Craft Swapping

Our first craft swap of the year was another success!

There were seven of us this time around, but a few of us made eight things because we didn't know one of the members moved away. (It's okay, though, her things will be mailed to her.)

Let's see, we have a place to take notes (made from a glass frame), play with chalk on a black canvas (with our initial written in chalk), set a glass on (a hand-sewn coaster), three new bracelets to wear, two plants, a coloring book (which I made), and a diorama.

The succulents are special because one plant came from my sister-in-law's mother's house. She passed away recently, so we'll take extra care to see it grows up strong and full. The other succulents are from the garden of one of the members. She cultivated them for a long time and sprinkled sea shells on the soil. I really love them.

The bracelets, made by my daughter Dawn, are adorable and easy to wear, not noisy or heavy, even though every other one is made of sparkly glass.

The dioramas, made by my daughter Valerie, were made with wood, which was woodburned, painted and decorated with all sorts of things like sand, twine, and miniature trees and bushes.

I made these coloring books. I started with a pre-made blank book and then stamped each page with images I thought would be fun to color. For the covers, I stamped, cut out Julie Nutting paper dolls I thought matched the personalities of those I made them for, adhered them to the cover and then put their names in the corner. I also included a piece of cardstock to use as a backing for whatever page is being colored so it doesn't bleed through to the next page if they use markers (Dawn's great idea!)

The books were very time consuming, but it was fun. I'm not sure I would make them again.

This is my haul. I'm so happy we all got together and shared a meal and few laughs.


Here are links to just a few of the stamps I used throughout the coloring book:

 

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Watercolor and Mixed Media

These are the watercolors I still can't believe I did for our craft swap. I really like how they turned out.

I stenciled these glassine bags to wrap them in.

I also stenciled a shadow-like image on each one.

There was a lot of ink left on the stencil, so I pressed it onto white cardstock and will use the prints for future projects. The craft swap was a lot of fun and I received some wonderful art in return.

Gotta get this blogging thing down pat

My daughters keep reminding me that I have a blog, thanks, girls!

I have discovered that blogging is like crafting, you don't know how much goes into it until you try it yourself. I so admire people who update their blogs on a regular basis. Of course, it helps if you have something to say that others will actually find interesting. My life is on the ho-hum side, witnessed by my only two followers here, and they're following just because I'm their mom. Gotta work on getting more of a life, I guess.


Other than working and piddling around the house, there's not much going on. I've done a bit of crafting for an Oz swap on Craftster (the pendant you see if from my last Oz swap, I love it!), but even that has tanked. My swap partner, who lives in Spain, flaked, haven't heard hide nor hair of her since the end of February. I was just about ready to mail the stuff anyway (because I'm like that, yo), when I decided, no, dern-it, I'm not gonna do it. So I posted on Craftster to let everyone know I was flaked on and was just gonna keep the stuff I made. The organizer stepped up and volunteered to do a personal Oz swap with me, so I'm stoked again, yet still a bit cautious about the whole thing. I'll exhale when I receive in about a month.

I had a pretty good week, made better by the fact that I was able to enjoy lunch with my sister Martha (and Dawn, too!). AND I got paid on Thursday, so that's always a day-brightener. Dawn and I attended her church's Easter service last night and I really enjoyed it. I sure miss hearing and singing those good ol' hymns from real hymn books, though. Got to see Martha again along with her hubby, who sang his heart out in the choir.


Oh! And I had a wonderful conversation with my best friend Lauri's mom who lives in Missouri. (Picture is Lauri, her mom and 3 boys.) She's the closest thing to an aunt that we had growing up, more like a second mom now that mine is gone.




Hoo-kay, That's it for now. This Easter bunny has to hop to it and find something to feed the family. I'm sure enjoying the sunshine!