Purse - March 21, 2010

My good friend, Stephanie, sent me a Martha Stewart scoring board as a cheer-me-up gift!  Well, the cheer-me-up gift really worked because I had been wanting a scoring board so I could make many projects.  The first project that I just had to make is this adorable purse.  It is a great size to hold a candy or some sort of treat.  Thanks Stephanie for the scoring pad..... look for many more projects to come.

Plant the Seed Swap - March 18, 2010

For this swap, you could pick to do a vegetable seed or flower seed gift bag.  I choose to do both.  For either the vegetable or flower seed swap, you made 1 altered plant stake, a recipe card with embellishment, include a small gift in the bag (gloves, pen, or altered items, etc.) and made a topper for the bag.

I believe this has been the most fun creative swap I have done in quite awhile, if ever!  My vegetable bags include a great recipe for broccoli salad with broccoli seeds, of course.  I made these adorable caterpillar toppers with my Cricuit from the Walk in the Garden cartridge.  Included in each bag are altered note pads and altered plant stakes made using laminated coasters, stickers and ribbon.

The flower swap has a great breakfast casserole recipe, a cute jumbo pen and Gailllardia flower seeds.  I altered the plant stakes with cute ladybugs.  I used the border topper of ladybugs from the Cricuit machine to make the toppers across the bag.  Maybe what I enjoy most of all about this swap is making the toppers - my husband thought they were adorable. 

Secret Sister Altered DVD Tin - March 13, 2010

I am currently participated in a secret sister swap where you altered six items.  In return, you receive six unique altered ideas.  I love these types of swaps since people are so creative and make such unique things that provide you with new ideas and projects to try yourself.

I altered a DVD tin so that she can write down ideas for swaps.  The stamped image is Stamping Bella's Clickabella since we all talk via the computer and participate in the swaps through the computer. To make the DVD color coordinated, I used two sided designer paper.   The fron cover of the DVD tin is cut 5 1/4 x 7 1/4 and rounded with a corner rounder.  The inside flap is cut 5 1/4 x 8 1/2, scored at 1 1/4 inches.  Then I cut another small piece of the designer paper, used sticky strip to make the pocket by adhering the small piece of paper to the scored folded over flap and some sticky strip on the sides.

The letters were cut out using my cricuit and the Plantin Schooolbook Roly Poly letters at 1 1/2 inches and quickly adhered with the Xyron machine.  This was a fun relaxing project.