In the End...Birds & Bonnets Swap

Truth Butterfly with Vintage Wallpaper Dress


Yay! I'm finally finished with these screens for the Birds & bonnets Swap (hosted by Beth & Karla). It took alot longer than I thought it would. But I loved every minute of it. I haven't let go & really gotten into it like that in a long time.
I'm very happy with the outcome & the package was sent out today. Here is everything that was in the package...



Side 1 of the 4 screens

Sides 2 of the 4 screens

Ray of Sunshine Butterfly

This is a cheery one. She's a Ray of Sunsine that says "If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain."

Dance for the Moon Butterfly

Here is a dancing Butterfly with a dress made of an upsidedown clip art of a basket of flowers. I added some ruffles for 3 dimension and to mimic movement. & Of course she has to have sparkly flowers in her hair.

My Gift is My Song & This one's for You

This screen features a small sewn booklet of music sheets, newspaper and design cardstock. Here is a view of the inside.

My heart without you

A new & improved version of the original. I just realized this screen does not have paper from the Vintage Workshop, which is the point of the Swap. I hope they will forgive me this time :)

Here are the Thank you Gifts for the Swap Hosts Beth & Karla.

I hope they will enjoy their matching Angels

Packaging of the Angels

the Screens are packaged under this shredded paper in an old Party bubbles box. Here are the signiture tags I made to hang from the binder rings.

YAA stands for YourAngil Adornments. The name of my Etsy shop.

Although I'm still working on the packaging of the products & designing business cards, I'm excited about the Altered things & supplies available.

In the beginning..."The Birds & Bonnets Swap"

These are the unfinished very early stages of what will be my screens for Beth & Karla's Birds & Bonnets Vintage Workshop Swap. I have to move on to my next project of the day (landscaping) but wanted to show you what I got done so far. I had so much fun this morning imagining what I cuold do on this little itty bitty screen. I had 3 little helpers with with 30 sticky fingers, so that made for an interesting couple of hours but boy will I miss them when they leave me for school. For the first screen, I named this little girl Tina. Which is my mother's name. This reminds me of a picture I saw of her when she was young. Like she would have been so beautiful but quiet & reserved. Her wings are made of a paper towel cardboard roll that I covered with paper & cut into strips. I covered one of the open sides with crepe paper & the other side with Antique Soft blue lace. Each of these screens will have one of my favorite quotes.

Her name is Ella because she looks so soft & innocent. I used an old beaded bracelet I had in my jewelry box to frame her picture.

I think I will name this one Marge. She looks sure of herself & she is stern & gets things done. Her bird nest hat will feature hemp with crystals strung on it.

All unfinished but they are coming right along. I also have some adorable Thank You gifts for the hosts of this great swap. I will show them in the next post.

Oh yes, & some very exciting news! I found a camera that I liked. It was so hard to shop for cameras because I don't know much & had no idea where to start but this is a FujiFilm Finepix s1000. Lot's of cool features. 12x optical zoom lens covering a a remarkable focal range of 33-396mm, 10.0-megapixel, Face Detection, 2.7-inch LCD & Super Macro mode which lets you move in as close as approx. 2cm (0.8 inch)!
I ordered it on-line for only $200. Which is a great deal because it sold for $270 at Walmart. I'll get it just in time for Vacation. I've been reading the Manual on-line so I kind of know what I'm doing before we go.

Mermaid Enchanted Package

A bright starfish crown



I had alot of fun with my 2nd Swap that Gypsy Mermaid Hosted. The Enchanted Swap. I thought the movie was going to be cheesy so I never had intentions of renting it but I'm glad I did b/c the character's outlook on life was so great wasn't it? It's so cheery & uplifting.



The day after we watched it my girls I got dressed up like princesses. Which inspired me to finish all of my projects that I would be sending to Katie. It was so much fun getting all dressed up even if we weren't going anywhere. Here is the complete package.

An angel Art doll

Starfish Wand Jewelry box

Vintage Container with crafting goodies

The goodies inside



Princess Valencia

Baby boxes

While I had my craft mess out yesterday working on the celebrate banner swap. I think I had forgotten what pretty supplies I had so I took the opportunity to finish some long overdue projects. Here are my daughter's keepsake baby boxes where I store my pregnancy journals, hospital bracelets, old outfits, shoes, blankies & announcements.

I think my girls are really going to enjoy opening these in the future. This first suitcase box was purchased from Michaels for $4 with a coupon. On the inside of the lid I added a place to display my daughter's baby announcements and photos. This is a good way to keep our cherished documents from getting bent.

A round hat box makes a beautiful baby keepsakes box. I found a teal skirt at a consignment shop for $1. I made these adorable lace flowers by cutting the tops off of the girls old ruffled socks. I simply swirled the lace and used hot glue to secure a pink pearl to the middles. The strand of pearls I purchased for $1 at the Flea market last year.

Fabulous Fox Theatre

The magnificent Bathroom

The stage lighting

My husband & I

Lobby

Overlooking the theatre room

Oh my goodness! We had the most UNBELIEVABLE date last night. The Fox Theatre was absolutely gorgeous! What an amazing life that people have when they can live among architecture and art like that. Such luxury. And we are so blessed to be able to go there in our lifetime. Due to closings on the Hwy on the way to the Theatre we arrived just as the show began. The show was Celtic Woman. A group of 4 girls with beautiful voices. Along with a very lively, pixie like fiddler. I made a stop at the Restrooms before we went in to the show and it was decorated as though it were a Castle. The most intricate detail just in the Bathroom. I knew I was going to have to go back to take pictures but I was anxious to get to the show. (I am the crazy picture lady where ever I go)
As we entered the theatre the room was dark with soft blue stage lights shinning through the fog and a bright shade of blue lights displayed on the ceiling. I have never felt so small and yet so special. The sight of this room literally took my breathe away. I heard that saying before but had never experienced it. I couldn't believe it was real. This was the kind of art I can't even imagine in a dream. The music and the singing was great and my husband & I have decided it's now worth our while to learn the Celtic language. Even if we only use it to talk to each other. My husband enjoyed it so much that he said it "was the 2nd best idea I've ever had" next to marrying him of course!
The most wonderful and Romantic date we've ever had & we can't wait to go back in June to see Alison Krauss. I will show you the interesting pictures I was able to get. But you must go see the Fabulous Fox theatre website to see more pictures. Fabulous Fox

Sight seeing in traffic.

His new "big boy room"

It just took a few days of spring in the air to kick me in to gear. I opened the windows and started painting. My son's new big boy room took 3 days all together and about $23.00. I spent $5 on fabric, $0 on curtains, 8.50 on art for the walls, and $10 on paint for the dresser. Here is the final product. The best part is it cleans up in less than 3 minutes no mater how big of a mess they make, and they play in there more now than ever.





With inspiration from a quilt I saw on Pam garrison's page I made a "paper quilt" since i don't get much sewing done. I used the pages of a $1 goodwill book. I started by lightly coffee staining them then drawing each letter. I then decided on a color pattern and painted with acrylic paint to outline the letters. As a finishing touch I used a greyish blue to watercolor the corners and edges.

Nothing says boy's room like a globe or planet or airplane hanging from the ceiling. I love this look but he has already expressed his feelings about his toys hanging instead of being down for him to touch. I'm positive he will find a way to get it down.




To make for easy and very fast cleanup for the smaller toys. I put a large sturdy wicker basket that used to hold diapers on his changing table. Now he helps everyday to clean up his room and I don't loose his interest because it's taking too long.


I used a pair of panels in his room given to us by my mom. They were over 90 inches long and had tabs so with the tags sticking up I hung flashcards with numbers, states, and bugs from embroidery thread and this made for a colorful and classroom like feel. I know that children this young are suppose to have large colorful writing and clear pictures but I remember lying in my bed before I would fall asleep as a kid looking at anything with detail. I think small attention to detail can be great for him when he is alone in his room. Jaedin has already learned his full name by having his name on his wall for his own name recognition learning and by having his initials in the room.

For tie backs to these curtains I used simple cup hooks and fabric strips. I decided it would be a safety issue to use actual silk roping tie backs with tassels even though that would have been my first choice. I slit two holes in the ends of the strips and it holds them well enough for now but I need to add something to keep the fabric from falling off the hooks.
Since we have a short storytime before bed everynight. I keep a basket next to his bed of books. This way they are cleaned up easily and don't have to be stacked upright between bookends on a shelf.

This bunch of artwork is a fun gathering of the ultimate boy stuff. I bought the frame from Michaels at $5 and filled it with a piece of scrapbook paper. The plane is a vintage art print for $2.50 at the consignment shop. I found this fun asian themed fabric at JoAnns and used it along with iron on letters I had to make a fast and easy piece of dragon artwork. I have enough leftovers to make him a pillow case.

Be Creative

This scrapbook page tells a few funny stories of my oldest daughter's journey to learning to be creative. I wish sometimes I could have the unlimited creativeness like her. No box of expectations and no lines to stay inside of. Just go with what comes to you.