Spoiler alert for the First Five recipients

If you're one of the First Five recipients for a little piece of art (SombraKnight, Moon Stars and Paper, Groggy Froggy, Vodka and Diet coke and Rissa), skip this post unless you want details on what they MIGHT be. Ideas still flying around, but they are quickly coalescing in my head so some or all of them will ultimately wind up in a frame. Yes, I decided to actually mount and frame them since I have NO desire to do more fabric postcards. I love the ones I have and I love teaching how to make them, but actually making them on my own is not something I willingly spend time doing unless forced to.

So here are the ideas I have so far. Go away now if you want to be surprised when they arrive in the mail. I picked up a bunch of small frames the other day, some 4x6, some 5x7 and 2 really nice 8x8 square ones. The square ones are hard to find, but I love the way they look so I grab whatever they have in stock. Only 2 this time. I also got a few black and white shadowbox frames that will be nice with the thick frame so there's room for the 3D elements. I won't use glass (monoprints, anyone?) on the finished pieces so the frame depth is important. I hit the $1 placemat table and found some really nice stuff that can be used as backgrounds to work on. One very flat bamboo, one crimson red with tiny sticks woven through it, and a green and an orange that have a nice woven design on the border. I also picked up some very detailed, albeit very cheap, "Japanese kimono" wine bottle dresses. The fabric is obviously poly, but the colors and patterns and tiny little piping and frogs can be individual elements without looking so cheap. They go nicely with the joss paper and bone dominos and wooden tiles and all the other Oriental ephemera I have.

I've also gathered up a bunch of different sizes and shapes of cheap necklace chains (from the 90 lbs of costume jewelry I inherited from the M-I-L) and other junk with interesting shapes. I'll be out on the deck with the acid today to remove the finishes, a sprinkle of salt, and tomorrow I'll arrange them and start rust dying some fabric. I'm hoping to get some good patterns on the fabrics so I can use that for the backing on one of the pieces. Maybe rusty washers and old skeleton keys with it? Still thinking through that one. I may try to overdye the rust dyed fabric with a hint of color too. We'll see.

The one that came to me pretty much full-blown is a music-themed one. Who knew? I have some of those rubber molds for Sculpey with faces and hands and I have a saxophone made from layers of gold and silver metallic cardstock. I'm pretty sure it's a scrapbooking thing, but it's the perfect size for the face and hands. That one might actually get a quilted background for it. Or not. Anyway, it's the one I'm most looking forward to working on.

I have a few other ideas (African themed is always a favorite of mine and I'd like to use the thread painted window screen plains tree again) for these little pieces too. They may wind up as gifts if I make more than the initial 5, and I'm pretty sure there will be more than 5. This is a slightly larger size than the 4x6 postcards, and I'm liking the idea of the frames, so I think I may take this and run with it. I could probably do at least 5 with nothing but the Asian stuff I have accumulated.