Catching up

I missed showing you my great gifts to finish out the 12 Days- It turned into a whirlwind the last days leading up to Christmas and the last of the out of town guests left yesterday morning.

Day nine is coming late or maybe not at all. Joanne has had a bundle of issues this year and I'm so happy she signed up and received gifts. I hope she enjoyed every one of them! It was nice to think of her having that fun every day.

Day 10-Robyn- was this lovely pin! Super sweet and looked great on my coat!

Day 11- Linda- was this beautiful beeswax ornament on a cd! I love the smell and look of beeswax so this was a real treat to me!

I've edited this twice and it still shows up sideways! Sorry.

Day 12-Jane- another lovely brooch! I am bedecked and bejeweled this year!

Coming soon- Christmas family fun and craft making!

On the 8th Day of Christmas my artist friend gave to me...

Sue B.'s gift

Love the little tag and the beautifully hand scripted greeting on back (oh didn't photo that)

And inside was this!

A clever idea for the binding machines.

I love, love it!

The paper is embossed with the butterfly embellishment- I love copper!!

Inside a pad of sticky notes! This was a Sue-per idea, Sue!!

Thanks a bunch.

Day 6 and 7 (my day!)

Where do the days go!?  I'm terribly behind on everything but I must blog about the 12 Day of Christmas!
Here is Jean's lovely Day 6 package!

Notice I photographed against a different background?  My bedroom rug instead of the dining room table!

Love the stamped card.

And inside........

Was this lovely book board booklet that is held together with ribbon.  I think I will add photos.

And the part that flips up! The papers are beautiful and the gold ribbon, a lovely touch!   It is about 4x6".

Thanks, Jean, for a super gift!

And on to today, Day 7, which was my day. I got to open day 13 from Mary-Beth, but since it is for each participant's day, I'll save it for last not to spoil it for others. But it's a beauty!!

I am thinking of selling these towels in an etsy shop after the first of the year.  I have done some vintage images in black and white and personalized them in the past. I decided to do color for these and a Christmas image that could go beyond Christmas if one wanted.

So here is my package with a design from my sister, Richey, who's etsy shop, Items of Interest by Richner, can be found here. I also bought bags from her, but ironed the image myself.

And inside was this:

I hope everyone likes them.  I think they are cheery! I add byhandartists 12 Days of Christmas ( some had year and some didn't) under the bulb and my name at the base of the bud stem in tiny script.
I printed the amaryllis  and writing on Avery light fabric transfer paper for ink jet printers. Avery product number 8938.
Very important if doing anything with writing to flip the image to the mirror side (horizontally or vertically). Ask me how I know this!! Yikes. Thankfully not ironed on but printed none the less.
I cut the image out very close to the printing and cut out all the little white spaces. This is what makes them really look best so there isn't unnecessary transfer paper on the towel, just the image itself.
Iron onto towel per instructions on the package.
Note:
You cannot iron the image. I don't iron them at all. But if you must, iron only from the back on a low setting.
Here is Richey's instructions for care:

Day 5

Here is today's package from Ruth! Isn't the tag cute?

Inside was this pretty canvas! I'm deciding where to place it. It is a color combo I really like a lot.

This were ambitious for a big group. 

Thanks, Ruth, for a wonderful start to my day today.

This is so much fun!

Day 4

Today is Irene's day!

Here is the cute package...

 And inside!

these cute tags, again they would look cute sitting on a table on on someone's package!

here's another view...

thanks, Irene!

I can't believe day 4 has come and gone! We are already 1/4 they way through!

See you tomorrow

Day 2 and 3!

Sorry I didn't get yesterday's giftie up yesterday! I didn't have a chance to open it until late last night after an early 5 am start to the day for some out of town work.
So the reward is a double dose of goodness!

My package!

Isn't this a lovely booklet ornament?  I love the calligraphy tags included. Another beautiful art gift-thanks Carmen!

And then Day 3- from Judy! Love the little french hens :)
And inside.............

This beautiful felted necklace!  I've done some felting this year and I am totally taken with it. Thanks, Judy. I love that I can double it and still get it over my head!!

I'll get a photo of it on me soon!

Sweet!

Wonder what will be in tomorrow's package??

Stay tuned!

Day 1

Day one is here! The package itself is lovely.

And this is the beautiful contents:

The little cards were enclosed in the stamped kraft bag which was pinned closed with the stick pin and tile. Sweet. Each card is a tag folded matchbook style with a beeswax coated vintage image and aged with ink. These would be lovely tags for gifts as you can open them up and write inside.  I'll save them just to lay out at Christmas but use the idea for gift tags which is super!!

Thanks to Marg for these beauties so elegantly wrapped!

Off to an arty start!

Byhandartists 12 Days of Christmas Swap 2011

Tomorrow is the 1st day of the byhandartists yahoogroup's12 Days of Christmas Swap. I've been participating in this little bit of fun for several years. Mary-Beth is our swap hostess, which means she reminds us to sign up and to mail. We make 12 (or 13 if you want one of your own) gifties to swap with other artists. You can go back and see previous years gifts if you want. Sometimes they are an ornament, jewelry, a mug cozy, cool zipper bag, etc. This year they are all nice and petite- I got the prize for the gigantic gift that would barely fit in the little basket in which I've placed my treasures.
It is great fun to get up and head downstairs to open the day's gift.
I enjoyed decorating my tree this year and revisiting byhandartists' gifts from previous years that come out this time of year.

The 2nd photo is my day one gift ready for tomorrow!  I love the wooden tile with the number 1 and my name on the back!

Sue's gift for me

This is the beautiful ornament I got "early" from my friend, Sue, who after years of encouragement, joined in the swap. We are in different groups so swapped with each other at church! I love it! She used original photos! and wonderful ephemera. It is a treasure and I love looking at it on the tree.
Come back tomorrow to see Day One!

Advent, week 3

Beautiful sharing, beautiful music, beautiful people. Church was great.

I was the only one who brought another box today. I'll do one next week, too, so that I will have brought at least one every week. I woke up with my idea this morning. Just wanted to do a line drawing of the baby Jesus in the manger and decided to find a poem to go with "hope" and made the star with the "hope" written in it. Used some watercolor pencil for color and glitter glue accents. Voila.

Farmers Market

Brrrrr, it's in the 20's this morning. Quite a switch from my previous Saturday posts!  We struck out for the market none the less.  I was rewarded with red spinach my favorite variety, some still-on-the-stalk brussel sprouts, carrots, cabbage, buffalo, chicken and a gift of caramels from Ann! Yummy!

Closer

How about this beautiful spinach?

And some cabbage?

Brussel sprouts on the stalk!

close up

Super orangey carrots!

My beautiful gift from Ann!

I'm enjoying the day in the living room with a fire and a little candlelight. Ah........