Garland Advent Calendar

I believe this was the first larger Christmas swap I signed up for and then got sucked into the others. This one we were asked to use gift bags, decorate them and make a garland for our partner. I didn't feel like finding gift bags, so I made my own:

 Half of them are made with Christmas paper as the backgrounds and half are not. For some reason, I thought we only had to make 12, and then realized I needed 24. I cut down some Christmas paper to fit on the front of the bags, the 2nd set of 12 that I made has washi on the top and bottom of these pieces due to them being smaller. After making the base, I went back and decorated them, I like them, but I think I would have liked them better if I hadn't done more decorating and just left the larger Christmas papers on the bags. I bought the clothespins plain, and added the bows to them, and then made sure that the opposite color was on the bow as the number on the envelopes.
The second set of 12:

 What I included:

For some reason, I felt that it shouldn't all be Christmas stuff, though there is more Christmas stuff than not.
Gift tag set, bling, handmade ornament, tag, tags, tea, ATC I got in a swap, sticky notes, homemade ornament and tags, pin I got at a garage sale, tags I got in a swap, stamps, ornament, deco tape, mini notebook, tiny doll, clothespins, mini clipboard, pom poms and altered paper clips, washi, hot cocoa, trim, cards, ornaments I got in a swap and an ornament from Hobby Lobby.
Here's what I got in return.:

I don't have a great picture of them. Basically she took a lot of paper and made packages with it. Not a lot of decoration, but that's ok.
Here's the first four days:

Christmas Advent Pocket Letter

I made one of these last year and then dropped out of the group I made it for, because of things. I proposed the idea to the moderator of another one of my groups and she posted it. The one she suggested was just a 9 sleeve pocket letter, but using a fuse tool to divy up the pockets into more. I suggested using three 9 sleeve pocket letters but just decorating the extra pockets, so people without fuse tools could participate, and because that's what I made last year.
As I was packaging up the one I made last year, I tied it together with ribbon, but then thought after mailing it, why didn't I just make it a file folder pocket letter, so that's what I did this year:

 Again, I took a gift bag and used the front of it for the front of the file folder, sadly when I was attaching it, it stuck in the wrong spot and I had to pull it off making the lower right corner tear. So, I took some wood veneer snowflakes, colored them with a silver marker and then covered them with silver or blue glitter glue. When I first laid them down, they covered the whole bottom, but after putting the pocket letters inside the file folder, it made one side much more pushed up than the other, so I just attached the snowflakes to the more bubbled side. I also added some gems to the middle of them. I was going to add more gems to the sparkles under the sleigh, but then I decided that since the file folder was extra, I didn't really need to.
Inside:

 I covered the inside with some paper from Hobby Lobby. I never know how to decorate the insides, I just stuck a bag and some hot cocoa in it.
First pocket letter:

I used some plaid paper for the backgrounds on all the pocket letters. I added mostly stickers to either the cards inside the pockets or the outsides of the pocket itself. The candy cane on the first pocket is gems. The 'merry christmas' is from a project life journaling card. The hats are from a Christmas kit. The reindeer is a very dimensional sticker, the merry christmas on the bottom is from a cupcake pic and the snowman is a tag. I had some cute ornament paper that I thought would work to number them, but thought they were a little small when I cut them out, so I just punched some 1" circles to layer them on. I couldn't find number stickers small enough, but realized I had some number stamps in my stash.

Goodies:

stamped images, wooden pieces, brads, stickers, tags, word pieces, tags, tea, tags.

Back:

 I used some letters to Santa paper
Second pocket letter:

I went with a Christmas tree theme for this one. The first pocket has a die cut, the second and ornament from Hobby Lobby. The third, fourth, sixth, and eighth are stickers. The fifth is a tag I got in a swap as are the seventh and ninth. I added some washi to keep the goodies in in transit.

The goodies:

embellishments from a swap, stickers, altered paper clips, shaker mix, stamps, pins, magnetic bookmark, tea. I didn't put anything in the middle pocket as it was very hard to get open with the tag on the front.

The back:

 I felt the plaid on the front wasn't very Christmassy, so I used Santa paper for the back.
The third pocket letter:

This one is a little more Santa themed. The first pocket has a reindeer from a cupcake pic, the second one is a tag, the third a wood piece, the fourth is a sticker, the fifth another wood piece, the sixth is from a cupcake pic. The seventh has a couple stickers, the last two, I used some foam trees to make a scene, I added a snowman button behind them and some snowflakes on top.

The goodies:

die cuts, stickers, wooden ornament, bling, foam trees, sticker, tiny ornaments, Christmas themed stamps. I did take out the candy cane bling because I thought it was too hard to get in that pocket as well.

Back:

Candy cane paper.
Second page of file folder:

 Again, just covered it with paper. I added a little envelope with a note in it.
The card:

 I just made a little 3x3 card with a sticker.
Back of file folder:

I thought this paper was very nice by itself, so I left it alone.
Here's what I received in return:

I want to open it right now. I'm so impatient

Christmas Envelopes Swap

I signed up for an advent calendar like swap, I had to make 24 envelopes and fill them with goodies for my partner. We decided to do a small gift for the 25th day.
Here's what I sent my partner, I used a couple different paper pads from Hobby Lobby for the actual envelopes, the plaid patterns are from , the other larger envelopes are made from Christmas patterns from , and the smaller patterns are from . The numbers are cut from a project life journaling card.
Day 1:

 I added the wreath a poinsettia sticker.

Day 2:

I added the clear ornament sticker.

Day 3:

 I added a foam polar bear sticker and some adhesive ribbon.

Day 4:

I added the ornament ephemera.

Day 5:

 I added a tree sticker.

Day 6:

I added a 4x6 project life card and some snowflakes.

Day 7:

 I added some stickers. 

Day 8:

 I added a picture I printed from my computer and a 'home for the holidays' piece of ephemera.

Day 9:

 I added a felt tree and some adhesive ribbon. 

Day 10:

 I added a bunny sticker.

Day 11:

 I added some felt present stickers and 'merry Christmas'. 

Day 12:

I added some stickers.

Day 13:

 I added this cute felt Christmas pudding sticker.

Day 14:

I added this felt snowman.

Day 15:

 I added another project life card.

Day 16:
I added a skating girl sticker.
Day 17:

 I added a rub-on, some snowflake stickers and some flat back pearls.

Day 18:

I added a tree sticker and a raccoon sticker.

Day 19:

 I added the ornament.

 Day 20:

 I added a cupcake liner and the poinsettia sticker.

Day 21:

 I added the 'fa la la' sticker and some adhesive ribbon.

Day 22:

 I added the snowman/santa sticker and the sequin ephemera.

Day 23:

 I added the reindeer sticker.

 Day 24:

 I added a project life card.

 Day 25:

 All I did was wrap the present.

Here's the goodies I sent her:

I added another pack of sequins to the envelope with the snowflake sequins, I changed out the washi for something else.

Here's what I got from my partner:

They are all just patterned paper with washi and a number, so I won't post them all separately. If you're interested in what's in them, check out my other blog, I'm posting every day up until Christmas.