Fantasy Creature Swap round up

Back in July I tried to organise a fantasy creature swap. I don't know if I picked the wrong time of year or whether the topic was uninteresting but I only had 3 people sign up by the deadline. As one was from the US, I took that and gave the 2 British girlies to each other. A Hungarian asked to join in after the deadline. I decided to let her join in and partnered her with me too.


The two British girlies were Louise of Nanuk Jewellery and Hannah of Squintessential, both fellow folksy sellers. Hannah makes gorgeous fantasy themed jewellery from silver clay and Hannah makes all sorts of quirky and fun jewellery (but I know from facebook is a fantasy nut!)


To see the gorgeous dragon pendant and wolf and other goodies that Louise sent Hannah click here.

To see the yummy beaded dragon set Hannah sent Louise click here.


Sorry to report that for me came disappointment. Despite several email reminders etc I have heard nothing at all from the two international participants since I allocated swap partners. Oh well. I'm not naming and shaming or anything but it has put me off organising a swap in the future- and if I do I prob wont have it open internationally. At least it was only me who lost out not others.

Well, this is what I sent to them. I made them both polymer clay dragon pendants (which were inspired by the work of Christi Friesen after reading her fab book).

Maybe the goodies never arrived- which would explain why I never heard from them- although I did email them to let them know I had posted them.

Folksy Swap

The wonderful Amie organised a swap over on the folksy forums. No rules other than to send something worth at least £5. I received this wonderful parcel from Bonnita the other day.

   

  

Bonnita has several folksy shops. The very useful coffee cozy with the adorable kitty pompom charm came from MoMoaby and the pretty heart pendant came from Juicimoon. She also has other shops here and here, website here and facebook here. Thank you so much! I love my goodies

I'll show you all what I sent when I know its arrived. I sent it on Friday so it should have arrived by now...

Button Swap

My wonderful buttons have arrived in noodleBubble's button swap. This is a continuing swap so you can still join in. Here's what I got (from the lovely Layla of "my life is...") . These fantastic buttons came beautifully wrapped.

Aren't they brilliant. Some creat colours and patterns and materials. I especially love the little pencil and whale. I think I accidently deleted the pic of the buttons I sent, but you can see them here.

If you'd like a surprise 15 buttons, dig out some and sign up for the swap. Its great fun. I'll prob join in again!! Thanks Lisa for organising it.

Fantasy creatures: craft swap sign up

Welcome to my first ever craft swap!! I've been wanting to host one for a while now so here goes...

I love fantasy!! Books, movies, artwork, clothing....all things fantasy really. My favourite fantasy creatures are dragons. For this swap you will make your partner some kind of fantasy creature. There's all sorts you could choose from: nymphs, faeries, trolls, sprites, gnomes, hydras, mermaids, unicorns, banshees, succubus, vampires, werewolves, gremlins, elementals, orcs, yetis, centaurs, griffins, phoenix, sasquatch, cthulhu, monsters,.......anything goes!

Who wants in? This will be open internationally so do let me know if you would prefer to post to the UK only. As a minimum you will be required to make your partner some form of fantasy creature creation and also send them a few crafty goodies. If you want to do more then feel free. The deadline for sign ups will be Friday 9nd July. I'll get your partners details out to you by Monday 12th and then you'll have until the end of August to post out your parcels. Nice long time to think and create- what with it being the summer hols.

If you want in then please email me (gkessel [at] mail [dot] com) the following information. (If you could pop 'fantasy swap' in the message subject bit it will make my life easier.)

Name:

Address:
Blog/shop/twitter address:
Likes/Dislikes (including allergies!):

I've already set up a flickr group for us all to use to share our creations and for inspiration. So far there's the blog button and dragons I've previously made in there. If you're after further inspiration, have a look at the Folksy Friday I did last week. I've also set up a discussion topic in the flickr group to share links to amazing inspiration if you happen to find any.

Sign up is now closed.

ps. Thanks to Vonnie for her wonderful blog post about how to organise a swap.

pps. Have you entered my giveaway yet?

Green swap received

Bit slow on this posting about this- sorry! I received my fantastic green swap goodies from Jen over at TheMadHouse last week. Look what I got!! Well worth the wait.

A couple of pre loved books- Cottage Gifts (great little book- cute and quaint!) and My Sister's Keeper (not read but looking forward to).

A tropical fabric wallet filled with yummy goodies:

Two broaches pinned onto old Happy Families cards. One's a sweet puffy pink, orange and white flower and the other is a gorgeous enamelled turquoise flower. Look at the back of the cards they were pinned on- such a good idea!

Also a matching fabric business card wallet and some old sew on gems.

And a china teacup candle. Looks great on my conservatory table and smells great. Can't quite place the scent but I like it!!

This swap has been great fun. Thanks Jen for being a fantastic swap partner and also thanks to  Emma and Rachel over at that little bit greener for organising it.

ps. Have you entered my giveaway get?

Green swap sent

Jen over at TheMadHouse has received the bits I sent her for the green swap organised by Emma and Rachel over at that little bit greener. I was a lot headachey when I parcel up Jen's bits on Mon so I didn't write to her why each thing was green. Well now I know its arrived I can let her and everyone else know.  Here's what I sent:

The bits I made for the swap:

A crocheted basket made from yarn made from charity shop tshirts. I used this excellent tutorial to make yarn from a black and a green tshirt, crocheted 8 granny squares and stitched them together into a basket.

A phone/camera/other thingy sock. This was made from an orphaned sock of mine- thoroughly laundered! After at least a couple of years, I have finally given up its partner spontaneously turning up so chopped off the foot, stitched up the bottom and added a button and elastic closure. So.... give it a week before the missing sock turns up? If it does I shall make myself one of these too as I was rather reluctant to part with it!

Rescued shell bead bracelet. A couple of years ago I was in 'East' and they were selling broken jewellery off really cheap. I was drawn to a broken cuff bracelet. Several of the shell beads had snapped at one of the holes. I have skinny wrists so I was intending to remove the broken beads and restring as it was. unfortunately, when I removed the broken beads, it was too small for me so the beads went into my stash until inspiration hit. And it finally hit the other week! I made 2 articulated bracelets using silver plated head pins. One went to Jen in the swap and the other can be found in my folksy shop if you're interested.

Other bits I sent:

I usually like to send chocolate for my swappee and family but with the recent hot weather I didn't think it would be a good idea (turns out the weather turned so it would have been fine). I am fortunate enough to be a chocolate taster!! Yes you read that right. I'm a member of the mars panel. Every once in a while they send me a questionnaire to fill in and very occasionally I get to test products. The last product testing I did was for galaxy bubbles before it was launched. They sent me 12 bits of choc in various shapes for me to taste and evaluate and as a thank you for all this strenuous work they sent me some vouchers too! I sent these to Jen so she and her minimads can pick whatever choc/sweets they want.

I also sent various bits and pieces- they're in the basket. Ribbons, fabric scraps and metal flower shapes. The ribbons were cut off tops- you know the hanging loops that just get in the way; the fabric scraps came from our local scrap store; and the flowers were rescued from a broken lantern. Hope Jen can find a good use for them.

I thoroughly enjoyed pondering and making for this swap so thanks Emma and Rachel for organising it. Jen got delayed with half term so my parcel will be coming later. I don't mind- much more important for Mum to spend half term with her boys than make bits for me!

Pincushion swap goodies

Yesterday the postman arrived with my pincushion swap goodies from Vonnie. Yay! The timing was almost perfect, in that I was just about to leave the house. Good in that I didn't miss the postie and bad because I didn't have time to open it before I had to go off to tutoring! Arrrgh!!

But a couple of hours later I was back and tearing open my exciting packet! I'm such a lucky girl. Vonnie was so generous!

Here's my wonderful pincushion. Its so me!

Look at the pins too. Aren't they cute :o)

Vonnie also sent me this stunning needle case. Its so amazing! The work she put into it. Look inside too! Cute little buttons, pins and some needles in the back.

She also sent me a piece of Alice in Wonderland fabric. I love it! How shall I use it? Hmmm.....

Not just all those lovely goodies but even more. I also got some funky over knee socks and some yummy chocs (that are being eaten right now as I type). The biggest question is, do I add the socks to my ever growing pile of over the knee stripy socks or do I save them and make a sock creature out of them?

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Vonnie!!!!

Now for the goodies I sent Vonnie (her parcel arrived yesterday too). I made a patchwork tortoise. He ended up a bit big so I hope Vonnie has LOTS of pins. I popped some lavender in to. Maybe a bit too much actually as I kept sneezing when I was sewing him up! I also sent her a pack of pins&needles, some random fibres and buttons from my stash and of course, some chocolate too.

Close up of the tortoise. I popped in some green pins too.

I had great fun in this swap. Thanks again Vonnie for being a fantastic swap partner and thanks Claire for organising the swap. If you want to see what Vonnie thought of the swap then check out her blog post here.


Oh and if anyone is interested I could probably be persuaded to write up a tortoise pattern. Let me know if you want one. I wont bother if not though!!

Crafteroo Secret Santa swap

Finally got round to posting this! The wonderful Vonnie from over on crafteroo (her blog) organised a Secret Santa swap for us all. It was great fun to be a part of- lots of second guessing myself and much excitment when my parcel arrived (and I was vey good- I waited until Christmas day to open it).

Abbi from Edwina.Simone sent me this gorgeously unusual necklace and some choccy pennies (they aren't in the photo as they didn't last long enough to be photographed!)

Its fantastic! So different and exactly my colours. Thank you, thank you, thank you Abbi!! xxx

I sent a pressy to Eileen (her blog). Her main pressy was a pair of silver and crystal earrings.

I made them from 2mm wire and used a jig to make the shape. They're quite big so not for everyday use. Hope she liked them. I also sent her some choc and fizzing lavender bath melts roughly based on this tutorial. (One of many great tutorials to be found on this site) Thanks again Vonnie for organising this.