Inchies

Looks like, at best, I am going to be an every other day blogger. It just takes so much time. And the time I spend doing this is time I can't spend crafting, or reading, or eating chocolate, or reading MY favorite blogs, or...well, you get the picture.

I love making inchies. It is such a challenge to see what I can fit in a 1" square. I've always created them for swaps, so there's usually a theme. I recently joined a Western (surprise!) Inchie theme and here is what I came up with.


I apologize for the inferior quality of this photo. I'm not the best photographer. I should have taken individual photos of each inchie. But they have been mailed off to my swap partner.

The first Inchie is a photo of a Native Indian family. It was a photos from an old (probably 60's) "Real West" magazine. The second photo is a "pin up" cowboy hunk. I used a stamp from Close to My Heart to make the "Yee Haw" embellishment. I stamped it on shrink plastic, shot it with the ol' six gun...er, I mean heat gun and attached it to the inchie. The stagecoach is clip art, with jute trim. The Wanted poster is also cut from the old vintage "Real West" magazine. I believe it was on a add for one of the magazines..sort of a miniature magazine cover. I have 3 or 4 of those old western magazines and I've gleaned a lot of "goodies" from them. It's amazing what your imagination can do with an old magazine. =) The cactus are cut from some western themed scrapbook paper. For the backgrounds on each Inchie I used an embossing pad and some terra cotta embossing powder. That gives each Inchie a rough, rugged and rustic touch. On the Indian family I also added just a touch of turquoise embossing powder in the upper left corner. I am very happy with the way these Inchies came out. I really need to do some Southwest/Western ATCs and Inchies to keep for myself. I keep giving away all the good stuff. ={.

The following two Inchies were created for the "ATCs and Inchies" swap at Swap Bot. It was a sender's choice, so really no theme. My swap partner liked bright colors and oranges and greens. I cut a square (about 3")from some white heavy cardboard packaging as the base. For some reason a "radiating from a circle" picture kept going through my mind. So, I cut lots of strips of my bright, colorful paper and glued them down in a radius around the base. Then I added a punched circle to the middle and cut my square down the middle and trimmed it down to 2 Inchies. I like how this project came out also.

I look around at all the paper crafting and artistic blogs and know that my own creations don't compare in quality and artistry but I do know that my creations come from the heart and soul and that I derive great pleasure from it.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY -
"The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke