Shades of Spring/ Brown + Blue Quilties: Beverley Teichrob

Beverley hails from beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. I visited there a few years ago and remember being so impressed with all the beautiful flowers growing everywhere, even in the city. No wonder we find flowers on Beverley's brown & blue quilties! Take a look at the gorgeous, flowing design that Bev came up with for her shades of spring/brown & blue quilties. She has incorporated wonderful colors & textures (the birds nest) and she created 2 sets of 4 quilties plus an extra quiltie for me --so appreciated! I am not surprised that Bev made all her Quilties the same this time, as what she has come up with here, is a great plan. Thank you, Bev!

Shades of Spring/ Brown + Blue Quilties: Wil Opio Oguta

From the Netherlands, Wil Opio Oguta has created 5 Shades of Brown & Blue Quilties, making 4 for the swap, and an extra one for me. Thank you so much! Will has been in Minneapolis attending an 8 day Shibori symposium, and so she got to save on postage & mail her quilties to me while she was here in the US. Click on any scan or photo for a bit more detail on all her lovely work!

Grimm fairytale 5x5 Collage swap: Rhonda Bjelan

From Rhonda Bjelan in Melbourne, Australia we have 2 sets of 5x5 collages & an extra one -thank you! Rhonda created the most interesting collages including old ledger paper and bandage material from the pharmacy shop she & her husband owned for 30 years. I love it! I will put a close up scan of the back of one of Rhonda's collages below. It's beautiful, and it gives lots of information on how she created her pieces, Thank you very much, Rhonda!

The images used here are from Alpha Stamps.

Grimm fairytale 5x5 Collage swap: Martha Franklin

It is really fun to start to receive more 5x5 collages for the Alpha Stamps Brothers' Grimm Fairy Tale Swap due to me by June 28th. This set is from Martha Franklin. I love the words she's added! Please enjoy the scans & photos of her artwork; click on any picture for a little more detail. "Things to do . . ." Martha!! : ))


ALL of these images are from Alpha Stamps.

***'Altered by Design' ATC swap!***

Mosaic of 'Altered by Design' ATCs for a swap I hosted! originally uploaded by creativelenna.

All of the ATCs for our swap due May 23rd have been swapped and SENT out. Hooray!
I try to wrap things up and send everything out to you within one week's time, that is always my goal. I am so glad to have accomplished that again!

The Mosaic I made that you see here is a sampling of the ATCs that were sent in for the swap. I tried to include one from everyone, and as the sponsor of the swap, Carol Murphy has 3 ATCs in this Mosaic! You can test your memory and see if you can remember who created which one . . . or just scroll down through the posts and easily match them up.

A personal note: My husband and I leave on Sunday to visit my parents in Florida for a week! My dad has been ill this winter with heart problems (a pacemaker, etc), a cancerous tumor in his color, an ulcer, arthritis in his back, 2 major infections, and because of this he has been hospitalized or in a rehab facility for THREE months.

My verY GoOd NewS is that my dad came home yesterday!! His infections have cleared up enough so this is possible and we are all so grateful. My dad still has 1 more operation to go through, but that won't happen until later this summer. He needs a break! What a relief and a wonderful treat that he is well enough to be home when we visit . . . thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who has been thinking of my dad, to those of you who added him to your prayers, and to all of you who sent me such supportive emails! I can't really even express in words how much this has meant to me!

yours creatively, lenna

Altered by Design ATC swap

Just a note to let you know I am working on this swap! I have done all the physical "swapping" of the pieces - yay! The swapped ATCs are all still sitting on top of the mailing envelopes on the floor and haven't been packaged up yet. I need to add the gift collage sheet and the snippet pack from our generous Carol Murphy, not to mention add the extra ATC Carol made for everyone! But I am getting there and would guess I'll be mailing it out late tomorrow afternoon or early friday morning. It will be worth any wait! The ATCs from this swap are just grand and you are going to love your packages I think. Thanks for your hard work! I will let you know when everything is mailed.

I also have 2 packages for the Brothers' Grimm Swap here that I need to open & scan. I will get to that soon : ) I am trying to wrap everything up before we leave on Sunday to visit my parents for a week. My dad is doing much better last I heard. There are some test results that everyone is waiting for in regard to the infections he was battling and seems to have conquered. Thank you very much for all your thoughts & prayers. I will have access to a computer next week (June 1-8) but obviously I won't be receiving any swap packages -- so any uploading will have to wait till my return!

yours creatively, Lenna

Grimm fairytales 5x5 Collage swap: Susanne Weibe

This is the BACK of one of Susanne's Alpha Stamp Grimm Brothers' 5x5 collages! Isn't it cool? I just love it : )

Susanne is from beautiful Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. She wrote me a note thanking me for another delightful swap, adding that she fould this swap thoroughly enjoyable, bringing back memories of childhood fairytales.

Susanne's collages are wonderful. She started with a sturdy piece of watercolor paper for her base and then sewed fabric & images from the Alpha Stamps Brothers' Grimm collection to her base paper. Because she started with watercolor paper she was able to easily paint the backs of all of her collages before adding her info. She also used fibers and dimensional elements. I think Susanne's collages are beautiful *and* very mixed-media! What fun. Thank you, Susanne. Wonderful art as always! Click on any photo for more detail.

Altered by Design swap's most creative ATCs ~ Shannon Sawyer!

I am pleased to announce that Carol Murphy as sponsor of this swap has chosen a first prize winner for the most creative ATCs in our Altered by Design Angels*Fairies*Divas swap . . . . . . . and the winner is: Shannon Sawyer!! See one of Shannon's incredible ATCs to the right. A big congratulations to Shannon! Carol will be sending you a copy of Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop. This is a wonderful book that I am sure you will enjoy. Carol also wrote an email that she would like me to share with you (below). . . and if everyone takes a peek at the post of your own art, you'll see that Carol also left a comment for everyone. : ) Here's Carol's email:

Hi Lenna- I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you hosting this swap and just how much I love everyone's ATCs. I never dreamed my little ladies would take on so many personalities and be so versatile! It brought tears to my eyes to view everyone's work- everyone taking so much care and time to make them just gorgeous!

It was such a difficult choice to choose a winner-I can't tell you how difficult- but I did finally settle on one artist - Shannon Sawyer. Your ATCs just blew me away-such attention to detail and they are all just exquisite! Lots of mixed media used and breathtaking color combinations. Also lots of techniques used- best all around and that's how I chose. All of the ladies are winners in my book and I am honored to have had all of them participate in my very first "Altered By Design" swap!

Huge hugs and thanks to everyone- especially to you Lenna for being such a gracious hostess and a wonderfully sweet person -Carol"

Carol Murphy: http://www.alteredbydesign.com/

Joggles Instructor: http://www.joggles.com/

Krafty Lady DT Member: http://www.kraftylady.com/

Altered by Design ATC swap: Lenna Andrews

Yes, I participated in my own swap! : )
The favorite ATC that I made today (and steven's favorite too) is pictured to your left - Click on any photo for more detail. Carol sent me a few collage sheets and I was so enamored by these images that I simply had to try them. The image sheets were new for me and oh, so appealing. I worked with a sheet that looks very similar to Digital Divas 2 and another sheet Carol sent with vintage sheet music cover images. I ended up making 9 ATCs! I am not sure if I will need all of these ATCs for the swap, but I was having fun & so I kept on creating.

I took photos of the process and hope to turn it into a tutorial of sorts, soon! But for now I will simply share a few photos with you. I'll let you know that in making these ATCs . . . first, I copied Carol's collage sheets onto fabric sheets that were already prepared for my printer. I used fabric as a base for my ATCs too and I did a lot of sewing! There is batting atached to the front piece of the ATC and a thin piece of cardstock in the middle for stiffness. The little metal hearts you see attached to a few pieces were a hostess gift from Lisa Mallette who participated in this swap - thank you! The tiny shoes I attached have been in my stash for years (well, they are Divas and they needed shoes!)
~yours creatively, lenna -- p.s. I will be back later with the winner -picked by Carol Murphy, sponsor of the swap, for the most creative ATCs!























Click on the picures for more detail . . . .

Altered by Design ATC swap: Carol Murphy

Carol Murphy is: Altered by Design! Carol is the designer of the collage sheets that we have been using, She sells them through joggles.com and a few other places. I have known Carol through email for some time; we both have taught classes at joggles and we have even taken each others' classes! One day Carol wrote me and asked me if I would like to do a swap using her image sheets. I am so glad I said YES! Carol's images are so varied, from really beautiful to very avant garde. I would not have become so familiar with her collage sheets if I had not hosted this swap. I am even making a set of ATCs for the swap, which I will upload soon . . . . that's how much I like them - I had to use them myself!

Carol is also an extremely generous sponsor. She has created a gift collage sheet for each participant and included a "snippets" pack of random images for each participant. She is awarding whomever she thinks made the most creative ATCs with a copy of the Artist Trading card Workshop by Bernie Berlin as a first prize! Wow.

But that is not all . . . Carol created an ATC for each & every participant! She made 24 beautiful ATCs that I will show you here. Amazing!! Are you ready?? I will shown them to you below and I'll be back later with my own ATCs and the announcement of the winner that Carol chooses. : ^ )

Also -Please look in the side bar of this blog (at the top) as I have installed a new "email notification" service. It is a FREE service and seems very well organized (I even signed up myself!). This will send you an email only when I update the blog with new swap art or perhaps more importantly, new swap calls! You can set the message delivery preferences too -check it out, it's called FeedBlitz!

Here are all of Carol's very creative & beautiful ATCs -one for everyone in the swap!!

Thank YOU, Carol!