Happy New Year to you all from all of us at The Felting and Fiber Studio.

Antje thought it would be fun if all of the cards from the card exchange could be brought together into one post. Some people have already posted about their cards and others have not. This way, you can see all the creativity in one post. There were 14 of us that decided to participate in the card exchange this year. Ann M. randomly chose partner’s names and we created a “card” that could be holiday themed but didn’t necessarily need to be.

Carlene and Ruth exchanged cards.

I have written about making the card for Carlene here.

Carlene explains about making my card here: In September and October, I collected some birch bark with the idea of trying to make something out of it.  I watched a number of videos on YouTube explaining how to collect and process birch bark.  I was particularly inspired by this video of Pat Kruse: Birch Bark Artist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84JyLNUDXz0).  In the video there were some amazing motifs that were cut out of birch bark and sewn into a picture.  So I decided to try a simple flower motif and sew the stacked pieces together.  I also opted to add a felt backing for additional support and to give me something to sew clips to the flowers.  This would allow the flowers to be used as hair adornments or clipped onto a lapel.  Sewing through the bark was not too bad, though I did end up with some tearing.  And the back of my pieces were not very neat.  But the fronts looked OK.  Sewing on the clips was harder than I expected. I also applied a thin layer of white glue to the front of the bark to create a clean and shiny surface on the finished flowers.  The next challenge was mailing them.  I clipped them to a post card and put them into a plastic container to protect them from getting destroyed by the postal service.  It was an interesting experiment and I look forward to collecting more birch bark next summer and trying to make something larger.  (Those YouTube videos show some amazing projects.  But you need a good supply of high quality bark for those.)

Leonor and Helene exchanged cards.

Leonor’s post about her knitted card for Helene is here. And Helene’s post is here.

Karen and Caterina exchanged cards.

Karen explained her process in making a card for Caterina here. Caterina is writing a post for early January but gave me a bit of information about her card:

Firstly, I wetfelted a bigger abstract piece of nuno felt, using an upcycled piece of silk and viscose fabric in winter colours, merino wool, merino prefelt and upcycled yarn. I cut it into the right size for my card, choosing a part that I liked and felt meaningful. I was thinking about an abstract landscape or mindscape in winter colours for my card cover or first page. I felt it would “open the conversation”, kind of state the setting and also be recognisable as sent by me, and so prepare for the ” friendship message” in the second page.

To compose my second or inner page, I printed and marked some upcycled fabrics in white and pale blue with dyeing inks in blues and black and greys. I cut some of the printed fabrics and composed a collage of fabrics on a dark grey fabric background (a sample furniture fabric) with a dahlia flower. I added a scrap of the silk fabric used for the nuno felting of the first page of my card, and hand stitched it all together with different types of stitches, aiming to encourage a suggestion of stylized flowers and snow. The stitches helped to define and enrich the abstract marks on fabric, and also to attach the fabrics together in a less apparent way. I used white french knots to suggest snow coming from clouds above (the silk fabric looked a bit like clouds to me.). My message was a friendly offering of flowers in a winter landscape symbolising the Christmas season.

Ann and Lindsay exchanged cards.

Ann explained her proces for her tree card here. Lindsay writes about her process:

Lisa and Capi exchanged cards.

Lisa explains about her Christmas tree card here:

I made my Christmas Card for Capi, based upon the old fashioned version of a boxed card. (The ones that were 3D, padded cards that came in a box).  It was decorated with little bells as the baubles, and some hand spun yarn for the garland. I inserted some fairy lights through the felt and put the controls under the snow, seen on  the first photo. The box frame can be opened from the front to access the light switch. It’s gone off to Capi, and I received hers yesterday.  I was blown away with Capi’s creation, put me to shame! But I hope she likes mine. Lisa reports that Capi based her card on her favorite scene from Hilton Head Island.

Jan and Marie exchanged cards.

Jan explained her process for the moose card here. Marie sent Jan a tree card:

My card was made from silk paper with some felted Christmas trees. The trees were machine stitched down, and I hand stitched some beads to one of the trees, and glued 2 small swarovski crystals to 2 trees and sequins to the rest (could not find my other crystals). The silk paper is in white, blue, wintery colours to indicate cold, snowy or frosty area. I have attempted to add a felted moon also. I attached the silk paper to some stiff art paper, and added a greeting on the back. I secured both with a close zigzag stitch around the outside edge.

Tesi and Antje exchanged cards.

Tesi talks about the card she made for Antje:

Leftover acrylic paint used for mark making on cotton fabric is what I used for the postcard background. Then I added collage elements that I had made for my L3 Stitch course monocratic color scheme. I used green mixed with black, white, and grey and then used stencils with my gelli plate to pull the prints. When I got all my collage pieces added, I put a light coating of Matte Medium over the top of it and let it dry overnight. Then I added some sturdy interfacing to the back, stitched a couple of lines through it, added some backing fabric to cover up the stitching and zigzagged around the edges.

Antje writes about Tesi’s card:

DESIGN – My thinking process is like percolated coffee….it has to filter through the layers, and usually involves a few doodles along the way!

So ‘Christmas trees with stars on their top’ was my starting point becoming….Individual star topped trees triangular in shape – But trees are not all the same shape! – What happens if they all lie down with tops and stars to the centre? – Mmm, looks like a cut tree trunk – A tree has years of growth rings – Mmm, rather like us, all individual, with years of experience/knowledge, together forming a tight group around a central interest….and the idea was born (and doodled)!

PRODUCTION – My exchange partner, Tesi, I knew was a whizz at quilting and that stuck in my mind, although I knew I would definitely not be quilting as such! Instead I gathered a variety of cream/neutral fabrics, many were small off-cuts or snippets (that I always save) which I layered with Bondaweb to a thin background fabric. After simplifying the design, I then cut various triangles and machine stitched them to a background fabric, to which I had attached an off-centre golden circle. Once attached I hand embroidered the growth rings.

RESULT – Togetherness.
Unfortunately, in my haste packing for a few days away, I only took a quick photo of the card and envelope (so the image is blurred).

I did however pack the same collection of fabrics and paper to create some smaller versions, balancing them on my lap! They currently remain WIPs….I was having too much fun!

I hope you have enjoyed all the cards from our talented and creative group. We wish you all the best in 2024 and hope you have a creative year!