Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Another Discovery!

Shortly after learning about ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), I started seeing references to "Inchies".  Curiosity finally got the better of me and I decided to find out what they were...

Quite simply, Inchies are even smaller works of art than ATC, being - you guessed it - one inch in size.  After reading about them I was super excited to try my hand at an EVEN smaller scale than the ATCs. 

So, without further ado, I present my first four Inchies!:





They were fun to make and I'm looking forward to cranking out many more of these little things. 

I also made about 15 ATC blanks, all set up to decorate.

The ongoing Studio overhaul is going well, today I spent several hours getting things set up and moved around - it's really coming together! 





Sunday, October 28, 2012

So Exciting!

I've made some thrilling crafty related discoveries in the last few days and I'm just bursting with excitment!!

Now, both of these may be old news to some (or all?) who may read this, but to me they are fresh, new, exciting developments in my itty bitty corner of the craft world.

I have learned of craft swaps and ATCs.

Craft swaps are, just that...  Opportunities for people to swap crafts, supplies, etc.  I've spent the last two days pouring over what seem to be the two main websites that host swaps: Craftster and Swap-bot.  I've registered with both of them and have been digging around, researching the ins and outs of the world of craft swaps. 

(Both sites have forums and fun beyond swapping.  Craftser in particular has a LOT more than swaps going on, there are many challenges going on there, with real prizes to be won.  I'm looking forward to getting involved there; I've greatly enjoyed past challenges in other groups as they pushed me to do new work and try new techniques.)

I do remember how much fun I've had in the past participating in online Secret Santa matchups on some other forums.  With Christmas coming, I've already found a few basic swaps I want to start with: Christmas card exchanges! 

The other "discovery" for me came while looking through those swap sites.  I kept seeing references to ATCs.  I found out that it stands for Artist Trading Card.  Wow, how cool!!  An ATC is basically a miniature work of art, the size of a standard trading card or baseball card.  The tradition is that they are to be given away or traded, not sold.  They appear to be an element in many swaps and indeed I've already found several swaps that are set up just for the exchange of ATCs.  I am really chomping at the bit to get started on making some of my own ATCs - fun!!

In other news, Operation Studio Overhaul is still underway, but I've made a ton of progress.  The shelves have been arranged, all of the desired drawer units and so on were purchased, and now I've just been working on how I want my supplies and projects organized in the drawers.  I'm well on my way to a true workable space again, where I can readily access ALL of my supplies. (yay!)

Organization is a wonderful thing (the shelves with drawers partially loaded - not yet labeled):

 
 
I've also wrangled the plant nursery area down to a more manageable size.  Most of the plants I had before were young shoots I had propagated.  They have since found new homes and everything fits on the shelf now, giving me more work space or another spot to store things on a PC cart I have under the window.
 
 
I do have a dozen or so cherry tomato cuttings that have taken root in water in the only other useable sunny window (the kitchen).  They need to be potted for the winter and put somewhere...  So I may soon have another young plant invasion here to figure out how to store efficiently. 
 
For now, I'm off to the Studio to play around with some ideas for my very own Trading Cards!!