Candy Box Swap

Here's what I sent Michele for the Sweet Candy box

I had a very large heart box from last year. I covered the top with dictionary pages, then I added black buttons all around the edge. I painted it with some pearl ex powder mixed with water, and then added some doilies. The grey is a piece of lace, I finished it off with a couple buttons. I just realized you can't see the sides, they're decorated with some white heart trim.

 Here's some of what I sent in the box, a bunch of Dove dark chocolate hearts, a vintage dish towel. I also sent a couple of peachy colored beaded flowers, a roll of vintage ribbon, a snowman card, and probably some other things I didn't take pictures of.

And here's what's in the box, lots of lace and trim, some unmounted stamps, some buttons, a few embellishments and a Valentine tag.

Sweet Candy Box Swap

I signed up for Michele's Sweet Candy Box Swap. We had to decorate a candy box and fill it with stuff, including something handmade, for our partner. I received mine on Wednesday. Here's what she sent me. Here's the top of the box

A view from the side

 The inside of the box

 And here's what was inside, this dresser scarf is beautiful. It was way too long for my photo taking surface, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, it's just so beautiful.

 A few Valentine cards, some Valentine napkins, and some stickers

 a doily, pot holder, hankey, and some toile ribbon. There's also a pair of earrings that Michele made me on the pot holder.

 some paper pieces, chipboard pieces, buttons, ribbon, a couple birds, some cupcake papers, a vintage tin, a couple plastic bells, and a mini teapot.

Once I've received word that Michele has gotten my box, I will show you what I sent her.

 

I've been immersed in a new project. I keep reading on people's blogs about fabric books, I've wanted to make one for awhile. So, the other day, I took out my neatest fabrics, trims and vintage fabric pieces, and started laying out pages. This is what my kitchen floor has looked like since Wednesday morning.

I have three pages done, and hope to finish a page a day. So far, only one of the pages looks like it does here. I have to keep tweaking after I sew things down, but I LOVE this project. I don't think it will be fully finished for awhile, one of my pages needs a little more embellishment, I hope to keep my eyes out for things to use this summer.
I will show you the pages when I have them "done", or at least sewn together.

Ticket Swap

I participated in a ticket swap in one of my Yahoo! groups. We were to decorate 10 tickets and send them to the hostess. Here's what I received back:

 And the backs:

I searched all my pictures and found I did not take pictures of the ones I made. That's very unfortunate, I really liked them.

Button Floozies Swap

I participated in the Button Floozies Christmas Ornament Swap again this year. Here's what I received.

From Pamela White of The Finders Keepers Blog:

 From Laura Sheppard, no blog:

 From Laurie Jackson of Indulge your Shelf:

 And here's what I made:

 
They're little stockings, the buttons are all vintage, the trim is vintage, the front is a dish towel I was sent in a swap, there are two kinds of backs, one a red striped dish towel and two, a red and white patterned piece of fabric.

I'm still waiting on the last ornament for the swap, but I wanted to get this post up before I forgot.

Vintage Stocking Swap

I received my stocking from my parter today. Here's what I saw when I opened the box:

 And the contents:

 The gorgeous stocking she made for me, a mesh bag filled with thread, hankies and a frog, a metal angel, a cute ornament, a tiny bottle of buttons, and a bag of holiday pieces.

 A frosty the snowman book, some iron-on transfers, a couple vintage Christmas cards, a notepad, a bunch of lace, some fabric, a cute deer ornament, a couple charms and a needle book.

Here's what I sent her:

I bought this stocking and added the lace and fabric flowers to the top.

I won't show what the contents of the stocking are, as she's going to open it closer to Christmas.
I'm not that patient, I had to open mine today.

Thank you, Stevie-Lynn

Altered Paintbrush

Here's my last altered paintbrush.

I decided to paint the brush orange, I watercolored the gear. For a long time all I had was the gear/compass rose glued onto the brush. I finally decided to add the brads on the bottom with gems. I'm not sure if it's steampunk, but I hope my partner will like it.
Both brushes are done except for adding my information to the back.

I want to join the Button Floozies Christmas ornament swap, but I have no idea what to make. See what I made last year and what I received. Any ideas?

Some swaps

I joined a few swaps on one of my Yahoo groups, here's what I've completed so far.

These first ones are for an altered paintbrush swap. We were supposed to buy two 3" chip brushes and alter them in any way we wanted. This first one is actually a 2.5" brush that I started to play around with:

 I covered it with a mixture of pearl powder and mod podge that I made for another project. I had to layer it pretty heavily to get a good cover. I then added the metal piece and blue 'jewels' in a couple of the holes. I really love this.
This picture is the beginning of one for the swap:

 I ended up painting the brush orange and gluing the gear and compass piece on it, there's also a grey 'jewel' in the middle of the compass. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to put on the back. I'm thinking of some smaller gears, but I really don't have a lot of those.
This is my second one for the swap, this picture is the finished piece:

 I covered it with dictionary pages (my new favorite way to cover things), and then wrapped a piece of vintage trim over the metal part.
This next piece is an ATC for a swap that got cancelled:

It was for a rainbow swap, we were to use the seven colors of the rainbow or one for each card.

I also joined a ticket swap, which I am having the hardest time decorating, and a flowers swap, I can't get inspired for that one.

Hat box swap

I signed up to participate in Michele's Hat Box swap, here's what I made for my partner:

 I started with a brown paper heart box from Hobby Lobby, I then covered it with dictionary paper (even though you can't tell on the top). I had a hard time figuring out how to decorate it after that. Finally, I decided to use a doily (because my partner likes doilies), but I was thinking it needed a way to separate it from the background. A couple weeks ago, I bought a gallon size ziploc bag filled with seam binding, so I picked three colors that went together and glued them onto the top, it's actually gray, pink and blue, the gray looks kinda green. I had the hardest time getting the blue to stay down, as it was a lot more crisp than the other two, and you could definitely see the creases from being wrapped around a card. And then I had an even harder time figuring out what to put on the top (especially after seeing how cool Michele's was). I have a ton of these wooden roses, I keep buying them cause they're so cool, so I chose pink/purple, white and green to go with the seam binding. For the edge of the lid, I glued buttons on that I got in another swap.

For the sides of the box, I finally decided to cut out flowers from a vintage embroidered dish towel. My partner said she liked vintage things.
I also had a hard time figuring out how to package the lid of the box without squishing the roses, I finally flipped it upside down, so they nestled into the box. I hope they stayed on throughout their trip.
Monday afternoon, after I mailed the box, I realized I was supposed to add something I made in the box, I really suck at reading lately. So, I emailed my partner and said I'd get something made and mailed out to her before today (Friday). And then I fractured my tail bone on Tuesday. Needless to say, it's been hard to sit comfortably and create something, but I did make her a tag:

The tag is covered in vintage book paper, it was covering the insides of a book, the cameo I found at an antique mall, and the trim on the bottom is vintage from a garage sale. It's funny that I used the cameo, I actually picked up two of them at the antique mall and really wanted to use them on the box, but it being heart shaped, I couldn't get them to look right.

Vintage Petite Spring Jar Swap

I participated in Michele's Vintage Petite Spring Jar Swap, my partner was Julie. I received my jar on Thursday, here's what I saw when I opened the box:

 And here's the jar:

 Here's what I found inside the jar: buttns, trim, shell beads, chocolate, and a tiny matchbox.

 A close-up of the matchbox:

 And the contents of it: a piece of trim, flower gem, pom pom and a piece of ephmera.

I sent Julie's jar to her, and will show you what I sent her when I know it's been delivered.

Thank you to Julie for sending me such a cute jar and cool things inside, and thank you to Michele for hosting. I would love to do another one of these in the futute.

Merry Moos

I signed up for a swap called Merry Moos on TheSumOfAllATCs Yahoo group. A Moo is a card that 1"x3". These were supposed to be Christmas themed and have a way to be hung.
Since I collect snowmen, when I think about Christmas, snowmen are the first thing to come to mind (I hope no one in the swap minds). I took some holiday paper, cut it to size, and glued it to cardstock with the patterned paper on the outside for a thicker card. I added these little plastic icicles to the bottom. I stamped a snowman on some snowflake paper. I cut the poky pieces of the backs of some star brads and glued them on the top. There is a white eyelet with some white raffia for the hanging portion. The last Moo with the diamond dangles is mine because I ran out of the icicles by the time I got to mine. You can also see I ran out of the raffia and had to use some silver cording.

For the backs I just typed up the name of the swap, the hostess, my name and my email. Then I printed it out and glued it to the back.

I kept putting these off, because I kept thinking 'They're not due until November, I have plenty of time'. Then today I got an email reminding me of when they are due, and realized It's November. I decided I needed to get them done.

What are you all working on?

9 Days of Easter Swap

I signed up for a 9 Days of Easter Swap, hosted by Amy of Crafting by Candlelight. It was originally a 12 Days of Easter Swap (like a 12 days of Christmas), but only 9 people signed up. We were supposed to make 9 of the same or similar items to send to Amy and then she would put gifts 1-9 from different people in a box and send them to us. Unfortunately, #1 dropped out and #7 got sick, so Amy added something for #1, and #7 seven might still send us something. I bought myself something at Walmart yesterday and decided to wrap it with the extra tissue paper Amy sent us and add it for #7. Here is what the pile of gifts looks like: I'm going to open one gift a day starting on Saturday and TRY to post it each day. I will take pictures of the item wrapped, and unwrapped and then tell you who it was from with a link to their blog if they have one. I will also tell you how I made my gift when it comes up. I'm having such a hard time not opening them now, I know one person couldn't wait, and they said we have some awesome gifts to open, that doesn't help me. I haven't decided if I'm waiting until Easter to open them or not. I do have an Easter basket that I gathered for myself, plus this swap, plus I might be getting together with my mom's side of the family on Easter, that's a lot to do on Easter, so I might just open them when I get them. What do you think?

Some art

Here's what I've done in artwork lately:
My collageatcs group did Vintage for December, and I had to use some of my new items laying around.
Starting at the top and going left to right: I used some 'packing tape' I bought at Micheal's for the background and then layered a piece of book on it and then the boy on the turkey from our package.
Next I took some patterned blue paper, colored the lady with chalk, glued her down. I also colored in a black strip on the edge and added the string of pearls. The pearl clusters in her hair are also something I bought at Micheal's. The string of pearls, and the lady were in the package.

On the next card, I layered a vintage dictionary page for a background, and then added the poufy wallpaper, which was in our package, I thought it looked a little dull, so I colored in some areas with black gel pen. The lady was also from the package and she's colored with chalks.

Starting on the bottom and going left to right: I used an old Bingo card for the background, rubbed some red distress ink from my supply swap on it, the beige card and the fish were in the package. The crown is also from my supply swap.

Lastly, the background wallpaper was in the package, I added a light blue paper and layered the Remember quote, which was also in the package.

I decopaged some tiny wooden bowls for a friend for Christmas, I've been reading on other blogs of people doing this and I decided to try it. I learned to use a thinner paper and use my hands a lot. They turned out pretty cute, and my friend loved them.

I'm still waiting on my stocking swap. I contacted the swap hostess and she was infuriated, and said she'd send me something, that was over 2 weeks ago.

I did sign up for a Valentine's Day swap, where you send things to each other. The hostess said she had the perfect person in mind for me and they would not flake out.

Swaps and thoughts

I joined two swaps this holiday season, one was a supply swap, the other a stocking swap.
I received my supply swap on December 11th, I was overjoyed it came so early.
In our packages we were to include:
1. 20 6" x 6" sheets of patterned paper
2. 5 charms or metal embellishments
3. an alphabet
4. 10 diecuts or punched shapes
5. 10 stamped images in black ink on white cardstock
6. a bling
7. 10 fibers/trims/ribbons
8. 5 small (1" or smaller) or 3 medium (1'" - 2") or a large (over 2") flower(s)
9. 3 journaling spots
10. a pocket or small envelope
11. A surprise.
I thought it was a great swap to join, it always seems other people's stuff is better than your own.
So, here's what I got from my partner:
You can see the pile or metal charms, and the flowers (way more than 5), there's a distress ink pad there, and a cupcake stamp, also 4 journaling spots, a rub-on alphabet, and the bling (self-adhesive crystals in the shape of a bird in a tree.

Here's a close-up of the metal embellishments (way more than 5), there's a key, some metal charms with words, the black things are roses, a butterfly, some photo corners, wings, a heart, a crown, and a blingy thing.

Here's a close-up of the flowers.

In this picture you can see some bottlecaps, the envelope (or more than one), some manila tags, the fibers, the diecuts, some chipboard (in, I believe, ATC size). I'm extremely giddy about using the chipboard, awhile ago, I ordered ATC sized chipboard through Etsy and decided it's great to use as a backing for my ATCs.

Here you can see a bunch of lunch bags, a chipboard book in the shape of a crown, a set of patterned paper (way more than 20), and the stamped images.

Here is some more chipboard, the card she gave me and a Christmas tag she made (also one of the requirements.

We were supposed to make a Christmas tag with a rubon on it, I love her tag, especially the jingle bell at the top, and whatever set of rub-on's she used.

And the last thing in my package was a set of white things. Each of these groups were in their own little container.

Also, if you noticed there's pink tissue paper as the background in each of these photos, that was included as well, and I'm also very tickled about it.

My other swap, the stocking swap, we were supposed to read each other's blogs and spend $10-$15 before shipping with a stocking on stuff our partner would like. These were supposed to be mailed by December 11th. I haven't seen mine yet. I waited a week before contacting the hostess about it. I tried emailing my partner during the swap with a question and never got an email back. I'm starting to believe I'm never getting a package back.

That annoys me and makes me wonder if I should bother getting in to swaps where we send directly to our partner. I'm also out the money I spent on her, her gifts and the over $10.00 in shipping. I'm not naming names, but I did just read one of her blogs that she posted yesterday, so she's still somewhere in the world.

On a positive note today, I got a mini Stampin' Up catalog in my mail, sent to me by Alicia, who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator in CA. I follow her blog and I'm sure I'm now in her Stampin' Up website database, but that meant a ton to me. Thank you Alicia.

Hope everyone's having a good holiday and Merry Christmas

Christmas swaps

I know it's been awhile, but here are a few things I made for some swaps I joined. The first was a card to go with a stocking swap. We were supposed to fill a stocking up with $15-$20 in gifts and send it out to our partner. Here's the card I made for my partner:
It's a red cardstock background. I layered a green patterned paper on top of it, and then added some glitzy buttons. The reindeer were from a pair of earrings I bought at a garage sale this summer. The snowflake stickers are from a set I bought at a garage sale as well. The "Happy", "Holidays" and snowflake buttons were purchased at Hobby Lobby.
This next one is a card I included with a supply swap.

Once again, it's a red cardstock background with a piece of green patterned paper layered on it. The snowglobe is actually a bubble and came in a sticker set with the "Let it Snow" sticker on top, I bought them at a garage sale this summer. The snowflake buttons I bought at Hobby Lobby.
This tag was one of the requirements in the supply swap. We were supposed to make a Christmas tag with a rub-on.

I started with a white cardstock background and then rubbed green and red inkpads over it. I took an old book page and rubbed red and green inkpads on that as well. The tree and "Merry Christmas" stamps are from a set of clear stamps that I bought at Jo Ann Fabrics, the jewels came with them. The red bow was in my stash.

I have also signed up to do a snowman swap that's due on Decemeber 19th.

I'm trying to not get too messy with my creations lately as I sliced my finger open washing a glass on Tuesday and had to get 7 stitches. If you want to see a picture (it's just the stitches, nothing gory), and read a little more about it head on over to my other blog here.