ad libitum

A FEW MORE INCHIES

Sometimes I have bits of time to work on my fabric inchies I'm currently trying to make 100 white ones. I'm half way there. Here are a few.

INCHIES AND TWINCHIES

Often, when I'm in a bit of an artistic slump, I find it useful to make component parts (see previous posts on stamp carving and paper painting). It makes me feel productive; and, I know I'll use them later (often "as is," sometimes with modifications). That said - I've been working on fabric inchies (one inch squares) and twinchies (two inch squares). I have some scraps from my cutter quilts that seemed perfect for turning into twinchies and inchies.

I cut out several squares and I am slowly working on embellishing them.

Here are the twinchies that I have embellished.

And, below are the inchies.

THE SWAPS ARE/WILL BE IN THE MAIL

I often swear off doing swaps; and then, someone suggests something intriguing and I sign up again. I have sent off a Spring matchbox to Terry for a one-to-one exchange (will post pictures when I hear she got it) and I have two swaps ready to pack up and mail (currently waiting on the windowwasher to do my outside windows, so this may not get done until tomorrow). And, I have one house shaped banner and one filled matchbox to go. It may be time to take another break.

Here are my charms for one swap. They are molded polymer faces in bottle caps, embellished with beads and then wire wrapped.

These are inchies for an inchie swap. I used a one inch paper punch to punch out some of my favorite textured paper and then adhered beads (definite bead them going on in these two swaps) with Diamond Glaze and then edged the inchies with a brown marker.

I think this means I'm currently on schedule with my swaps, but I better go check the list again.

SECOND DIGITAL JOURNAL LESSON AND FOURTH INCHIE

I had a busy day today. It started out with an interesting self-discovery. After geting Snow Leopard installed on my desktop, I mistakenly believed that I had lost a year's worth of work; I was aggrevated until I couldn't find last year's photos, then I cried. I had no idea how attached I was to my photos until I thought they were missing (they were hiding, but not deleted). They are back where they belong (sort of - I have a learning curve ahead of me with iPhoto11).

So, after having everything found/restored by Brittney, my computer guru, I spent this evening working on the second lesson from Marie Otero's Journal Magic class , which I am posting below and posting my inchie for Every Inchie Monday, also below.

The theme for this week's inchie is "maudlin." I used a [much reduced] photo of a cemetery statue for the primary image of my inchie.

For my journal page, I decided to focus on bird images.

I still have a lot of organizing to do with the spiffy new computer system, but it should be a happy task now that I know things are hidden, but not lost. It's sometimes surprising how dependent I am on my computer and all the treasures that I have stored on it.

 

EVERY INCHIE MONDAY - CARING

Today's word is "caring."

I made this inchie by cutting out a piece of fabric paper (using  Beryl Taylor's technique  of gluing a cocktail napkin and tissue paper to muslin) and sewing a heart shaped polymer button to it. I've been making a lot of heartshaped polymer buttons for some valentine projects.

INCHIE MONDAY

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See my sidebar for a link to the Inchie blog and details about this  event. The
word for this week's inchie is "eclectic." I made this  digitally. I set the
file at a square inch and imported photos of a  temple in Egypt, a statue of
Buddha, a mannequin head from a store in  Washington D.C., and a rusted tin
drawer. Then I printed it out on photo  paper, cut it out and stitched around
it. The stitching proved to be  the hardest part. The tiny stitches tended to
cut the paper; so I had to  redo it all with bigger stitches.