On the fourth day of Christmas....

The Artful Christmas:
Rachael from New Zealand sent this one!!! Wrapped in a beautiful sheet of music was a NOEL Banner -- I have already put it up in my entranceway!!! I was going to bring it to school to put it up -- but I have a student named Noel and there's already enough confusion this time of year about his name!!
12 Day's 'till Christmas:
Holly's gift to me was wrapped in two different pieces of beautiful vintage wallpaper. The picture that I took of it didn't turn out. Inside was a gorgeous beribboned frame. It has wonderful glass glitter around the edges. I am trying to pick the perfect picture to go in it (see the little ribbons in the corners of the rectangle to hold a photo?)

The third day of Christmas (part 2)

12 Days 'till Christmas!
This was from Shoshana. She made this really cool cracker-style wrapping and she did her own flocking on it! She described the method for us and it sounds like it took forever and made a huge mess (sounds like something I'd do) But it was well worth the effort!!!Inside was a little charm/ ornament made from an old souvenier spoon, and then super old paper and a vintage german glass acorn. Then it was filled with resin. How cool is that?

On the third day of Christmas....

The Artful Christmas:
All wrapped up in green celophane...... From Liz in New Zealand....A VERY BEARY CHRISTMAS!
It's a little bear pouch made of felt with an applique of Teddy Bears in the snow -- lots of hand stitching here! With fun little buttons sewn on, and inside is a green and red flower!

Red and Black

Here's my spread in Debby's Red and Black book. It's the last book for Round 1 of the Colour Me Silly Round Robin. Next year, things will change a bit -- we will send individual spreads to people instead of sending a book around. This will cut down on the price, and on the chance of losing books. We're still missing the 2 books sent to me in August. The tracking still says "Entered Canada August 23" Of course, I feel personally responsible because it happened in Canada. We still have hope and our fingers crossed that they will miraculously show up.
I thought that red and black would be so hard to work with. They weren't. It was fine.

On the second day of Christmas.....

First of all -- Lauren comes home from France today!!! Yay!!! We pick her up this afternoon. Although, we are having a winter storm warning. Yikes, I hope that she's not delayed somewhere.... And then tonight, we go to my cousin Lisa's 40th birthday party. Happy Birthday Lisa!This is my pretty little tree. The tree is getting fuller, but what is under it is getting sparser! We'll go and get a real tree tomorrow. I'm still waiting for lots of ornaments from swaps, so I'll need the big tree! And I got lots of ATCs at my ATC exchange last night that I'll be hanging on the tree. (as you may be able to see from the photo -- there is something terribly wrong with my camera. The tops and the bottoms of all of my pictures are blurry. Even if those things are on the same plane. Nikon says that there is no problem, but I think that the lens is tilted or something. I'd send it back again -- but it takes a few months and makes me crabby.

Okay, now the fun begins:
12 Days 'till Christmas:This one is from Karin -- I love brown paper packages (this is actually tissue)-- the ribbon is so soft. Inside is a wonderful journal -- it's so pretty. It has been altered and has lined pages inside. I love the flowers on the front. I'm going to keep this one beside my bed as my idea book.

An Artful Christmas:This is from Melanie Becker in Germany. The clothes pin on the wrapping clips on the tag -- it is very cute. Inside is a gorgeous hand-made book. The binding is made from skewers.The pages inside are blank.

Now I have new journals for the year. One for pictures, and one for ideas!

On the first day of Christmas......

I am in 2 different swaps -- One is 12 Days "til Christmas, one is An Artful Christmas. I was a fill-in for the Artful Christmas because someone dropped out. That's how I managed to be in two!!! (not because I'm greedy, LOL) So, every day form now until Christmas, I get to open 2 gifts. Could I be more lucky than that????????

Here Goes:
An Artful Christmas:
Day 1 Was made by Chris Hoffman.... here's the wrapping .... it's in a box, and it doesn't rattle at all...... it has little gifties inside..... a pack of Christmas ephemera -- paper and the letter M and a wish tag... and then wrapped up was a letter M wish book and a wonderful ornament!! WOW! I can really use that paper -- I haven't made my Christmas cards yet........Thank you Chris! That M wish book is going on my little tree right now. I don't have my big tree up yet.

12 Days 'til Christmas:
This is from Tia , Miz Smoochie Lips....... The package is wrapped in vintage music, and it jingles!!!! It's a little birdie perched in a boot. It's so cute! It will look beautiful with my arrangement of natural holiday decor in my studio . Thanks Tia!This is too overwhelming. It's 7 am and I'm going to be late for work. Starting tomorrow, I'll open one in the morning and one in the evening.....

and the winner is.....

#14 !!! That is..... Dawn Supina!! Dawn -- I'll mail one of the lovely zetti angels out to you tomorrow! Dawn has been very busy lately writing a novel :) [how'd that turn out, Dawn?]-- so this little angel will fly over to her in Edmonton and flitter about until she posts more of her fantastic art on her blog!
As for me -- I've finished up all of my swap commitments for 2007. I just need to make a few Christmas gifts and one RR book spread! and bake cookies. And do the holiday decorating. That kind of relaxing stuff....... I'll be posting images of my Christmas ornaments this week and I'm very excited that the 12 Days gift openings will start at the end of this week -- my blog will be full of fun stuff for the next month!!!!

Birdie ATCs

These flew off to Dot -- I put hangers on them just in case she wants to hang them. If not -- Dotee-- just cut them off!!!!

Lisa Volrath

Lisa Volrath has some fun Christmas images that are (kind of) free to use, or you can buy them. It's like an advent calendar of printable goodies.
(These images are for personal use only. That means you may use them in artwork you're going to keep for yourself, give as a gift, or swap with other artists. You may not use any free printable images from this site or Go Make Something for items that will be sold).
Since I give away pretty much everything that I make, I'm pretty much able to use them! Maybe today!

200th Post !!!!

I missed my 100 post milestone, so I'm celebrating my 200th post. These are my pretty zetti angel ornaments! They took forever to make. Some are for a swap, one is for me, and I made an extra one to give away to a lucky reader of my blog. I'll pick a name on Sunday! All you have to do is leave a comment!
**** I just realized that my zettidolls are like upside down icicle dolls! ****

The Blues

In my "We Dream in Colour" RR, Dorothy chose blue. Normally I find blue very dificult to work with, but this one just flowed out of me! the background has many many layers of paint, book pages, sheet music, paper doilies, etc. It was an altered book. I used some of my favourite sponge stamps too.
(tomorrow will be my 200th post -- check back for a GIVEAWAY)

Zetti Stars

maybe for a swap, maybe for me....
(fabric, paper, fibres)

Wings

Sometimes, we just need a pair of wings.

Flaky

I was looking at the pretty snowflakes on Heather's blog and then I realized that I could make them too. And so can you -- go here.I had a really hard time with those virtual scissors. I felt like one of my kindergarten kiddies using scissors for the first time. snip snip.
It has been snowing a bit here lately -- but now it's just raining. That's November in Toronto for you!

More Mona

More of my work in Andi's book -- although it looks a bit wonky here. All of those Mona images were cut out of scholastic catalogues -- if you are a teacher or a parent here in Canada, you probably know what I mean. Each month, parents get a chance to order from these catalogues through their teachers. There was a book with Mona's image on the cover, so I used lots of those -- I've been saving them for almost 2 years! (The book is E.L. Konigsburg's The Second Mrs. Giaconda). The letter stamps are my favourite foam stamps (Making Memories). Foam stamps are THE BEST for stamping with acrylic paints.

Icicle dolls

Everyone is making them! If you check out Belinda Schneider's blog, she has many many examples (of hers and others) . There are instructions on her blog, and a template here. I liked them when I saw them, but I thought that I didn't need to be making dolls right now. But then I realized what fun ornaments they would make. Okay, perhaps this one isn't too Christmassy, but I've seen some in whites/off whites that are perfect. Next weekend, I'll be making a whole choir of icicle angels!

Pay it Forward!

I got lucky on Elizabeth's Blog! She's having a "Pay it Forward" giveaway! Lots of blogs are doing it!
I'm doing it too! Here's how it works:
I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (Pay it forward) exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
So basically, if you comment and you’re on, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make!
Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.
While you're at it, rent the Pay it Forward movie.
OKAY! The 3 are Michelle, Cori and Marissa -- hop over to their blogs if you want to participate, and get some of their cool art!

Martha and Leo.... together again....

Once again, I am collaborating with Leonardo. We are liking this partnership. This is Andi's calendar-- the last spreads of the Calendar Journal Round Robin. It will fly home to Andi tomorrow. Here is the first spread:(more throughout the week!)

Honour Nature

This is my work in Heather R's book. I spent a lot of time placing pieces and then taking them off. I also spent a whole day doing the background -- and then I found a piece of wallpaper in my stash that is exactly the same. Go figure. Those are lavender branches from my garden. I managed to rescue some before the snow came. I strengthened them will gel medium and then gessoed them a bit.
Serenity:

Stampin Up!

I went to a Stampin Up! Party last week (thank you Debra for hosting!)(And to our neighbourhood Rep, Diana). I had lots of fun. I managed to finish 2 of the 3 cards! AND I quite like them. Not my usual style, but I'd make more. The stampin up white ink is the best white ink that I've come across. It is on the "sparkle" card as snowflakes AND I stamped off ink before I stamped onthe card. It is also on the green strip, again, I stamped it off first. The silver embossing powder is very silver. Nice. Hey, maybe there is a scrappy card maker inside of me after all!
I managed to spend a weeee bit of money (Happy birthday to me from my mom!). And then we ate yummy yummy pastries from Dufflet. No pictures of those. We ate them too fast :)