Altered Canvas

I signed up for an altered canvas swap in one of my groups. I had the hardest time doing it. I used to be more of a mixed media artist and am now mostly paper and have mostly paper stuff, so I couldn't really think of how to alter it.

I modpodged the background paper (Hobby Lobby) with some ribbon (my stash), the doily (my stash), the corner piece (from a Valentine's bag from TJ Maxx). I also added the middle of another doily (swap) and some gold letters (Hobby Lobby). I painted the vines and leaves on it and added the two heart stickers (my stash) to pull together the pink color. I like how it came out.
Here's what my partner sent me:

Every time I look at this, I see something new. I love all the different layers and the different elements all over it. I love that it's very 3D.

Happy Mail

There's always a few swaps that I do that I don't really post on here, so this post is about those swaps (where I don't make anything, but I still swap things), and random crafty things I get in the mail.

This first picture is what's called an Ugly Paper Swap. We had to send each other 8 pieces of 6x6 paper that we weren't going to use.

 I didn't include doubles in the picture. We were also encouraged to make a tag using at least two of the papers sent to us as the background:

And you can see, I used three of them. I layered the 'smile at the camera' on some pink paper and foam tape. I added the pink ribbon with camera ribbon on top of it.
This was a 'secret cupid' not exactly a swap, just if people wanted to send me something. It was through a facebook page, you listed 5 things you wanted and someone else could decide what they wanted to send you.

 I had listed coffee ephemera, handmade embellishments, vintage buttons, Valentine's ephemera, and hedgehog anything.
The card that came with these:

 Another secret cupid gift:

 What was in the bag:

 The stickers:

 The card that came with it:

In my Lollipop subscription box every month I get a stencil, I don't use stencils, so I swapped them out. One person sent me teddy bear die cuts:

 Another person sent me Valentine's Day cards:

 And another sent me random die cuts:

One of the groups, the owner of the group sent me a thank you gift for some things I do:

 This is my other 'ugly paper' swap:

 I haven't gotten around to making a tag with them.
I also signed up for a pink washi swap, we were to send 6 samples of pink washi, one had to be solid. Here's one partner:

 And here's the other:

P, Q, R tags

This time the tags were for P, Q, R. Here's what I made:

P is for purple, popsicle, penguin, paper airplane and peacock. Q is for queen, quail (I'm not exactly sure this is a quail, but close enough), and question mark. R is for red, rainbow, robot, rabbit and raccoon.
I had a hard time with Q, I was excited to just get three things. I even browsed my dictionaries, I finally found the tiny queen card.
Here's what my partner sent me:

They're cute and simple. I like them. I wish my partner had included a note of some kind. The card is blank and there's no return address on the envelope.

Valentine's Explosion Box

I made another one:

Here are my close-ups, outside:

 I used all cardstock as the bases. I went with three pieces of pink paper and then layered on top. For the lid of the outside box, I used a piece from a baby paper pad. The doily on the top came from an envelope I got in the mail recently. The trim is from Target. I layered some chevron Valentine's paper on the outside.
First box opened:

 First side:

 I used pink polka dot paper leftovers from the piece I used for the second lid. This one has a red burlap heart from Hobby Lobby, with a chipboard sticker from Target.
Second side:

 This one I used a doily (from a swap) for the background, I layered a fox piece (cover of a sticker book, from a swap) and added some epoxy heart stickers around it (Hobby Lobby)
Third side:

 This is actually from a tag from something I got last Valentine's Day, I couldn't throw it away.
Fourth side:

 The banner piece is from a swap, the heart inside is from a sticker sheet.
Close-up of second box:

 Here's the lid with that polka dot paper (JoAnn's), I added a small notebook to the top (from a swap). I edged it with some trim (Micheal's) and layered some more Valentine's paper (from same paper pad as outside pieces, from Hobby Lobby).
Second box opened:

 First side:

 This is a vellum pocket that I added some washi (from a swap), a journaling card (Tuesday Morning) and a sticker (a swap) on top of.
Second side:

 I added a stack of sticky notes (TJ Maxx), some sparkly sweet stickers (swap) and a super sweet sticker (garage sale).
Third side:

 These stickers are from a sticker pack (Hobby Lobby).
Fourth side:

 The top sticker and the round sticker are from the same sticker pack as above (Hobby Lobby) the heart is from another sticker sheet (Hobby Lobby)
Close-up of last box:

 The sides are some paper I had in my stash, I lined the edges of the lid with some trim (my stash). The lid is paper from a 6x6 paper pad (Hobby Lobby). I added a fabric heart to the top of it (my stash).
I don't have a picture of the inside box open, but you can see it in the video at the beginning of this post.
First side:

 This background paper is the same as the layers on the outside of the second box. The heart banner is a sticker (Hobby Lobby), the double hearts are chipboard stickers (Target), the 'love' is an acrylic piece (swap).
Second side:

 A foam monster sticker (Hobby Lobby).
Third side:

 I made a pocket on the top of this one and filled it with a little baggie of foam heart stickers (swap). I also added some glittery bee themed stickers (swap).
Fourth side:

a felt owl sticker (my stash) and some epoxy heart stickers (Hobby Lobby).
I added a bunch of goodies to the shipping box and sent it out on Valentine's Day. My recipient got it yesterday and says she loves it.

ELF Valentine Swap

I signed up for the Esther Luka Family Valentine Swap after skipping the winter swap. I do love this swap.
This time we had to make an album, a journal, a traveler's notebook or a flipbook for our big project.
Two handmade cards with dimension, stamps, embossing or bling.
Three samples of washi 18 inches each
Three embellishments
Two samples ribbon or lace 18 inches each
Hand lotion/scrub and a lip balm/scrub
Something extra.
I went with a journal, or at least I think that's what it is. I had taken all of the really large (I believe they were 6x8) sized journaling cards and made two journals from a journaling card kit I picked up at Tuesday morning. Here are the pages I embellished:

 I added the quote at the top of the page on this one.

 This one I sewed the corner pocket on.

 This one is another corner pocket.

 I added the quote on this one.

 This is a tuck spot at the top of the page.

 Another quote I added.

 Another top of the page tuck spot.

Another corner pocket. All of the pieces I added were from other journaling cards in the collections. I cut out the pieces, used double stick tape to adhere the quotes and a mini sewing machine (that I picked up from Hollar for this purpose, this is just the first time I used it) to attach the tuck spots and corner pockets.
My two cards:

 The top one, I followed a sketch of another card I had received in a swap. I wanted to make it sort of monochromatic, but I like the look of it. It's just a bunch of scraps off my desk, the sentiment is from a sticker book from Hobby Lobby.
The bottom one I just added a lot of layering to.
My three samples of washi:

I just added a pack of 10 rolls of glitter washi I got in a Peachy Cheap grab bag.
My three embellishments:

 The tag already had the red glitter, I added the heart and trim. I had a bunch of tiny envelopes I got in a swap, so I made a cute paper clip with a butterfly wooden veneer. The last one is actually a bunch of heart stickers layered up.
Two samples of ribbon or lace:

I actually thought it was 4 samples, I wrapped them around this cute little 'candy' lip balm I had gotten in a swap. As I was wrapping it up to add to my package, I realized I could have that be the lip balm or scrub, but I already had another one picked out.
For my hand lotion/scrub and lip balm/scrub:

The apple hand balm and the little green thing at the bottom of the picture, it's watermelon lip balm.
A few extras I gave my partner, a bag of Hershey's with almonds, a packet of pink heart doilies, and:

This roll of pink rose paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby.
Here's what my partner sent me:
Traveler's Notebook, cover:

First spread:

There's a couple tags tags on the left side and a dashboard on the right side.
Second spread:

This is the back of the dashboard with a vellum pocket that has a couple tags and a paper clip.

Third spread:

This is the back of the vellum pocket and the first notebook in the traveler's notebook.
 Fourth spread:

This is the back of the notebook, with the other side of the vellum pocket, this notebook had a phone number notebook, a bow paperclip and a binder clip holding a pen. The pink on the right is another notebook, this one a regular lined one.
 Next spread:

This is the back of the notebook with a shaker piece.
 Last spread:

The back of the shaker piece and the back cover.

Back cover:

 Handmade cards:

I love how she included a 3x3 card, I'm loving those lately.
 Samples of washi:

I love that she sent me full rolls, I did the same to her.

 Embellishments:

 Samples of lace:

I love the lace she picked out and how she sent the samples to me.
 Hand cream, and lip balm:

 Extras:

 pens, stickers, chocolate
Owl die

I'm excited to have a traveler's notebook, I've never gotten one before.