My Swap with Mary-Part 2

I promised to show you the things I sent to Mary for our one-on-one swap and include a tutorial for the handmade item. I chose a wooden house shape from Say it With Letters (one of my favorite resources).

The quality of these pieces is excellent and I never even have to sand them. I think the hardest part of any paper piecing project is choosing the papers to use. Once I decide on the papers, the work goes relatively quickly. These were the papers I picked for Mary's house.

I like to mix patterned paper with text paper or sheet music and also ledger papers work well with patterned papers also. I love that ruler paper and thought it would work out for the roof line.

It was coming together nicely. I wanted to add a door to hang a wreath on but the

 proportions were not quite right...

I decided to turn the house into a birdhouse....

Here are the wreaths...one for the fall and one for winter. They were made using stamps from Papertrey Ink (another favorite resource) stamped onto cardstock and then mounted on cardboard from a cracker box (the perfect weight, right Elizabeth?)

You can see that I've used small pieces of hook and loop dots (Velcro) on the back of each wreath... there is also Velcro on the front of the birdhouse. This way, the wreaths can be changed out at the seasons.

So that the wreath not being displayed doesn't get lost...on the back of the birdhouse there is more Velcro to store the extra wreath...

Mary needed a tenant for her new birdhouse so I covered a chipboard bird with

some patterned paper and attached it to the front of the house.

Next some details were added. Stamped flourishes were next and a bingo marker with the #26 which is Mary's real house number. Here is the fall look with the twig and berry wreath...

and the winter look with the leaves and berries...

Take some time to visit Deb at Say it With Letters. She has a large variety of wooden shapes and letters in different fonts. Any piece can be cut in sizes ranging from very small to very large. I have been using Deb's products for years now and am always delighted, and, she's a heck of a sweet lady, too!

The other items I sent in Mary's package..some birdie stamps and chipboard birds for Mary to play with..

Chocolate...can't craft without it!

A pretty blue china plate and a bird in a nest...Mary loves blue flowers...

A cute original pumpkin sketch by the uber talented Mchelle Palmer, whose art is amazing!

One on one swaps...they're great fun!

Thanks again Mary, I really enjoyed our little Fall Swap!

xoxo

Joyce