ALL THINGS CRAFTY THURSDAYS
Inchies, inchies, inchies. What are inchies? They are tiny pieces of art - 1" by 1" - that you may (or may not) swap with other inchie artists. There are no rules except that they must be 1" by 1". You can draw, paint, collage, create with paper, create with fabric, or use stringart, polymer clay, etc., etc., etc...the only limitation is your imagination.I discovered while looking for inchie information on the web that a lot of the posts were done in 2008, so I figure that inchies were really popular at that time. A simple search for inchies will give you tons and tons of fantastic pictures as well as ideas and instructions. Even tutorials on YouTube.
A lot of swaps set themes for the inchies...like faces or butterflies, etc. Some swaps may restrict types of inchies such as fabric or glass, but most do not. If you search for inchie swaps, be sure that you include the year 2011. Without the year, you may find a lot of swaps that are not current.
One site that does inchie swaps is Roses on my Table. (Note: Some areas of Roses on my Table are fee based, but the inchie swap is not.) Swap-Bot is another site that has current swaps, including inchies. Several individual blogs also sponsor swaps. If you are interested in swapping, check out some of these sites.
My latest inchie is called Winter Rose and it is a very simple one. The supplies used are cardboard, both regular and shiny, scrap paper, silver hearts, paper flower parts, embroidery floss, Mod-Podge used both as glue and as a sealer, scissors and one inch punch (Not needed, but it makes cutting out one in squares very easy).
I glued two plain cardboard pieces together and then glued the cardboard with a silver finish to the two plain pieces, silver side up. (Note, these were all recycled pieces of cardboard.)
I then cut a small piece of scrap paper, about 5/8" by 5/8" and glued to the center of the silver cardboard.
This gave me my background to which I glued on four small hearts (in a row), the single flower petal form, and a large heart in the middle of the flower. I then made a small bow using the embroidery floss, all five strands, and glued it on.
After dry, I glued a piece of scrap paper to the back of the inchie. I then glued embroidery floss (again all five strands) around the edges of the inchie. And finally, I added five coats of the glue (Mod Podge) to seal the inchie.
The inchies look great. (Unfortunately my pictures don't really do them justice. Everything seems to either have a yellow case or are dark. I did charge my battery, something still seems off.)
One great thing about inchies is that you do not need a lot of supplies nor are you facing a large blank canvas. After all, anyone can do something with an inch square canvas.
I hope you give inchies a try. Who knows, you may even want to try a swap or two.
Thanks for stopping by...hope to see you tomorrow.