My Art: Artist's Trading Cards - Sewing Related

In my art, I sometimes combine two of my favorite hobbies, which are sewing/quilting and paper crafts. 

Today, I will show you my Artist's Trading Card, or ATCs for short. These cards are the size of a playing card or sports trading card. They are always traded and never sold. They can be made of any material. I have used paper, fabric and metal to make mine.

The following are my sewing-related ATCs. Keep in mind that I have scanned them in, and since some are three dimensional, they might be somewhat fuzzy in their appearance, but you'll get the idea. For all of these, I started with a scanned picture of the front of a sewing pattern. Most are from the 50s and 60s. Some of these started out fuzzy due to the production of the patterns at the time they were made. So, here they are:

The heart brad and the veil to the hat was added to the picture.

Perhaps for pregnancy??? Something that would not be blatant in the 50s/60s.

This is my favorite.

I will show you some others next time showing a wider variety of subject matters that I have dealt with. I hope you enjoyed these.

From buttons to thread ...and everything in between...

Bariatric Surgery - Yikes!

Bariatric Surgery   5/29   10 AM !!!

I'm having Bariatric surgery today. I am having what is called a Roux-en-Y, which is a gastric bypass surgery. When all is said and done, I will have a tiny pouch of a stomach (about the size of a walnut) and will have to eat far less than I have been. It's just one more tool I will use to take care of myself. My hope is that my blood pressure will come back to normal, my insulin levels will come down and my arthritic knees will feel a little better once they have less weight on them. I should feel better and have more energy.


I have set up a few posts for while I'm recuperating, then I'll be back. I'll be showing off some of my art. I hope you enjoy it.

Send some positive energy my way, and wish me luck!

Fonda

From this weight to that ... and everything in between...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #10

Today's finds take us to the Fancy Flea II, so I guess we could call today's post Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds at the Fancy Flea II. How's that for alliteration!?! My college education was not for naught!

Anyway... Here's what we found:

10 mullions.

We plan to use these on the walls of our bedroom to create a design. We'll see how they turn out. It will be awhile.

Domed plate.

 I suspect these two pieces were married at one time. One reason is the price going from $18 down to $5, and another reason being that the theme of the etching is not carried into the dome. It's good enough for me, though. I'll find something to put under the dome!

McCoy planters.

 Isn't the color gorgeous on these two planters!?! I want to use them in the living room, so you might see them when I reveal the completed living room. I am worried about the cats knocking them over, though. I'll have to find a good and sturdy place to display them against the pink living room!

Modern round two-tiered table with glass top.

 When we first saw this table, we loved it. I can't remember the exact price, but I think it was way over the amount we were willing to spend. Something tells me it was over $100. We thought about it and kept it in mind. On this visit, it was in the large out building where reduced items go to die. I just needed to say that, because I'm not sure what the purpose is of this building. All I can say is that it wasn't in with the regular booths. So, on this visit, it was marked down to, I think, $60. We were happy to see it, so we scarfed it up and put it in the car. When we got it home, it didn't work as I had intended. It was too tall to be a coffee table, so it may work in a different role. I still have time to decide.

On this day, we also went to what I call the Red Barn. Although we pass it frequently, I couldn't tell you the name of it. It's on Main Street in Shallotte, NC. We found lots of goodies.

In the forefront are sewing supplies, a small creamer with forget-me-knot flowers on it, red crochet thread, a darning egg, a pattern, tassels, a bird book, a knife, a box of utility knife blades and a plastic bag full of various kinds of clothespins.

 I love the little creamer. I think I'll be putting it our guest room with little flowers in it.

In the back left are these candle holders with a clip so they will stay upright on a tree, although I would not recommend lighting them!

My friend, Donna of Distressed Donna Downhome, told me what these are, and I forgot!

 Here's what they are like: The metal parts have some writing on them. They seem to have started out round and flat, then they were rolled up with one end being wider than the other. In the narrower end, there is a decorative rope. From what Donna had told me, I am thinking that these ropes were longer and were hanging from something. They intrigued me. That's why I have them. If anyone could tell me what these are, I'd appreciate it!

Where I show off:
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #316
Share Your Cup #291  

From McCoy to mullions ...and everything in between...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #9

Today, we're off to Leland, NC. We used to live in Leland, but now we only visit when we need to do something in Wilmington, NC. It's on the way. On this day, we hit the Leland Habitat for Humanity ReStore, The Hope Chest (raising funds to assist victims of domestic violence) and CIS (Communities in Schools) Thrift.

These are the items we found at the ReStore:

We always find books to bring home.

Misc. findings.

In case you can't make them out, we picked up some small white plastic baskets, some white-on-white fabric, Avery stickers, small cow bells for crafts and a package of brad punctuation marks.

A multi gadget knife.

A lawn edger that works great.

And, we put some of it in here!

Next are the items we purchased at The Hope Chest. We like to support them in the work they do to help victims of domestic violence. They have a few stores in our area, so we visit them when we can.

A book for Katie, a natural sponge, snowman garland, a wreath of bells, red yarn and red pompoms.

Katie decided she needed this sponge for her biology class room. I was hoping to use it to texture paint! This is larger than my hand!

"Rusted" metal snowflake garland, up close.

A test tube vase.

The following we found at CIS thrift:

 

The glass was broken, and we had an extra piece of glass at home.
 

For Katie.

I'm not sure why we purchased this Madonna. We usually are drawn to plain white AND without a baby. What were we thinking? Maybe Katie remembers?

A rubber stamp.

Older tinsel garland, for crafts.

There are several CIS thrifts stores near our neighborhood, too.

Well, that concludes our trip to Leland. For a tiny town, it has these three thrift stores plus a furniture consignment store.

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Where I am showing off:
Share Your Cup #290 
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #315
Vintage Charm Party #134  
Talk of the Town #124 

From ankle weights to tinsel garland...and everything in between...

My Art: Greeting Cards

It's time again to show how talented we are. This week, I'm going to share some greeting cards Katie and I have made.

In our craft space, we sit across from each other at the table and work on our own projects. We start with a clean table, and after we've created awhile, it is one big mess. It's so bad that we are using only a square foot of space to work in, if that! Luckily, we work in waves, and finally one of us calls for the table to be cleaned up. Then we work until it's a mess again.

These cards were created some time ago. I haven't scanned in our cards for awhile, so I might just have to do that again before we use them!

As I was looking back at these, I noticed that I spent more time making my cards. There were more details and more components. I need to challenge myself to do more!

This first batch is Katie's cards:

Katie does have a sense of humor.

The rest are mine:

Quilt card

Criss-cross card

Flip-flop card

My sense of humor is showing.

To create the cards, we used card stock, decorative paper, rubber stamps, ink pads, chalk, embossing powder, ribbon, buttons and other embellishments.

Katie and I enjoy creating and sending cards. When my mom was writing, we would keep her supplied with cards. Katie's dad sends out cards we have made for Christmas.

While we enjoy making cards, we would love to make some money from doing so. It seems that people will shell out $4 or more for a Hallmark card, but they don't want to pay that much for a handmade one. Think about this, and if you have the opportunity to buy handmade, do it!

Showing off at:
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #314 
Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 231
Vintage Charm Party #133  
Talk of the Town 123 

From ALLSTARS to Ostrich races...and everything in between...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #8

This is my fabulous finds NUMBER EIGHT. Fonda fun fact: Eight is my favorite number. I don't know why exactly. It could be that it's the number of the earliest house I remember. 8 Summit Court. It was a short street with a cul-de-sac — back then, they called them courts. There were probably less than 10 houses, from what I can remember. From that house, I went to preschool, kindergarten, first and part of second grade. 8. It's also the lowest house number I've ever had. 8. It's a round-y number. 8. It's my birth month. August. Those are all good reasons to claim 8 as my favorite number.

Now...on with the finds...

All of these were found at my friendly neighborhood Family Thrift. These were from the first trip:

Hat, book, glass shaker, picture, glass serving dish and V-shaped embellishments.

Close-up of the Kokopelli earrings.

Black wooden box - closed.

Open. It's a jewelry box!

 

Planter.

This is from the second trip:

Tinsel garland, half-shade night light and Katie's books.

 And, these are from the third trip:

This shows everything: books, coffee, tinsel garland, white ribbon, leather tri-fold wallet, leaf-shaped serving tray, ceramic gelatin mold, bag of Christmas-y stuff that I purchased for the star.

Here are some close-ups:

Mostly children's books.

New tinsel garland, white ribbon and tri-fold wallet.

Leaves serving tray that feels like wood, but Katie says it's plastic.

Either it's a gelatin mold or something purely decorative to hang on the wall.

I bought this for the star on top.

Showing off at:
Share Your Style #168 
Vintage Charm Party #131 
Talk of the Town #121 
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #313 

From books to birds...and everything in between...

Thank you for stopping by!