January Frosted Dew Drops ATCs

The first Stitchscape swap of 2023 is completed!! The theme was Frosted Dew Drops and I love how this has been interpreted in so many different ways. I've tried really hard to match the theme to the month/season so that there is lots of inspiration around at the time of creating the cards, near enough, and often wondered what ideas people would come up with for this theme. For me, I had these images in my head when creating my cards, of spider webs captured in the early morning light, glistening with the tiniest of droplets of water hanging on for dear life. Although, I also had old seed heads, slightly damaged and decaying, crispy but made beautiful by droplets of frost - you have to pick one idea and I stuck with spider webs. 

But, we also have slightly frozen looking leaves, snowflakes, snowy mountains beyond with glistening fences, and a really lovely abstract card which uses all sorts of fancy yarns and the waste foil from sequin making (I can't remember what it's called). 

I like to try and figure out how these miniature pieces have been made, but I did have to double check with Jenni about how her lovely branches were created. She used the sewing machine to stitch over strands of thread so the thread from the machine would lock and tighten around the strands, separating them out as she went for smaller branches. I've had a go at this technique myself but it was nowhere near as neat as how she has made it!! And it's so effective!! You can't tell in the photos but there is also some stitching on the leaf which has then been coated in something giving it a sheen across the whole leaf. 

There are just really clever techniques in these cards, and some fantastic spider web creations! The fence posts above look like they've been made with strips of pulled hessian strands or jute string, stitched together into a block and the wires between the posts made using a glittery tinsel yarn. The lace piece with the big stitched snowflake has been further stitched over using metallic thread which blends it beautifully with the background and adds another lovely texture. And that ombre blush with the little house card is beautiful with those fantastic stitched snowflakes falling through it. 

I like the use of chain stitch for a spider web, it makes me wonder what tiny embroideries made by spiders would look like - I suppose their webs kind of are embroideries! Wouldn't it be great though if different spiders used different shaped 'stitches' for their webs?

Sandra's piece is also very clever with the wrapped threads for the branches. She's cut into the card itself to secure these and presumably hide any rough ends (another piece of card is glued to the back), then stitched her webs into the card and added a sheer fabric over the leaves to make them more frosty looking. 

I learn new things every time a collection comes in, it's so inspirational to be the host of such a swap and hope the other ladies find it the same way.