Craft My Name Swap...

  I joined a new swap on Craftster.org. It's called 'Craft My Name' swap. I have to take my swap partner's name and craft an item for each letter in her name (for example D could be a Drawing or a Dragon sculpture). I got my partner assigned a couple days ago; her name is Dixie. I'm kinda excited I got a name with an uncommon letter in it. It gives me a challenge, which I enjoy. I'll have to push my creativity a little further, and that's never a bad thing in my experience. I've already got the D planned out (a DreamCatcher) and I'd like to do a painting of a wolf for her, since she likes wolves. I've just got to figure out what to call it so it fits in with one of the letters. I haven't settled on anything for the other letters yet, but there's lots of ideas swimming around up in that mess of a brain.
 
  I also received my Ipsy Glam Bag yesterday (yay!), I'll be making another post soon with a review. I've gotta get some pictures taken and uploaded. Hopefully I'll get that done tonight or tomorrow.

  I'm starting to get used to being back to work now. It almost feels like I never left. Not quite sure if I like that feeling or not, though. We'll see. For now, it'll do.

Peg Castle Crew

   I've finally gotten around to loading these pictures onto the computer. I painted these little wooden peg people and critters for a swap on Craftster. They're for a four year old boy to go with his wooden castle. Of course, I had to make a King, Queen and Princess. A knight (to save the princess) from the dragon, and I made sure to include a skeleton, since they're his favourite.

   

Mexican Loteria ATC

  Finished my latest ATC and sent it off yesterday. The theme was 'Mexican Loteria', and I chose to do card 39, the cactus. I bought a new outline pen that's sepia toned, and it was perfect for this project. Done in water color.

   I've received another three ATCs in the mail, and I get excited every time I see an envelope that isn't a bill in that mailbox. I love getting little surprises in the mail. I'm going back to work from maternity leave on Tuesday, so I'm going to have to take a little break for a couple of weeks, until I get used to the new routine and I'm able to figure out time to have to myself (hopefully).
 
   I've also finished my wooden people for the ongoing wish swap I joined. I'll take pictures once they're all dry. I made six; King, Queen, Princess, Knight, Dragon, and a skeleton (because the little guy they're for loves skeletons, so I had to sneak one in). I hope he likes them. Sometimes it's harder to please a kid than it is an adult.

 

My first ATCs

I finished my first two ATCs. I'm pretty happy with them. I signed up for the Feburary swap as well, so I get to make some more.

The theme on this one was 'Positive Plus Size Imagery'. 

 The theme on this one was 'My Little Pony'. I chose to do a version of Twilight Sparkle's cute mark.

I wish I had an actual art space set up; I would've done more of a mixed media thing. It's a little harder when I have to go searching for what I have in a crowded closet. Both of these were done in water-colour with the use of some masking fluid and splattering wet-on-dry (the second) and wet-on-wet (the first). I'd never used masking fluid on large areas before, and it turns out it lifts a bit of the colour out. I had to do a little touching up, but they turned out pretty good, I think. I hope the receivers like them.

Ipsy Subscription/ATCs

   I signed up for Ipsy. February will be my first month. For those that don't know what Ipsy is, it's a monthly make-up subscription. Each month you receive a small make-up bag, and 4-5 make-up products or tools.
   I'd been looking at it for a while, as well as some other subscription boxes, and finally decided to try it. I decided on Ipsy because it's one of the cheapest ones and I liked that they have a point system. You can use the points to add extra items to your monthly bag and you earn them by reviewing the things you receive and stuff like that. I'm just doing the monthly option, rather than the full year subscription, so that if I don't like it, I can stop it.
   Ipsy reveals little spoilers leading up to their send date (mid-month), and they just released the first.

   I think I'd be happy with any of these items being in my February bag. I've noticed there's tons of current subscribers complaining about this teaser in the comments. I think it's because lots of the people that subscribe have most of these things already, so they're not so excited. But I've just started getting into experimenting more with make-up, so I'm pretty excited to receive anything new to try out.

   On another topic, I've signed up for an ATC swap on Craftster. I did quite a few craft swaps in the past, before I had my son, Tucker. I don't have much time left for big crafting now that he's come along, so I thought I'd start small. I think it will really kick me in the butt to get making some art again.

   Looking forward to it! :)