1900s, sheers, bits & blogversary draw (again)

Someday I will learn to take decent digital photos - maybe. Anyway, what we have here is two sets of postcards. The ones that look black aren't - they are actually a kind of dark green shot through with red - from the Colourshott fabric range. I know those fabrics don't photograph well, as I have tried to show them before with no luck. Anyway. Those cards are from a series called 1900's and are my attempt at an Art Nouveau look - I was having a hard time thinking of something to represent the 1900's (the decade). They aren't finished yet - there will be a layer of sheer fabric over top and some stitching and possibly some other bits, depending on time and what the cards want when I get that far. Luckily I had some fabric with great Art Nouveau images on it, which I'd bought on sale ages ago and had knocking around. As one does. There's still tons of it left, so I really must work out what to do with it...

And the other set of stuff is the sheers swap - the big piece I showed a few days ago has now been cut into postcard sized pieces, some gorgeous Oliver Twist yarns which Karol Ann gave me a while back were couched on top, some little fabric stars added, which were then painted with Jacquard Lumiere metallic paint, and lastly, I'll be adding some French knots to them before edging them (the closeup of the single card, although a terrible colour shows the knots a bit - again I am using a strand from the Oliver Twist pack).

And this photo shows some bits I bought today - stopped into the local department store to hit the haberdashery department for more interfacing (this seems to be the only place I can get the stuff I like to use inside postcards, which is fine, as it's convenient) - and of course, I had to trawl through the sale bin. All the bits pictured were on sale for £1 or less, except the gold two-tone skeleton leaves, which I think were £1.50. I have since used all the stars up on the sheer postcards - there were 9 postcards and 18 stars - it was obviously a sign!

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment already for my blogversary draw (posted yesterday) - so far, I have Peggy in Quebec, TottyJo, Kate P (aka "the other Kate"), Jane, Barbara B (aka zizzybob), Karol Ann (who nearly always comments anyway, bless her), Liz (who has told me her favourite cards, but not her blog or email, so I hope she keeps reading, in case she wins), and Annie (who actually commented in the space of time I was blogging this entry - how's that for current!). Apologies ladies for not responding to all your comments personally this time - I do try where possible, but today I'm just going to say thanks right here. At the moment, if no one else comments, you guys are all winners! If more than 7 people comment before the end of August, well, you'll still be winners, but there's no guarantee you'll get a postcard :) But I do love having people comment, so I hope you'll keep on reading even if you don't win.

Yesterday Peggy asked about making beaded dolls - this is my first foray into the whole adventure and I have to confess, I am totally winging it. There may well be instructions somewhere, but I am just making it up, based largely on photos from other people's blogs. I'm trying to think whose, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Jo in NZ, who I'm sure has done some - try this link, which is to her posts tagged "spirit dolls" - there might well be some more links to others in there. If I think of any others, I'll put them up, too. This is the problem with reading tons of blogs - lots of interesting ideas, but you can never remember where you've seen them...