Bookmark Exchange and Father's Day Presents

The bookmark exchange from the NeedlesnCrafts group came in from Paul Lionel (Malaysia).

Paul crocheted book thongs for me. They can stretch and fit deep into the spine.  The green one is a sprout that sprouts out of the book. The hand-drawn sakura flowers postcard is also intended as a bookmark!

My girl, Joey, just learned to crochet after I showed her some basic stitches.  After just a few small practice pieces, she crocheted this round motif for Kristine who mounted it on a 20 cm diameter ring. Kristine just love dream catchers.

Joey's next project was this crocheted monkey. She did everything herself without any guidance. Not bad for a beginner, right?  Her handmade Father's Day gift.  He is 15 cm tall.

Kristine went into baking mode again and baked a red velvet cake for papa.  Don't tell her, but it looked better than it tasted.

Mini Books and Tatted Bookmarks for Exchanges

I did a paper bag mini album swap in March with Shallale Figaro.  The mail took a whole month to arrive from Mexico

Shallale used very small brown paper bags of about 2" × 2.5" and bound them together with a ring from a keychain and another metal ring.

I did mine with envelopes instead - folded in half and altered the opening. About 4.5" × 4.5".

Tatted Sem's name on paperclips for his last day  of work in the office in Feb.

Designed another tatted name, this time on a bookmark.  In fact, both bookmarks are newly designed and tatted for Diane Merlock (USA) for the NeedlesnCrafts 2016 Bookmark Exchange.

Di Magical Bloom and Heart You.

Collages and April ATC Session @Bishan Library

Paper Traders had an index card (size 3"x 5") swap in March and we were introduced to Adam Hale's Daily Splice, where he take images from London's free magazines out of context and splice them together.  Very interesting.

 

My first 2 pieces sent to Pam Colosimo (Canada) and Debra Claxton (USA) - Biketacular and Timeless Yoga.

Received the swap back from Mel Dunkley and Beckie Holso (Bloom Where You're Planted).

I did more to show the April ATC session. From top left hand corner - another piece of Biketacular, Read A Face, Behind The Look, Wokaventure, Mr Rock Well.

Compass Travel,  Inside Me,  Hooked On,  I Sewed My First Dress.

Everyone attempted during the session to come up with some awesome cards.

Traded for the ATC done by Jessica Chua and Selina Yeoh.

Appreciating Little Pieces of Works

Swaps are moving slow and recently taking a long time to arrive - 1 returned to sender (me) after 5 weeks and another took more than 2 months to come!  Still waiting for another 2, hope they will eventually arrive.

First the Chinese New Year ATC swap organised by MaryAnn. I can't thank the artists properly as I couldn't quite made out the hand-written names... MaryAnn, Janis Graham and ?

Then there was the Bowl of Hearts swap by the Surface Design group. The hearts as done by (top left going clockwise) Aynsley McKay, Carole Hanson, Cathy Vigor and Jan Lewis. Aynsley's heart was needle-felted by hand; Carole's heart coloured by transperse dyes; Cathy's heart was nuno felting and Jan's heart was coloured with numerous methods including Pebro Setacolors and acid reduction dyes.

Here's the jointed ATC doll from (left) Eileen Kiban (USA) and (right) Linda Edkins Wyatt (USA).  Linda's doll took 2 plus months to reach me, but definitely worth the wait. Isn't it amazing how big the doll can get and it still rotate back to the size of a ATC!

Still waiting for the replacement ATC doll from Linda after we thought the original one went astray. 

I did some spring tags and binded 4 in accordion fold to form a tag book. A set each went to Mel Dunkley (UK) and Nikki Smith (USA), who is also the host of this swap. I made good use of the CNY red packets! And I added butterflies cut from aluminum drink cans. They were sharp and kept curling up and I did get some small cuts on my hands.

Received this from Beckie. So different from my style, soothing earth tones with a good mix of sharper colours and a tight flow in and between the tags. 

Pam C's tag book is still somewhere out there, hope it  turn up soon. 

A little while ago, Holly asked about my tatted alphabets/words. Actually I started many years ago with wires. And I recently did a name in wire, so here it is, a gift for my ex-colleague.

A Bit of Everything for March and April Swaps

I sent this lot to Debbie House (USA) for the Inchies-onexone March and April swaps.

March swaps included 4 Purrfect (Cat) inchies and 4 Analogous Twinchies with spring time theme.  The cats are stamped on and placed over thread ends all knotted together and wrapped over the whole inchie, while the twinchies are done with die-cut.  The following are a duplicate set of all the swaps for my own collection.

April swaps included a set of 4 inchies of pastel watercolour background with tatted butterflies, 4 inchies stamped and embossed, 2 Moos, 2 thrinchies, and 2 ATCs.  I cut and folded some flowers on 1 of the Moos and folded a pair of butterflies for the other - turned out very Japanese-looking because of the papers!

I did more of the movable ATCs after the March ATC session in Bisahn Library.  For the "Up and Away" ATC on the left in the photo below, pull the bottom string to move the balloons up the sky and pull the top string to bring the balloons down.

For the Bookmark exchange on the NEEDLESnCRAFTS group, I received 2 very lovely cross-stitched bookmarks and a tag from Margaret Wong (Malaysia). Margaret has matched the colour and theme of the  backing fabric, tassel and gift to go along with the bookmarks and tag.  Cross-stitch is something I couldn't do well, so they are extra precious to me, thank you, Margaret!

Kristine did another flower arrangement in school, this scored 86 out of 100.  I like the colour combination.