On The Twelfth Day of Christmas ...

I apologize for the delay on posting the 12th day... it was my own gift to the others in the swap... in other words, this gift is from me!

I'm not going to include a photo of the packaging primarily because I didn't take a photo of the packaging before I sent them out, but if you can picture this in your head: I took an ordinary envelopes (greeting card sized ... either A-2 or A-6), put my gift inside and sealed the envelopes. Then I wrapped the envelopes in Santa Claus-y wrapping paper, put stamps and a mailing label on them and sent them on their way. Nothing really all that spectacular, but, maybe a little more interesting than an average envelope. Right? Right? (make me feel better, would ya?)

Anyway, the ornaments that I made for the swap were made using a paper coaster base, which I then collaged. Each of the ornaments were a little different because I didn't have 12 of the same image to use. I wanted to create something utilizing items that I had on hand, and for the most part, I accomplished that. Here are some photos:

I hope that everyone liked the ornaments I made, I did put a lot of time into them and they were fun to create.

I look forward to next year's swap, and I promise that I shall put more effort and thought into the packaging! I promise!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas ...

Well, here we are at day 11, Christmas Eve! I can't believe how quickly time flies. Day 12 was my day, and I didn't wrap a gift for myself (I kind of knew what it was already...) So, I'll just be posting the photos that I have of what I made tomorrow.

But in the meantime, I'd like to share with you the gift I received from Annette! Annette decorated a cute little Kraft envelope and used that as her wrapping...


Nifty, huh? Inside the package was this very cool little ornament ...

It is a small piece of what I think is stampbord (although I could be wrong, Annette, if you're reading, I'd love to hear from you about the base of this ornament). This promptly went onto my tree, and it is full of decorations from this year and several previous years as well.

Maybe tomorrow I'll post a picture of the tree!

Until then, thank you very much Annette for this awesome ornament, I love it as well as all the other gifts I received this year. Thanks everyone for contributing to this swap and making it so awesome... and also thank you to Yooper for hosting the event!

On The Tenth Day of Christmas ...

*sigh* this exchange is almost over. I really enjoyed it though. I love all the gifts that I've received, not only are they wonderful additions to my holiday decor but they are inspiring me to push myself to do even better next year with my 12 days gifts. I do think my gifts were pretty cool, I put a lot of work into them, but, I wish I would have been more creative with the wrapping. But, woulda-coulda-shoulda ... you know? Can't do anything about that now.

For the tenth day of Christmas, we received a gift from Joanne. As you can see, her wrapping was incredibly clever ...


Yes! She machine stitched all the way around the paper to seal the package, and the tag is also machine stitched. Very clever, indeed. I was almost afraid to cut into the package, but I took extra care to make sure that the gift was on the opposite side of where I was cutting, and this is what I found inside (be prepared to say aww! Because it's really cute!)



The collage image has been printed onto fabric, and just in case you can't tell from the photo, the wire is all curly and beaded!

I think after the holidays, this little angel is going to find a permanent home in my studio. (I think I've just about gotten my hubby talked into moving his "man cave" into the garage, and then we will move the "family" room which is basically a computer room into my oldest daughter's old room (she moved out last week - I'm still very sad about it), and then turn the family room into my studio. This would work out wonderfully for me, because I've pretty much been doing my art work in the family room anyway, because the garage is just TOO DARNED COLD in the winter, and in the summer it's too hot. There are only a couple of weeks out of the year when it's a comfortable climate. And I want to do my artwork more than just a couple weeks out of the year!

Anyways... just one more gift to open (I didn't wrap my own gift to me) in this exchange ... I'll share it with you tomorrow!

Thanks, Joanne, this is a lovely little angel!

On The Ninth Day of Christmas ...

Running a little behind schedule today, everyone! Sorry about that.

For the ninth day of Christmas, Liane made gifts for us. Here is the festive wrapping


And inside was this cute little altered clipboard. I love it! Such a neat idea!


Thank you Liane for the clever gift, I just love it. I am happy to add it to the rest of my holiday decor.

I'll be back later today (since it's after midnight... I should technically be posting the tenth day of Christmas right now, but, as I said, I'm behind! I'll be back after a good night's sleep and share with you the gift we received for the tenth day of Christmas!)

Thanks, again, Liane!

On The Eighth Day of Christmas ...

Wow! Up to day 8 already! Today's gift came from Elaine ... and she too went all out with the packaging. This is an amazing package ...



A beautifully sewn envelope with a velcro closure. Awesome. I love this.

And inside, there was not just one, but TWO gifts! Here's the first, a cute ornament for the tree

Adorable!

And the second gift was a lovely fabric bookmark ...

Elaine, these gifts are fantastic, I love them both! The ornament is already on the tree, and when I have time to read (whenever that might be!) I will definitely be using the bookmark!

Thank you, Elaine!

On The Seventh Day of Christmas ...

It's 11 pm ... so I made it just under the wire to update my 12 Days of Christmas presentation here... sorry for the delay, but today has been busy, busy, busy!

For the Seventh Day of Christmas, we opened a plump envelope from Claudia! Inside the envelope, and serving as the fancy "wrapping" for the gift was a beautiful card. GORGEOUS card. Words cannot begin to describe just how lovely this card is, and although I will share the photo with you, the photo just doesn't do this card justice.

The background paper is an embossed, gold foil-ish kind of paper. Shiny and mesmerizing. It will be displayed proudly amongst my other holiday cards.

And tucked inside the card was this fantastic little ornament ...

Again, the photo doesn't do it justice. A beautifully sewn stocking for the tree. Love the fabric chosen for this, it is so festive and really, really lovely. It is now on my tree.

Thank you Claudia, I love these gifts!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas ...

Well, here we are at the halfway mark! This has been a wonderful exchange, and I've been so thrilled with everything I've received thus far. I'm so honored to be among such talent in this group, I find myself feeling a bit insecure and wondering if my gift will be as appreciated as I appreciate each of the gifts I've received. I hope so.

For the sixth day of Christmas, I opened a gift from Teresa. Her gift was especially fun to receive, because it was delivered in beautifully wrapped canister ...

Like I said, fun! It was hard not to open it right away, but I was good and waited. Impatiently waited, but I still waited. Tucked inside the canister was not yet the gift, but another fun wrap!

COOL! I'm loving the wrapping as much as I'm loving the gifts this year. So much fun. (And again, my art friends, I promise to spend more thought and time on the wrapping for the exchange next year! I promise!)

Tucked inside this funky, cool shaped package was this gorgeous pendant ...

Amazing. I know it's supposed to be a pendant, but I really don't wear jewelry much, so I am thinking about hanging it on my tree instead. I just love this, so sparkly and gorgeous ... beautiful.

Thank you so much Teresa. Love the packaging, love the gift. What a wonderful surprise!

On The Fifth Day of Christmas...

I don't know if any of you know this, but, I am also a tea reviewer... and I am also doing a 12 Day of Christmas Countdown there. My favorite tea company - 52Teas - offered a 12 Days of Christmas sampler last month and I have been writing an article a day about each tea that has been featured. If you're interested in checking that out, just click here --> SororiTea Sisters.

We are nearing the halfway point...

The gift for the 5th Day of Christmas was from Teresa!

Another pretty wrapping (hey ... group 3, I want to apologize for my wrapping... I did not get clever with the wrapping, I was just glad to get the packages out on time!) (for those of you not in group 3, I just wrapped an envelope with wrapping paper. It was pretty unoriginal, and not nearly as cool as these other packages have been)

OK... enough of that.

On with the package!

Cute!

And here is what was inside:


Absolutely precious! I really like this a lot. I have a little tiny easel that I'm going to put this on and display it on my shelf in the living room.

Thank you Teresa!

On The Fourth Day of Christmas...

Well, it's the fourth day of Christmas (well, I guess technically, the 12 Days of Christmas don't actually start until after Christmas, but, that would have meant waiting EVEN longer to open these gifts, and I'm not so good with waiting when it comes to presents!)

Anyway, today's gift is from Sherri. Another really cute package ...

Here is what the box looks like without the ribbon and tag ...

Really cute, huh?

And tucked inside this adorable box was a really clever ornament! (I love getting ornaments as these gifts!)

It might be a little hard to tell with the picture, but the "frame" of the ornament is done with a metal cookie cutter and it's backed with festive holiday paper (which you can, of course, see). I Love this!

Last night, we put up our tree (a little late, I know, but, this year has been a tough one for me ... but maybe I'll talk about that another time), and my tree now proudly displays this ornament (as well as many others ... almost all of them handmade!)

Thank you Sherri, what a beautiful gift, I love it.

On The Third Day of Christmas...

Another awesome package for the third day of Christmas ... this time, from Regina!

Today's packaging was a little simpler than a tree shaped box or stitched bag, but, no less intriguing or beautiful ... I love the tag!


And tucked inside was an awesome ornament! I love the colors on this one ... very bold and striking. Here is the "front" ... (or at least, what I've deemed the front) with its modern look ...

And the "back" with it's more vintage-y look. (although, to tell the truth, on my tree, the back would probably be more in keeping with the overall look of the tree!) ...

I absolutely love the ornament ... very cool! It will make my tree look all the better this year and for years to come.

Thank you Regina!

I just love this swap!

On The Second Day of Christmas...

Even though it's really early into the 12 Days of Christmas Swap, I must say how honored I am to be amongst such talented artists.

For the Second Day of Christmas, we opened a box from Barbara, and inside was the neatest little gift box! Check this out:

Clever, right? And yes, that is a spider adorning the box... it is a bit of foreshadowing of what is inside.

Tucked inside a beautiful bit of Joss paper, I found this beaded beauty:

Wow! OK, I'm not generally fond of spiders or other creepy crawling, scampering, or slithering bugs/insects ... but, this is one spider that is welcome in my house anytime. It's absolutely gorgeous!

A story accompanied this beautiful spider, telling the German legend of the Christmas Spider.

Thank you, Barbara, for such a wonderful surprise. This spider has found a new home, perched on the corner of my computer screen!

Thanks for reading!

On The First Day of Christmas...

As some of you know (if anyone actually still reads this blog, I know I've been MIA for quite some time and appear only now and then... certainly wouldn't blame anyone for moving on to other pastures, but, hopefully, I still have someone reading every once in a while!) Anyway... as some of you know, last year, I participated in a 12 days of Christmas swap with an art group with which I'm involved. It was so much fun that I decided to join it again this year.

Yesterday, we started opening packages... and for Day one, here is what I received ...

First, check out the incredible wrapping job!

I know, stunning, right? The package is a gift in itself! Love it!

Finally, after staring, totally amazed and mesmerized by the beautiful package for what seemed a good half an hour, I finally pulled the string on the bow to find out what was inside...

Another Stunner! Gwynn absolutely outdid herself. This will make a fantastic addition to my altered art Christmas tree, and I am so happy to have it. What a joyous gift it is!

Thank you Gwynn!

Mental Note to myself: Next Year, also come up with clever packaging for 12 days gifts!

Well, that's all for now, but tune in tomorrow to see what Day 2 has brought. Yes, I already opened that one, (since today, the 14th, is technically the 2nd day of this swap - we started it on the 13th, but, I wanted to do each blog post a day later so that the 12th day ends up on Christmas, plus it would give me ample time to actually compose the post!)

Thanks for reading!

An Altered Ballet Dress

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Well, this year for Halloween, we needed to economize a bit, so we couldn't go out and get a costume for our youngest the way we usually do. Instead, we looked to her closet, in which she has several "old" ballet recital costumes - these were worn only twice: once for her photo, once for the recital. And it seemed like such a waste! (Especially if you saw what we had to spend on them) I suppose I could have sold them on Craigslist but I doubt I would have gotten anywhere near what we paid for them.

Now, fortunately, for the ballet recital, they have a rental system where we rent out the costumes. It doesn't cost as much and we don't have a ballet recital outfit that she'll never wear again.

Anyway, this year, Lilith wanted to be a zombie. So she had her eye on several zombie costumes from Party City, but, we really couldn't afford to spend money on a costume (another outfit that would be worn once). So, my mind started thinking... why spend money on a zombie costume... when really what makes a zombie a zombie is their make-up ... there are no hard-core rules as to what a zombie wears.

So, I told her, either choose an outfit from her wardrobe that she wouldn't mind scuffing up (she has a dress that still fits but is a little worn), or choose one of her ballet recital outfits and we'll alter that and make it zombie-fied.

She chose the latter.

Here are some photos of her as a zombie before we altered the dress:

Cute... but, the dress looked a little too pristine to be a zombie outfit.

So... I altered it:


I guess I could have done more to it than just torn and discolored the tulle, I guess I could have scuffed up the velvet part as well, but, it was hard enough for me to cut, tear and discolor the tulle. The "conservative" parent voice inside my head kept reminding me how much I paid for this dress.

But... when all is said and done, she is REALLY happy with the result. This is the best Halloween costume she's had yet, and it is something that nobody else out there will have. There may be zombies, but none quite as cute! And, we saved about 40 bucks (which is what we probably would have paid for a new costume) in the process, and we probably wouldn't have gotten 40 bucks back from re-selling the costume on Craigslist. In my opinion, it's a win-win!

Hope your Halloween is a fun and frightening one!

Yeah, It's been a while...

But, I've been blogging, just not here. I've been keeping busy doing tea reviews. And ... coincidentally, drinking a lot of tea in the process.

I've not done a lot of art this year, but I am getting back into the swing of things. Lately, I've been working on fatbook pages with a travel theme. We're to do 32 pages for this swap. Each one of mine is a little different from the others... although they are pretty similar in the techniques and colors that I've used. The images is what makes most of them different.

Here's one of them ...


I'm pretty happy with them... I've invested a whole lot more time than I thought I would when I embarked upon this project... each page has a lot of different layers, and since I'm no jewelry artist, the chain embellishment work isn't a piece of cake.

But, it has been fun to be working on art again.

~Anne