12 Days of Christmas

I've been missing from blog posts for nearly a month, but even though the gift opening for the Byhand Artists 12 Days of Christmas is long past I want to show you some of the cuff bracelets that I made for my Day 9 gifts. I showed the wrapped packages is my last post and so now here are the gifts that were inside.This is a selection of some of the cuff bracelets that I stitched up from fabric samples, hand knit pieces and fabric binding. Some have beading and rubber stamped pieces stitched on.
This group shows some more of the cuff bracelets including one that has a needle felted heart and beads.Close-up of one of the bracelets with a fabric mesh and buttons added.
This one is a fabric sample with a knit lace edging and flower added to the front along with some fun beads.
And the rubber stamped back, all rubber stamps from Quietfire Design.

12 Day Of Christmas Swap

12 Day Of Christmas Swap
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I am in Group one of 3 of the Byhand Artists 12 Days Of Christmas gift swap and here are my wrapped day 9 gifts ready to be put in envelopes and mailed.

The Thank You Gift

Last Sunday at the ATC Vancouver swap I delivered the mini journal in the previous post along with a small knit felted bag as a thank you gift to Penelope for hosting our collaborative Envelope Book. Penelope has finally started a blog and you can check out her posting here.

This is how I wrapped the gift. I used Ikea drawing paper randomly stamped with several different stamps, sandwiched between wax paper and stitched all around. This was then stitched into a pouch to hold the gift.

This is the front of the gift pouch with lace seam binding used as a ribbon to tie the package closed.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap The End

Well now that the gift swap is sadly over I can show you the lovely Day 13 gift from Mary-Beth which I opened on my day 9. This sweet little girl has been hanging on my dining room wall since Dec 21 now you can see it too. Thanks Mary-Beth for the gift and for being a gracious hostess again this year.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Eight Revisit

Just in the nick of time Linda H's day 8 gift arrived so I was able to open it before Dec 24th was over. This lovely little bag sewn so beautifully by Linda is a triangular shape and has a hanging loop, I'll need to find just the right thing to store in this. I might use it for small knitting and crochet tools near by. Whatever I decide I'm glad it arrived in time and with no harm done to it on the way here. Thanks Linda H.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Twelve

The last day of opening these gifts, I'll be sorry to have it end, but I have so many lovely gifts to enjoy. From Kristy I have this absolutely beautiful envelope book filled with tea. This will be just the thing to help me relax over the holiday and I'd sure like to know how to make one myself. Thanks Kristy.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Eleven

So today Dec 23 is time to open Linda C's gift. This one is a fun holiday jointed paper doll. Won't she look just lovely on my tree? The last gift to open then the fun ends for this year.
Thanks Linda for adding to my beautiful collection.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Ten

Yesterday, Dec 23 was Carolyn's gift opening. She made this lovely hanging full of lovely colour texture, photo and beads. This is another beauty for my treasure collection. two more days to go and hoping Linda H's day 8 gift arrives by then.
Thanks Carolyn for this beauty.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Nine

Day Nine was the day for opening my gift and Suzanne's. Well, since I don't have mine to open I got to open Mary-Beth's Day Thirteen gift, I imagine it will look delicious in my holiday decor, but that's all I can tell you for now since the others will open this gift on their day and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.
I can show you the lovely gift from Suzanne. This beautiful snowflake charm in a little frame will look great on my tree. Thanks Suzanne.

My gift is an altered bamboo domino necklace. I used 3 colours of bamboo dominoes and digital images of some of my altered heads and a fish image. All have beads and black or natural jute cord. I printed a scan of the matching pendant on the card before embossing with the Cuttlebug embossing folders.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Eight

Dec 20 was another 2 gift day, but since Linda H's gift had not arrived yet I still had Sue's gift to open. This is a beauty, a metal tag with mesh and beads angel magnet. This one was a hard one to photograph and really much better to see in person. I guess the rest of you will just have to settle for my photo.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Seven

On Day 7 to, be opened on Dec 19, I should have opened Beth's gift. Since is has not yet arrived I opened Ruth's Day 1 gift which had not arrived by Dec 13. So on the 19th I opened this lovely magnetic calender and note pad. This has such pretty background paper and ribbon on it and I will have is near my desk to refer to every day.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Six

So yesterday, Dec 18 was the day to open the gift from Jane H. Now I have a set of 4 very festive and useful holiday coasters. These are nice and sturdy canvas coasters that should be able to come out for the season for many years. What fun this swap is again this year.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Five

Kathleen's day 5 gift was opened on Dec 16 and is an altered scrabble tile with "Laugh" on pretty blue paper and the letter L on the back. This is on a silver chain ready to wear and is another treasure from my gift basket. I am getting some lovely gifts and more to open, lucky me.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Four

Day 4 was another double dip day so we had 2 gifts to open on Dec 16.
Wanda's gift is this business size pouch with a Blessings embellishment and charms, just lovely. As an added bonus it contains 3 double-sided cards nicely decorated and rubber stamped with Quietfire Design quotes.

From Daphne came a lovely little purse for an ipod or similar electronic gadget. I don't have any of those gadgets, but I will sure find a good use for this gift, it's just to pretty not to use.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Three

Day Three, the gift I pulled from my basket on Dec 15 was from Wendy, and couldn't be more perfect for me. Now I don't go out for coffee very often, but when I do the cups are just way too hot for me hold, so this java jacket with the cute little bird will come in very handy. Wendy has done a beautiful job on this, it is well finished and the colours are so lovely.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day Two

We had a treat for Day 2 and had 2 gifts, which I did open on Dec 14 but just haven't gotten it on the blog till now. From Carmen is this lovely snowman shaker ornament. I just wonder how many times this will get shaken when someone passes the Christmas tree.

From Jane S. is the most lovely paper bag book. Now I have seen information about these, but just never thought they could be very elegant. Jane sure has changed my mind about that with this beautiful book which has tags for us to do some art on.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Day One

This is the wonderful day one gift from Judy. She has done a beautiful job of needle felting. Some of our days have 2 gifts since we ended up with 18 participants, but my second day 2 gift has not arrived yet. I will get to open that when it lands in my basket.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap

I've been making the gifts, checking my list twice and got everything in the mail. I just hope they have arrived at their destinations, the mail has been slow this year and my gift basket is still waiting for 5 more gifts, but we are going to start opening each days gifts and hope the rest arrive before they should be opened.
I've been collecting the lovely gifts in this basket as they arrived and waiting till we can start opening.

The first photo is the basket from the stairs using zoom. This is what I see every day when I walk past or come down the stairs, all the better to enjoy the pretty gifts from upstairs or down.

Standing by my basket in the foyer. This is right beside the front entry and near the bottom of the stairs so I can enjoy the gifts frequently.

The Last Group of Journal Gifts

These are more of the felt knit journals for the 12 Days of Christmas swap. Judy, Louise and mine are fastened to the o-wires of the Zutter journal with half hitch cords with shell buttons on the spine. Judy's has a garter clip fastener, Louise's is tied with ribbon ties, Wendy's is a crochet cord held in place with a button and wrapped around the journal and mine is also a crochet cord with a button that the cord is wrapped around to hold it closed. For fastening Wendy's felt cover to the journal, I let my rebellious muse out again and did free-form crochet chain loops. This is the first time I have done felt knitting and it was a fun adventure. The first part of the journal has some of my artwork and favourite quotes and the last half is blank or background pages for the recipients to add in some of their own favourites. I will show some of the pages in my next post and maybe some of the covers under the felt which are all done with handmade papers.

More of the Journals

This is the next group of the journals I made for the 12 Days of Christmas Gift swap and this time I had four finished at one time and was able to photograph the stack. Usually the gifts were mailed at different times in order to get to the most distant destinations on time. The journals for Linda T., Jane, Nicolette and Carolyn are more felt knit covers with half hitch cords or lace ribbon to hold the felt covers to the Zutter bound books. most have shell buttons on the spine, two have ribbon ties, 1 has a garter clip and one has a sleeve clip for a closure. I didn't keep track of which one was sent to each of them, so I hope these ladies will leave a comment to let me know. The last group will be posted in a while.