Loaded bag for Linda

One of my regular swappers on YouTube was wanting stamps and stencils, so I thought I'd make her a loaded bag because it's so much more fun to send stuff that way.
Halloween is her favorite holiday, so I did a Halloween themed bag.
The front:

 I covered the bag with this zig zag paper I found in my stash. I just put a few embellishments on it. I added the 'spooky' card to the top, I trimmed it down and ran some ink over the sides. I added the eyeball ribbon to the top of the front pocket and the jack-o-lantern paper.
The back:

I made a belly band from some banner paper. I also added the cat stickers and the sticky notes to it.
I don't have a picture of what I sent her. There were some stamp sets I received in other swaps, some Halloween notebooks, a couple tags I made her, some stickers and a sad wand. There's also some paperclips and a clothespin as well as that strange black skeleton on the front.

Birthday Card

My supervisor's birthday was April 24th, so I made her a tiny birthday card. I used some journaling cards I've gotten in swaps. I bound them with some Scotch washi and rounded the corners.

The front:

 I added some glitter washi from Dollar Tree and some flatback pearls from a swap.
When you flip this one up:

 The top, I added a "Happy Birthday" stamp, layered it on some pink paper and embellished it with jewels. The bottom card I just added a flower jewel to it.
When you flip the bottom one down:

 The middle one, I just added some enamel stars I got from Spellbinders. On the bottom one I added some Dollar Tree stickers.
The back:

I added a rose that I cut out of a book, and a handmade stamp.

Spring pocket letter

One of the swaps I signed up for on facebook was for a spring pocket letter. Here's what I sent:

The background paper is from Hobby Lobby. The washi on the side is from Dollar Tree. I created a 'sun' at the top with yellow cardstock and ribbon. The bug stickers were from my stash. The blue and green butterflies were from a swap. The pink butterfly on the right was from a swap. The pink butterfly on the left is from my stash. I spelled out 'It's spring' with letters from Dollar Tree. I created the flowers on the bottom with rick rack for the stems (it was from a swap), paper flowers (from a swap), button centers (from my stash) and bling (from a swap). I added a grasshopper sticker from Walmart and a caterpillar sticker from Dollar Tree.
Here's what I received from my partner:

 The front
The back:

 All the goodies:

I love that she included a bunch of punches. I'm thinking it's about time to start making something with all the punches/die cuts that people have sent me

Mermaid pocket letter

I signed up to do a mermaid pocket letter through one of my facebook groups. I originally planned to do a color copy of this:

I think it's 11x14 size canvas, but I'm not sure. I remember doing more to this, but I can't find the picture, I'm also not entirely sure where this piece is right now, so that didn't work out. I should have seen if I still had the mermaid picture on my computer. Oh well, I like what I did do:

I used a piece of blue vellum that I attached to a blue piece of cardstock because it was a tiny bit too small. I had this mermaid suncatcher that I picked up for the paints at the dollar tree. I never was going to use the suncatcher itself, this was the paper behind it with coloring suggestions. I basically cut her out and attached her to the paper and then cut it up to fit in the pocket. I put some gems over the drops on the image and some stars to cover the stars on the image. Then I just filled in with some stickers I had.

First row, first card: the jellyfish is from Dollar Tree, the sea turtle from my stash. Second card: the ray is from my stash, the yellow fish from Dollar Tree. Third card: the top fish from my stash  the other two from Dollar Tree. They were reward stickers that I cut off the words from.

Second row, second card: the fish is from my stash. Third card: the mermaid is from Dollar Tree, she had some giant googly eyes on her, I traded them out to a more proportional set.

Third row, first card: the seaweed is from Dollar Tree as is the crab. Second card: the fish is from Dollar Tree. Third card: the seaweed on the left is a piece of washi from Walmart, the jelly fish and seaweed on the right is from Dollar Tree. The jellyfish is also a reward sticker. I got this strip of paper in a swap.

I put some washi I got from a swap on the side and added some charms. The fish and dolphin are from a swap, the other beads are handmade from a swap.

Here's what I received from my partner: 

I love her use of die cuts. She also added actual sand to the bottom.

Favorite Animal pocket letter

I signed up to do a favorite animal pocket letter through one of my facebook groups, I chose to have two partners.
I love animals, some I like more than others, I don't know if I have a favorite really. I was going to do whales, because I have a lot of whale stickers, and I was going to do owls because I have a lot of those, but I chose to do frogs as my other one. I do love frogs, I don't have a lot of frog crafting stuff, though.

I picked up quite a few whale stickers last time I was in Michael's (not the Chicago one), and I needed to use them. I also like underwater things, so I have a few underwater themed sticker sheets that have whales on them.
I chose this water looking paper from Hobby Lobby for the background. I used some water looking washi I got in a swap, for the side, I layered some flat back pearl trim I got in a swap on the front.
First row: the first sticker is actually jeweled epoxy?, from Michaels. The second card has puffy whales from Michaels. The third card has a stamped whale image, the stamp was from Michaels and a whale sticker also from Michaels. I put some whale ribbon I got in a swap at the bottom.
Second row: the beluga whale is actually from a Finding Dory sticker pack from Target, the blue whale was from my stash, the shiny whale is from Dollar Tree.
Third row: the sparkly whale I added a googly eye to, he's from Dollar Tree. The red whale is from Michaels, the third whale might be a whale shark, I don't know she's from Finding Dory as well. I added the "you're a real catch" sticker which is from a sticker pack from Target. I also added some whale ribbon from a swap at the bottom.
Here's the frogs:

I basically picked out all the frog stickers I had and stuck them on brightly colored paper from JoAnn's and put them on green paper. The green washi on the side is also from JoAnn's. I only had 8 different stickers, so I had to duplicate one. I added some word washi from Michaels to the bottom of each row. All the stickers are from my stash, I've had them for years and couldn't tell you where they came from.
First row: second card: sticker is from a swap, I actually took the lily pad he was sitting on off and turned him sideways so he would fit, the tiny thing on his foot is a fly and it's belly is a pom pom.
Second row, first card: this is actually a rub-on from my stash.
Third row, first card: I recently got this sticker from a swap.
I at first had them on some patterned paper, but since I was covering it up, I didn't see the point of using it, and switched to the green cardstock, which I like much better.
Here's what I got from my partners:

 I think it's kinda funny that she sent me an owl one, especially since I was thinking of doing owls for hers.
The goodies:

I love the owl magnetic bookmarks and the wooden pieces and that she used a brad to make a paper clip and the felt owl stickers.
Here's what I got from my other partner:

Easter Pocket Letter Project Share

I've been watching Missy at Do What You Love for awhile. Periodically, she has these things called project shares which are basically swaps. This one is an Easter pocket letter.

Here's what I sent:

You were supposed to make 9 identical or almost identical cards, she will swap yours out with 8 other people and send it back.
The background paper is from Hobby Lobby. I added some pink washi from Target at the bottom, with some stamped word banners on top. The stamp is from Target, the paper I used for them is from JoAnn's. I went really simple with decorations. The eggs are felt and from my stash. The bugs are from Dollar Tree. Sadly, I ran out of the pink egg, so I had to use a different one on the last card.
Here's what I got back:

I love how different every one is. I have cards from NC, MO, Puerto Rico, NY, PA and HI.
I'm excited to participate in the next project share.

Easter Pocket Letters

Someone on one of my facebook groups wanted to do a private Easter swap. After finishing my few Easter swaps I signed up for, I realized I still had a bit of Easter stuff left, so I messaged her. Someone else saw my reply to the original poster and messaged me, too. So I had to make two Easter pocket letters. Here's what I made:

 The background on this one is from a paper pad from JoAnn's The side is covered in washi I got at Micheal's, I cut apart a 'happy easter' necklace and glued it down on the side (you can see I'm missing the A in this picture, I found it and glued it back on before mailing it out). I basically just used some stickers I had to make this. The floral washi is from Hobby Lobby.
First row, first card: egg sticker from Target (last year), chick sticker from Walmart. Middle card: chick sticker from a swap, flower stickers from my stash. Last card: chick sticker from Hobby Lobby, egg stickers from a swap.
Second row, first card: chick sticker from a swap, flower stickers from Walmart, bling on flowers from a swap. Second card: egg stickers from a swap, chick sticker from Walmart. Last card: chick sticker from Hobby Lobby, egg stickers from Walmart.
Last row, first card: heart stickers from Dollar Tree, chick sticker from Hobby Lobby. Second card: chick sticker from a swap, egg stickers from Walmart. Last card: chick sticker from Walmart, flower stickers from Walmart.
My second pocket letter: (I didn't realize this was blurry until after packaging it up to send out)

background paper is from a paper pad I bought at Goodwill. The side is covered with fabric tape from Dollar Tree.
First row, first card: foam stickers from Target, flower center stickers from Dollar Tree, chick sticker from Walmart, egg sticker from Walmart. Second card: egg stickers from Walmart, chick sticker from Walmart, glitter washi from a swap. Third card: glitter washi from a swap, chick sticker and egg stickers from Walmart.
Second row: foam stickers from Target, flower center stickers from Dollar Tree, flower stickers from Dollar Tree, bunnies from Target (last year), stamped 'Happy Easter' from Hobby Lobby, egg stickers from Walmart. I colored the stamp in with glitter pens from a swap.
Third row, first card: foam flower stickers from Target, flower center stickers from Dollar Tree, background card from a swap, bunny stamp from Hobby Lobby. I colored in the stamps with glitter pens from a swap. Second card egg piece from Walmart, flower stickers from a swap, bunny stamp from my stash. Third card: pink piece from a swap, bunny stamp from my stash.
Here's what I got in return:

 It's plain but simple.
Here's the second one:

She used an interesting color scheme.

Scavenger Hunt

One of my facebook groups did a scavenger hunt game. We each picked a level: easy, medium or hard, and the hostess emailed us a list of seven things to find, we had to use at least four on an ATC or tag. I picked medium, my list was:

1. Animal paw print

2. card from a board game

3. orange ticket

4. something related to super heroes

5. music sheet

6. tiny shoe

7. token

I found mostly everything in my stash, which goes to tell you I have way too much stuff. The paw print was scrapbook paper, I had just bought a selection of cards from skybluepink.com and there were several board game cards in it, I knew I had an orange ticket but couldn't find it, I had a sticky note set I had picked up at Target that was themed around women super heroes, I knew I had this but took forever to find it I finally took it off an old card, I have tons of tiny toys but of course could not find a shoe I used some washi from a swap, I also know I have some of these somewhere but I couldn't tell you where.

Here's what I came up with:

I wanted to make a tag using only what I was given, I know I could have added other stuff, but I didn't.

The animal paw prints are on the side punched out, the "silver screen" is from a trivial pursuit card, Batwoman was a sticky note, the music sheet is the background, and I ran the washi with the shoe across the bottom.

I like how it turned out.

ATC swap

I signed up for an ATC swap in one of my facebook groups. We decided to do three ATCs, my mind must have been on Spring, because here's what I created:

 The background cards are actually cut down My Mind's Eye Journaling cards. The first card has a flower sticker from Dollar Tree and another sticker from Hobby Lobby. The second card I spelled out "Hello" in alpha stickers from the Dollar Tree, I added part of a doily and another flower sticker from the Dollar Tree. The third card I cut out some jars from a calendar and added some flower stickers and a butterfly sticker from the Dollar Tree.
I'm ready for colorful flowers outside, so I guess that motivated me.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I know you can't really see the dimension and layers in the picture, but there's a lot of texture on the cards. I feel she used some texture paste. The faces are actually 3D.
I feel I should have done more 3D stuff on mine, done more than just layering stickers. Hers are so much more mixed media.

Easter pocket letter

One of my groups on facebook is doing an Easter pocket letter that has to be double sided. So I used a piece of K&Company paper and created this:

 The 'happy easter' piece is actually part of a plastic necklace from Walmart. I got the idea from Left Handed Crafter. The stickers are from Hobby Lobby, Walmart, and Dollar Tree. A few are from my stash. The vintage looking pieces in the middle row are from my stash. The washi is from Dollar Tree.
The back:

I know it's not really Easter, but I liked it.
Here's what I got from my partner:

 I like how she used Hello Kitty, the background is a bit bright for me.
Here's the back:

 I like how she printed out little jokes.
The goodies:

 These were in the envelope,
And these were in the pocket letter:

She told me she is still learning. You can tell she printed a lot of stuff from her computer, which is fine. Any time someone sends me something in the mail, I'm good.

Purple and Yellow pocket letter

I signed up to do a purple and yellow pocket letter swap on facebook. I didn't realize how little purple and yellow embellishments I have, I think that's good, though, kinda took me out of my comfort zone.

Here's what I sent:

Both background papers are from Hobby Lobby.
First row, first card: yellow die cut from a swap, purple flower sticker from Hobby Lobby. Second card: purple paper from a swap, yellow flower from a swap. Third card: yellow die cut from a swap, purple button from my stash.
Second row, first card: purple felt heart sticker from Hobby Lobby, word sticker from JoAnns. Second card: yellow deer head from a swap. Third card: same as first card.
Third row, first card: yellow die cut from a swap, purple flower cut from a calendar from Dollar Tree and colored. Second card: purple die cut from a swap, yellow flower from Hobby Lobby, purple 'dream' from Michaels. Third card: yellow die cut from a swap, purple flower from Dollar Tree.
The purple seam binding is from skybluepink.com, the yellow lace is from a garage sale. I also added some purple with polka dots fabric tape to the side.
I really like how this turned out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

I love it! I love how she used die cuts a lot. She told me her favorite was the monster and the window. I like the monster a lot too.

 Here's the goodies:

 And in those envelopes were even more goodies:

Again, I love everything. I love it when people send me die cuts and punched images. I'm not sure I've done much more than hoard them at this point, but I still love getting them.
I had fun with this swap, as I said above, it took me a bit out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed that. I should definitely do more swaps that take me out of my comfort zone.