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Holiday Card Exchange

Holiday Card Exchange

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Each year on the forum, we have a holiday card exchange. It’s always lots of fun to see all the different cards created and to receive one in the mail. If you’d like to see other cards, you can see them here. Make sure to scroll down and then look at all the pages in this thread to see the ones posted so far. 

I was getting a bit concerned about the card that I sent to Janet in Canada. I sent it out on November 4th and she didn’t receive it until November 27th. That is one of the reasons that we have people send their cards early so it has more time to arrive safely during the busy holiday season. But at last, she got it! So now I can tell you how I made the card.

Here’s the layout. I used a piece of white prefelt for the background and then added short fiber merino in blue green for the sky. I left patches very thin to make it look more snowy. I used “white” mixed 56’s for the snow but it wasn’t very white so I added a bit of white cashmere fiber that I have been saving. It was very white. Then I added silk noil to create a more snow like effect on the ground and in the sky. Finally over top of this, I added white prefelt tree trunks. I started with only one layer of prefelt but decided to add another layer over the trunks in the sky section as I felt that the blue green was going to bleed through too much.

Here it is after felting. I liked how the tree trunks overlapped on the top so I left them for awhile.

Next up was to add a little free motion machine stitching. I used an off white thread to give a slight shadow and more texture on the trunks. It’s kind of hard to see here but you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Then I added a dark grey thread to give the characteristic birch tree look. I don’t use black for this because it feels much too stark. I think the grey looks more natural. Then I had to decide whether to crop or leave it as is. I finally decided on the cropping because it was just slightly too big to fit on my 5″ x 7″ card. I trimmed it up with a rotary cutter and attached it to a greeting card to send to Janet.

So here it is. I do think it looks very wintery which was the goal. I am going to have to make some more of these to sell as small art pieces.

And this is the wonderful card that I received from Janet. This is Janet’s first attempt at making a fiber/felt card and didn’t she do an awesome job? Thanks Janet for this beautiful card.

Past Holiday Efforts – Fourth Quarter Challenge

Past Holiday Efforts – Fourth Quarter Challenge

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Annie and Lyn recently posted the Fourth Quarter Challenge. I thought I would take a look at what holiday decorations and cards I had created in the past. It’s always easy for me to forget about pieces I have created so it’s nice to walk down memory lane and I thought I would share what I found.

Here’s a set of cards that I made in 2017 for the Holiday Card exchange that we have on the forum. I used some samples that I had made for the Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination online class.

This is the card that I made last year.

And another card made in 2018.

 

 

Here’s the 2016 cards that I created.

And these are a few different ornaments that I created over the years.

In 2013, I stitched a bunch of these bowls to give to people filled with candy.

I just found another card from 2016. I’m not sure why I made so many different cards that year.

And just for fun, here I am with Deb and Nanci at Christmas Stroll at The Purple Pomegranate.

We did make some Ukraninan eggs one year (not exactly fiber but still holiday!)

And another just for fun photo of me as a baby by the tree.

Here’s a basket I made as a Christmas gift. I’m not much of a weaver but it turned out OK.

And I thought you might like to see a bit of winter decoration from Mother Nature.

That was a fun trip down memory lane. Now I need to get started on this year’s holiday card. If you would like to join in the forum’s Holiday Card Exchange, sign up here.

Or, if you have some holiday creations that you’d like to share, you can post them here.

 

Batik on Paper

Batik on Paper

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My local art group met in December and we created artwork on paper using batik techniques. Batik uses wax to apply the design and then the piece is dyed in multiple layers. Usually this is done on fabric. We were trying an idea we had seen in Cloth, Paper, Scissors to apply the wax to paper with tjanting tools and then paint with ink.

Here is everyone getting started.

And a little closer look. We all did a variety of designs.

This is where Paula was setting up some ink to paint her designs. I didn’t get any photos after that because I got too involved in the process. I was working on some small Christmas designs so I would have some cards to give people. When I was creating them, I decided they would have to be like ugly Christmas sweaters because they were pretty ugly. The tjanting tool I was using was quite large and the wax came out very quickly so the details were lost. And I was pretty messy with the wax. After the wax dries on the paper, the ink is applied. Once the ink dries, the paper is placed between newsprint and ironed to remove the wax. We used soy wax so it melts easily and at a lower temperature than beeswax.

And here are the results after ironing and cropping. I used the type of cards that the design fits into a small frame except for one tree which I didn’t want to trim down. I actually like the ones that look more abstract where the detail was lost. And they weren’t as ugly as I thought they were going to be. I have used them all up and perhaps, I will try this again to make more cards. It was a fairly quick process.

Do you make your own holiday cards? We’d love to see if you do. You can share them over on our free forum.

 

Snowflake Holiday Cards

Snowflake Holiday Cards

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Every year we have a card exchange on the Felting and Fiber Studio forum. Whoever wants to participate signs up, we choose partners and those partners exchange a hand made card. This year I had two partners as we had an odd number of people, so I made two cards. I like to do more of a winter card rather than a specific holiday card. So this year’s card was all about snow and snowflakes.

 

I started with a piece of felt that I had stamped with the spiral stamp shown above and then drawn on with thickened dye. I attempted to over dye the felt but it wouldn’t take any more dye. The photo on the left shows the back side of this piece of felt. (I forgot to take a photo before I fused the sheer fabric on the front.) I decided that I would stitch snowflakes over the stamped spirals with the lines in between stitched to look like frost or jagged ice. But the color wasn’t too good so I looked in my stash and found some sheer fabric in blues and purples that already had fusible on the back.

So I fused the sheer fabric down. I have started the free motion machine stitching in the photo above. I found the easiest way to stitch the snowflakes  was to get the 6 or 12 radiating lines down first and then add the rest of the structure. You can see that the one on the left that didn’t have the radiating lines turned out really wonky. But this didn’t really matter as it will be covered in the next step. This piece of felt is big enough for two cards so it will be cut down to size in a later step.

Here’s the piece after I stitched all the snowflakes. I was a little sad to cover these up. They do show through but not really giving you the full scope of the stitching.

Then I found some more small bits of sheer fabric that I added over the stitching to give more color.

This is hard to see but there is a very sheer, shiny “fabric” that I stamped with acrylic paint. I am not sure what this fabric is, it looks a little like Lutradur but is more shiny and more open “weave” than the other Lutradur I have. I can’t remember where I got it. That is why I need to use stuff up. It’s bad when you have no idea what the stuff is, where you got it or what it’s original use was. So use stuff up!

I then fused the top layer over the variety of colored sheers and then cut the cards down to size. I machine stitched around the printed snowflake for the top layer and then zig zag stitched around the edges of the card.

I only had brown card blanks and I didn’t like the look of the snowflakes against the brown background. So I used two of my numerous colored papers that worked with the colors in the pieces. I glued the fabric card down to the paper and then fused the paper to the card blanks. I mailed these two cards off to Ann and Diane. Hopefully, they will like them. Unfortunately, there is a postal strike in Canada and it may be a while before the cards arrive.

Do you make your own cards? We’d love to hear about it over on the forum if you do!

 

Happy Holidays from All of Us at The Felting and Fiber Studio

Happy Holidays from All of Us at The Felting and Fiber Studio

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Here’s wishing all of you, (no matter what part of the world, or what holiday you prefer to celebrate), a wonderful holiday season. I find it hard to believe that we are already through 2017 and on to 2018. Time really seems to speed up at the end of the year for me.

Earlier this month, I showed you the beginnings of these three cards. I picked the card on the left to send to Tracey for our forum holiday card exchange. It’s been machine stitched and then I painted the berries. I did the same with the center card and I painted those berries too but somehow forgot to take a photo before I sent it off to my mom. And the last one is hand stitched. I actually liked how they all turned out and Tracey was very kind in her comments about the one which she received.

This is the card that I received from Tracey. Isn’t it beautiful? It looks like my neck of the woods and we probably have at least that much snow or more. The cabin looks so warm and cozy all lit up for the holidays. Thanks Tracey, I love it!

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I have had a busy year in 2017. I thought I would show you a slideshow of some of the pieces I have created. I am also taking Level 3 Art and Design at the Gail Harker Creative Studies Center.  I don’t post very much about that here but if you’d like to see what I do for that class, you can follow my personal blog here. I am halfway through the class and having a wonderful time with that.

It’s cold and snowy here, the temperature was three degrees F when hubby took Symphony for a walk. She started out on the leash, here she is when she got back!

Thanks for visiting us throughout the year, we appreciate all of our followers and would love to hear from more of you. Please leave us a comment if you have the time. Or if you have an idea of what we should post about, we’d love to hear your thoughts. All the best from The Felting and Fiber Studio!

 

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