"Fibres" postcards

It was a nice day today for post - as well as several blocks from a scrap swap I'm in, I also got this postcard, which is for a swap called "Fibres" with the yahoo group Fibre Artists International - it's my first card from this swap (and indeed, this group) and it prompted me to go do my cards for the swap (posting date of the end of Feb, so I'm not really late). I love what Marie has done with this one - great idea to fray the fabric in different amounts on the different sides.

I also received this Dear Jane ornament from my friend Cathi in Ireland - I took part in her pay it forward swap a while back and this is the promised item. It's not as pale as it looks in the photo (the background is a natural calico) - I promise all my photos will be better in the spring and summer - trying to get good colour indoors in the British winter is a real challenge!

And yesterday, I got another squishie in the post - this is a "silk paper" postcard from Susan - and again, in asking her to send me one, I have to promise to send a piece of my artwork to the first five people who respond (and who agree to make a similar promise on their blog). So, here I am, offering again. If you would like a piece of my artwork - this is most likely to be a postcard, probably from the series of snowflake/flowers I am working on at the moment (see yesterday's blog entry) and are willing to offer on your blog to send a piece of your work (it can be anything) , please leave a comment and I'll send you a card, once they are finished! If more than five people respond, I'm sure we can work something out - but it might be a different postcard series, is all.

I'm afraid the photo doesn't show the background - the silk paper - to best effect, but if you are interested in the technique, Susan has a tutorial on her blog. Check it out!

And here's a photo of the "fibres" cards I made for the swap I mentioned above. I only made 5 (this includes one for myself) as that was how many pieces of interfacing I had cut (lame excuse, I know) - and for a change, I did variations on a theme, as you can tell. I have a LOT of fibres, in different colours - I probably could have done 4 or 5 more colours of cards - black certainly, neutral/gold, orange, red, brown, maybe more. But I decided that 5 was enough - and as it happened, it was exactly the number I had time to do this afternoon. One thing I did with these cards that I've never done before is do a finished edge with the fabric folded underneath on both back and front (I usually just satin stitch, but I am trying variations, like with the lace-edged Valentine's cards). Anyway, I like all five of them, and will have a hard time deciding which one to send to myself (though I'm leaning towards the olive green one at the moment).