Silver Bella Vintage Circus Fat Book Swap

One of the most fabulous things about being a Bella is the mega swaps that were started last summer. Some of the swaps were mailed in ahead of time and some were brought directly to the convention. The Vintage Circus Fat Book is definitely one of the most amazing swaps I've had the opportunity to be a part of. Hosted by Wanda of The Rat's Pajamas, fifteen participants each created fifteen 5x5 inch pages. We mailed these in ahead of Silver Bella, so Wanda could put them together for us. The front of my page is on the right (the backs of the pages were decorated as well).

All pages can be seen on Silver Bella's flickr!

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Green and Yellow Basket

Can you believe May is almost here? It's creeping up soon! I love all the delicious swaps ArtsyMama has conjured up for her Year of Color blog, and the May Basket swap is the latest in a long line not-to-be-missed fun! I've been dreaming up and slowly stirring up the pieces of a basket of little treats for my swap partner. I used a new basket, then grunged it up nicely to an age old patina, then embellished with vintage millinery.
Shall we peek into her basket?

Some pretty ribbons an leaves around a sweet surprise...

A little polka dot crepe reminscing April's color theme...

Gold noblesse and vintage berry picks

Can you guess who it might be for?

Lucky me, my own basket arrived this week- just stuffed beyond capacity with the BESTEST goodies. Kari herself put this one together. I found new treasures every time I sifted through.

Some of her pretty wallpaper, a handmade book, the embroidered table runner, a house sachet from etsy, the nutcups are even filled with tiny bits of ribbon and vintagey bling!

And a little packet of papers with my name on it! Muchos Gracias, Grazie, and Thank you Kari!

Garland Swap Spoiler

OK, Kathy, no peeking. I warned you!

One of the best parts of being involved with ArtsyMama's (Kari) A Year of Color blog is being able to participate in swaps with other mixed media artists. I almost skipped this swap, but being as banners are just one of my things, I caved at the last moment. The swap turnaround time was very short, so we had to contact our partner quickly to determine colors and themes. Kathy, of Country Chintz, told me she liked one of Kari's "Nest" banners and a blue-grey, vintage look. I'm not sure if I got the blue-grey color, but it is a nice soft blue. I had saved several boxes from the SweetHearts candies to make these pretty shadow boxes. Each piece is dimentional with lots of vintage texture and a bit of subtle sparkle. The original concept of a SweetHearts shadowbox banner came from Teresa McFayden's Winterbella E-zine. (Love those bellas!)

It will be on it's way to you soon, Kathy! And for anyone else interested in a Year of Color, you can still join us and catch the next swap- May Baskets!

Valentine Swap

Aren't I the luckiest? My sweet partner in ArtsyMama's Valentine Swap was the very darling Beshka She put together a wonderful package- including beautiful handmade earrings and a fun, kitschy plastic J tied up with vintage laces and pretty pink millinery leaves.

Here is the whole box- the pretty bird is now in my valentines vignette, chocolates (already opened in the picture-did I mention my children were watching?), earrings, a fun plastic red heart full of buttons and clips, and one of juliecollings' great art boxes. Thank you dearest Beshka!

Melting Marshmallows

I am participating two new banner swaps (Hot Cocoa and Candy Cane). I am creating the "H" and a blank for the Hot Cocoa set. (We use blanks to start, finish, and separate words on a banner). I chose to create a crepe rosette dusted lightly with mica flakes. Center round is old German print, then a Cricut Storybook H and snowflake brad. Background is a candy stripe red ribbon and swirl, again from Cricut Storybook.

The blank uses Cricut Joys of the Seasons Ice Skate, with silver blades! Chalked to age, assorted scrapbook papers, prima, doodlebug velvet brad, and some craft pom-pom trim. I hope my swap partners are pleased.

S is for Spooky

I'm hostessing a banner swap at my favorite site (Scrapshare). My favorite group is the Spooky Banner. Each participant in this particular group creates eight each of their chosen letter (there are two decorative "blanks" at each end) and I swap everyone's set out so the participants end up with one each of the blanks and letters to spell out Spooky. Color scheme is black, white, and orange. This was my first time sewing on paper- it went real well, til the bobbin ran out of thread, and then the whole machine started squeaking. Must remember to oil soon. I used SCAL to cut out the "S" in Oklahoma font. Black Market paper for the background, as well as Bazzill. Pink Paislee provided the stamp, while the tulle came from Bazzill's new line of embellishments (must get more colors!)
I can't wait to show off the whole banner. (Shhh...I'm liking this piece so much that I might just recreate the entire spooky banner in this style for a RAK!)

Count Down to Vacation

Tomorrow we will be on our way to North Carolina! My whole family plus one father-in-law packed into our van, along with our clothes, snacks, and a boatload of scrapbooking goodness. I promised I'd share pictures of the finished packaging for my goodie bag items for the retreat participants. (I'll have to get a picture of my decorated goodie bags, as our hostess Amanda insisted we have one. I was down to last minute, so I have a lovely decoupaged Target redbag.)
Here are the finished sets. I wish I'd had a bunch of glassine envelopes available instead of the sandwich baggies, but I made do. Each is made in the favorite colors of the recipient.

This one here is for our hostess Amanda
More lovelies. I cut the ice creams from Basic Grey's cupcake papers
This one is for Theresa, who invited me into the group. She likes purple, can you tell?
I know it's Kendra's on the left, but can't remember who the other is for. Thank goodness they all have names on the back!