Mother Goose ATCs - Frieda Oxenham, Scottish Borders

My mailboxed was graced with these lovely, lovely ATCs just the other day. They came all the way to CT from the Scottish Borders and were created by the talented Frieda Oxenham for our Alpha Stamps Mother Goose ATC swap (fabric). I love having the opportunity to see Frieda's wonderful work up close; so inspiring. Frieda wrote on her blog about the process which was great to read; thanks, Frieda! She used a variety of images from various Queen of Hearts fabric sheets found at Alpha Stamps. I am looking forward to receiving more swap entries soon . . . and I will be back to share them when I do.

new mailbox for your art!

Steven & I have put up a new LARGE mailbox that is just waiting to receive your swap art! The old mailbox was was way too tiny, plus it was old & rusty. I may need to paint or decorate this one, but figured getting it up right now was more important!

A photo of our new home is below . . . . my studio is behind the garage and promises to be a really great place to work.

Fabric Bag Swap - Anne St. Louis: Alberta, Canada

Another package for our Fall swaps has come in from talented Anne St. Louis of Alberta, Canada. Her package contained her original Bag for -- "Anything Goes" fabric bag swap due November 15th, and also her fabric ATCs for the Alpha Stamps Mother Goose Swap due October 27th. Anne's fabric bag is ~ ooh la la! The label on the inside of the bag reads: "Viva la Vie Boheme" (live the Bohemian life). Anything Goes fabric bag swap 2007 ~ Original design & Embellishments by Anne St. Louis. WOW! Thank you, Anne.


click on any photo for more detail!

Mother Goose ATCs - Anne St. Louis: Alberta, Canada

Anne has created some really interesting ATCs for our Alpha Stamps swap that are fuzzy and colorful and look like little books! Here are some photos - thank you, Anne. These are wonderful!

Mother Goose ATCs - Megan Hull, CT!

The very first package for the Mother Goose fabric ATC swap has come in, arriving at my new home the other day - what fun! Thanks so much Megan, for creating and sending in your beautiful ATCs. I love the vine you incorporated on them . . . Megan's ATCs are very soft and oh so lovely! She used fabric to make them and a fabric sheet as well; Alpha Stamps Queen of Hearts #4. I also like how Megan pinned a small tag to each ATC with her info: name, email & where she's from, on either side of the tag. Below are some more scans I took of her work - click on any one of them for more detail. I will choose one to go to Leslie at Alpha Stamps and swap the other 5 with the rest of the participants. The "in my hands" due date is: OCTOBER 27th! Please email me with any questions.

Circle book pages are sent : ))

A few of the beautiful pages from my book . . . your pages should be there soon!

Circle Book Pages are SWAPPED!

Here are all the circle book swap packages on my couch! They still need postage put on them but everything is swapped & they are all packaged up & ready to go. I'll be going to the post office tomorrow morning to send them off to you : )) Notice the packing boxes too? My sweet husband was packing up some Kitchen stuff while I was working on this, bless him. We are doing so good, as we are almost all packed up and Thursday is the big day, phew. I think you will love your pages. There were a couple of instances where I had to swap 2 pages by the same artist to a person or two, but I did make sure if this happened that the pages were of 2 different designs. You may find this in your package. It had something to do with so many of you creating 20 pages, but some of you creating 10 or 15 pages - so the numbers, the mathematics were a little bit off! With a little jostling it all worked out in the end and everyone received as many different pages as they sent in. I don't think you will be dissapointed!
If you created 20 pages there is hardly any chance the longest screw post that came with the book will accomodate your pages. For 10 or 15 pages, maybe! I tried . . but the pages were too squished. What I did was take a ring clasp and use that to hold the pages & cover together. My book:



Thanks so much for joining me on this one! I love my book. If you have comments after you receive your swapped pages - feel free to leave them here under each artists' art/post. You can easily find them by going to "Participating Artists" on the right & clicking on their name. In most cases it will bring you to all posts tagged with their name. I will add comments to the blog as I can - they will wait for me until I do! : ) Lenna 9/9/07

Circle Book SWAP update

Saturday 9/8/07: ALL of the Circle pages I expected to arrive are now IN my hands! I am swapping these pages (so many beautiful pages!) and plan to send them out to participants on Monday 9/10/07 . . . I must get them out of here quick before I move on Thursday 9/13!! Well, we really did not expect things to happen so quickly when we put our little home on the market August 13th - less that a month ago, is that possible?? So, I am just going with the flow & trying to take care of things. It will be great! I am going to put some pics of my new studio below!!

You are welcome to leave comments for any of the artists under the post of their circle pages - just click on 'comments' & you will be brought to a form. Please do not worry if your comment does not show up right away - it will not appear until I approve it -note: there may be a delay in my response during my move! (September 12th - 18th). Thanks so much for being patient with me during this time - I will repond as I can & also approve messages, but there may be a delay.

This has been an INSPIRING, fabulously different swap and I credit all of the participants for really trying their best! I am going to cherish my book & I am so glad I created 21 pages myself! Here is a peek at our new studio in the new home. It has a loft that will be just right for Steven's drafting table. Hooray!















* P.S. I've added a few more photos now of our new home on my art blog.

Circle Book Swap - Casie Metcalf, ME

From Casie Metcalf in Maine, a totally different & wonderful take on Circle pages. Please click on the scan for more detail. I believe Casie designed these pages digitally and then printed them out to fit right on her circle pages. If she has time in-between taking care of her little boy Andrew, her on-line buisness and everything else she does, perhaps she can either leave a comment here or write to me & describe a little about what she did! Casie runs Vintage Image Madness -where you'll find thousands of vintage ephemera images at an affordable and reasonable price. You can order image sheets and have them sent along with other Vintage goodies, or pay a nominal amount to download the images to your computer and print them yourself (as many times as you want!) Everyone in the swap is in for a treat because along with each circle page Casie has packaged up a small sampling of what her website offers! Wow. Thank you so much, Casie. I often like to give a little gift to swap participants . . . but with packing & moving and all that I had not been able to give it a thought! I so appreciate your generousity.

Circle Book Swap - Mary Goodrow, MA

From Mary Goodrow in Massachusetts, a lovely variety of Circle pages. Thanks Mary, you did it! Your pages got here safe & sound & also on time, despites various challenges : ))) I love the hats!

Circle Book Swap - Vicci Henderson, CA

"Women in Blue" ~ 10 very rich blue pages from Vicci Henderson in CA . . . Thanks so much, Vicci - I can't wait to swap all of these circle pages out. Just one more day for arrivals and I will get right to it! (better than last minute packing). We move out a week from today & may be in limbo for 2 weeks . . . the seller needs a later closing date. I will find out more tomorrow and let you know! If you are in my other swaps you can hold off mailing for now - or if you do mail, don't worry. My mail will be held for me at the post office until I pick it up! Thanks for understanding.

Circle Book Swap - Vicky Martindale, MI

from Vicky Martindale in MI: 20 beautiful berry-persimon-blue green-and green circle pages :)) Lovely!

Circle Book Swap - Rena Matus, CT

Here are 20 'Orchid' pages from Rena Matus in CT, beautifully framed in gold or silver - thank you, Rena! Tomorrow (sept. 7th) is the deadline for all pages to be in my hands.

Fabric Bag Swap - Judy Bernard, LA

Today I received the very first Fabric Bag for our "Anything Goes" Bag swap due November 15th from Judy Bernard in Louisiana! Judy's bag is a medium size striped Tote bag with a front flap pocket that she has made herself. I would be very pleased to receive this bag in the swap and would immediately be thinking of little ways to embellish it and make it my own! Thanks so much, Judy, great job! If you click on the bag you can see it a little closer : )) Judy also added some words about it on her own Blog: Judy's Crafts.

Note: I received a question about this swap once I posted Judy's bag - It was, "are we supposed to be embellishing our bag ourselves??"

I went back & looked at my swap call:
This is a one-for-one create your own Fabric Bag (or Purse) Swap. Anything goes: meaning any size, any style, and any fabric. Your bag can be handmade by you or purchased by you, and then embellished! The only requirement is that your bag must include fabric in some way. All swaps must be delivered to Lenna by November 15th 2007 in order to be included in the swap . . . .
My answer: The swap call says “Anything Goes” -so anything you do will be Ok! Judy left her striped bag blank for the receiver to embellish – but this does not mean that you have to. It can be a handmade bag – plain and unembellished, OR a purchased bag – embellished, OR a handmade bag – embellished . . . whatever you wish. Thanks for asking.

Circle Book Swap - Linda Garcia, NM

From Linda Garcia in Santa Fe, NM we have 20 Circle pages in various hues that Linda describes as "Simply Southwest Colors". She defines them even further on the back of the pages as "sky blue" and "jasper-red gold-bronze" and "jasper-red malachite"- yum! In her note to me, Linda said perhaps the majority of her colors should be called: "Graffiti Desert!" She used spray mists to acheive alot of what she did - great job, Linda!! I love the Southwest feeling, thank you for participating! Click on the scan of her pages for more detail.

Circle Book Swap - Carol Murphy, CA

Carol Murphy, a talented mixed media artist & instructor from California is participating in our Circle Book Swap - lucky us! She really blew me away with her creative approach to these pages . . . she has utilized encaustics - she teaches a great class on this -- and Carol used some of her own papers, artchix and other images, transparencies, she added an edging to the pages - wow! She sent 15 + and extra page for me so I have two scans of her pages for you to see - click on them for more detail!!! Carol also wrote in with some answers to Jo~Ann's question on HOW she created her circle pages - check at the very bottom of this post - click on COMMENTS.

Thank YOU carol!!

~To enjoy all the great work that has been coming my way, scroll down a few more posts . . .

Deadline for all pages is Friday, September 7th!

Circle Book Swap - Connie Holso, WY

Connie Holso from Cody, Wyoming sent in 10 really wonderful circle pages that are fabric based. She has added lace, stitching and even dangly beads on some of the pages. Being a fabric lover, I literally gasped when I opened her package! I am so glad you were able to participate, Connie. Awesome job! Click on the scan of Connie's pages to see the details she put into these pages . . .

Circle Book Swap - Jennifer Rogers-Daniels, CA

10 very pretty pink-purple pages from Jennifer Rogers-Daniels in California. Thanks so much for playing & adding these beauties to our circle swap books, Jen! Click on the scan for more detail!

Circle Book Swap - Nina Owens, TX

From Nina Owens in Texas, some wonderful circle pages. Nina had written in an email to me what she did to create these pages, so I will quote her:

"I had purchased one of those huge embellishment packs from Michaels after the holidays last year which had over 40 different color coordinated embellishment pieces. I decided to use some of those as the starting point for my colors. I also decided to work in colors out of my comfort zone, such as pinks, purples, red, peach. Using the embellishments as the color starting point, I played around with reinkers and alcohol for the backgrounds. They came out rather nicely - but then I was stumped, what to do for the focals? Was going to try stamping, but that didn't look right. That was the point where I considered dropping out.
I decided to go through my old art print catalogs that I got shortly after starting work at Michaels. found some images (Kim Anderson) that were black & white and amazingly enough the touches of color in the photos went exactly with the backgrounds. "

Click on any photo for more detail -- and thanks so much for your pages & your description, Nina!

Circle Book Swap - JoAnn Reichert, PA

On Saturday I received FIVE packages for our circle book swap! Here are Jo~Ann Reichert's lovely pages; she made 5 of each design and an extra one for me!! I am keeping one of the blue fringe ones with the couple hugging under the moon : )) Thanks so much, Jo~Ann! I love the variety from the pink fairy girl, to the earthy Travel page to the romantic Blue Moon . . . .