Merry Christmas

I would like to take a moment to wish all of my family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy and Creative New Year!

Cherish the moments, for once they are gone, they leave us with WONDERFUL memories!!

12 Days of Christmas Swap - UPDATED 12/26/07

I hosted a 12 Days of Christmas Swap and had a fantastic turn-out. I had enough sign-ups to have 4 groups of 13 members each. Everyone received 12 different gifts back per group. So that means that during the month of November, I received MANY boxes containing a total of 624 gifts at my house!!!

Below are some photos of Santa Pea (me!), and my faithful Elves . . . . Chrissy and Maggi, swapping out these gifts! I will scan photos of the gifts I made at a later date!

Photo of the many boxes that I was stashing in my basement:


Organization Station: mailing labels, packing tape, Christmas cards, gift for outside of mailing box, as well as my master list of who was in each group:

Elf Maggi is pushing up her sleeves, getting ready to tackle the project. Elf Chrissy is looking at the master list, saying "You've GOT to be kidding" . . . . . ROFL!

The Elves are working on a plan of attack!

WooHoo - we have started organizing the first group!!!

And now Group 1 is done, except for the packing into mailing boxes!

Santa Pea is hard at work taping boxes, adding labels, and the special gift to each box!

Here are just SOME of the boxes ready to hit the Post Office:

Here is the gift I made for an embellishment on the outside of the mailing boxes. It can be seen in the photo above. I encased it in clear plastic and attached with packing tape :



Here are all the finished boxes!! Santa Pea insisted on creating a tree with them - even added a Santa tree topper! This picture would not be complete without our faithful side-kick, Deuce, the brown-nosed Retriever!


And here are the workers - Santa Pea, Elf Chrissy (sitting), and Elf Maggi:

And here is a GREAT after shot! We enjoyed some lunch, a birthday celebration for Maggi's November birthday, and Chrissy's St. Nick birthday - and then some chocolate and WINE (Beringer, of course!!!)

1st of the 4 different sets of gifts I made:

2nd set of gifts I made (closed):

(open):

3rd set of gifts I made:

Altered two drawer box (perfect size for ATC's)

Advent Images - UPDATED 12/26/07

On one of my groups, Trish is posting an image per day for the Advent season. I decided to make an accordian book using each of the images. I will be attaching all 4 panels together once complete.

Day 1 - Cover

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Accordian Panel 1

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Accordian Panel 2

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Accordian Panel 3

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23:

Day 24:

Merry Christmas:

Final Accordian Panel:

Complete Book:

Fiona's Tin

Fiona sent out some tins she had multiples of, with the hopes of getting some ideas on how to alter them. I was one of the lucky recipients and below is what I created. I will be returning this tin to her as a gift :)

I had this wonder copper embellishment that was crying out to be used . . . . but in order to do so, I needed a hole in the cover of the tin. I gave it my best effort with an exacto knife, but soon realized I would still be working on it NEXT December. I asked Craig to do what he could - and he was able to create the perfect hole for me. I then covered the top, bottom, and sides with alcohol inks and my copper Krylon pen. Next I added the copper embellishment:





Below is the "port hole" opened:



I cut two pieces of card stock to fit the inside, stamped on them and glued them down. Added a couple of embellishments on the left side. The right side has a stamped acrylic piece mounted on some great background paper I received in the backgroun swap! Added a swirl and the copper piece on the bottom reads "expect miracles"



I hope you like it Fiona! It was lots of fun to create!