination. Then of course after jealously drooling all over everyone else's sewing (by machine) I decided I would do some of that. First problem is that I own 4 sewing machines and the second problem, I can't get any of them to actually work.





Sewing by hand it is!


The gridded pocket was just the piece of paper I used under the painted grid piece I used on my other chunky pages and I kept it, liking the way it looked. The 4 inchie represents my partners 4th re-birth year after having cancer issues. The 'A' on a stick was serendipity as it was the only stencil of mine I could locate and her user name starts with an A.



Check out all those uneven stitches. Hehe, I tried to zig zag the stitches. HAHA, that was funny! I should at the very least, have tried them on a scrap piece first. I do like the way them came out regardless.
Here is the page/pocket without all the "stuff". The feathers are attached as is the egg.



Here is the bird with his wings unfolded. I like his little pear shape.
Hehe, I knew I saved those little Hagen Daz sticks for a reason!And the back side. I can't help myself around the lime green. It is one of my favorite colors!

A New ATC Card

I was asked to join in on a swap on Illustrated ATC's awhile back as a way to basically drag lurkers out of hiding and get them more involved in the swap process. I had been a member for awhile but was so busy elsewhere to join in on any swaps and hey, let's face it, intimidated as all get out by the sheer talent those people posses. Scary talent.

At any rate I was paired up with a woman in Canada who does some amazing watercolors and she had available a card I much admired so we arranged a swap. Of course I have nothing available as everything I do is actually for something. I never have on hand cards available to swap for people to choose from. I need to seriously fix that!

She went through my Flick'r photos and picked a couple of things she said she liked and this is the card I came up with for her.

I hope she likes it.

I really liked painting the stripes on the background.

I may have to do more stripe-y backgrounds.

A few more Inchies

We had an inchie swap on Craftster.org but I didn't get to swap inchies with some of my favorite inchie artist' so I've been asking them to do a little side swap with me so I can procur an additional couple of sets of extremely awesome inchies. These inchies are what I did for our exchange.

The first inchie in this group is an actual assortment of tiny little watch parts. I really love tiny little watch parts. I don't know what it is about gears that fascinates me so. The second inchie says 'date' yeah I guess I'm in that kind of mood *chuckle* HA! I see I left off the bumblebees little legs! I wonder if my partner will notice *nuts*

She also said she like the little green birds and she loves heart type things. I never knew I would one day draw a human heart so small and color it in. Huh...



My second partner is a big afficionado of birds and had laid claim to almost all the birds I did in my very first inchie outing so I did a number of birds for her. As well as the psycho little king she loved. HA! This bumblebee has his knees! Yes, I'm a dork!