By Melanie Anzalone
Owner of a e-shop: http://de.dawanda.com/shop/mausebabyle
A few of my pen pals share my other hobby besides writing letter which is doing crafts. I love to do all kinds of crafts and I always have something handmade at home I can send my pen pals.
With some of my pen pals I swap ATC's which are „Artist Trading Cards“. The size has to be 2,5“ x 3,5“ or 6,4 cm x 8,9 cm. The front side you can design the way you want. You can draw something, a scrap booking design, a nice picture... Whatever you want. Everything is allowed. On the back side I always write big ATC or Artist Trading Card. Then you write down your name, the title of the ATC, the date and if you have a blog or a website, you can also write the address down. It's so much fun to make and collect them. I also always look for ATC swap partners. So if someone wants to swap some, let me know.
Then I'm also really into making jewelry and other stuff out of polymer clay. I got the idea from another pen pal. I googled and found a lot of good videos on YouTube which really help to make the little food and get new ideas. If you never made it before I would start making Donuts and decorate them.
I started with Donuts too and it's also quite fun to make those. Easy and they look really cool. The second thing I made out of clay were cupcakes. They are also really easy and so cute. I love making those sweets. If you're getting better, you can try smaller and more complicated stuff. And I promise you will get better and better the more you make. The clay I use is called Fimo which gets soft if you work with it. To make it hard you only have to put it in the oven for 30 minutes. I like to surprise my pen pals with my polymer clay stuff. I'm also trying to sell some, because I can't keep them all and I need some money for my trip next month to California. If you are interested you can check out my blog: http://manzalone.blogspot.com or my shop on DaWanda: http://de.dawanda.com/shop/mausebabyle.
 |
The link will get you to Melanie's Blog. |
I hope I get some new ideas for more crafts when I go to the USA.
In my cards article you can read about all my cards I make. Cards is something you always need and it's much nicer to send out an handmade card for a birthday than one you bought at a store.
And if you need craft supplies check out eBay. I usually buy my stuff for the jewelry and for scrap booking there. Some stuff is much cheaper than in a store. In Germany it's so expensive to buy craft supplies in a craft store. I'm going to check out the big craft store Michaels in California and write about when I'm back. If someone needs help, feel free to ask me.
Have fun being creative and if you want, send me some pictures of the crafts you made after reading that article. I'm gonna put them on my blog and show the nicest ones in my next craft article.
Hi! I am just now seeing this post. I see you wrote it in March of this year, so am wondering if you still need a pen pal. I also love making ATCs and I love working with polymer clay. I also love snail mail! Let me know if you are still interested in a new pen pal.
ReplyDeleteHello I just read your article now. Im wondering if you still want a penpal or swap handmade things. I love doing handmade things. I always make cards and now im try to do some ATC cards. Oh this is Molly from Taiwan:-)
ReplyDelete