Healing amulet bag

Amulet bag and contents
Originally uploaded by edwards6202004

I made this amulet bag for my partner in one of my craft swaps. She has a chronic illness so I decided to make it a healing bag and included crystal quartz (a healing stone) inside. I got the pattern from a wonderful book called "Crafts for the Spirit" by Ronni Lundy, but I modified it quite a bit. The outside is black suede (left over from curtains I made a while back), and the lining is felt. I embroidered the bead pattern, and the focal bead is genuine turquoise.

I really enjoyed making this, and it was quick to put together. I plan on making one for myself to hang in my car to protect against anxiety since driving is one place I have alot of it!

Icicle Doll update

I received a nice surprise in the mail today...my pastel icicle doll swap from Alphenstamp in the Netherlands! She is actually the swap coordinator and I had seen the doll before I received it, but she is so much prettier in person so I didn't care! I was not at all expecting her this early so I was very excited. Sorry about some of the photos being turned. The bottom half of my computer screen doesn't work so it is a little too hard for me to edit pics right now! Here is the front:

And the back (the tag says Imagine):

I also finished the icicle doll I made for this swap (acutally about a week ago, I just didn't feel like uploading pics until today). She turned out amazing, especially for my first stab at one of these. I really enjoyed beading the circles, and now I am getting a book on beading so I can learn more!
Here is her front:

And a close up of her polymer clay face:

Lastly, a few days ago I took these great pictures of Aidric (my 3 year old) by the tree that he always wants to climb after he saw a friend of ours do it. I tried lifting him up, but he got too scared.

And here is a picture of him with a sticker on his nose. He loved that.I had quite a few other pictures of him, but they were all sideways!

Swap dolls

I have started on both my pastel icicle doll and goddess doll for my summer swaps on swap-bot. The icicle doll is turning out amazing, better than most of the pictures of them I have seen on the internet. I have her body sewn and stuffed as well as her face and hair attached. I went and bought some new seed beads to finish embellishing her with, but none of the needles that I have are small enough for them to fit through, so I have to go and get some beading needles.

For as great as the icicle doll is working out, the opposite is true for the goddess doll. I started on her after I bought some beautiful czech glass beads and realized I had felt to match them. I made a beautiful template for her body, but it is quite thin and was really hard to turn right side out. I was a little upset at my husband last night when working on her, and nothing was going right. The inside stitches are showing through, I didn't stitch enough on the inside so she was really hard to close, and I messed up on her hair big time. She looks like she has bald spots! I am not ready to give up on this one (which is something I do quite often) though because I used up my beautiful felt for her, and the colors are just too pretty. I guess this doll will teach me to stop being so impatient with my art because sometimes it doesn't always start out well. I also learned that these dolls need to be worked on with love in your heart, not when you are angry!

I'll post pictures later after the swaps are received.