Relief?

I don't usually do this; Put something very personal on here but I need an outlet and my normal channels are all clogged with their own grief.

My cousin died yesterday. My Uncle's youngest child, many moons younger than I, passed away. I know my Uncle and Aunt are devastated. I imagine I would be too if it were my child.

I do not feel the hollow lose I expected to feel at his going. He has been suffering several months from an inoperable tumor in his brain. I only feel relief. I can only imagine how he felt trapped in his own head unable to communicate or move for these last few weeks. I remember a vibrant person full of jokes and high on life. I am glad I did not see him after that nasty growth took hold.

Good-bye dear cousin. Be at peace and enjoy a much better place.

In my shell again

I seem to have hidden in my shell again. Neither creating nor communicating. (in my shell)

I want out, I want to be inspired, I want to share. I don't know.

Am going to share this with my group and in doing so will force myself to communicate and once it is gone I will have to get creative again. Looks like a winner to me.

New idea

I see so many of the swappers complaining that the 9 pockets are too much to do. I found a fantastic video on YouTube by Little Hot Tamale. She calls them Mini Pocket Letters and they only use 3 pockets each time. I made up a couple.

2 pockets were filled with ATCs while the 3rd is a shaker pocket with cutouts, sequins, glitter and glass micro beads.

Because this was for a different group I didn't make ATCs, but used pretty paper front and back. It still had the shaker pocket.

And while I was on my butterfly kick I made some pretty envelopes from paste paper and stamped die cuts.

This is her video

Well it's not purple but....

I tend to make one-of-a-kind items. Even those based on the same instructions or dimensions have their own personalities. So here is another stationery folder and its contents. You can see the right pocket is deeper while the left became a corner strap. This one took only 2 sheets of 12 x 12 card stock.

She says she likes blue and cats.

New arrival

Babs arrived yesterday. The gnomes had set up watch for the Postman so they were there to greet her. They seemed very impressed with her shoes and spent the next hour or so arguing about gnome footwear (none) versus human footwear.

She will visit for about a week then travel on to some other swapper. During that time I need to take pictures to document her visit. Those pictures will later be e-mailed to the originator.

"Flat Me"

I started a new project through Swap Bot. We each created a "Flat Me" which we will send out to someone in the swap who in turn will send to someone else until "Flat Me" has made the rounds of everyone in the swap and will be sent back to me.

This is "Flat Me" meeting the gnomes.

Both Soren and Wally admire "Flat Me's" passport 

and she in return admires Wally's hat.

The whole idea is for each swapper to take each "Flat Me" out and about to photograph their visit.

Back to creating

                                                                       

I know you have not heard from me lately. I've been on a non creative bent but at 3 AM this morning that changed. For about 2 hrs. I worked on this furiously. Basically it is three sheets of 12 x 12 card stock. (with better planning I might have used just 2) The stationery and envelopes are leftovers from my daughter's Zumba® tickets. I still need to add a small envelope to the left insides for seals and stamps tuck into the almost invisible slot in the left pocket. I am so pleased with the results that I am off to make more. I have a purple paper in mind that is perfect for this.                                                                                                        

New look to an old favorite

Recently I joined a swap called 9 Little Pockets - Build Your Stash.
I love these sort of swaps because it helps shift things around. I get things I never had and get rid of things I have too much of.
While creating this I realized that if I made my standard Washi tape sample it would bulk up the pocket too much so I ended up making the whole page a Washi sample. After filling each pocket with an assortment of items for my partner to use on a future swap I wrapped Washi around the whole thing. Some tapes keep things in the pockets and others are just there for her to use. She gets an "18 sample and I know my pockets will not spill out in transit. I think it turned out rather cute. Hope my partner does too.

Inchies

I made my 1st and last Inchies. Tiny little works of questionable "art" only 1 inch square. I hated making them after I found out how hard it was to keep them perfectly square and 1 inch, hence these being my 1st and last.

Layers of paper, paper lace, threads and  tulle stitched together and embellished with  micro beads. I did add a Swarovski Crystal to each before sending them out to their new home.



Perhaps it is the color, or the ragged edges of the tulle or some other unperceived flaw but they just do not Feel good to me. I don't usually send out something I don't like but I was in a time crunch. I hope the person receiving these loves them more than I do.

New beginnings

It has been a while since I posted anything here. I have been doing swaps and other creative things but nothing so creative as my son and daughter-in-law. They gave me a Granddaughter on Feb 1st. She is beautiful, but since my son does not want her plastered all over the internet I decided to share just this one edited photo of her.

Here is Claire peeping in on the world.

I hope to be able to share other accomplishments as she masters them but until then just be sure that there is a beautiful young lady out there taking her first look at this old world. I hope to be around to see all her firsts.

Let it Snow

I have been working on this pocket letter for some time. Just could not seem to get it right. I am wondering if this had any influence on the weather we have been having and are about to get.

If I thought that, I would get to work on something featuring balmy days and cool nights.

I love snow as long as I do not have to get out in it. Silly huh? Well a lot of people do so I am by no means a minority in thinking that way.

Here is the semi final pocket letter that gave me so much trouble.

Pretty paper, rubber stamps and stickers. Very simple but I do like the end product.

Snow...finally

Well we woke up to snow and blistering cold on Sunday. The weather reporters kept harping and harping about it being so much warmer than it was supposed to be so now we get the cold. Why can't they just keep their mouths shut and enjoy nice temperatures when we have them?

Ah well there is always going to be someone who is not satisfied with the weather.

It did give me the boost I needed to get back to my swapping. Made 2 postcards

but then the darn mailman didn't bother to come up to the house to take them today. I will try again tomorrow and then I am making a formal complaint. I cannot run to the post office every time I want to send out mail.

Gotta go get warmed up now. The basement is too cold.