crafty mcgee

Hurrah! Or, more crafting on the way

I haven't fallen off the planet yet! I'm working on a couple of Halloween-type projects (I know, it's only a week away), doing lots of knitting (more about that later), gardening (great weather), and to top it all off, works been really busy, so I've been needing more veg time in the evening. Good thing I thrive under pressure! But first of all, look what arrived in the mail today:

This stunning selection of bird ATCs from Kristen's swap. The artists from the top left are Michelle, non blogger Jaci (the rest of the set can be seen here), Mimi, Theresa, Dorie , and one from Kristen herself!  I couldn't be happier with them, they are all so beautiful! Thank you Kristen!

Knitting? Well I spent most of the weekend on a design project that I may be able to show in the future.  It was the first pattern I ever made myself. Yay for learning new things - it came out really well. Also, I am trying to knit a couple of sweaters and a hooded scarf in time from my Thanksgiving trip to New York City, so I can be both fashionable and warm. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, my brother's show, will have a float in the Macy's parade this year! So we are all going back to see it in person, and I'm hoping to hook up with some friends from school. Then we are going to PA to visit family (like my cousin Diane). I am so looking forward to this trip!

I also gocco'd up my Halloween cards. They didn't shrink for the blog so well, but they are my first registration prints ever! I cut a few them down into ATC-size pieces for Amy's swap. I am especially fond of the squirrel of doom in the second card. So you see why I haven't had time to post!

more cards, more experimentation

Kristin is hosting a bird-themed ATC swap. I decided that I really wanted my cards to look like old trading cards, so anything 3-D was out. I found some cute bird drawings I had saved from an old Martha Stewart magazine, copied some of them, printed them on watercolor paper and "painted" them with watercolor pencils. I scanned fabric for the background and pasted the birds on top in Photoshop. I then printed it out on 50% hemp/50% straw paper that has a heavy newsprint-like texture. It did some smooshy things to the colors, and they actually do look old! I hope the folks who receive them like them.

dia de los experimentos

I joined a Dia de los Muertos postcard swap, and wanted to do something a little (OK, a lot, I guess) different. I had this idea to print on some kind of open weave fabric to get a rough, see through effect. I nixed burlap (too heavy), and came up with the idea of using natural color cheesecloth. Here's a picture of it on top of muslin, which I used as a backing surface, and also printed some straight on in case I had to come up with a Plan B.

Of course, I used my gocco, but I had no idea if it would actually work. Then, I needed to print a slightly strange, but bright and Mexican-y picture for the cards. It was time for the printer to get into the experiment act. I printed on pink construction paper (too bright), card stock (too dark), and finally

 
yellow construction paper, which was just right. I stitched all the pieces together with some brightly colored koigu, and this is what I came up with. Roll your mouse over the picture to see how the detail pops out on the skeletons in lower light:

Kinda otherworldly....muy bueno!

secret identity

I got all of the printing done that I wanted to do this week. The piece on the bottom is some fabric I hand stamped for Moki's swap. I'm happy with the design, but the thin vinyl that I used had drastically unpredictable ink retention properties. As you can tell, some of it came out fine, and other spots faded away to nothing, all with the same ink application to the stamp itself. I like this technique, but I'll try to find something a bit more porous to use in the future.

The other items are some labels for my knitted items, and my fall calling cards that I use for swaps and such, both done with my trusty gocco. (This is the standby ribbon. The ribbon I bought special never showed up.) I thought this would be an appropriate post to talk about my "logo". It's been on my banner the last few times, it was on my spring/summer cards, and I use it for my Flickr badge. It's part of this image:

It comes from an old children's book compilation that I bought in England many years ago. Unfortunately, even though the artist's initials are on the drawing, their name is not listed anywhere that I can find. Too bad, because I'd love to give them credit. I use this picture because it reminds me of me when I was a kid.

Una capilla pequeña

Or One Small Shrine, as the swap is called in English. Lots of stuff in this little box pertaining to the person I made it for, but I'll just post about the knitting skeleton. It's shrinky dink, and it was hard! Actually, the arms came out fine the first try, but the main body of the skeleton would not uncurl like it was supposed to, and I ended up with many rolls of hard plastic. I finally ending up donning heat resistant gloves and flattening it out while it was still in the oven. I know that's not right! I did a couple of web searches, but it wasn't much help. Most of them said not to start with a piece that was too big, so maybe that was it, but it wasn't that big. Has anyone else had this problem? I've got a few more shrinky dink things I want to make, and don't want to go through this again.

a musical interlude

Geez, where did this week go? It's almost Friday, again. Crafting continues, but I thought it was time for another "meet your blogger" post. I usually don't do CD swaps at all, but for some reason I just couldn't resist a "12 Favorite Songs" swap. Maybe it was the instructions from the organizer to not let it be about how cool you are. Hey, I can manage that! I have lots more favorites than 12, but these are the ones I selected. The ones marked with a "+" are really my favorite songs, the others are songs I love, too. The straight type is what I sent along with the swap package, italics are additional blog commentary. The picture is from this book - a must see if you've got any interest in the 70's.

1. The Day Brings – Brad -  I chose this one to represent my home in the Pacific NW. Believe it or not, these guys were contemporaries of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. This is a lovely song, one I don't listen to often enough.
2. + I Want You Back – The Jackson 5 - Guaranteed to make me feel like a 10-year-old again. Also one of the greatest Motown songs ever. Even though Michael is my age, I thought of him as a baby. Always the rugged individualist, I liked Marlon the best. Poor Michael, he really was incredibly talented.
3. Getting Away With It – Electronic - With guys from Pet Shop Boys and New Order, it can cover my love of non-disco dance music. Bass and strings, what more can you ask for?
4. What You Want – The Roots - Gotta have some hip hop (and the Roots actually have something interesting to say, although this one isn't political)
5. + I’m Not In Love – 10cc THE song of my early adolescence, it still gives me chills. I heard bits of the remake that was popular a few years ago, what was the point of that?! It's the wall of sound effect that make this song amazing.
6. Night – Bruce Springsteen Since I grew up in a mill town in the east, there are lots of Boss songs on the list. This one covers a lot of areas. It has become clear to me over the years that Springsteen is actually looked upon as a joke by most people who grew up on the west coast. I used to greet the snorts of derision with sputtering explanations of how the Boss is the greatest live act EVER, a fine human being, and has done wonders for music in this country. Used to. Now I just shake my head in pity at all they've missed.
7. Boy Who Cried Wolf – Style Council - Reminds me of my art school and traveling days. The very best of blue-eyed soul. So smooth you could skate on it.
8. + Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants It speaks for itself! This is probably the most perfect song ever! A veritable paean to creativity.
9. Light & Day – The Polyphonic Spree -  It makes me feel happy, and represents the kind of music I’m currently into. As in big, and layered and unusual.
10. What A Wonderful World – Joey Ramone - A great version of a great song, and I had to have the punky 70’s in here somewhere. One critic thought that Joey was lampooning the classic Louis Armstrong version. He wasn't, not at all. The poor guy had cancer at the time and meant every word. He just needed to rock it!
11. Swamp – The Talking Heads  -  Lots of Heads songs on the list too, this one fit. This song used to freak me out, like David Lynch movies do. It's that kind of song, and sound.
12. Kaze Wo Atsumete – Happy Endings - Another one that just makes me smile, and one I would have never heard if not for my love of independent film (it’s the closing song in Lost in Translation). I can't wait to see Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola's new film! This song (and that movie) is another reason I'm trying to learn Japanese, crafting aside.

That's it! Have great weekend!

The blues, with some brown

The title is a fake, I don't have the blues at all, except colorwise. Here are the handmade items for this month's Brown and Blue Coloriffic Swap-o-rama. Brown and baby blue have been one of my favorite color combinations since I was a young teenager, when I had my first big hulking crush on a boy with brown hair and - you guessed it - baby blue eyes. It's still a combination that can make me all a-twitter. Back to the picture...in addition to the fab Denyse Schmidt fabric, my swappee will receive a summer ensemble made from this sweet Knitty pattern for her Blythe doll; a stuffed bird made from a pattern in this highly recommended book; and a painted Altoid tin decorated with one of my own drawings. But wait, there's more! It can all be seen here. It was tough for me to give most of this stuff up - hope she likes it.

the real post for today

Here's the final version - both sides - of the card for Moki's recipe card swap. A total of 6 carvings! As you can see, I was definitely challenged by the carved text, but at least its legible.  I had originally intended to run the cards through my printer after they were stamped, but that way seemed fraught with peril on many levels. So, I thought I'd give my gocco a shot at it, knowing full well that I may have sacrificed one of my precious screens to try to print the tiny type. But it worked like a charm! Skinny 8-point type as clear as can be. The gocco is invincible! I'm really looking forward to receiving my ten, I'll post them when I get them.

Family time, and a cowbunny

OK, the cowbunny first, 'cause I'm sure you're wondering:

 

The back-tack package for me, from Michelle at greetingarts. All of the wonderful stuff in this picture. I especially love the embroidered buttons (the R on the right is the tail), and the yo-yo hat. I had just added "white embroidery floss" to my shopping list on the morning this arrived - and got to cross it off again!

It was an excellent mail day - these arrived in the post the same day from my cousin Diane. Now, she has never been especially artsy before, but now she's making dolls, selling her drawings on ebay, and even has a blog! Go Di! I bought the blond girl because it looked like her (yes, we have one blue-eyed blond in our dark curly-haired family), and she sent me the tomato fairy as an extra. I'm amazed! The little dolly in the close-up is my favorite. I'm so happy to have found her again! Not that she was ever really lost - I've always known exactly were she was - but you know how cousins can drift apart...but not anymore! Di actually found me through my sister-in-law Lauren, who is part two of the family corner. Fans of Lauren's "Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls" (some of which can be seen here, here, here, and here will be very happy to know that she's gone into production with the dolls, and has also started a blog called The Solar Sisterhood to document the process! Anyway, Di saw Lauren's blog, knew who she was, and asked Lauren to contact me and my branch of the family. The internet sure can be great!

Black & White & Pink All Over

Thanks to Back-tack, too, it was a month of black and white and... This time, the third color was pink. Here are the things I made for the June Coloriffic Swap-o-rama:

Oddly enough, partner for this one is also named Robyn. Her favorite season is summer, so I made a set of gocco'd beach girl stationery. My son thinks the black envelopes with the pink printing are weird, but I like them!

The flower image was on Robyn's favorites page, so I contacted the photographer - who has a very nice blog - and she graciously gave her permission to let me use it. Thanks, Posy! I sprayed an old Almond Roca tin with enamel, painted the top with tiny little paintbrush dots, and added the flowers. Here's the final thing, also vintage-inspired:

A little emboidered letter. I was going to make a small pillow, but decided to leave it to Robyn to choose what to do with it. If you're curious, you can see all of the items I sent here.