SHOEBOX SWAP.....

If you have never been involved in a shoebox swap, you are missing out on one of the most fun times a papercrafter could have. A shoebox swap is where you cut and place everything you need for a project into a shoebox and meet with your talented friends to complete each others projects. My Stampin' Up group does this twice a year. So, since we had 10 in attendance, I came home with 9 cards that I stamped and put together myself that my fellow demos designed. And don't even get me started on the food!!! This group of ladies is just so talented, at crafts & in the kitchen.

I cased my card from --- yes, you guessed it --- Mary Fish. See her card here. I used the Cheep Talk stamp set and the Jolly Holiday DSP. The sentiment is from the Just Believe set. The card is finished off with some Old Olive satin ribbon and a trio of gold brads. The colors are from the DSP --- Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla. The birdie squares are raised on dimensionals and are placed on a Very Vanilla panel that is also raised on dimensionals. Easy as pie..............

We also did a gift exchange. I found these photo coasters at Peebles and did a little altering. I added rub-ons to the holder and stamped some simple Christmas inserts for the coasters. My friend Heather chose my gift. I hope she enjoys using these. I think I am going to do the same for some of my kid's teachers. Again, easy as pie............

The gift I received was from my upline, Debbie Naylor. Check out her blog here, she will be posting all of the projects over the next week or so. Now, anyone that knows me knows my addiction to totes --- any shape, any size. The ones with bunches of pockets are my favorite. And not only did I get a small tote with bunces of pockets as part of my gift, it was purple --- my favorite color. It has the two small pockets in front(the ones you can see in the picture below), two large openings (one on either side of the handle), and a large flap pocket on the other side. Visions of organization are dancing in my head........

In addition to the tote, she made this cool treat holder. She used the Petal Cone Bigz L Die with her Big Shot. She ran it through the Big Shot again using the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder. Notice the shiny flower centers? Debbie glittered up every center of every flower on it. She even blinged up the label she attached using the cool basic rhinestones. She added little white dots all over it, too. I am not sure what treat she put inside, I don't want to mess it up to figure that out.

Thanks so much, Debbie, for the gift and for getting the meeting together in the first place. Thanks to all of the ladies there for sharing your talent with little ol' me. I can't wait until the summer meeting!!!

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!!!!