Nouveau cards, blog contest yet again

Well, here's the rest of the art nouveau 1900's cards. And the backs as well, which I bonded a little motif from the main fabric onto. I did eight cards, but I'd already written the back of the birthday one, so didn't photo the back of it. I think they came out nicely, even if they are fairly simple.

Also, this lovely mitten arrived today from Joanne in NE - part of the Winter theme swap. She says that winter sounds not bad to her at the moment, given their weather, but frankly, it's only just started being sunny here, so I don't think I'm quite ready for winter yet, LOL. Not to mention, I'd miss autumn, and that's my favourite season.

Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday - offering to give stuff away is obviously a really good way to get people to comment. :) We are now up to 17 people in the draw, and lots more time to enter before I pick the winners, so please, if you haven't left a comment yet, do! Yesterday's new entrants were Vicky in FL, Amy, Caroline, Dawn U (who offered to send me some sun from Turkey - too bad I can't take her up on that) and Vicki W (two Vickies in one day!) . Amy has just started her own blog - and is already addicted of course - and Vicki's blog is one of my favourites - make sure you check them out (but don't forget to come back).

Caroline asked about my sunprints, and as she commented anonymously (by which I mean, she left her name, but no email address shows, so I can't email her back) I'l answer here and hope she finds it... When I sunprint in the oven (which unfortunately, I've had to result to too often lately, due to English weather) I use a fairly low oven - around 100 C - and what I do is set the timer for 15-20 minute intervals so I can check if the pieces are dry or not and turn them over, if that's what I want. The folded, scrunched and tied pieces were all painted with photosensitive paint first, then folded up or scrunched and left to dry, although sometimes they were painted with a single colour, then scrunched and dipped partially in a second colour. This is the opposite of what I do when I dye; in those instance, I fold, scrunch or tie first and then add dye (unless I am dyeing a solid background colour first). The difference is due to the nature of the two types of colourants and processes. In dyeing, the folding, tying or scrunching act as a resist, so you want to avoid getting dye into those parts. With sunprinting, the parts that are blocked from the sun/heat source lose their colour anyway, so it doesn't matter if the whole thing is painted first, and you get a more even coverage that way. And I guess how I apply the dye or paint is a factor too - when sunprinting I use a brush (mostly), dyeing I tend to use squirt bottles or dipping or something like that. Hope that answers your question.

I do love having lots of comments with or without questions, so I hope you all will continue to come by and visit even when I've finished this contest (although - here's a teaser - I intend to have a weekly contest on my blog starting in the autumn - something will be given away to a winner drawn from those who comment, every week. It might be a postcard, or some inchies, or some interesting bits or scraps, or... so those of you who come back and talk on a regular basis are in good shape!). Gotta finish this - gotta go babysit for friends tonight. Might take the beaded doll with me and do a little work. See you tomorrow!