More CB swaps - jewellery and fat page

I have just finished my green and gold bracelet for the Crafts Beautiful March jewellery swap and the first of (I hope) a new swap, fat pages.  I made the bracelet with some of the beads I won in Artyme's seed beed challenge a few weeks ago (the green ones) and memory wire.

I really enjoyed making my first ever fat page; the theme was flowers and I wanted a vintage rose effect.  Some of the lace and ribbons came from the embellishment swap a few weeks ago and I had this project in mind at the time.  I had my fingers crossed that flowers would win the poll!  I love it when a plan comes together!

Yippee!!

I won!!  I  won the 5th jewellery challenge (see below) with my Swarovski crystal set in lilacs and silver.  The competition was stiff with lots of beautiful entries and I am just thrilled to bits. 

Some swap makes

My makes for two of March's Crafts Beautiful Forum swaps.

The theme for the bookmark is bright spring colours, so I chose a paper I was given in a RAK as a starting point, the cut some letters on my Craft Robo in Jokerman font and added some diecut tulips I have had for ages and some gems.

The theme for this month's ATC swap is Animals.  I made some fluffy flocked sheep (and clouds to match - the sheep are on a cream base and the clouds are white) and a cute Highland cow from some rugwool I have had for mumblety-mumble years wrapped round some card.

Two swaps down then, I still need to do the jewellery swap, also I need to think about the cross stitch ATC swap for next month and a fat page for another new swap.  I've never made fat pages before, they are 4"x4" and heavily embellished (hence fat!) so I think I'll have to have a practice go first.  The theme is Flowers and I have got a couple of ideas floating round my head already.

Entry for Jewellery Challenge # 5

This is my entry for the Jewellery Challenge Blogspot's 5th challenge 

They are made from silver tubes and Swarovski bicone and top-drilled bicones in Tanzanite, Violet and Violet Opal.  The ear wires have tiny Tanzanite crystals inset into them too.  I made the set to go with my purple velvet party dress, and they really do catch the light when I wear them.

A lucky few days

I have been incredibly lucky in the last few days - I was given a prize by Maroulita for entering her "What's Cooking Challenge!, I was one of the winners in Artyme's Seed Bead Challenge and then to cap it all won a prize in the Cupcake Challenge (all on the Crafts Beautiful Forum), which included some super Stampin' Up stamp sets and ink pads, papers, card blanks and a Cosmic Shimmer spray set.  And I have been given so many wonderfuk RAKs by the lovely ladies who took part in the February card swap too.  I didn't think I'd need to purchase any crafty supplies for months but couldn't resist an eyelet setting tool when I popped into Penco in Hitchin this morning for a piece of felt and the Docrafts mag.

Oh yes, and I also got a refund of the upgrade fee I was forced to pay when I stayed in a hotel in London last month!  I was a bit early for check-in so was sent away for a couple of hours, but when I came back all the non-smoking rooms had gone so I had to go for an upgrade.  But now I've got my money refunded - so it pays to complain!  And I get a free upgrade next time I stay there too.  Let's hope the fire alarm does not go off at 6 o'clock in the morning next time - one drawback to being on the 7th floor was having to go down and then all the way back up all those flights of stairs with my coat over my nightie while still half asleep.

I also bought this month's Sew Hip magazine after Sarah sent me a skirt pattern from a previous issue.  I want to get back into dressmaking and sewing again.  There's a gorgeous long corduroy jacket in there that I fancy having a go at but I think I'd better go gently with my rusty dressmaking skills at first!

Mega ATC session

I've been making loads of ATCs this week as I am hosting the Crafts Beautiful bookmark swap and I have had such a lovely lot of RAKs that I wanted to send something out with each of the bookmarks.  I made 5 sets of 6 in various spring related themes: Purple Spring Bunnies, Retro Blooms, Spring Blossoms, Spring Owls and Spring Collage.  It certainly was good practice for me!

Some more blog candy

Copse has achieved a marvellous 1000 hits on her blog - well done Karen!