the swaps....

Before heading to Silver Bella, I (well, Stephanie) signed up for several swaps. Stephanie told me this was a must...and so I gave her the go-ahead to sign me up for a couple of them. You see, it was all on a Yahoo group just for Silver Bella and I had no clue how to sign up....and I was at work all day. Somehow a "couple" turned into about 8....at this point Stephanie is rolling her eyes because she is sooo over this story.

Here's a brief definition of an artist's swap for those of you who are in another orbit. An artist comes up with a theme and the rules and host the swap. Sometimes the swap is between 2 people and sometimes it's between 25. Sometimes you mail them to the hostess to deliver to those involved, sometimes you bring them with you to a location. The point is to allow you to create something 1 to 25 times and receive back from other artists, 1 to 25 of others' creations.

And now for those of you who only read this blog to look at the pictures (Amy).

Fine Feathered Friends ATC Mini Book hosted by Gina Grable; 22 participants; create an ATC with the theme of birds.

Bianca Gaspard...thepaperplayground.blogspot.com

Mine.

Karen Lea's.

Stephanie George Hirschberg's.

This is the bound book. Come on over and look at it for yourself. It will be sitting out for a very long time to come. Gina Grable, thank you for all of your hard work bringing this together.

Vintage Jewelry Swap Sister hosted by Amanda Willey; a swap between 2 people; to find vintage goodies/jewelry that could be used in altered art and swap with a partner assigned by the hostess.

Here's my box of vintage jewelry from my swap sister, Julie Baxley. Good things soon to be glued down and glittered.....thanks Julie!

Sweet Valentine's Prom ATC hosted by Shannon Johnson; 12 participants; an ATC with a valentine or prom theme.

Shannon was a great hostess and made us a very special pin to wear just for participating.

Silver Bella Altered Spoon Swap hosted by Heidi Woodruff ;12 participants; alter a silver spoon....into a magnet, an ornament, etc.

Click on this photo and play "I Spy" ....

you should find 12 spoons...that are no longer just spoons.

Silver Bella Sachet Swap hosted by Stephanie Rojas; 10 participants; you make 10 of the same sachet and get 9 different ones back plus your own. Yum....I love the smell of lavendar and now it is floating around my house.

My sachet is the heart with zebra wings hanging off of the candle.

Look at all of the beautiful ideas.

"Twinchie" Advent Calendar hosted by Melissa Wisner; 25 participants; a twincie is a 2x2 piece of paper...each participant was assigned a date in December and now we all have a beautiful advent calendar....in silvers, aquas, and pale pinks.

I plan to pin these to some velvet ribbon....

so I can keep up with the days as they fly by in December.

The Twelve Sparkly, Vintage Days of a Most Glittery Glamorous Christmas hosted by Gina Grable; 15 participants; 5 x 9 heavy duty watercolor paper altered with different mediums and embellishments to be bound in a book by the hostess. We were each assigned a day....mine was the 8th day of Christmas.

No matter how hard you try, you could never imagine just how beautiful this book turned out. And the best part of all is I now have a new friend....Gina Grable. Who not only can create art that is unbelievable...but can line dance like no other. Oh, yea....Silver Bellas are multi-faceted. Don't let the pink fool you.

I was in one more swap...Glorious Glitter House Swap hosted by Alanna George and Amy Powers; a one on one exchange; a decorated/glittered house....which I mailed to my swap partner Hope Wallace before I took a photo. I will take a picture of the tiny creation I received from Hope and update this later.

Now.........I'm off to unpack my clothes. Maybe.