Winter Esther Luka Swap

I joined the Esther Luka Family Winter swap this year. We had to send our partner:

a flip book or a pocket letter

5 samples of washi at least 18 inches long

3 handmade embellishments

a handmade ornament

1-2 extras.

Here's what I sent my partner

 The flip book is in the top left, next to that are my samples of washi, I added them to a 'library card' bookmark from Target, next to those are some Almond Roca (my partner said those were her favorite chocolates), I also included a mug full of chocolate, next to that are my handmade embellishments, next to those is my handmade card and at the end some Christmas tree clothespins
Here's a close-up of my embellishments:

 The one on the left is a tag layered with a scalloped circle, a circle and a word sticker. I stamped the snail in the middle. The tag is actually wooden, I just added the wooden snowflake that I colored with a metallic pen and put a gem in the middle and added some sparkly washi to the bottom. The last one is made from a button that I got in a swap, I colored it to  look like a peppermint and added some banners and a word sticker.
Here's my handmade card:

 I used some kraft paper background that I layered some Christmas paper on. The sentiment is actually a clear sticker that I put on a white background, I distressed it with some stampin up ink so it wasn't so white.
Here's my flipbook:

 On the front here I added some jewel snowflakes and the sticker to the top.
When you flip it open:

 Here's a close-up of the left page:

 I created a side pocket with dictionary paper and highlighted the word 'Holiday'. I put one of each of the tags I picked up at Target and some Christmas stickers. The side is some Santa stickers on plaid paper.
Here's a close-up of the right page

I bought the puffy stickers with this exact set-up in mind. I didn't really have any great paper for the fireplace, so I just used some striped paper. I added a string to hang the stockings on and some stickers. I probably should have added a fire in the fire place.
When you flip the left page up:

 Close-up of the top page:

 I added a cut-out from a clip art book and colored it in. I also added some sparkly silver washi to the bottom and two snowmen buttons to the left. I also painted the wooden snowflakes with puff paint and added some bling.
Close-up of the bottom page:

 I love this little train sticker. I added some ribbon to the bottom, that sort of looked like train tracks. The sentiment was a clear sticker that I added to white paper and cut out.
When you flip the bottom right page to the right:

 Close-up of the middle page:

 I made a pocket and added some vintage images I printed off my computer. I added this Mary Engelbreit paper doll I had gotten somewhere.
Close-up of the right page:

 The corner pieces are from the same clip art book as the snowman above, I colored them in with metallic pens. I loved the sentiment of this card.
Here's my handmade ornament. I had the hardest time figuring out what to do, so I finally just went with an altoids box (if you've read my previous posts here, and here, and here, you know I love altering these, and I haven't done one in awhile).

 I took some more of those vintage images, I added one to the front, and put some lace on it.
Close-up of side:

 I added lace to the top edge of the box as well as the bottom edge.
Close-up of inside:

 

 I added some more vintage images. I added some vintage silver ric rac around the inside edges. I tied a pink ribbon on the top for the hanger, and added this beaded tassel thing to the bottom.
Close-up of the back:

Again, a vintage image. Usually I'll cover the box with dictionary paper, but I finally settled on doing this ornament at the last minute and it would have taken too long for the mod podge to dry and I wanted to get it mailed out on time.
My partner said she loved what she got. The ornament is more vintage chic than the rest, but like I said I was having a hard time with it. She said I could go shabby chic, so I did.

I will post what I received from her, soon.

Star Wars altered tin

Hi All, I created another altered tin this past week, though this one is much less arty and way more just putting the elements together. I made it for a friend who likes Star Wars.

I started with a tin from The Hard Rock Café that housed a watch, because the Altoids tins were a little too small for all the elements I wanted to add. Here's the top of the tin:

 I covered the tin, inside and out with black tissue paper. The two circles on the top are actually buttons I bought at Hobby Lobby, I just happened to take out the pin backs. The "Star Wars" in the middle is actually part of the packaging from the stickers I used.
Inside top:

 These stickers are actually domed. It's hard to see in the picture, but that's why Han Solo has some glare. They are clear stickers that I picked up a few years ago at Walmart. I wanted them to stand out against the black tissue paper, so I put them on white cardstock and then cut them out and glued them to the tissue paper.
Inside bottom:

 On the left is an eraser of Kylo Ren (my friend informed me it's the new Darth Vader), a Darth Vader domed sticker, he's actually on a grey background and then some foam dots to stand out next to the other pieces, and a plastic Darth Vader. The eraser was in a puzzle pack from Target and the plastic Darth Vader was in an Easter pack from Target.

Bottom of tin:

Not a lot going on here, I just added the limited edition sticker and my information.

Like I said this isn't a very arty piece. I wanted to make one of my altered tins for a friend, but she's really into older computer/arcade games, Star Wars and some more geeky things. I wasn't sure she'd really like a more artsy tin. The only thing I had that was Star Wars were the domed stickers and then I couldn't find them, so almost didn't create this for her, when I was searching for something else, I found the stickers. At that time, I had already bought the pins, eraser and figurine that I was planning to give her anyway, so it worked out.

Skeleton Altered tin

I altered another Altoids tin for a swap. I had joined what was called a Handmade Etsy Swap, where you bought at least one thing off of Etsy. I really wanted to alter a tin for my partner. When I found out that she really liked skulls and Day of the Dead, I was a little stumped. Skeletons and Halloween are not something I'm really that into. I have joined a couple Halloween swaps in the past, mainly to push my comfort zones and to make something. So, I dug out what little I had and it all sat on my floor for way too long.

I finally ended up with this:

 I covered the tin with black tissue paper. The front has been sprayed with a glimmer mist, I know you can't tell, but it was a teal and gold. I added the punched bones for a frame and could not figure out what to put in the middle. I originally was going to use a plastic glow-in-the-dark skull, but the glue wouldn't stick to the tin (I think it was because I was too impatient in letting it dry.). I had found this skeleton 'cameo' in my stash, pretty sure I got it in a swap and wanted to use it, but could not figure out how. The frame she is in, is from a set of wedding picks. It had a wedding cake sticker on it and I found that the cameo fit in perfectly, so I took out the sticker and glued her in. I LOVE how the front turned out.

The inside, I still love, but not as much as the front. I had painted the inside black, because I accidentally cut the paper a little too small. I really like this paper with the ghostly branches on the sides. The skeleton on the left side was originally a keychain, and I thought it kinda looked like something she had on her favorites on Etsy, so I was just going to give it to her, but that wasn't as fun. It's what got the whole tin rolling. The other two skeletons on the left side are stickers, that I carefully cut around, they did not want to stick to the paper and kept peeling off, so I finally coated it with mod podge. The two dancing skeletons were buttons that I took the backs off of, and the skull at the top is a charm I had gotten in another swap.
I didn't take a picture of the back, but it's pretty boring, I just put some skull punches and a piece of paper saying handmade by me.
My partner sent me an email saying she had gotten her package yesterday and that I "made the coolest little casket thing". I thought that was pretty good praise.

Altered Tins

I've started altering Altoid Tins for gifts, here's a few I've been working on.

This one was for a friend for Valentine's Day:

 I glued burlap ribbon to the front, added a charm I got in a swap and a jewel on top.
This is the inside of the box:

 There's vintage blue paper as the background, with a strip of ribbon roses on the inside of the lid, I added a tag to the bottom with some more ribbon flowers.
This is the back of the tin:

 We both work at a library, so I thought it was fitting to put "A nation of readers", and "Learning never ends" stamps. I also added a saying from a Dove chocolate.

This next one is a birthday present for a friend who likes birds and blue.
 The front of the tin:

I have decided one of my new signature things is to use dictionary paper as backgrounds, I also added a shiny bird to it.
The inside:

 I glued a few birds on the lid, and a bird and nest to the bottom.
Here's the back:

 A cute kingfisher stamp.

This one is a birthday present for a friend who likes purple:

 

 I added a butterfly and some flowers to the lid, I also added some ribbon and faux pearls to the edge.
This is the inside:

I painted a metal pendant from a necklace for the bottom, and added some dogwood flower stickers with puff paint accentuating them. I added purple flowers to the inside of the lid with a couple butterfly stickers.
And here's the back:

 I added a butterfly sticker to it.

These next two are for the Pay It Forward project that I signed up with Kathy at Kluless and Cathy at Ma Vie Trouvee. So, ladies if you're reading, stop.
This one's for Kathy:

I added burlap with a strip of canvas to the front of it and some vintage buttons. I also added lace to the edges of it.
Here it is opened:

I filled it with buttons because I know she collects buttons, I also added some vintage trim to the lid.
Here's the back:

I added a nice vintage looking picture.

 

And this one's for Cathy:

I added a piece of silver paper and a very colorful motif. I painted the edges green. I believe she likes bright colors, so I tried to use some for her.
She was talking about this being the year of the Ram for the Chinese New Year, so I went with that theme:

I used some stamps in this too. A little back story on that, this summer my parents sold their house and a we were cleaning out, we found my brothers stamp collection, so I have a ton of stamps now, I plan to use some in my artwork, but if anyone's interested in some stamps.
Anyway, the one on the lib is very bright, and I added a ribbon that I printed The year of the Ram on, on the bottom I added some green paper and three ram stamps.
Here's the back:

I thought this was a cute little ram stamp as well.
I also gathered up some handmade beads for Cathy, because I know she likes beads:

I plan to get these will go in the mail tomorrow, I hope the recipients like them.

Christmas gifts

This year for Christmas gifts I decided to alter some Altoids tins. My first step was to glue dictionary paper on them. I tried to paint the insides of them, but my glue gun wasn't sticking well to the paint, so after scraping some of the paint off, I added paper to some and left others just plain metal. Here are all the tins:

 I tried to customize them to people's tastes, but as I wasn't sure who was really into Christmas I ended up with more snowy ones.

This first one was for someone who really liked Christmas. I printed some old clip art off my computer for the fronts of the tins. This Santa picture just fit on so perfectly, he needed to be on a tin. I also used trim on all the sides of the tins, this one has a fancy gold on it.

On the inside of the top, I added another vintage picture, on the bottom of the tin, I added holly paper, a felt snowman, a present button and some red and green star beads.

 This next tin was for a person who doesn't celebrate Christmas, but I wanted to make her something. So, I kinda went with a steampunk like feel. The background is a sticker from a Tim Holtz sticker book. On the corner I layered a metal gear with some clock hands and a jewel. There is gold trim around the edges.

 Inside the top I added some more dictionary paper and piece of glass. On the bottom, I put burnt out Christmas tree bulbs on the top and a robot ornament on the bottom.

 This one has another vintage picture, this time of a snowman, there's a lace around the edges of this one.

 Inside you can see the paint, and then on the lid I put some dictionary paper. The blue snowflake is metal, the white one plastic and the small one a sticker. On the bottom, I glued a snowflake cut from paper and a snowman ornament.

 This one also has a vintage snowman picture. After gluing this one down I decided I liked the fussy cut look better, but it was too late for this one, it also has lace around the edge.

 Inside you see more dictionary paper and the pendant from a necklace. On the bottom is some snowflake scrapbooking paper. The snowflakes at the top were earrings, the snowman was a pin.

 This one, I wasn't really sure of the recipient's tastes, so I went with more of a fun winter scene. There is a vintage winter scene on the front with green ribbon on the edges.

 Inside is a cute little winter scene. The snowflakes are stickers. You can't see it, but the deer are standing in some sparkly white flakes to represent snow.

 Another vintage snowman picture, it also has lace along the edges.

 Inside I glued burlap ribbon to the lid and added some sparkly letters. On the bottom is snowflake paper with a snowglobe sticker and a couple pencil toppers.

 And here they are all wrapped up. I decided to just add letter stickers instead of doing tags this year.

I really wanted to make/alter boxes for all my presents, but I decided that was too big of an undertaking. I'm hoping to do more of these in the coming year.