The two J's

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! as usual our celebrations were spread over two days with the Swiss festivities on Dec 24th and the English on Dec 25th. Every year I have good intentions to blog about the traditions I'm part of but once again my ability to keep up got lost somewhere in the run up to Christmas! next year, I'll do it next year...

I did however manage to do a Christmas ATC and matchbox swap with two of my favourite swap buddies Jan and Julia.

below is Jan's ATC, super super fabric transfer image! I love it!

Jan added a backing then stitched on beads, superb texture! just like a mini quilt

a matchbox using the same technique full of Christmas glittery gorgeousness!

and there was more! talk about being spoilt rotten!

Julia's ATC all the way from Russia, I love the paper she's used on both the ATC and the matchbox, it looks and feels like a piece of pink denim

teeny tiny treasures packed to overflowing!

and more goodies, threads, scraps and pins, but this has to be my favourite, an old salt shaker decorated and filled with vintage buttons!! oh swoon...

and last but not least, my little matchbox, a photo of me aged about 7 yrs on Santa's knee, no doubt wishing for the world!

Thank you Jan and Julia for this wonderful swap!

Dress Up and Bag challenge 2011

If you'd like to continue with Dress Up in 2011 or perhaps play along for the first time then check out Angela's post here. She will be hosting the challenge next year, a dress a month inspired by your favourite artist! fab idea!

And if you feel you'd like to accessorize a little then Anna at Frosted Petunias may have just the project for you! She will be hosting The Artful Bag Challenge, the idea is to make a bag a month based on your own template! great fun!

Jingle junkles

The QB5 gals have been busy again, well some of us have (can't include self here, gulp...) This time our swap was a recycled/junkle Christmas ornament. Patty sent me this gorgeous little bird, sitting in a glittery nest, with a tiny thimble bell below! superb!

and this glam ornament from Linda, made from a cake tin, filled with nesting and a QB5 button! my friends are so clever!! thank you so much!

and this is my effort! more of which should be on the other side of the world by now but instead they're still in snow covered Switzy being photographed hanging from the lavender bush in my garden! ho hum... I made my junkles from an old much loved metal bracelet that fell to pieces, the metal 'flower' is the top of a xmas bauble which the lovely Jenxo inspired me to use! Check out her blog, she has some fab Xmas ideas on the go!

Dress Up - December

Welcome to Dress Up in December

I had quite a few ideas this month but finally settled on a symbolic 'present' dress for all of you! This one is dedicated to your continued enthusiasm and general fabulousness throughout the year! It's because of you that the Dress Up project has been so much fun and such a runway success!

the first and last, January and December

and the months in between, do I have a favourite?? not really, I love them all!

all complete and hanging in my wardrobe, a visual reminder of the events of 2010, of the things that inspired me and fueled my creativity

I made myself complete the backs and attach the hangers as I had a feeling if I didn't do it now it would never get done!

I dated each one and added a few comments here and there

I glued a little tailors dummy from dear Jen to one side of my box

and with a little hanger from Gini I've attached the Degas dress from Penny to the lid, a bit of a combined effort going on here! and now my project is complete!

Thank you once again for your participation in Dress Up over the past year. Whether it's been as a budding dress designer or an armchair admirer I've appreciated each and every one of your comments. To those bloggers interested in running the project, please let me know when you're ready to go and I'll post a link. I'll no doubt be back with another project at some stage, once you start it's difficult to stop!! but in the meantime I plan to just hang out and visit the many wonderful blogs I've discovered in the past few months. All the best to you and yours this festive season! Mx

Presents from Penny

I received this wonderful surprise in my mail box last week from my blogging buddy Penny. She sent me one of her beautiful Degas' dresses she made last month, swoon and more swoon!! I love the simplicity and the colours of this little dress and I have just the perfect place for it! watch out for my Dec 1st post!

and it didn't stop there! Penny also sent me this fab Party Dress book packed full of glam ideas! There are instructions for all kinds of things, from cutting a pattern to making embellishments!

This has to be one of my favourite pages, how to make a fabric rose, ah things to do, things to do...

Thank you Penny for spoiling me rotten! you made my day! Mx

Nathalie

My next swap was with my dear blogging buddy Nathalie and we went for an Asian theme. We swapped envelopes full of Asian styled papers and ATC's.

Even the back of Nathalies' ATC's are a work of art!

stamps and goodies galore!

Nathalie made me the most wonderful 'dog tag' book in exchange for an inchie book. I love this little book soooo much and am totally inspired to try making one of my own!

A couple of my favourite pages

Thank you Nathalie for a great swap!! I love your style! I'm totally inspired!

What I've been doing

I've been busy making spoons for the Christmas weekend at the shop and I'm thrilled to say all of them flew out the door yesterday, super cool feeling to have them go to new homes!

I also made this basket, took me ages and ages, it's about half a meter wide and is made from dried seed pods glued together.

The florist built a tree in the middle of the shop out of some old logs! her ability to visualise these things never ceases to amaze me!

Dress Up - November

Welcome to Dress Up in November!

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a pile of old paper '45' record sleeves, the colours are just fab and I decided to use one of them as the backing for my November dress.

I punched out some paper circles and made tiny button centers

I added a touch of black tule and glitter

poor Mozart seems to be suffering from the lesser known 'glitter' skin condition

As you can see in the background, I managed to make some progress with my cupboard and I'll post about it later in the week. Now I just need to find myself a little door handle and some kind of nameplate! Thank you all for your lovely comments last month, I'm so pleased Dress Up has brought a little bit of colour and inspiration to you, whether you've been reading or playing along with the project.

The Big Reveal!

Finally, a bright sunny day to capture this latest piece of magic to arrive home after it's round the world trip visiting all my fab QB5 buddies! There seemed little point in photographing my feeble stitching attempt before my sampler left these fair shores in June! I thought I'd just be patient and wait for gals to come up trumps and they didn't disappoint!! what a beauty!

the first stop was Carole in New Zealand, she added a doily with little blue buttons

and a gorgeous flower centre!

next my stitchery crossed the world to begin it's American adventure! Patty added a beautiful TAP gal! I'm still amazed at the quality of this transfer technique, it really has all the detail of a real photo

and a beautiful (very old) button!

Nathalie decided it was time to play! and play she did!

a totally inspired use of an old T-shirt, a brilliant image! If all our mountains were this sparkly then I just know I'd learn to ski properly! really I would...

last stop Linda and her timepieces! I love these!

time to play, to dream, to create....

Thank you so much my dear friends for your stitching spirit, it's rather contagious and I will finish the corner you so kindly left me! it's a promise!