Saturday, December 20, 2008

Ornament Swap

Last year I participated in an ornament swap (my first swap, actually) hosted by this wonderfully talented woman. Deb Damboise has a great on-line store that carries unfinished wood pieces to decorate, paint, and embellish any way you'd like and a variety of kits as well. This is a spool wreath kit (I lifted the picture from Deb's blog. This wreath was made by Laurie....of course I ordered one...how could you not?)

Deb also had twins in the past year but still manages to come up with new ideas for pieces and kits to make life easier for us! How does she do it? Amazing!

Here are some of the ornaments I received in the swap last year.



Hey Laurie-this is the star that you made. It started me thinking about the whole non-traditional Christmas color thing that I now love!This is the ornament that I made for the swap last year. The theme of the swap was "Sweet Ornament Swap" so I kind of ran with that. It says "Wishing you sweet "JOY" at Christmas. I love the word Joy....I try to keep joy in my heart all the time. (Sometimes that's easier said than done) Do you love the peppermint candy? It was made with a Quickutz die and glittered (of course!)This year's swap title was Winter Wonderland so I decided to do a snow themed ornament. I must have changed my mind 3 times about what to use but finally decided on this...


I bought plain white wooden snowflakes from Joann's last year after Christmas and I used that for my base. I cut a scalloped circle of scrapbook paper using a Nestabilities die. I can't remember where the little girl image was found. Isn't she sweet?
I cut her out (I always leave just a tiny white edge...don't know why, I just like the look of that) and used Stickles at her feet for snow and on the snowballs. While the stickles were wet, I sprinkled additional glitter. It's hard to see that in a picture, I know. Then, I just made a little "merry Christmas" label with a stamp and glittered that. Here are my ornaments, with a little chocolate treat, ready to be packed and mailed.Now for the best part!!!!!!!! Here are the ornaments I received this year.....

The first ornament that came was from Raechelle. Elegant and sparkly!





Laurie sent two ornaments, both of them beautiful! I tried to be artsy, taking pictures at night of the tree, you ought to refer to the larger group shot for a better look.Deb's wooden mitten ornament (wood-what a surprise!) is adorable with the sweet little snowman and the bejeweled wire hanger. The last ornament came from Michelle, a super talented artist from Washington. You can see that the snowman has a bingo marker button and mine is my age....35. (I wish!) Even the package was coolAren't all of these women talented and gifted? Go and visit their blogs..you will see some beautiful things. Thanks Group 1! I love them all!

Thanks Deb-the swap was great fun! Til next year....or you decide to do a Spring swap :)

If you have followed my blog from the beginning (OK, that would be my family and probably 3 other people) you have already seen these pictures but I thought I would post them again. These are 3 other shapes offered at Say It With Letters that I've made in the past year.





So, who could believe at the busiest week of the year, I would be posting on a regular basis? Do you know how much I have left to do? Am I crazy? OK-no answer needed on that one. Four posts in the past week...a new record for me!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Joyce, those are the sweetest ornaments and I love that spool wreath! How fun would that be in someone's sewing room year around. Your ornament is so sweet with the little candy center! I love that Etsy store with all the wood letters...really thinking strongly about the *P* (the fancy schmancy one)!

deb said...

Wasn't that fun?? I just loved all the ornaments and I love how each one is so different - snowflakes, snowman, mittens. Too fun. Thanks for playing again this year.

That Parcel shop looks like such fun. I do miss poking in little shops like that (kind of hard with a cadillac stroller and two little ones.) One day. :)

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas to you and yours. xo

Heidi said...

Hi Joyce! What a great ornament swap! I love seeing them all. Thanks for sharing the tip on how you cut images, leaving the thin white border, now that I look, it does really make the image (the girl in this one) "pop"! Love it, I want to go cut and past now!

Deb was one of the first bloggers I read! I remember praying for her before she got pregnant, and then through her pregnancy! Now we get to watch her twins grow! Darling children.

Hope you had a good weekend!
Hugs, Heidi

LaurieStar said...

Oh Joyce! What a thrill to see my name all over your blog! I have been without power for ten long days and life has been so bleak - I wasn't able to decorate, create or anything and I missed life as normal - blogging included. Thank you for all your sweet notes, gifts and pictures! I think you and I are kindred spirits across the miles!

michelle allen said...

I'm glad you liked your ornament Joyce. I too loved mine! I just finished up the chocolate bar yesterday... shhh. don't tell my family!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

marie said...

You got some super ornaments Joyce ~ and the one you sent was very nice too! I love the image you used. I bought some sparkly ornaments at an after Christmas sale and I would like to try soemthing similar to what you did ~ for next year of course!

American Homemaker said...

So adorable! I've never been in a swap :) but I think it looks like so much fun, I gotta try it!

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