Esther Luka's Fall Swap

Here's what I sent to my partner, Chrissy for the swap. You had to send a pocket letter or a flip book. I was looking at other people's swap videos, and I feel like I'm the only one who created a flip book. I've been having so much fun doing flip books lately, that I kind of miss pocket letters, mostly the goodies because I tend to decorate my flip books more than put goodies in them. 

We decided to do a fall rather than a Halloween theme.

 I chose to use some burlap looking duct tape for the binding, but it still wouldn't stick in some places, I don't know why. I used a lot of fall paper from that big all seasons 12x12 paper pad I picked up at Hobby Lobby, I also used a couple pages from a Halloween paper pad that weren't solely Halloween.
The background here is just brown, I put a strip of paper that says fall on the bottom. I actually waited to finish this page last because of how bulky that sunflower is. It's glued on with hot glue and I should have put it further up, but you know how it is when you have the hot glue and it's getting cooler, it just goes where it falls.
When you open it up:

 a few close-ups:

 This is the left page, this strip was from my stash, but there's a very similar paper in the 6x6 Halloween paper pad I picked up from Hobby Lobby, it's a pocket. The ribbon was in my stash, I believe it's from JoAnn's, it's kind of a twill ribbon. I fussy cut an extra acorn and turkey out from the background paper and layered them so they popped out. I also layered a plastic apple button on top of an apple in the background. I did put some goodies in the pocket on the side.

 I had a hard time with this page, mostly cause I forgot it was there. I was so intent on doing the inside pages, that when I flipped it closed and noticed I had to finish this page, I found it very hard to get inspired. I just ended up finding some Project Life cards that were fallish. I attached them with a washi I thought was kinda fallish as well.
When you flip up the top card:

Looking at it now, it looks pretty plain and I probably should have put something on it.
 When you flip up this card:

 And when you flip up this card:

 I used a brown ink pad to distress it a little bit.
When you flip this page to the right:

 Close-ups:

 I added this paper to create a pocket. The background paper was pretty but a little too busy for me. This paper was from a notebook in my stash, I just trimmed the bottom and a bit off the sides because it was a tiny bit too big. The caramel apples are actually out of the fall page above, I fussy cut them out and added the ends of toothpicks and attached them with foam dots.

 I really love the background on this page. It was a 12x12 page I bought singly cause I love the pattern. I also had a hard time with this page. The boy and his mother are from a book. The turkey, corn and pie are felt stickers. I'm a little low on alpha stickers, so I just wrote "time to eat" with purple sharpie and outlined it with a gold pen. I also added "Yummy" in gold alphas.
When you flip the middle page down:

 close-ups:

This paper just had words about fall on it. I added the journaling spot, it's actually a pocket page from Hobby Lobby. The alphas are from a sticker book from Walmart. Someone sent me the flowers, I believe they're from Micheal's. The ladybugs were in my stash. The pumpkins are from Darice sticker books except the one in the middle, that's from Hobby Lobby.

I did very little to this page. I just added the brown block at the bottom and added some vintage stickers from my stash.
Here are the handmade cards:

 We really only had to send one, but I made the Thanksgiving one, and thought it was kinda sad, so I made the other one, now I really like the Thanksgiving one.
Anyways, I'm not that great at cards. I just need to get one of those magazines that shows you how to layer paper to make really neat cards. If you look closely, you can see the layered paper on the Thanksgiving card is crooked, I'm not that great at straight lines either. I just layered some paper, a turkey sticker and spelled out "happy thanksgiving" in alphas. I always mess up the spacing when I spell things out.
The other one is a weird size, I had this pink polka dot paper on my desk so I folded it in half, added a couple of pink washi banners, a strip of washi tape from the Dollar Tree and a word sticker from Hobby Lobby.
This picture has my 5 samples of washi, 5 handmade embellishments, and 1 or 2 extras:

 I'm working on making embellishments, I thought these were cute. I don't have a lot of fallish washi, I thought these were the most fall I had in my stash. The sparkly orange at the top is from Target, all the ones on the card other than the brown one are from Dollar Tree. I'm not sure where the brown one is from.
I also included a caramel apple candle and some pumpkin ribbon.
Here are my paper sheets:

 I have a couple 6x6 paper pads, so I just gave her one of every sheet in both pads, they're kinda vintage looking. the 2nd and bottom rows are from the same pad, there's a vintage birdcage theme going on there. The top row is kinda like vintage/distressed notebook/ledger paper.
Here is my mug and stickers:

I also included this cute fox print I picked up from Target and some leaf doilies from TJ Maxx. The mug is red and filled with candy. I already had it wrapped up before I took the picture.

I really like what I sent to Chrissy, and I can't wait until Esther's next swap.
If you'd like to see what Chrissy sent to me, click here.

Esther Luka's Fall swap

I signed up to participate in Esther Luka's fall swap. I had seen some videos of her swaps and really wanted to participate in one. After a little hiccup, I received my package last week. We had to include a flipbook or pocket letter, a handmade card, 5 samples of washi at least 18 inches long, 5 handmade embellishments, 5 6x6 sheets of paper, 1 sheet of stickers, 1 mug or glass, and 1 or 2 extra goodies. 

Here's what Chrissy sent me.

 The tinkerbell pouch was filled with project life cards and washi tape.

Here's the mug, inside was this cute owl ornament
more goodies

 6x6 paper, 8x8 (maybe? I didn't measure) paper, stickers

 More project life cards, a couple handmade cards and a couple hedgehog napkins.
The project life have a vintage travel theme. I love her handmade cards, like I said in my last post, I kinda suck at cards. I don't know what I'm going to do with the hedgehog napkins, but they are so cute!

 tags, altered paper clips, flower, die cut
I really like these tags. The purple one is kinda hard to see but it's embossed with Chinese lanterns.

 This is how her pocket letter was wrapped

 And here's the pocket letter. She said it was her first one. I love it. It's more thanksgiving and harvest than fall, but I love it.

 The goodies: ribbon, stickers, tags, journaling spots, paperclips, and buttons.

And here's all the goodies laid out.

If you'd like to see what I sent Chrissy, click here.

Fall pocket letter swap

 I signed up to do a fall pocket letter on one of my FB groups. This is what I received from Barbara:

 And the goodies:

 There's washi, an altered paper clip, leaf punchouts, table scatter, stickers, a "W", letter, sequins, cupcake toppers and some flair.
Here's what I sent to her:

I wanted to make a tree scene. I feel I don't do as well when I do a full scene throughout the pocket letter. I think I'm better at each card separately.
I cut a tree out of yellow paper and colored it with crayons. I added leaf stickers on the top with an owl and bird sticker and "wonderful life" sticker.
I added a squirrel to the first card, a burlap leaf that I added some gold paint to and a butterfly sticker and then some bug stickers
The last row has a fox and mouse sticker. The second card has some pumpkin stickers and the last card I tried to create a leaf pile with leaves falling into it.
The goodies:

Some stickers, a button, washi samples, my note is in this notecard, I added a fall leaves ATC to this one, more of those burlap leaves, some stamped images, felt stickers, pumpkin stickers, a cut out and more stickers.

I originally was going to have this poppy tissue paper as the background, but it was too busy for me, so I used it as the back. I also added some burlap ribbon someone had sent me in a swap for the edge.

Birthday card

October 15th was my grandma's 100th birthday and because I'm such a stellar granddaughter I forgot about making her a card until the night of the 14th. 

 

 I had this "Happy Birthday" paper and added it to a project life card and backed it with cardstock.

I stamped my new stamp inside and colored her. I'm not very good at coloring. I added the candle to go along with the sentiment sticker which I had to add because when I used my self-inking "Handmade with love" stamp in the back it oozed out too much ink and bled through to the front. That stamp is from Dollar Tree, does anyone else have this issue? One side oozes out too much ink and the other side gives almost enough.

I didn't have an envelope, so I just created one by folding paper around my card, adding some washi and a sticker to close it.

I've been having a hard time making cards lately. That's why I try to buy stickers and paper that already have sentiments on them. Cards are just not one of my strong points.

Monthly Swap

Here is what I sent to Lisa.

I tried something new, I thought it'd be cool to make a flip book where the sides of the front opened, kinda like a door. Of course it didn't exactly line up when I got it all done, but that's the story of my life sometimes. I tried to use a lot of what I like on it.

 The die cut I got in one of my birthday gifts. The trim was in my stash. There are letter stickers at the bottom that say "Hello Lisa". I like putting the word Hello on the fronts of my flipbooks.
If you read my other blog, you know I love vintage lace, I also love die cuts even though I don't have a machine, people have sent me some, so that's what I use. The background paper is from Hobby Lobby.
Here's what it looks like when you open it:

 Those hot air balloons are from two different paper packs from Hobby Lobby. The camera ribbon is from JoAnn's. The flower stickers are from Dollar Tree, no idea where I got the quote sticker. The camera on the doily is from the front of an ArtC ephemera pack (I got that idea to cut up the pictures on packaging from Amy's Got a glue gun). The gold sticker is from Hobby Lobby and the donut stamp is from Target.
Some close-ups:

 The flower stickers are actually dimensional, but I separate the layers and use them. The bird one is from a different sheet and I just used the pot from the flower sheet. Don't we all just love this quote?

I loved the idea of fussy cutting the hot air balloons (I really like hot air balloons). I had a sticker that said "Life is an adventure", but it didn't really work, so I just stole the quote.

I really like how this 'doily' looked here. I also love sweets.
When you flip the middle down and the sides up:

More close-ups:

 I tried to glue a glass button on top of my banners, but it just wouldn't stay. I tried hot glue and then goop, but I don't know if it was the button or the tape. So, I just sent the button with the package. I saw this stamp in someone's haul video awhile back and wished I had it, only to find it when I was packing up. I believe someone sent it to me in a swap. It's great, I love owls and I love books, what could be better? I actually have a pair of earrings that almost looks like it, only my earrings have an open book below the owl. The flip flops are sticky notes, so I stuck a little stack on there.

 I love this little girl stamp, she was a little bit of a splurge when I went to Hobby Lobby one time, but she's just so cute. Also, I haven't been using a ton of stamps in my stuff lately, I need to start back up. I can't color her though, I suck at coloring. I also added a stamp of mini cupcakes.
I wanted to add my note on the above page, but when I went to fold it up, it was too bulky, so I had to move it. And it wouldn't stay closed.

 I added something to this top flap because it was way too plain, but I can't remember what it was. I had this project life card in my stash and just had to trim it down a tiny bit to get it to fit. I couldn't think of an answer for two of the blanks, so I left them alone.
Here's the middle:

 I used some vintage mother-of-pearl buttons for the side, cause I love vintage buttons (or just buttons). The glittery vine washi I picked up on clearance at Walmart a little while ago. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's very thin, and tears easily. It was hard to work with.
Flip the top card up:

 I used some of my sweet treat washi to stick these down, and some of my more favorite cards.
Flip this one up

 And flip the last one up

I really liked this heart, it's cut out of a bigger piece of paper, but I just wanted the heart.
Here's the back:

I never know what to do with my backs.

I love how it turned out and I hope she liked it too.

Next month (November) we're doing a girly loaded paper bag. I haven't done one with an actual paper bag, but I'm going to. We're also gonna have 3 altered paper clips in it. Now that I've started doing those it's so hard to stop.

Monthly Swap

Another wish I granted through CraftyLori's video on Youtube was to do a monthly swap with Lisa. She suggested we do a get to know you flipbook for the first month. Here's what she sent me:

 I got it before work and couldn't wait to open it, so this pictures are from my work desk. The flip book is on top, she added an extra goodie bag for me.
This is the contents of the extra bag

 Some cute envelopes and a set of postage mark stamps.
On to the flip book:

 I love how hers has the whole mail theme going on. I also love these little girl stamps, they're wicked cute.
When you flip it up:

 I love the tiny envelopes in the mailbox.
Flipping the tag and the envelope:

 The mailbox also flips up and there are some wicked cute tiny postcard stamped images. The card on the top is her mail tag, I will answer her questions in November's swap.
That paper in the bottom pocket is actually sticky notes. I didn't take a picture of what's in the goody envelope (Bad Wendy), it's got a bunch of little file folders with punches in them.
When you flip the paper over:

 That paper is tiny notebook paper with the striped washi and hello stamped on them.
When you flip that over:

 When you flip this whole page down:

 There is a letter for me in the top.

Very cute. I love it. I couldn't stop looking at it and had to show my housemate it, it was so cool.

Thank you so much Lisa!