Swaps and thoughts

I joined two swaps this holiday season, one was a supply swap, the other a stocking swap.
I received my supply swap on December 11th, I was overjoyed it came so early.
In our packages we were to include:
1. 20 6" x 6" sheets of patterned paper
2. 5 charms or metal embellishments
3. an alphabet
4. 10 diecuts or punched shapes
5. 10 stamped images in black ink on white cardstock
6. a bling
7. 10 fibers/trims/ribbons
8. 5 small (1" or smaller) or 3 medium (1'" - 2") or a large (over 2") flower(s)
9. 3 journaling spots
10. a pocket or small envelope
11. A surprise.
I thought it was a great swap to join, it always seems other people's stuff is better than your own.
So, here's what I got from my partner:
You can see the pile or metal charms, and the flowers (way more than 5), there's a distress ink pad there, and a cupcake stamp, also 4 journaling spots, a rub-on alphabet, and the bling (self-adhesive crystals in the shape of a bird in a tree.

Here's a close-up of the metal embellishments (way more than 5), there's a key, some metal charms with words, the black things are roses, a butterfly, some photo corners, wings, a heart, a crown, and a blingy thing.

Here's a close-up of the flowers.

In this picture you can see some bottlecaps, the envelope (or more than one), some manila tags, the fibers, the diecuts, some chipboard (in, I believe, ATC size). I'm extremely giddy about using the chipboard, awhile ago, I ordered ATC sized chipboard through Etsy and decided it's great to use as a backing for my ATCs.

Here you can see a bunch of lunch bags, a chipboard book in the shape of a crown, a set of patterned paper (way more than 20), and the stamped images.

Here is some more chipboard, the card she gave me and a Christmas tag she made (also one of the requirements.

We were supposed to make a Christmas tag with a rubon on it, I love her tag, especially the jingle bell at the top, and whatever set of rub-on's she used.

And the last thing in my package was a set of white things. Each of these groups were in their own little container.

Also, if you noticed there's pink tissue paper as the background in each of these photos, that was included as well, and I'm also very tickled about it.

My other swap, the stocking swap, we were supposed to read each other's blogs and spend $10-$15 before shipping with a stocking on stuff our partner would like. These were supposed to be mailed by December 11th. I haven't seen mine yet. I waited a week before contacting the hostess about it. I tried emailing my partner during the swap with a question and never got an email back. I'm starting to believe I'm never getting a package back.

That annoys me and makes me wonder if I should bother getting in to swaps where we send directly to our partner. I'm also out the money I spent on her, her gifts and the over $10.00 in shipping. I'm not naming names, but I did just read one of her blogs that she posted yesterday, so she's still somewhere in the world.

On a positive note today, I got a mini Stampin' Up catalog in my mail, sent to me by Alicia, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator in CA. I follow her blog and I'm sure I'm now in her Stampin' Up website database, but that meant a ton to me. Thank you Alicia.

Hope everyone's having a good holiday and Merry Christmas

Christmas swaps

I know it's been awhile, but here are a few things I made for some swaps I joined. The first was a card to go with a stocking swap. We were supposed to fill a stocking up with $15-$20 in gifts and send it out to our partner. Here's the card I made for my partner:
It's a red cardstock background. I layered a green patterned paper on top of it, and then added some glitzy buttons. The reindeer were from a pair of earrings I bought at a garage sale this summer. The snowflake stickers are from a set I bought at a garage sale as well. The "Happy", "Holidays" and snowflake buttons were purchased at Hobby Lobby.
This next one is a card I included with a supply swap.

Once again, it's a red cardstock background with a piece of green patterned paper layered on it. The snowglobe is actually a bubble and came in a sticker set with the "Let it Snow" sticker on top, I bought them at a garage sale this summer. The snowflake buttons I bought at Hobby Lobby.
This tag was one of the requirements in the supply swap. We were supposed to make a Christmas tag with a rub-on.

I started with a white cardstock background and then rubbed green and red inkpads over it. I took an old book page and rubbed red and green inkpads on that as well. The tree and "Merry Christmas" stamps are from a set of clear stamps that I bought at Jo Ann Fabrics, the jewels came with them. The red bow was in my stash.

I have also signed up to do a snowman swap that's due on Decemeber 19th.

I'm trying to not get too messy with my creations lately as I sliced my finger open washing a glass on Tuesday and had to get 7 stitches. If you want to see a picture (it's just the stitches, nothing gory), and read a little more about it head on over to my other blog here.

Happy WOYWW

Hello all,
I'm back participating in WOYWW this week. I finally finished my cards for my Halloween swap for my CollageATCs yahoo group, exteremely late, I know. But, I was the hostess and as we weren't doing anything for December, and everyone's busy with other things, nobody seemed too bothered. And here they are:
Starting in the upper left hand corner: I used the orange vellum and the 'Trick or Treat' bag. I had the Lisa Frank jack-o-lantern sticker, and the sunglasses used to be a pin.
I used the orange vellum and the jack-o-lantern punch. I thought it would be neat/creepy to have a set of eyes peering out from a leaf pile. All the leaves are diecuts I bought at a garage sale this summer.
I used everything but the background. The black bat and moon are buttons, the smaller buttons are from a plastic bag, and the house is a punch. I used gold spray webbing on the background.
I used the tiny 'Boo' piece, it's from a plastic bag. I thought the old couple looked kinda creepy.
In this set, starting in the upper left hand corner: I used the orange vellum ghost and the foam witch's hat. The ghost is glued onto a piece of lined cardboard and then onto an old book page. The trim on the top and bottom is some green leather.
I used the candy corn paper, and the candy corn stickers. The background is another piece of old book page. The lady is a stamped image given to me by a friend.
I used the black tissue paper covering the spider. I started out with this flourescent yellow plastic spider, I tried to color it black with a sharpie marker, but that didn't work. Then I remembered this technique I read about on a blog of covering something with tissue paper, so I did that with some Mod Podge, and then added the gold pearl powder to it, I covered it with more Mod Podge, so it wouldn't rub off. This is my favorite of the group. I still have to paint the hourglass red, but I love it the way it is now.
The last one, I used the web and the spider.

If you don't know what WOYWW is, head over to Julia's and check it out.

Altered Tin Swap

Last time I posted on here (it was a awhile ago), I posted the tin I decorated for an Altered Tin Swap for one of my Yahoo! groups. This is the tin I got in return, today, November 2nd (I'll come back to that).
Here's a view of the front, and the opening is on the left, a tiny bit backward if you ask me.
Here's a view of the back:

And here's a view of the inside:

It's very pretty, but I guess I hoped for a little more, it's all paper and glitter. Don't get me wrong, I do like, it's just a little different, but then that's why I join swaps, to get a great variety of art.

Now back to the part of receiving it today, November 2nd. Originally, we were supposed to mail these to a hostess and then she would swap them out and send them back to us. She decided it would be easier for us to just mail them to our partner, I thought it was a good idea too. The original date to get to her was October 15th, since it was changed to mailing directly to our partners, I interpreted that to mean, our partner should have it by the 15th of October.

I get my emails through a list email, as we usually get a ton of emails from the group. I saw on the list that my partner posted she had mailed hers late, maybe around the 20th of October. Now, she didn't email me to tell me that, our partners were not secret, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I kept checking my mailbox hoping it would be there. Today, I looked and it was, and the mailed date was October 27th. She had to go to the post office to get it mailed to me, so I know the date is true.

Here's my question to you all, if you're going to be late sending something to someone, wouldn't you email them?

Also, would this be unacceptable for you in a swap? For the item to be mailed 12 after it was supposed to be in someone's hands?

If I was hosting the swap, and I was waiting on an item, they'd be booted out of the swap. The package would be returned to sender once I got it. I know it wasn't a swap where you send it to a hostess, but still.

I'm annoyed about the fact that it was sent so late and that she didn't inform me about the fact she was going to send it late.

Happy Woyww, check out Julia's Blog for more snooping.

I would love any and all comments.

What's On Your Workspace Wednesday

OK, I'm late, and this picture is not actually on my workspace this week, but I needed to take the pictures before the sun was completely gone on Monday, and I had to mail it yesterday.
So WOYWW? it's an altered Altoid tin I did for a swap.
Quite a few years ago, my mother and I went to a class on using UTEE on Altoid tins, our instructor had already burned off the paint on her stove. We've found the best way to burn off the paint (though it could be different now), was to hold it over a gas flame on a stove set to high. Unfortunately, neither of us has a gas stove anymore, so I thought I'd try a candle, same principle right? Well, either Altoids has changed the way they paint their boxes or candles just don't give off enough heat, or I was impatient, or everything together, it didn't actually burn the paint off, so I finally gave up, and just added the UTEE over the top.
This is the front of the tin, after building up my UTEE layer, I added black, gold, silver, and copper embossing powders. I then added this leftover sticker backing I had laying on my floor, some leaf punches and some melted tinsel to it:
And here is the inside:
I also did the UTEE layering and then added terra cotta, butterscotch and hunter green embossing powders. Then I added the plastic leaves, the twigs from my yard, the pumpkin, an acorn stamped image, and the copper leaf to it.

I also added some left over stamped bookpages from my last ATC project and a piece of orange vellum, on which I wrote happy Fall, to the inside of the lid. Of course I did that later Monday night, and didn't get a picture of it.

If you want to know what WOYWW is, go on over to Julia's to find out.

Also, don't forget to go here for my Halloween giveaway, it ends on the 20th.

What's On My Workspace Wednesday

For September in my CollageATCs Yahoo Group, our swap theme was Fall, here are my cards for the swap:
Starting in the bottom left hand corner and going clockwise:
The background paper is from when I did some distress spraying and masking, you can't see much of that paper, due to the yellow handmade paper I added to it. On top of that are 4 leaf images that I colored and a clear leaf sticker, all of those came in the packet.
Upper left: background paper is from distress spraying and masking, you can see a 3 leaf branch and a 4. I added leaf die cuts and a brown button with a yellow gem in the middle. The button and gem were in the packet.
Upper right: I stamped leaf images on an old book page and colored them in with markers. You can't tell from the picture, but the red maple leaf is dimensional, the stamped image was in the packet and I put some foam tape under it. There's also a little bug sticker on the large leaf, which was also included in the packet.
Bottom right: the background is a bunch of sequin leaves that were in the packet, and then there's a dog playing in leaves sticker that was also in the packet.
Here's my other set of cards, starting in the bottom left corner and going clockwise:
Bottom left: once again the background paper is when I did some distress spraying and masking. I added the punched grass and a stamped tree. The items from the packet are the leaf punches on the tree and the sunflower button in the corner.
Top left: Again, I stamped leaf images onto old book paper, items from the packet are the acorn and the smiling apple.
Top right: background is pre-cut wallpaper, I added the grass punch, and the items from the packet are all the leaves and pinecone, as well as the scarecrow sticker.
Bottom right: background is a red card. I included some colored tinsel in the packet and was curious to see what it would do if heated, the "hair" on the leaf man is the result. I added some eyes and the metal piece for the smile. Items from the packet are the tinsel hair, the silk leaf for the head, and the metal for the smile.
I hope you like my cards, next week I will have an altered tin for my other yahoo group.


If you don't know what WOYWW is hop on over to Julia's to find out.


I love getting comments, don't forget to go here for my Halloween giveaway.

What's On Your Workspace Wednesday

So, what's on my workspace today?

My cards for the Roy G Biv swap in one of my Yahoo! groups. Here is a complete picture of all of them, the colors are about right on in this picture. In the other pictures, they came out kinda dull, so if you want to see the actual colors refer back to this top picture.
Here's a close-up of Red: All the cards are 4x4 inches square, I started out with a piece of cardstock in each color. For red, I covered the background with some metallicky (new word) red paper flowers, then I layered a 3x3 inch square piece of mulberry paper and then a picture of Red Poppies off of a seed packet.

Here's a close-up of Orange. Once again, I started with an Orange square, then I added a 3x3 inch square piece of orange corrugated cardboard, then I layered a 2x4 inch piece of orange joss paper, and then added a fabric orange lizard on top, I finished it off with orange German scrap.

Here's a close-up of Yellow. I started with the yellow cardstock, then covered it with a piece of yellow flowered wrapping paper. I finished it off with a trio of flowers button in the upper right hand corner, and a "vacation" button in the lower left hand corner.

Here's a close-up of Green. I started out with the green 4x4 inche cardstock and layered a piece of green mulberry paper on it, then I added a blueish green swirl from a piece of paste paper. The "K" in the corner is foam, the stars are from some Christmas ribbon, and there's green German scrap for the edging.

Here's Blue: I started with the blue cardstock and layered a piece of 3x3 inch blue mulberry paper, and then added blue fabric butterflies and a blue butterfly rub on.

Here's Indigo:I started with a navy square, and added the indigo mulberry paper, and another square of indigo mulberry paper, then I colored the bluejay image in with colored pencils and glued it on top.

Here's Violet: I started with the violet square and added a 3x3 inch square of violet mulberry paper, and then the foam dolphin and foam witches hat. The spiderweb is sparkly, and the heart is a button.

A couple weeks ago, Chrissie said she wanted to see the desk I created my cards on, well here it is:

That's right, I create on my floor. I do have a table I set up to create on, but it's full of stuff (does that happen to anyone else?), so I end up on the floor. This week, I used the floor, the back of an artists' canvas and the back of a piece of cardboard to mod podge on. Someday, I'll have a house and an actual room and table to create in/on. But, for now, I have a closet that houses my supplies, and the floor to work on.

At least I've cleared out enough room to be able to shove the table back into the closet between creating times.

If you have no idea what WOYWW is, jump over to Julia's and check it out.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, it's here.

Also, I will be sure to participate next week, as I have to make Fall cards for the Yahoo! group I host.

Halloween Giveaway

I think it's time for a giveaway, so here's what's up for grabs: Cellophane Halloween Bags
3 Cupcake Boxes
100 Mini Cupcake Liners
A tiny Halloween Bag
A Bobble Head Witch

The witch had a broom in her left hand, but it was broken when I got it.

I won the Halloween bags, cupcake boxes and cupcake liners in a giveaway, but I have no use for them, so I thought I'd pass them on to someone who celebrates Halloween (or at least more than me). I'm also planning on sending some Halloween stamped images your way as well.

Rules:
Leave a comment on THIS post by October 19th.
Open to everyone.

I will pick a winner by October 20th, hopefully that will give the package enough time to get to you before Halloween.

Enjoy!

Stuck

I'm having a very hard time being creative lately. I have a swap due on the 2oth, that I really need to get started on, but all I really want to do is lie on my couch and watch movies.
I had a really long post planned out, but now I don't remember it that well, so this may be a little choppy.
I've noticed lately that I'm not really happy unless I'm working, hanging out with friends, hanging out with my boyfriend, or garage saleing. I know I've spent so much more money this summer going to garage sales, but I find myself looking forward to them each week, and being pretty bummed out, if there aren't any in my neighborhood, it's not so much what I spend, but I've found it's so much fun, just going around and looking, the thrill of the hunt, I guess. I think one thing that would make it more fun (I know this actually), is to have someone to go with. There have been a couple times this summer where I went with a friend (who lives about 45 min away, so that doesn't happen very much), or my boyfriend (who works 7 days a week, 12 hr night shifts, so unless he's not majorly tired on Sat mornings, that doesn't happen either), go with me, and it's been so much more fun sharing the experience with someone, especially someone who knows what I'm interested in.
I went to some antique shops with my mom this summer, and it is definitely not more fun with her, I found myself waiting on her, and it seems she doesn't really know what I'm into anymore, or she wouldn't find it cute when I buy something just because it's neat.
I honestly wish I had more close friends to hang out with. I don't have a lot of those, I have my friend, Loretta, who lives 45 minutes away, so it's not very efficient for her to come and hang out all the time, I have my boyfriend, who works way too much, and pretty much sleeps on all his off time, and I have a friend who lives about 40 minutes away and works full-time during the day, so also not efficient for her to come hang out.
I've tried somewhat suggesting to people at my library job that we hang out, but it's almost like people don't want to hang out outside of work.

I lost my store job just last week, she finally closed up, so I now I have my evenings free, which is very strange, after working there for about 2 years?. But that also means, I need to find another job to fill in the time and the money I'll be missing. And that thoroughly depresses me, I've gone through this process so many times already.

I just bought some stuff online, that I really shouldn't have bought, but I found out about them last week and bought some in a store and they make me feel really good, so I decided the personal investment would be worth it (we'll see how I feel when I get the credit card bill at the end of the month).

I have plenty of time to create, I just can't get motivated to do it. I have decided I will jump in my craft closet tomorrow, because like I said I have a swap due on the 20th, that means, it better be in the mail by Fri. I think part of my reason is, that my closet it so messy and there's not a lot of space in there. I do have a space cleared out for my tiny table (probably about 3 ft by 2 ft), but it's only big enough to shove the table back in when I'm done, so I don't have to fold it up again.

I'm in a funk, I really wish I had something exciting to do, or someone exciting to hang out with, or something really interesting to eat.

I'm looking forward to next weekend, Fri, I'm hanging out with a friend, there's an antique show that my mother promised we'd go to (though I wouldn't be surprised if she says at the last minute she's too busy) on Sat, and on Sun, our local art center is having their annual art festival, which my mother, my aunt and I are planning to go to.
I'm worried I might be a little too excited for it, and be let down, again. On my birthday in July, my mother and I took a day trip to a town about an hour away from here to shop and eat at a tea room. I was really excited. The day started out with my mother not following the directions we were given, so she got a little lost and then very panicky which in turn put me in a bad mood, then I couldn't find anything to buy, and the stores weren't that exciting, and the food at the tea room wasn't that great either.
I don't think it helped that I didn't get any actual presents for my birthday, well, not any material things. My mom took me on our trip and bought my lunch (though I think that was kinda her birthday present also, as hers is the day after mine), my parents were supposed to get me a new mattress, but my mom decided she was too tired to go mattress shopping after our day out (haven't seen a new mattress or any present from them since), and my boyfriend took me to a car show, which was great, but sometimes you want something you can hold in your hand, my brother did send me a nice gift certificate for Amazon, and I have been slowly spending it (which is new for me, I generally spend those things fast), but since I only have so much, it's hard to pick out what I want to spend it on. I did buy a few craft books on a spur of the moment one day, but that was disappointing as I don't really look at craft books, they're good books, but I don't look at craft books.

I don't know what will get me out of my funk, but I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on.

I had plans to work on my swap last night, take pictures and post for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday today, but didn't feel like it last night, and didn't realize it was Wed until about 10 this morning, and by that time I knew I'd be somewhere in the later hundred's if I participated, and it seems less and less people visit them all. Which I know is hard when there's that many, I don't get to a lot of them any more either.

Guess I better sign off as I have to get up to go to work in the morning

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Hello everyone, I'm back to creating (that's what happens when you enter swaps and deadlines come up). These cards are some I created for the yahoo! group I host (collageATCs), August's theme was Artists Choice, where everyone made their own cards instead of my sending out a packet of stuff.
Last month I received a great packet of stamped images and mulberry paper from one of the members in my group as part of a Christmas in July swap, this month I used some of those papers.
I really love the orange one below, the elephant is from a set of earrings I bought at a garage sale this summer.

If you have no idea what WOYWW is, head on over to Julia's blog, to snoop around other people's desks.

I love reading your comments.

Beware of the Birds

Hi all, I'm a little late today, I was thinking tomorrow was Wednesday. I went on a mini vacation this weekend, got back on Monday and went to work for a few hours, then yesterday I was working all day, so my time's a little off.
So, what's on my workspace today? The finished result of those little Maya Road bird pages. Sorry, about the blurry pictures, I didn't realize they were so blurry when I was taking them.
I thought a swirly would look nice about where the wing would be, only I didn't have a scrolly stamp, I did, however have a chipboard swirl, which I traced around in black and then colored the shape in in brown. You can't see it, but you can still see the words through the brown, and it's a little sparkly due to being colored over the 'glimmer' mist. I also added a piece of lace for the tail, and a very light gem for the eye.

I also mod podged over the flat parts, so the brown ink kinda spread out over the bird, and you can't quite see the sparkly mist anymore. Here's a close-up (which is also blurry). The back is painted green and has the Yahoo! group name, swap name, hostess name, my name and date. I thought they turned out rather well.

In that first photo you can see a snippet of another chipboard book I'm working on. It's a squareish shape covered with green tissue paper and some brown SU ink swiped over the top.

Go check out Julia and see other people's workspaces today. I love your comments.

What's on Your Workspace Wednesday

It's Wednesday again (OK, not quite), and here's what I've done in my artsy space since last week. I hope the picture's ok, when I woke up this morning, I had no power, so I had to open up my shades and take the picture.
I have been trying to get a shift off at work, and this is my thank you card to my co-worker for filling my shift.
I love using old book pages in my work lately, so I layered one onto a piece of green cardstock (why green? I have no idea). I searched through my papers and finally found this woman, and then added the buttons in the corners (I'm trying to use my buttons as well, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them). The one on the bottom is brown, the one on the top is green, if you can't tell.

If you don't know what WOYWW is, hop on over to Julia's blog to see. I love comments.

What's on Your Work Space Wednesday

Welcome to What's on your Workspace Wednesday, my 2nd week. I finished my charms the other day (so I'm kinda cheating, but I knew I wouldn't have anything out for today) and found out the bird book isn't due until the 20th, so that will be another week. If you don't know what this is, hop over to Julia's blog.

I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do, I started by laying buttons on the charms, because I originally thought I should do something with buttons, because I have a lot, but they covered up the holes, so that didn't work. Then I thought of putting book pages on the green backgrounds, so that's what I decided one. I have a math book, so I started leafing through that and found some problems, cut them out and stuck them on.

For the other side I chose a bunch of nice words. If you can't read them here they are: bravely, confess, confidence, duty, estates, feel, proprietor, purchase, question, relieved, smile, sold, trumpery, value, wages. I tried to find money words because of the problems on the first side.

So that's what I ended up with, I hope the other ladies in the swap like them.

Artsy Garage Saleing

A few things in today's post, first of all, my garage saleing finds from yesterday, which all ended up being art related.
This is a plastic storage container with 4 drawers that I plan to use for storage, got it for $1.00

Brads, and stickers. The top brads were $.50, the silver colored ones have gems on the heads of them, got them for $.10, the purple ones were $.10, and the little smiley face stickers were $.10

A couple of Christmas cross stitch patterns for $.25 each. I don't know who will be receiving them, but I've found cross stitch is fun to do while watching TV, and maybe (no guarantees) I can get some presents done early.

The full picture of my finds. The background is a wool sweater I bought for my friend, Loretta, who's been looking for wool sweaters to felt, found it for $.50. The leafy garland, I bought to pick off the leaves and make something fall-y out of, found that for $.10 The cross stitch patterns and brads are above.

What's on Your Workspace Wednesday

So, I'm editing this to go along with the What's on Your Workspace Wednesday, I've wanted to participate for awhile, but since I haven't been creating for awhile, I didn't have anything to show, well, this week I do (maybe I just want a lot of comments).
I signed up for a couple swaps in a yahoo group, and I've been putting them off because "they're not due until August", I realized the other day, August is less than a week away YIKES!
One of the swaps I'm signed up for is a charm necklace swap, I've done 3 charm swaps already: a couple bracelets and a chipboard house with charms dangling off the bottom. I was thinking I had to make 26 charms for this swap, which is a lot of charms if you think about it. I was reading the rules today and realized it was only 15, that was a huge sigh of relief. I haven't exactly decided what I'm doing yet, but here are my bases:

They are pieces of faux shell that I covered with a mossy colored tissue paper. They had 2 holes in them, they were called spacers. I had started by covering only one hole up, but that looked stupid, so I went back and covered everything both sides with the tissue paper. I'm thinking about layering something else (don't know what) and then adding a varnish to the top of it.
The next swap I signed up for is a chipboard bird book swap. We were sent a book with cover and 5 pages, I have to decorate the 5 pages and send them back, so then I have my own cover with 5 pages from other people. Here's what I have so far:
I covered the pages with old book pages and then sprayed them with my homemade glimmer mists of gold and pink. I did discover while ripping off the excess paper, that the pearl ex powders that I mixed with water to make my sprays come off on my hands, so I'll have to put some modge podge over the top when I'm done. The back side has been painted with a very light green. I'm thinking of stamping some kind of image, but wonder if that will be too busy with the text.

And my last project, is something I just started for fun. Here it is:
It's a tree. I took a 12x12 canvas board, painted it black and then added the same mossy colored tissue paper as on the charms above and then painted it with my new water colors. I don't paint very well, but trees are pretty easy. I don't know what's coming next with this project, but it may be put on the back burner while I finish my swaps, I have about 2 weeks to finish them.

Any suggestions for my projects?

Who wants to win something?

I'm doing a giveaway in honor of my birthday (which was July 2nd), here's what I have for the giveaway so far: A box of four light blue Christmas ornaments, two tins full of things, a small painted picture in frame, an old book, a tiny birdhouse, a set of 'turqouise' jewelry (2 clip on earrings and a pin), a butterfly pin, a small plastic box and two tiny jugs.

Here's the inside of that book.

A close-up on the tinier items, and what's in one of the tins. There's buttons, minitiature animals and some beads.

Also, a bag of jewelry misc, there's pins, watchbands, and other stuff.

Also, some of the buttons in this jar.

Most of this stuff is vintage, and I will be adding more things I find at garage sales.

The giveaway will be open until the end of July. I will draw a name on July 31st, and post it on August 1st.

All you have to do is post a comment on this post. If you post a comment on other upcoming posts, that will give you an extra entry. If you post about this giveaway on your blog that will give you an extra entry. I will be checking blogs, if you comment to tell me you posted about it.

So, you have a maximum of 3 entries.

I'm in an Etsy Treasury

How cool is that? I've never been in a treasury before. Here it is, and since I'm not as knowledgeable and don't know how to put the picture in here, you will have to go see it. It is my caged butterfly ACEO. The theme of the treasury is caged, it was created by Fernwistleglen, check out her Etsy shop by clicking on her name.

I'm so excited.

Fun in July swap

And now they're really out of order, so bear with me. In my collage ATCs group we had a gift swap for July. My partner was Judy G, and my package arrived yesterday, I was tempted to wait until tomorrow to open it, but after I royally messed up a cake I was baking for my coworkers, I decided I deserved a little pick-me-up.
These are a pack of water colors, all closed up they came looked like the green bundle below.

There was an extra little gift in the box for my birthday (tomorrow), and I wasn't going to open it until then, but then my plans got rearranged, so I decided I needed to open it today.

Way inside the package, were these cute paper earrings that I'm guessing Judy made. Very cute.

And here are the earrings inside a frog box I found inside my present.

And here is the really cute frog box. I LOVE IT!!!

There were quite a few things in my package. A lot of paper, here is the mulberry bunch.

And here is the rest of it. The blue sparkly piece at the top there, is actually a piece of mesh fabric.

This was in the bag with the items in the next picture. It reads "Pearl Ex (mix with mat medium). I've never used pearl ex, and I don't think I have any mat medium, but I guess I better get some, so I can see what effect this gives.

These are the Pearl Ex. The blue one is actually #686 Turquoise, and the pearly one is #674 Interference Gold. The little "pills", I'm not quite sure about them. At first I thought they were those little creatures you see at stores that you drop in water and they grow.

This is a ball of turquoise fiber, the color is massively wrong on this picture.

Then there was this little package, and it was in the picture at the top of the page.

Here are some stamps. The three circly ones are those little stampers that have their ink with them.

I'm not really sure what these are but the box says Tria Inks Six-Pack 6 Pantone by Letraset colour inks. Tria Inks in 298 Pantone colours, Blender and Extender. Create custom mixes & tints. Use in Tria Brushpen, Letrajet Airmarker, refill Tria Markers.... Looks fun to play with.

She also sent a ton of stamped images and punched pieces. I didn't want to get them all out of the bags but there's frogs, butterflies, people, animals, birds, trees, and a lot more. Can't wait to use them.

And here's the card she made. I think it's tea bag folding but I'm not sure.

And here's the little box that my frog box was in.