The Artful Dodger

2023

It's a new year and I swear this is the year I retire - this is the year I start posting at least once a week - this is the year I have a digital presence, something I've managed to avoid for years. I'll actually read my emails on a regular basis - look at the links on facebook (maybe) - decide if I need to be on anything else - maybe even post something on You Tube (we shall see) - so in my dotage, get into the swing of things. Having worked with medical software since the 70's, maybe I can forgive it for eating up my life and start to enjoy electronic devices (except for maybe my phone).

Happy New Year!

Winter ATCs

I've been so busy making things that I haven't had a chance to post anything.  Here are two winter themed ATCs I made. The first one has a turquoise background covered with glitter infused clear nail polish.  And over that I added several snow flake punches in two sizes.  For the snowman one the background is salvaged from an envelope decorated with paint splatters and the snowman is standing in snow that is covered in glitter nail polish that I sprinkled a bit more glitter on before it dried.   I added some snowflake punches, cut out a snowman shape, added black dots for eyes and a sliver of orange for a nose. His scarf is made from glitter glue.  I added a couple more snowflakes and the word snowman stamped in bright blue paint.  I love my snowflake punches since those are the only snowflakes I'm likely to see in Houston.

Bacon Potato Chowder

Today I have to share a recipe that came in an weekly advertisement from Kroger along with coupons for their bacon and petite potatoes used in the recipe.  I happened to everything on hand already, save the fresh green onions, so we substituted dried chives as one of the toppings. It turned out great - thick, rich, tasty - a breeze to make. It's a comforting, chill chasing, satisfying chowder with nary a corn kernel in sight, something my husband just won't eat.

Bacon Potato Chowder

Ingredients:

6 strips of Private Selection Center Cut Double Smoked Bacon ( I substituted thick bacon I had gotten at Costco)

1 large carrot, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1/2 large onion, diced

Salt and Pepper (go light on the salt if you're using bouillion to make the chicken broth)

32 oz chicken broth

1 bag (1.5 lb) Private Selection Petite Gold Potatoes, quartered (any small potato will do)

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp oregano

16 oz heavy cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 green onions, chopped thin

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place bacon on baking sheet (we pre-chopped). Cook 12 to 15 minutes until crispy, reserving bacon drippings.  Let bacon cool.  Chop into bite-size pieces.

Heat 2 tablespoons reserved bacon drippings in large stockpot over high heat. Saute carrot, celery and onion 10 minutes until softened.  Season with salt and pepper.

Add broth, potatoes, thyme and oregano.  Simmer 35 minutes until potatoes are fork tender. Add cream and cheese. Cook 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Serve immediately, garnishing with bacon and green onions. Refrigerate any leftovers.

It's wonderful reheated - I just had a bowl for breakfast.

 

New ATCs This Week

The first challenge was for a B is for .... I was looking for a stamp of a bee or a bunny and saw these stamps for babies.  The yellow background has baby blue and pink mulberry papers and the stamps are on plain white card stock I cut with zigzag scissors and inked the edges with yellow. I colored in the stamps with colored pencils. The other one was for a swap for a vintage ATC with blue. The background is a pretty printed card stock with blue leaves edged with metallic gold, over which I layered some blue mulberry paper, added a reproduction of an old shoe and boot maker advertisement that I edged in medium blue ink.  I then added two strips of white washi tape with small gold motifs. Even though washi tape is hardly vintage, it just seemed to need something else. I inked the entire card edge in blue.They went out in Monday's mail.

02 02 2020

Today's date is a palindrome and it seems a shame there's no postal service because it would have been nice to have the date preserved in a postmark.  The last palindrome date was 909 years ago on 11/11/1111 and the next one will be in 101 years on 12/12/2121.  I'm sure there are all sorts of people who predicted some horror or glory was to occur today, like an extinction level geological event or the second coming of Christ or King Arthur of Camelot's messianic return, but as Monty Python said "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government."  So, I suspect, the sun will rise tomorrow just as it always has for the past 4 and a half billion years here on our little planet.

Barbecue Mini Quilt

The theme for this mini-quilt is 'Barbecue'. I thought about doing a grill, but trying to render a barbecue pit in fabric was daunting.  A chef's toque seemed a lot easier. And most men who cook meat over an open flame in true caveman tradition, consider themselves chefs. And I got to use my picnic table cloth covered with ants fabric.  I'd bought that fabric on a whim, thinking I'd make a tote bag are something out of it.  I only used a small piece, so I still have enough to make something else.  And of course the green represents grass, you can't barbecue inside.  I incorporated a little of the ant fabric in the binding.

If it's BBQ, shouldn't it be barbeque? I've seen it spelled both ways.  I've even heard that it's an English malapropism of a French description of how the Spanish roast a goat, spitted 'de barbe en queue' from beard to tail, which I think is traditionally how a cabra is barbacoa-ed (if there is such a word).

 

Homemade Postcard 'New'

This is the latest homemade postcard I just sent off.  The theme of the swap required that 'New' had to be included somewhere on it.  Once again I've used my favorite ingredients.  I started off with some floral paper scraps to make the background, added flower die-cuts by K and Company, a circle of green mulberry paper topped with a translucent bee, also from K and Company.  Lastly I stamped individual letters in various inks on various colored card stock, cut them out and glued them on.  I topped the whole thing with shiny laminate, to make sure nothing fell off in transit. It's a standard postcard size: 4 x 6 inches

Beach ATCs

The ATC on the left has a background of white card stock sprayed with gold webbing paint. I layered 3 different colors of mulberry paper at the bottom, to represent water. Then I added a stamped and embossed fish and multiple star fish stamped in different inks on matching paper.  The last thing I added was clear acrylic bubbles rising up from the fish.  On the left I started out with strips of three different washi tapes on a light blue background, added die-cuts, stamped BEACH on card stock mounted on darker card stock and finished with blue acrylic dots in the left lower corner.

Black & White & Pink Mini Quilt

This swap called for a mini quilt with just black and white and one added color.  So I started out with a black and white 9 patch with a pink center, cut the square into 4 equal pieces, flipped two corners, sewed them back together and machine quilted it with pink thread.  I added a binding, cut 2 1/5 inches wide, folded in half and machine stitched to the front and hand stitched to the back, then I added 5 pink buttons for decoration.  I like the way it came out - it's much more square then most of the ones I make.  Below is the one I received from my swap-bot partner junemoon.  I love the cats.  Even though the swap allowed you to add any color, we both chose to add pink.

Window Tag

The picture shows the front of the tag with plastic jewels and 3 dimensional lace roses and the back with just flat embellishments.  What might not be obvious is that the lavender butterfly and pink flower are encased in a plastic window and can be seen back and front.  The tag is about 3 x 6 3/4 inches and is based on a youtube tutorial here by Sabrina Oreskovic. I used craft colored card stock with gold foil dots for the front and back.  The window is made from the plastic from an ATC sleeve surrounded by white and gold washi tape.  I added die cut tags beneath the window on front and back and flowers punched from pastel scrapbook paper.  On the front I added an embellishment I had gotten in a swap that consisted of a die cut tag, with a tiny gold doily, an old ticket and three roses attached to a strip of lace.  I also added a piece of gathered lace as a tab at the top.  Getting the windows the exact same size using a ruler and an Exacto knife was a bit tricky.  I have a square punch but it wasn't quite big enough to make a window the size I wanted.  I'll have to keep a look out for a larger square punch, though I refuse to buy them at full price.  They have to be on sale, marked down or obtainable at Tuesday Morning.  I often find craft supplies and tools at great discounted prices at Tuesday Morning, but you have to go frequently since the merchandise changes weekly.  You never know what you're going to find.

April Showers Bring May Flowers Mini Quilt

I made this mini quilt a while back for an April Showers themed mini-quilt swap.  I went with April showers bring May flowers.  This is totally my design and I thought it was fairly clever.  Flowers are pouring forth from the umbrella, being rained upon by the clouds at the top.  I used a bubbly blue fabric to represent the rain and surrounded the whole thing with green grass.  It's about 9 by 14 inches.  I rarely do applique, but I think the umbrella came out pretty good, even if the handle is a bit hefty.

KitKat - The Night Fury

I just had to show off my latest kitten.  Her name is KitKat (though we call her the night fury) and she's about 7 months old.  We found her in the back yard with her eyes crusted shut and very wobbly and half-starved.  We didn't think she would make it on her own, so we brought her in, cleaned her up and started feeding her instant kitten milk with an eye dropper.  She weighed about 3 or 4 ounces.  A trip to the vet started her on her vaccinations.  When we first got her she was so tiny we were afraid we'd step on her, she just fades into the navy blue carpeting.  So we got the smallest pet carrier we had, gave her a towel, water and a flattish stuffed puppy dog with long curly hair that I had gotten with tickets at Dave and Buster's.  She took to cuddling up to the dog and sucking on it to comfort herself and now, six months later, she still crawls into the carrier (we've removed the door) and sucks on her puppy and purrs so loud you can hear her across the room.  When she's not moving she's the cutest, because when she starts moving she dashes about, over, under and around everything in her path at breakneck speed.  Anything she can pickup in her mouth or bat about is a toy, and amazing things have disappeared only to be found days later under the sofa, on the seat of a dining room chair, even in the bathtub.  In addition to all the toys we've bought her, she has a passion for the plastic forks that come with the salad kits I often eat for lunch.  But she can only have the white ones.  We immediately confiscate the black ones because, just like her, they disappear on the navy carpet and I usually walk around bare-foot.  A couple of days ago I stepped on a piece of coral broken from a specimen set on a very high shelf.  I shudder to think how she managed to get it and run about the house with it.

Stuffed Pocket Tag

This is two pictures of the same thing - one showing how the tag was mailed with stuffed pockets and the other with empty pockets so you can see the pretty snowflakes.  It was for a winter themed stuffed pocket tag swap on swap-bot. It's about 5 x 7 inches and is based on a youtube tutorial here by stampinstilettos.  Not that you can tell in this scan, but the dark snowflakes are punched from purple, silver and pink foil, but they just didn't reflect the light.  I have two snowflake paper punches that I love to use, since they are the only snowflakes I'm likely to see living just 50 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.  The tag is meant to be stuck in a journal and hold little bits and pieces you can add to your journal pages.

Handmade Postcards

These are my 2 latest creations, if you can call them that.  They are handmade postcards.  The top one was for an any theme postcard swap and the bottom one is for a found image swap.  They're a standard 4 x 6 inches and I always laminate the front so they don't come apart in the post.  The bottom one is the easiest to make.  It's just a found image.  In this case cut from an old Victoriana calendar I just couldn't throw away.  I use the pictures to make envelopes, ATCs, cards and postcards.  The top one has a main picture cut from the same calendar along with the fussy-cut bouquet of flowers.  The additional flowers and winged things are die cuts from K and Company.  I have a postcard stamp for the back.

Traveling Cat Book

I've been taking part in some swaps where you add your cat's picture and it's story to a book and it keeps making the rounds until all the pages are full and then it goes back to the person who started the book.  This is an addition I made in someone's book about Baby - my sweetest female cat.