Slightly altered…..

If you remember in my last post I described a boutonnière that as to be offered in a swap? Well, I am still doing that but I have embellished it with some gold coloured seed beads.

I just thought it gave it another dimension, don’t you?

The wonder of swaps!

Still on the subject of the ‘Spring’ swap the ACEO created under my OAW banner was created in the encaustic medium or painting in wax.  Using my trusty travel iron and hot stylus for detail I imagined this stream running through some rocky crags with plants rearing their heads gingerly as Spring approached.

Firstly from Hemlock came this beauty.  She even used rocks (pebbles!) from her creek.  Very pretty!

I think this was a ‘first’ and hopefully, not the last.

Personally, I thought it was a wonderful way to introduce ACEOs to creators new to this format.  To some ACEOs can be very daunting; to have to work in such a small piece of art can be challenging when you are not used to it.  However, these two folk had never attempted this before and there were many who have realised what a fun and interesting size it is to work on!

PQ

Spring is in the air!

An Etsy team called Boomers and Beyond or BBEST for short, are having a new swap challenge this month is to create an ACEO with the theme entitled….. Spring! 

I love sitting back to see what comes out of the woodwork.  Truly inspirational pieces are being created in all manner of mediums.  The excitement is always that each person who contributed is given a name of their swapee but they do not know who will be sending them an ACEO.  To remind readers, an ACEO has only one rule.  That is, it has to measure 3.5” x 2.5”.  It can be created in any medium.  You will note there are glass based ones, fabric, painted ones.  The list is endless.

What did I create?  Well, under the name of Precious Quilts I decided to create an ACEO depicting Spring in the form of the sun shining down on some pretty flowers made with cute little buttons I had in my stash.  For the centres of the flowers I added some seed beads to enhance the image.

Oh yes!  I love butterflies and have one in my avatar  on Etsy so, of course, I had to include a pretty pink one to complete my picture composition!

Now, I urge you to follow this link to see the other ACEOs offered for the March BBEST swap.

Hard to choose my favourite and even harder is the waiting and wondering which ACEO I will be lucky enough to receive!

I was undecided so…..

A couple of posts ago I described a quiltie I had created for a swap group I belong to. Once I sat and thought about it, I looked hard again but decided that maybe I could do better!

So, I took some felt viscose from Sassalynne’s Shop on Etsy and used that as a base. Now taking various handmade papers I cut out rectangle shapes to place and sew. To finish I attached a vintage button from my MIL’s collection but placed some seed beads in its centre. For the reverse I simply took another piece of the felted viscose and zigzagged a border to keep it all together. And so, an Abstract Pink Rectangle Quiltie was born!

As its predecessor it measures 5” square. Hopefully this will look better than my Valentine quiltie. Regardless, it has now been posted so I had better stop trying to make my mind up and being so undecided!

December Quiltie

A group I belong to are having a quiltie swap this month.  Now a quiltie is a mini quilt measuring a square 5".  This could be framed or hung up on its own or simply placed in an album.

The theme for this month was A Winter Wonderland.  I decided it was far too cold to see outside so decided to stay indoors and peek through the kitchen windows with their red gingham curtains.

 

I hope my swap partner likes it!!!

Christmas comes but once a year - or does it?

The saying does say, Christmas comes but once a year! However, today Tuesday 7 October it was Christmas for me!! Our Postman could not believe it and wondered if it was my birthday?

Last month my favourite team, Boomers and Beyond Etsy Street Team (BBEST for short) had a swap. The theme as that of butterflies. The reason being that my avatar is that of a butterfly and I stood down last month from being the group's leader. With the team now 300 strong I decided that to continue on my own was taking up too much of my time. So, I have handed the leader's baton over to three lovely ladies, Chauncey, Sixsisters and Joonie. It was their idea to base the theme on my avie as a thank you! To make the swap even more interesting it was decided to put a twist at the end. That twist was revealed on the last day of the swap and meant everyone was told which member to send their swap to!

My lucky swap came from Dayna from Scottieacres in the form of a lovely mauve sweatshirt with an amazing decoration consisting of a Christmas tree collage adorned with different coloured butterflies along with colourful jewels with the tree being topped by a bright yellow star. An awful lot of work went into this gem! I have tried to take a close up photograph to show you all the lovely butterflies.

Thank you so much Dayna!!!!

The swap I made went to another member who I cannot name yet nor can I show you what it was - I will as soon as I know they have received it safely! Otherwise it won't be a secret or a surprise anymore so that will be another post.

Meanwhile, for me there was another twist! Our three new leaders chatted amongst themselves and decided to show their swaps at the last moment. However, their twist was that their items were not for swapping but were being sent as a gift to me!!!!!! That was such a generous idea and today I received not only Dayna's sweatshirt but also a wonderful plaque from Chaunce.

First of all Chaunce, apologies for the lowsy picture but this is gorgeous!!!!! At the top are the words... Thanks PQ. You're the bbest! Underneath a basket of beautiful hydrangeas with some butterflies hovering. It came with a very handy stand.

Thank you Chaunce!

Then I opened the next package! Again, the camera has not really done the painting proper justice. This most beautiful butterfly came from Six and will find itself being framed and hung on my wall.

Thank you Six!

Now I had to ask Terry to take a picture of me wearing and holding my wonderful pressies, didn't I! Hopefully the pressies will detract from my scruffy appearance, no make up, messy hair, yukky!!!

For good measure, and I know you will be able to laugh with me here.......

I asked Terry to take a picture of me holding my new treasures in our new shower!!! We haven't actually used it yet since we want to wait until the whole shower is totally complete before doing so. But I just couldn't resist a picture in the shower, so check this out and have a giggle!

I also received another present but I want to thank the sender before I mention anything about that in this blog post. Gosh, another post to look forward to!!!! The excitement must be overwhelming.

However, my team..... and especially those mentioned above... You are simply the BBEST!