Hi everyone! Here are the photos of what I sent to Miss Barbara keeping her descriptions. Enjoy!

Miss Barbara:
Whoo-hoo!  I received!  Whoo-hoo!  I received!  (Unfortunately, I am unable to take and post photos, so as soon as I am done posting a description of the items my generous partner-mellermann-has sent me, I will PM her so she can post photos if she would like.)

I have swapped with mellermann before, and I was already aware of her talent and awesomeness!  Here goes:

B-bookmarks!  A set of THREE, CROSS-STITCHED (yes, you read right), papercrafted corner bookmarks!  Shocked



A-altered sketchbook!  It has a black cover and on it she put one of my fav. quotes:  'Keep calm and carry yarn'!  Grin  She also decorated the front with a ball of yarn made out of thread and knitting needles made out of toothpicks!  What a nifty idea!  Cool



R-rugs for my mugs!  (Also known as 'mug rugs'!  Cool)  A set of SIX of them!  Yesssssss!



B-beads & buttons!  Dark and light colored wood beads, and a package of 'heirloom' style buttons.  I don't have either of these items in my stash, so I am thrilled to have them now!



A-any occasion greeting cards!  Pink/brown/creme colored with cupcakes!  My fav. color combo and one of my fav. themes!



R-rainbow earrings!  I knew from experience that mellermann was a talented jewelry maker, and I figured that package was coming today, so I didn't put on my earrings, just in case!  Wink  And mellermann didn't disappoint!  Silver with rainbow colored seed beads...  GEORGOUS!



A-art work featuring the four seasons!  Too detailed for words...I hope mellermann posts photos so everyone can wist/pin these...creative and beautiful!  I can't wait to put them on my craft room walls!



THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received an absolutely amazing package from Miss Barbara today. She spoiled me with so many gorgeous crocheted goodies, craft supplies and other goodies!

M is for...

mug cozy.


E is for

a crocheted Eve,


an envelope with a lovely card,


and an exciting postcard from NYC.


L is for...

lap blanket,


little box of Monet tea (see above photo)

and a leather origami wallet (super neat!!!).




I is for...

Ida, the positive ion stuffie.


S is for...

Sock purse, small notebook and set of 4 mini erasers.


S is for....

sheets of scrapbooking paper,


and stones and sea glass from the beach (see above photo).

A is for...

arm warmers,


and an altered puzzle (that I will be putting together and posting...I can't believe she altered an ENTIRE puzzle!!!)


Miss Barbara, thank you so much!!! The package left me speechless!!

I received inchies and an ATC from Opalgryphon yesterday and I love them! She made a beautiful replica of a Van Goh for my modern art theme and a microscopic view of beer for my science theme for the inchies.






For the ATC, she made a gorgeous replicate of one of the photos on my wist.



Thanks so much Opalgryphon!

Oops, sorry about that coconutbells! Here are the actually inchies

I received inchies and ATCs this past week from both coconutbells and calabaza. I loved everything!

Here are the inchies from coconutbells:



And the ATC from her:



Here are the inchies from Calabaza:



And the ATC from her:



Thank you both for the great artwork!

I'm guilty of impulse buying when at bookstores. Usually it's okay because I end up loving the novel I somehow end up coming home with. But every once in awhile, the book turns out to be greatly disappointing. Those books end up in my "to be resold or donated" pile.

I've always wanted to make one of those books with a secret compartment. I decided that one of these books would be perfect for that! I also wanted to decorate the book in some way and I eventually decided to turn it into a giant lego block. Here's how that turned out:



I covered the book with blue card stock. I also painted the inside and uncovered outer sections (the areas not covered by the book cover) with blue acrylic paint. I then used the blue card stock to "legofy" the book. Here's a close up of one of the lego block...um, knobs? Not sure what it's called.



And here is the secret compartment.



It wasn't too difficult cutting up the book to create the compartment. I used a very sharp exacto knife and slowly cut out the pages. The knife was able to cut through about 20 pages at a time. There is probably a better way to do it, but that was the sharpest tool I had on hand. After cutting out the compartment, I applied modge podge to seal the pages and to glue the pages together so that the book was more like a box that opens up. I really like how it turned out!

Thanks for looking! 

I wanted to craft something for my coworker in the lab that I work in. Given that our lab focuses on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis research, I just had to include an angry, inflamed intestine somehow! So I decided to refurbish a bowl by sewing a cover representing an angry, hungry candy...wait for it...wait for it....bow[e]l! Bowl. Bowel. Get it?



I made the intestinal villi out of angry red fabric. As you can see, I embroidered the words "hungry" and "bow[e]l" onto the outside rim.



I embroidered the outside of each of the villi as well to draw some emphasis to them. The bottom of the bowl is covered with white felt with the following message: "colonize me with candy." Because I want candy in my bowl...and bowel. Heh heh.



And naturally, I just had to include some bacteria colonizing the lumen and attached to the villi. After all, it is an angry inflamed intestine!



The bacteria were made with silver rings and beading wire. I stitched the bacteria onto the red fabric to attach them onto the villi or to the white piece of felt.



Thanks for looking!

I got the puzzle pieces that Isabelchun altered in the mail today! That was a great surprise since I was sure it got lost in the mail...so yay! Anyways, here is the awesome work she did in altering the puzzle pieces:



And here's another progress shot of my puzzle:

Here's my puzzle so far! It's looking good!

Wow this gallery is awesome so far! There are so many cool ideas for altering puzzle pieces that I would never have thought of!

I received awesome pieces from AmandaBL, Smmarrt, and Goddesgarb.

AmandaBL made these bright and awesome patterns on her pieces:


Smmarrt made these really neat pieces...I love the background on the make art piece (also, great mantra! ) and the simplicity of the pennies piece.


Finally, Goddessgarb made these pieces with these great, geometric patterns...again in my favorite colors!


Thanks ladies for these great packages! And as for the sewing pattern cards, I wish I could take credit for that idea, but I was lucky enough to receive that in a recent altered notecard swap. I was very excited about using those cards immediately!