A Swap For All Seasons-March.... My gifts from Jan

Well, I think all of us in the US (at least the Midwest and East Coast) are about fed up with Winter this year. I know we have had over 55-inches here in Southwest Pennsylvania.  But consider my new friend, Jan Smith, of Jan's Arty Junk. She lives in the UK where they have been having record rainfalls and flooding. Please take time to visit Jan's blog (click on her blog name above) She is a talented artist and Tim Holtz style wizard. Fab.u.lous!

Anyway, I couldn't wait to receive her package and let me just say that my pictures don't nearly show the detail of her very fine work!

Look at the spool...

Isn't that clever?
Then there is the oodles and oodles of sunny yellow craft gems...
beads, buttons, ribbon, papers, stamps, parasol...bits and bobs...

I am swooning over the Easter egg napkin. I want to try my hand at some napkin decoupage using that napkin,  the details are lovely.
Jan, thank you very much for your creative gifts and for sharing them with me.
I have loved being your recipient and I hope we are partnered again soon!
As soon as I hear from Francie that she has received my package, I'll show you what I sent to her.

xoxo
Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons-February, Part II-what I sent to Marti

Marti was my "mail-to" person this month and I was a little bit intimidated at first..

Marti is a Class A paper artist...she does beautiful work and teaches at Paper Tales, in San Diego, which is wonderful shop known for it's great assortment of paper goods and renowned group of instructors. Marti's blog is called Artful Curiosities and you really should take a bit of time to visit.

I always like to snoop around visit the blog of the person I am creating for, it gives me an idea of what they might like. When I visited at Marti's blog I discovered that she is a Marie Antoinette lover! There are several different Marie swap groups around and she participates regularly in those.

I hunted around for some appropriate images and this is what I came up with...

a chipboard hanging tag with paper, a doily and some digital embellishment..

The tag is digital but the button is real. Can you read the sentiment on the tag?
My attempt at a little Marie humor!

On the back of the tag, I added a little unknown to me fact....

On the card I used another image of Marie...very ornate...

The card and tag were fun to make. I liked the little challenge of finding something Marti might find appealing. Then there was the destash...I have lots of red!

I think we are all enjoying these monthly swaps. Each month there are some new swappers joining in and maybe some regulars taking a break. You can come and go with this one. The assignemnts are already given for March, but if you go to A Swap For All Seasons, on March 1, you can sign up for the April Swap. Our darling leader, Linda, gives us lots of inspiration almost every day and on the 15th of the month, there is a drawing for some free treats!

Have a great weekend everyone...hope it's sunny where you are!

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons...January...Thinking of You

We are in Month 4 of our year long swap at 

A Swap For All Seasons.

Our assignment each month is to send our designated person (and this changes every month)

a card, a tag and some stash from our collection (nothing newly purchased) in a specific color.

You can jump in any month and participate...sign-ups are always the first day of the month.

You can read about the swap with the guidelines here. It's too late to sign up for the February swap but if you come back on February 1st, you can sign up for the March swap.

Our theme for January was Thinking of You and the color for the month was blue.

 Bev had my name for sending. Bev and I are the 2 Pittsburghers in the swap. We met some years ago when we both worked at a local scrapbook store, which has sadly gone the way of many independent scrapbook stores.

Bev is a great card maker and has been on a design team or two.

The package she sent was all wrapped in sewing pattern tissue, plus a box sealed with Washi tape and a dear little matchbox. .

A cute card with a sweet little girl on the front....she does look like she's thinking of you.

The tag coordinated nicely. 

Inside the matchbox was an assortment of buttons, tiny blue flowers and some felt do-dads.

The stash that Bev sent for me was some old Bingo cards, dyed seam binding in a beautiful shade of blue and some rick rack!

If that wasn't enough, Bev also sent me this gorgeous necklace that she made from an old key of some type and some repurposed gems from another piece of jewelry! I love this!!

Thanks for being such a generous "donor", Bev. You made this month very special!

Wendy was the person whom I created for this month. I think it was her fist time swapping with our group and I hope it was a good experience for her.

This is the card and tag I made for Wendy...

Blue is one of my favorite colors so this month was fun for me. I love that little girl image...

and I managed to work in  a paper doll stamp on the tag.

The stash was an assortment of vintage images, button card and a package of blue card blanks.

I hope you will consider joining in on this swap. We do have a lot of fun and I've met some wonderful crafters from all over!

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons...December...from Lorraine,and a surprise package from my friend Mary, of Primitive Seasons

So much beauty has arrived on my doorstep this past week!

The theme for A Swap for All Seasons this month, as I mentioned in my last post was Happy Holidays and the color for the month was green. One card, one tag and some green destash!

My "green" package came this week from Lorraine of Over the Rainebeau (so clever).

I didn't know Lorraine before this swap but now I'm stalking following her blog.

You really need to hop over (click on her blog name) and see her beautiful work...her free images...and her Etsy Shoppe. 

So...the card that Lorraine made...

(click to enlarge pictures)

Beautiful image, ribbon, snowflakes and twine.

The Tag...

The layers are all fantastic and the glittery snowflake at the bottom is perfect!

Th Goodies..

Sparkly embellishments, die cuts and images galore. So much fun stuff to play with!

I use the wire bird cage in the dining room to display all of the handmade cards I receive.

Thank you Lorraine, I am so glad you were my "donor". Your talent dazzles me!

Our next swap is "Thinking of You" and the color for the month is blue.

Now, you can see a third card on the bird cage. That was part of the surprise package I received this week from my blogging friend, Mary, of Primitive Seasons....another extremely talented paper artist! Mary is the type of artist who sees a new crafting tool and likes it...buys it...and uses it right away to create beautiful things, unlike me, who buys something and then lets it sit for a long time to allow it to get used to being in my craft room before I take the steps to learn what to do with it! I've been following Mary's blog for several years and she always wows me with her stuff. In the last month or so, Mary showed some slippers she made using beautiful Graphic 45 scrapbook papers and embellishments. I wrote to tell her (probably with drool on the computer screen) how much I admired the slippers.

This week, a box came from Mary and inside...

Are these not stunning?! Look at the detail...

Look at the lace and trim, pearls and satin ribbon, rosette and leaves...and you did notice the paper used as the innersole...fairies?

AND, as if the slippers were not enough of a Random Act of Kindness...

A heart, with a handmade rose, gorgeous layered butterfly and a stamped quote from a Beatles song titled The End. Mary didn't even know I was a Beatles fan.

Enclosed with all of this wonderfulness was this card...(with a gracious hand-written message)

The detail on this card is hard to convey in a photograph. The layering, embossing, glittery embellishing, all of it gorgeous. Almost every element on this card is raised with spacers making it very dimensional!

This is the most glamorous owl I have ever seen!!

How lucky am I? Two delightful packages, tied up with string, holding what has become some of my favorite things!

Thank you Mary...I am so happy with your generosity and talent!

And now, back to decorating....

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons...December...Green

I am participating in a fun, monthly swap that started in October of this year.

A Swap For All Seasons

is a swapping blog, designed and maintained by Linda Smith...hostess extraordinaire!

Each month we are assigned someone to design a card and a tag for and also send one destash item.

Likewise, someone (not the person you are sending to) will be making and sending items to you. It's easy and lots of fun and I'm meeting some really talented women.

The interesting part is that there is a theme and a color each month to make it challenging . If you were ever interested in getting your feet wet with a swap,this is the one to start with. Hop on over to the blog and read about it. All of the guidelines are there. Just click on the link in my first paragraph.

The next sign-up is December 1st (and just for that day!) and  the theme will be

 Thinking of You and the color...my favorite...blue.

The Theme for December was Happy Holidays and the color was green.

My partner was the sweet and crafty (in a good way)

Susie Alles of  South City Hues. Susie has been my partner before and I loved creating for her.

The card I made...

.

Susie's favorite color is green...made it easy!

The tag...

Ice skate image, cut twice and used to make the skates and some of the holly leaves dimensional.

Except for the background papers, all of the elements of the card and the tag were digital. Of course, glitter was involved and a little paper rose on the card...

For the destash, I sent a big bunch of lovely dark green vintage seam binding and some other papers that I failed to photograph. All wrapped and ready to go...

(lunch bag, doilies and green garden twine from Home Depot!

Every month...so much fun...love this swap!

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons...November, My gifts for Linda

Still in November here...my partner was the lovely and talented Linda,of Lambsworld.

Our paths have crossed before...we were partners in another Swap For All Seasons swap 4 years ago. I have dug out that post here. We altered and exchanged Altoid tins. I had never done that before but it was lots of fun.Linda does beautiful work and she loves vintage things so the bar was set high.

I didn't make a traditional card but instead made a pocket.

Two patterned papers to make the pocket itself...

and then trimmed it out with a paper doily and some vintage seam binding and a teeny heart stick pin.

Tucked inside was a copy of a vintage photo... 

a button card...

and some Birthday wishes...

After I completed the pocket, I couldn't find an envelope it would find into, so I put it in a glassine bag.

I made the tag using an image that you have probably all seen...

"be silly & have fun" is a motto I subscribe to. Doesn't she just make you giggle just a little?

I attached a silver Birthday candle with some Washi tape. (Gosh, I love those chubby knees!)

The destash...

ribbons, ric-rac, some laces and a tiny paper sack.

(Are you wowed by the fact that I photographed all of this on my favorite brown plaid tablecloth?)

That's it....my brown package for Linda.

Next month is green for Christmas and I'll be making things for the sweet lady who was my very first A Swap For All Seasons partner. This will be fun!

Thanks for visiting my blog. Don't be afraid to leave a quick Hello so I know you were here.

Next up, I'll show you some pictures of the Craft Show and I think there will be a giveaway!

xoxo

Joyce