Mixed Media Postcard Class

Something else I've been working on this month is making samples and kits for a class I taught last week--making Mixed Media Postcards--with an emphasis on sewing/quilting. We are using materials like cotton fabric, burlap, hand dyed silk, scrapbooking paper, painted papers, recycled papers, painted dryer sheets, painted batting, sheers, buttons, beads, painted paper towels, yarn, vintage ribbon....you name it! You should have seen the look on some of thier faces when I explained the painted dryer sheet and paper towel bit. It is so much fun to introduce people to new materials and a new way to view art materials. We had a blast in the class. Here are some of the cards I made as samples.

This one features a dyed paper towel leaf on decorator fabric and taffeta.


On my own silk hand dyed fabric.


Great focal fabric, on a gold and orange joss paper, and embellished with beads, ric-rac and vintage ribbon.


This flower and leaf were made from collaged paper fabric and other papers. Dragonfly brad.


Another fun focal fabric, with an African flare.


Dryer sheet leaves with beaded embellishments. I love the translucent effect of the leaves.

Fiber Arts Fiesta

Fiber Arts Fiesta was this weekend here in Albuquerque. It is a bi-annual show featuring all kinds of fiber media--quilting, spinning and weaving, doll making, lacemaking, mixed media and beadwork. It was a great show this year, with lots of vendors selling wonderful products and supplies--I bought a few things myself--I'll take some pics and post what I got later.

Anyway, I entered 3 quilts, one of which got 2nd place for Small Innovative art quilts, and I also received a 3rd place ribbon for one of my bead and wire chokers. I was really surprized!






I also taught a class on Friday afternoon for mixed media postcards. These were fabric based, but with a lot of non-fabric embellishments. The class was a whirlwind, but the ladies seemed to have fun. I made a bunch of kits up, and I have some extras, so I will post them on Etsy soon.

Happy Dancing Pig Postcard and More

I've been playing around with fabric postcards again. A friend of mine gave me this pink pig fabric, and it was just screaming to be made into a fabric postcard!


I had this cool giant bumblebee fabric too, and so I combined it with several of my hand dyed fabrics to make this postcard--I also hand stitched the little "bee tracks" and sewed on a little copper bee bead:


And on the jewelry track, I made some earrings out of my favorite hand carved bone skull beads--you might remember these from a Halloween charm swap I did last fall.


These earrings were made with little "Chinese Coin" charms. I hand coiled brass wire, and made a loop for the coins to thread through. Kind of fun, and they have a neat movement when you wear them.


What am I going to do with this stuff? I don't know, that's why I put it in my Etsy store.

More Valentine Postcards

I finished up a few more of my Valentine fabric postcards. After 10 years of having the same sewing machine, I finally sat down and figured out how to program some words to stitch, and stitched out "Be Mine" on some of the Valentines! A small step I know, but I am really not a tekkie, so I was proud of myself! I printed the backs onto salmon cardstock to compliment the cards, and found a cute heart font to write "Postcard" and "from my heart to yours" on the back of the card. Am I getting too sappy? Maybe, but I think they are cute. Gotta love that pink eyelash yarn on the edge too!

Valentine's Fabric Postcard

I made a batch of Valentine fabric postcards, using a variety of bright pink and orange fabrics. This is another projects where I cut the pieces into wavy strips--I am hooked on that I guess. I then appliqued each piece down using different stitches and variegated threads. I added the red accent fabric and heart. I sent a couple out already to my family, but I have a few extras, so I listed this one on my Etsy Store. I haven't been doing the fabric postcards lately, so it was fun to get back into it!