Saturday, November 6, 2010

Recycled Inchies



Don't you just love anything done in miniature? These are from a swap I hosted on the Cloth Paper Studios Yahoo Group . The only rules were that you had to make one inch pieces of embellished art that included a recycled element, in the medium of your choice. As you can see from the collage, it was an excellent swap!

Just keep in mind these are 1" square. Mine included the following:

-free motion machine stitched leaf on watersoluble stabilizer, using leftover netting and rayon thread ends
-fabric paper trimmings from another project (scrap tissue paper, glue and acrylic paints)
-Japanese lace paper found crumpled up at the back of a drawer (sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists)
-beads from the stash
-the background is from a jacket I started in a class too many years ago to count. Loved the fabric, but hated my embellishment choices. No plans to ever finish it! Plenty of fabric left to play with
-backing - used computer paper and leftover paint from another project
-I butted thrift shop yarn up against the edges and then zigzagged over it





BTW, do you like my envelopes? I wrinkled up some kraft envelopes, flattened them out and then rubbed on Tim Holtz distress inks (stamp pads). After they dried, I brushed on acrylic medium for strength. The ongoing challenge is for the participants to re-use the envelopes in some of their own art. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

Here's a larger photo of the envelopes:





I'll probably be hosting another swap of this type, again in the new year. CPS is great for swapping a wide variety of mail art. Nice people and you NEVER get burned. If enough people express interest, I may even host another swap on this blog.

I fixed the collage (it was missing one set of inchies). Now I need to go and stitch!!!

7 comments:

kaiteM said...

yay, comments are back :)
i heard anew word yesterday, diminuendo as opposed to crescendo, so i see these as bite-sized crescendos - diminuendoes. all gorgeous, such a concentration of techniques. k.

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Oooh! I like the sound of that.....thanks Kaite!

Jan said...

All lovely. So you received all these and now you will swap them out? I'll bet you would like to keep them all.

Penny Berens said...

Holy cow, Anne Marie!

Anne Marie - Toronto said...

Thanks, Jan! I swapped them out a couple of weeks ago. I didn't want to post until the inchies landed in the hands of the new owners. I confess, it is hard to give them up!

Penny, Is "Holy cow" good or is it a "you're crazy" comment?? Hee, hee....for some reason, I don't have any trouble working small...

Rachel Murphree said...

Fabulous pictures and swap, AM. Hopefully we'll get some of your blog readers to join CPS and swap participation will increase. They're such fun, and you're right, we make sure you never get burned on Clothpaperstudio.

Rachel (co owner of the group!)

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Nice inchies and I learned something I had forgotten all about - that CPS has a yahoo group (which was lurking somewhere in the back of my brain as being an interesting tidbit which was never acted on).