Little Things The Children Did And Little Things I Did

Nowadays, the children are real busy with their school works, CCA and whatnot, they are hardly doing any crafts.  But they did hide themselves and locked the bedroom doors for a day to do up something for me for my birthday earlier this year.

Kristine borrowed my maths compass set and drew a cute set of ATCs, while Joey did a card with numerous windows and pockets hidden with little notes.

From time to time, they will do some little things, like this little rabbit sewed up by Joey. 

Ivan also managed to sew up a little gal with a little help/guidance here and there.

These, I tatted for Joey, for her to pack into little gift boxes for her table tennis team seniors - the club's tradition to give small gifts for the graduating seniors!

I made little something for myself too - fabric flowers for my hats.

Suddenly, I feel like I would do with a fabric tissue pouch but not a usual one which I did before, so I made up one with 2 additional pockets. I used my sewing machine which I have not touched for a long time.  I'm so lousy with it that I even have problem sewing a straight line and became multiple lines! 

What Swaps Land in My Mail Box

ATC-ArtDolls Swaps - Dec 2013 Christmas dress, Jan 2014 New Year's Eve Party dress and Feb 2014 Valentine dress.

There seem to be lots of mishap in the mails for the swaps in this group (mails from Jessica Obryen and Laureta Linett are not arriving), Cindy Whiddon made up everything, she sent me all the 3 dresses and the Dec Santa/Reindeer doll too.

Laureta Linett attempted to sent yet another envelope, this 3rd envelope finally arrived!!! Oh, thank you, Laureta, for the so pretty Christmas and Valentine dresses, a most pain-takingly constructed mermaid for Feb doll swap and the just-too-cute handmade birthday card!

Most of the time, international mails take about 2 weeks to or fro any countries.  However, 1 mail I sent on 4 Feb to South Carolina, USA, was returned in my letterbox after 1 straight month, while another swap to Minnesota, USA sent on 6 Feb, also took 1 long month to reach.  Wonder if they were affected by the icy weather in USA in Feb!

Let's see my Valentine dress and mermaid that I sent to Cindy!

And another set for myself.

[artisttradingcards] "Chinese New Year swap - Year of the Horse", hosted by MaryAnn Arnold (USA).  I did 3 CNY Year of Horse red-packet style ATCs with 2 number of 50-cent colour-pencil rubbing paper coins enclosed in each. Almost the same idea as for my last year CNY swap.

Swap received, going clockwise from left: 1) From MaryAnn Arnold, (2) From Sam Jordan, (3) From Janes Graham, USA.

[Paper_Traders] My Secret Valentine greeting card swap.

I did my Valentine card with some tatted flowers and heart/words die-cuts.  I also enclosed a small tatted heart bookmark for Connie Holso (USA). 

 In return, I received this fine handmade card from Amanda Evans.  Amanda included some ephemera, ribbon and heart buttons too.

Beckie of Paper_Traders organised a Lucky You Altered Tag Swap in March, this is the first time I did a tag. The requirement was the use of stencil(s) to create an altered tag with a "Lucky" theme in size #5 manila tags (4-3/4" x 2-3/8").  I did mine with distress inks over hot glue gun stencils, top with some coloured glues and mica flakes. Mine went to Pam Prosser (Australia).

I received this Irish lucky tag from Pam Colosimo (Canada). She sent some ephemera (old book pages, stamped images, etc.) too.

Lisa Alff sent more Guatemalan worry dolls and more treasures!  I'm so excited to see the painted laces in person!!

In the mood for haiku, I composed this one of the evenings as I opened my letter (mail) box...

Gemicans And Adventures!

March theme for our ATC session in Bishan Library was "Bling Bling".  I browsed through all the jewellery brochures I have kept and came up with a new "Bling Bling" race - the Gemicans.  I'm not sure if I should be admiring the paper dolls or the gems, but one thing I'm sure is there will be more Gemicans to come!

Traded 3 of them for the following.  From left to right - ATC from Moses (B/W Bling Bling), Vicki (Imagine) and Sor Huan (Do You Know Me?).

Umintsuru has earlier asked for suggestions on the arrangement of 2 dozen tatted roses. On the spur of the moment, I came up with the arrangement based on the Chinese word "乐", meaning happy.  You can see the actual arrangement on her blog ...

and a very sweet pair of tatted earrings came as a gift!  Thank you, Umintsuru!!

Last Sunday, my sister brought her boys to Forest Adventure at the Bedok Reservoir Park.  I joined her with my youngest girl.  The children went for the Kids Course, a 1-hour tree top course comprising 16 stages. I was gamed for the Grand Course, which has 34 obstacles including 4 zip lines over the Bedok Reservoir and a giant tarzan swing.  Not too difficult but it did take 2 whole hours to complete the actual course excluding the safety briefing. 

 

I'm game for more adventures!

Kristine working her way through ...

Last but not least, I wanted to show the birthday card my girl did for me.  I'm quite impressed with the construction of the card - there are 5 folds to the 12" x 12" paper, a tag on the front, a hinged disc and an ATC on the inside.  So sweet, Kristine! 

October Happenings

Oct is the month of examinations in Singapore.  Not that I'm sitting for any exams, my 3 children are.  I can't afford to take leave to stay at home, so I could only do some last minute revision with them (especially with Kristine) on weekends and evenings.  This year was worse without a maid :(  But we managed!!  And Joey come in top for Sec 1 in her school!  

I didn't find time to blog too often, but here's an update.

For the Prayer Flag-ATC swap, we have Bonnie Jean Larsen's (USA) flag of Love...

and Dina Greer's (USA) 3 different flags.  Bonnie also sent a very chic and artistic piece with her name, while Dina sent extra hand-drawn and painted cards.  The kokopelli is so cute!  

(A kokopelli is also known as a fertility god, prankster, healer and story teller,usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player, often with feathers or antenna -like protrusions on his head.)

The swap was completed and ATCs sent out to participants in mid-Oct.  Thank you for playing, Bonnie, Dina and Sarah!

For the Inchies-onexone group swaps, Debbie House is back on track from her house shifting, and we have received the Jun, Jul and Aug swaps.  Plus the 6 inchies missing from the Heart pocket-ATC from Debbie herself, and 4 choice inchies from the May swap (bottom right black card): Muffin from Marjorie Grace, You Take The Cake by Lynn Lipchak, Cheeky from Brooke G and the last one with button and ribbon from Polly.

For the Alphabet inchies (Jun-Aug):

Q, V, X - from Marjorie Grace

R, S, W - from Sandra Hanson

T, Y - from Polly

U, Z - from Debbie House

Rinchies (choice) for Jun swap:  Bird from Debbie H, Heart from Barb P, USA Flag from Marjorie Grace and Flower from Polly.

More May swaps: 

(Top left black card above)  Oriental inchies - 2 from Polly, 1 Japanese from Debbie H, 1 Japanese from Marjorie Grace.

(Top right black card above) Stamped images inchies: Striped cat & deer from Polly, Cat from Lynn Lipchak, Nest of eggs from Debbie H.

Jul swaps:

(Bottom left black card above) Happy - Dog & Rooster by Debbie H, Bride by Polly, Winnie The Pooh by C. Robin.

(Bottom right black card above) Inchies (choice) - Postcard/flowers and Rabbit book (in envelope) from Polly, Dream from Brooke G, Truck number plate from Marjorie Grace.

(Photo below) Inchies (choice) for Aug swap: Flower from Katherine, Halloween from Marjorie Grace, Clock from Polly, and Double from Brooke G.

We also swapped ATCs - Fused fibers (Bird) from Debbie H for Jun swap, Lavender fairy from Polly and Eat Cake inchies on ATC from Lynn Lipchak, both for Aug swaps.

I did some gifts for colleagues - 2 tatted bookmarks (my favourite oak leaf/acorn and zinnia patterns again) and a birthday card done with all die-cuts (birthday greetings from a few of us signed at the back of the flowers and butterflies).

I have just sent this pair of Flower doll-ATCs to Phyllis Boggs (USA) for Oct swap.

Think I have forgotten to show this Birthday ATC I did for Marja Maas (The Netherlands), whose birthday falls on 8 Oct.

Mid-Oct, I taught 2 big tatting classes at HCI to JC1 students, 25 students in all.  Very, very tiring, but a great sense of satisfaction. 5 of them were still struggling at the end of the class, but a good number of them were able to tat rings and chains and went on to simple motifs. 

I'll end again with this last flower arrangement Kristine did in school - her best scored arrangement.

And oh, Joey just managed to learn cycling this weekend!