Friday, December 30, 2011

Bits of Goodness Advent Swap

The Advent swap was generally smaller items, both in effort and physical size. We were also allowed to have up to four slots. Please excuse the terrible image quality. Our camera was recently run over by the car, and until I save up I'm working with just my iPad.

Quilled snowflakes
- Paper



Mini I-Spy Vials (glued shut)
- Glass Beads
- Glass vials with real corks
- Glass bead or quilled paper hidden Christmas tree



Here's one of the trees:



Sun catchers
- Metal
- Crystal beads

I'm bummed the photo is so terrible, these were very pretty. ~2in long



Jingle Bell Wreaths (~ 2 in diameter)
- Metal bells
- Metal glitter pipe cleaners



Walnut Babies
- Wool
- Walnut shells






The set of trinkets we got in exchange was full of such cute things! We do more of an Advent(ure) style calendar (things to do rather than have), but it was awesome to pull out on the plane.

Other Bits of Goodness Swaps

These are the rest of the swaps I've done: Hedgehogs, Gnomes, and Mushrooms - Embroidered Cloth Covered Buttons - Metal button - Cotton muslin - Cotton embroidery thread These scenes are all from Jan Brett's book Hedgie's Surprise, and I included a small coloring book printed from her website for extra hedgehog fun.


Summer Nature Table - Needle Felted Hermit Crabs and Shell Babies - Wool - Shell - Drift wood from Alki Beach Rainbows - Mini Mobile - Glass beads - Metal (can't remember exactly what) I made two versions of this, pastel and bright. Sadly, none of the photos of the brights turned out even this well. Just For Moms - Necklaces (using a wire jig) - Silk ribbon - Metal (again unknown) - Glass bead Autumn Nature Table - Dreamcatchers - Metal ring - Leather - Glass beads - Cotton thread Bath - Felted Soap - Wool - Trader Joe's Bar Soap I will never do this again. I pretty much hated every moment of it, even once I got it working (I actually called Weaving Works part way through to make sure I hadn't accidentally purchased machine washable roving). I have wet felted before and enjoyed it, and have done a lot of needle felting and like it. I did not like wet felting or needle felting on soap. And the red/orange/yellow squashed octopus? That was supposed to be my amazing fiery sun.

Bits of Goodness Garden Swap Quilling

While I'm at it, I've been meaning to post the past swap objects I've made. These are my first willing work and my first Bits of Goodness swap. The theme was "Garden", and I made sets of these cards:
























It turned out that this was a fun work for Kinde too. She made these below, and actually received her own quilling supplies in her stocking a few days ago.




And I made this when Kinde requested a house. Quilling is really fun!


Bits of Goodness Winter Nature Table Swap

Here are my latest crafted items: little winter berry gnomes of wood, wool felt, and cotton embroidery thread.





They've been sent off to the hostess to be divvied up and exchanged for other natural material, handcrafted goodies. I've been surprised how much I have enjoyed giving much of my extremely limited crafting time to this group. Partially it gives me a deadline to actually do many of the cute ideas I see floating around the internet but might not ever really get to. This, for example, is not at all my idea, but something I saw somewhere. (If you know where I found this, please drop me a line so I can link to it and cite the design properly; it was before I was on Pinterest, so I just saved the photo from who knows where.)