Monthly Swap

Here is what I sent to Lisa.

I tried something new, I thought it'd be cool to make a flip book where the sides of the front opened, kinda like a door. Of course it didn't exactly line up when I got it all done, but that's the story of my life sometimes. I tried to use a lot of what I like on it.

 The die cut I got in one of my birthday gifts. The trim was in my stash. There are letter stickers at the bottom that say "Hello Lisa". I like putting the word Hello on the fronts of my flipbooks.
If you read my other blog, you know I love vintage lace, I also love die cuts even though I don't have a machine, people have sent me some, so that's what I use. The background paper is from Hobby Lobby.
Here's what it looks like when you open it:

 Those hot air balloons are from two different paper packs from Hobby Lobby. The camera ribbon is from JoAnn's. The flower stickers are from Dollar Tree, no idea where I got the quote sticker. The camera on the doily is from the front of an ArtC ephemera pack (I got that idea to cut up the pictures on packaging from Amy's Got a glue gun). The gold sticker is from Hobby Lobby and the donut stamp is from Target.
Some close-ups:

 The flower stickers are actually dimensional, but I separate the layers and use them. The bird one is from a different sheet and I just used the pot from the flower sheet. Don't we all just love this quote?

I loved the idea of fussy cutting the hot air balloons (I really like hot air balloons). I had a sticker that said "Life is an adventure", but it didn't really work, so I just stole the quote.

I really like how this 'doily' looked here. I also love sweets.
When you flip the middle down and the sides up:

More close-ups:

 I tried to glue a glass button on top of my banners, but it just wouldn't stay. I tried hot glue and then goop, but I don't know if it was the button or the tape. So, I just sent the button with the package. I saw this stamp in someone's haul video awhile back and wished I had it, only to find it when I was packing up. I believe someone sent it to me in a swap. It's great, I love owls and I love books, what could be better? I actually have a pair of earrings that almost looks like it, only my earrings have an open book below the owl. The flip flops are sticky notes, so I stuck a little stack on there.

 I love this little girl stamp, she was a little bit of a splurge when I went to Hobby Lobby one time, but she's just so cute. Also, I haven't been using a ton of stamps in my stuff lately, I need to start back up. I can't color her though, I suck at coloring. I also added a stamp of mini cupcakes.
I wanted to add my note on the above page, but when I went to fold it up, it was too bulky, so I had to move it. And it wouldn't stay closed.

 I added something to this top flap because it was way too plain, but I can't remember what it was. I had this project life card in my stash and just had to trim it down a tiny bit to get it to fit. I couldn't think of an answer for two of the blanks, so I left them alone.
Here's the middle:

 I used some vintage mother-of-pearl buttons for the side, cause I love vintage buttons (or just buttons). The glittery vine washi I picked up on clearance at Walmart a little while ago. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's very thin, and tears easily. It was hard to work with.
Flip the top card up:

 I used some of my sweet treat washi to stick these down, and some of my more favorite cards.
Flip this one up

 And flip the last one up

I really liked this heart, it's cut out of a bigger piece of paper, but I just wanted the heart.
Here's the back:

I never know what to do with my backs.

I love how it turned out and I hope she liked it too.

Next month (November) we're doing a girly loaded paper bag. I haven't done one with an actual paper bag, but I'm going to. We're also gonna have 3 altered paper clips in it. Now that I've started doing those it's so hard to stop.

Monthly Swap

Another wish I granted through CraftyLori's video on Youtube was to do a monthly swap with Lisa. She suggested we do a get to know you flipbook for the first month. Here's what she sent me:

 I got it before work and couldn't wait to open it, so this pictures are from my work desk. The flip book is on top, she added an extra goodie bag for me.
This is the contents of the extra bag

 Some cute envelopes and a set of postage mark stamps.
On to the flip book:

 I love how hers has the whole mail theme going on. I also love these little girl stamps, they're wicked cute.
When you flip it up:

 I love the tiny envelopes in the mailbox.
Flipping the tag and the envelope:

 The mailbox also flips up and there are some wicked cute tiny postcard stamped images. The card on the top is her mail tag, I will answer her questions in November's swap.
That paper in the bottom pocket is actually sticky notes. I didn't take a picture of what's in the goody envelope (Bad Wendy), it's got a bunch of little file folders with punches in them.
When you flip the paper over:

 That paper is tiny notebook paper with the striped washi and hello stamped on them.
When you flip that over:

 When you flip this whole page down:

 There is a letter for me in the top.

Very cute. I love it. I couldn't stop looking at it and had to show my housemate it, it was so cool.

Thank you so much Lisa!

Pocket bag swap

On one of my facebook groups, there was a pocket bag swap. I signed up for it, my partner didn't want to do a theme, which usually makes it harder for me, but I got it done really quickly. I actually misread the mail by date and when I realized it was actually on a Monday and not a Friday, I had to hurry up and create.

First I started altering paperclips:

 And it is so addicting. The bird and pineapple are actually felt pieces that were pics from Hobby Lobby. The oval ones are vintage trim. The Frankenstein is just some felt stickers.
Here's what I created for my partner:

 

 The background is from a mystery 12x12 pack I picked up from Hobby Lobby. The bottom piece is from a DCWV pack I had from awhile ago. It actually says Beautiful, it wraps around to the back. I glued some vintage lace and then trim on top. I also added a Paper Studio card stack quote on the top and some more trim.
I stuffed it with a mini notebook, a few journaling cards, some tea, some stickers and other stuff.
Here's the back:

The butterfly is up on pop dots, so it's a little layered. I added another quote here and lace.
Here you can see a card of washi samples and the tea I put in it.
Yesterday when I got home there was a note from the post office saying I had a package that was postage due, I paid and picked it up today and this is what my partner sent me:

 It's interesting. I've never seen this kind of pocket bag swap. It's a lot of plastic bags stuffed with items and taped together. This top one has a tag, a PL insert, and a journaling card.

 In the back of the first bag was a shaker tag. In the second one is a journaling card and some punch outs.

 In the back of the second one is a sheet of sticker labels. In the third bag is a handmade embellishment.

 In the fourth bag is another handmade embellishment and some decorative paper.

 The next one had a butterfly sticker on the bag, some decorative paper and some journaling cards in it.

 On the next bag were some stickers.

 The next bag had a handmade tag on it with journaling cards in it.

 Some decorative paper.

And another journaling card.

Halloween Flip book

Remember that great tissue paper my last granted wish was wrapped in? I used glued it to paper for part of a flip book and a pocket letter. I fulfilled someone's wish for a flip book. She liked fall and Halloween, so I put a little of both in it. We'll get to the pocket letter later, here is the flip book:

 I glued a tissue paper leaf to the paper and painted it with copper paint to stand out from the background. I also cut up a journaling card and staggered the words across the top of the book. Apparently the glue stick I used to stick down the leaf left a little sticky residue, so I added the brown ribbon to the bottom.
When you flip this page to the right:

You see the above spread.

Close-up of left page: 

I bought a paper pack that had basically all the seasons and big holidays in it awhile ago, so I didn't have to go back and buy seasonal paper. Most of the paper in this flip book is from that pack. I started out this page with the owl sticker at the top,  it's from Dollar Tree. I added the witch sticker to the bottom and got stuck, it's from Micheal's. I eventually added the black jewels (from Target) to the bottom, the eye stickers (from my pocket bag swap) and the words "Happy Halloween" (letter stickers from my stash) to the page.

Close-up of page on right:

Again, I don't have a picture of the finished page. You can always click on the two page spread above and look at that closer. This background is actually from a mystery paper pack I picked up at Hobby Lobby. The pocket is made from a paper I had in my stash. The owl ribbon is from JoAnn's. I added some stickers to create a fall theme, and the words "Give thanks"

When you flip this page to the right, you see this spread:

 Close-up of middle page:

I had a heck of a time getting this page done. The monsters at the bottom are actually notebook covers from Target. The "Trick or Treat" is from a page of that big paper pack. I added yellow toned jewels to the top, as well as some bat stickers.

Close-up of right page:

The paper tape at the bottom is from Dollar Tree. The letters are from a sticker pack from Walmart, I'm not sure where I got the gold letters. The journaling spot is a sticker from my stash. I'll admit I don't really like pumpkin spice everything (I actually don't really like pumpkin spice anything), but I needed something else to fill up the space.

When you flip this page back to the left, and then open it, you see this:

 Close-up of left page:

 I made a pocket with some copper paper from my stash. The lace washi is from my stash. The sequins and jewels were from my stash as well. The skull is from a Tim Holtz Halloween ephemera pack I bought at Micheals, as are the mummy stickers on the top. The mummy stickers are actually still attached to their background, in case she wanted to use them. The jeweled cat is from my recent pocket bag swap.
Close-up of right page:

 The monster sticker is from my recent pocket bag swap. The letters were from my stash and the journaling spot is actually a project life card. I had a hard time filling that up.
Back page:

I added some leaf ribbon and a Handmade image. The stamp I used for the handmade image is actually from a set at Target, I was not very happy with it.

I've learned why I don't make holiday/season specific crafts. I'm just not good at it. I actually bought a bunch of Halloween stuff, so I'd have some for my swaps. I'll not be doing that in the future. Since I discovered YouTube and have been sucked into watching people's videos, not only have I spent a lot more money than usual, but I've also given in to buying seasonal things. I've really noticed it with the Halloween stuff, normally I don't do Halloween things. This year I've done only about 3 or 4, but for me that's a lot.
I'm much better at themes that aren't season/holiday specific.

Halloween Pocket Bags

Guess I've been a little behind on here. I created some pocket bags for friends, and got a little addicted to them, so I created some Halloween ones. Naturally, I didn't take a picture of what I created, but here's what my partners sent me.

First up, Tam:

 I love the pinwheels she made me.
Back:

 What was inside:

 I love the skull paper clip, too. I love how creative she got. She told me she didn't have a lot of Halloween stuff, so I love how she created so much stuff for me.
Next up, Natalie:

 Love those stickers.
Back:

 Actually, I think these are backwards, the one right above is the front, and the first picture is the back. Oops.
Goodies:

I love the stickers and the googly eyes.

A pocket bag is a paper bag with the bottom folded up to create a pocket. Or, like Natalie and I did, we made our own from sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper. Sometimes they are called loaded envelopes and are created from envelopes with extra pockets.