Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ATC swap part 14

I thought it was time to finally share my own creations I made for this swap.

My initial plan was for cards that incorporated and focused on the Yin Yang symbol to show that good and evil are in balance but I did not get any further with this idea.

I based my interpretation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil instead around the Greek god Pan.
The nature god Pan was depicted with the back legs and horns of a goat. While some see Pan as the god of the wild, nature and shepherds other will see in him the Devil. Because of this I called my cards Pan's Duality (good and evil).

Pan's Duality by Monika Schmid

The background is a needle felted and freehand machine embroidered landscape in blues, purples, greys and greens. I took a photo of my Pan statue, photoshopped it and printed it out on fabric. The leaves I made by sandwiching an old page from a Greek old testament page between sheer fabric and freehand machine embroidered leave shapes that were then cut out. The cards were embellished with beads, little stars and an embroidered fence.

Monika's cards

This will be the last of my posts about this swap as I am getting ready to swap the cards and mail them back to the four corners of the world.

Until next time... xoxo

Mother Earth ATCs

The lovely Louise is hosting an ATC swap with the theme "Mother Earth" over at Milliande's, so despite my best intentions to ease off the swaps and instead focus on my art I could not resist signing up.

My Mother Earth is surrounded by a rainbow written with her names from different cultures and the symbols within the brown circles are symbols for Earth  also from different cultures. I have used acrylics, Twinkling H2Os and gel and black pen.

Mother Earth ATC's front

The cards open to a Ute prayer that I thought would go nicely with the theme. The background is a photo I have taken at the Mount Cootha Botanical Gardens in Brisbane.

On the back of the card I have written the following:

Cherokee Prayer Blessing

May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your Moccasins
Make happy tracks
in many snows,
and may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.

 xoxo

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ATC swap part 13

Apologies for my long absence here I had holidays and have been sick with the flu the last couple of weeks. But today exciting mail arrived so I had to share.

After being lost in the mail somewhere for over a month the missing package arrived today from Barbara and Julka with their beautiful ATC creations. It was really exciting to open the envelop to find all these beautiful cards.

Here they are in no particular order:

Barbara's cards

Barbara's cards are made with collage and pieced paper. I am not sure how well you can see the eye of the raven but it has a tiny red (evil) jewel glued to it. Barbara's cards have wonderful titles: "Quoth the Raven Nevermore", "There stepped a stately Raven", "In the Garden - Midnight Eerie", "The gloom of Death is on the Raven's Wing" and "Blackbird singing in the Dead of Night".

Julka's ATCs

Julka's cards also have such an eerie look to them that I just love. There are angels sitting in the garden and in the front are dogs that look like they might be just about to howl at the moon. Julka used Gesso, image transfers and heat embossing.
Thank you both for participating and your beautiful cards!

There's more to show and tell, tales from the holidays and projects which I will share as I get my energy back.

Until next time... xoxo