This is wonderful. Really truly some awesome stitching.

Two years ago I was blessed to join in a Christmas ornament swap and had so much fun designing my ornaments that I've made it a habit.

This year I did a quick private swap with one of my favorite people, spookshowbaby77! We've done several swaps over the past couple of years and I love making new things for her and know that I'll always get awesomeness in return!

I ended up designing two new ornaments this year, (another one made it to the cutwork phase but was never completed), and wanted to share.

Monster Christmas light bulb 1
I'm still not sure why this guy is pissed. I figured because either he got left off the string of lights this year, or because he doesn't want to be on the string of lights this year? Regardless, boy is he irked!

Monster Christmas light bulb 1
No matter how much I fiddled with this guy's face, he looked bored. I think that he was angry for so long his face froze like this and now he's just bored of being angry.

WIP - monster light bulbs in cutwork phase with their inspiration piece. I made this brooch last year and while perusing my material for ideas he caught my eye. I thought he'd make a great ornament!

I saw an ornament on flickr using *real* scrabble tiles and thought it would be cool to do a couple in felt. I have one in a baggie spelling out "peace" waiting to be sewn together and stuffed.


Ornaments from previous years:
House Ornament - 2008
Etch A Sketch Ornament - 2008
Barrel of Monkeys Ornament - 2009

Thanks. I'll have to see if I can find my notebook with my sketches in it. That and some of my observations might help you put it together. It really wasn't that hard. In fact, it was pretty cool watching it all come together. I know I wanted to make ME one!

@Soledad - Yes. I sure hope so. I didn't really get to know him very well until I lived with them briefly. Now we're pals. It's pretty awesome.

For a while, at the beginning of the year, I lived with my brother and family.  During that time my nephew, Kyle, got me hooked on the cartoon Ben 10.  He's a little kid that finds a watch that can turn him into different aliens. We're both a touch obsessed with it and watch it together on a regular basis. As a matter of a fact, they save them until I can come down and watch them with him and my brother. We're a bit of Ben 10 geeks and obsess over the tiniest details! LoL

So, I had the idea of making Ben's watch for him.  It's made completely of felt with a velcro closure and is 3D.

I gave it to him for his birthday this year and I'm told he wears it pretty regularly.

Good Lord I haven't been here in fo-evah! Last swap was Jan of this year and I've missed it! But...the trade off was getting a real job and making enough money to move back to the SF Bay Area. In the end, the trade off is worth the time away.

I realized though that I had been doing swaps here but haven't been posting my work over here to share once it is all done and over with. I love sharing over here as I enjoy seeing everyone else's work and hearing what others who do what I do think of my work.

I'm sharing a piece I did for a IYP swap here in December. spookshowbaby77 invited me to be her partner, of which I was eternally grateful. I have swapped several times with Kerry and have enjoyed each time. She's my all-time favorite swap partner.

I posted this on my Flickr, so the below is excerpted from that posting:

Embroidered piece of artwork done for craftster swap (IYP with spookshowbaby77). Crayon and watercolor tinted, hand embroidered. It's probably my first piece that wasn't mostly traced and then embroidered.

While the artwork is true to the original iconic painting, because I used Blythe's face as the base I had to completely rework the entire thing to look proportionate. I am not an "artist" so doing this is not my forte usually. Note: My brother reworked the hands as I was having a dicken of a time reworking them to look "correct."

Kerry, my partner who is receiving this, loves dolls and had many on her "favorites" here on Flickr. She also had a couple of Lady of Guadalupe statues in her favorites as well, so as I was perusing all of her information to come up with an idea of what to do for this swap I had a flash of...well, I hope it was brilliance..because the idea came together perfectly at that moment.

If you look closely you might note that the angel below Blythe's feet was reworked slightly to make him look like Elvis. Sacreligious? Absolutely I'm sure.

The piece was sent to her as a raw piece of artwork for her to do what she wants with it. I hope she likes it as much as I do. :-)

IP pics

It makes perfect sense to me that this swap would turn out some amazing work. Amazing craftsters inviting other amazing crafsters to swap? What else could it be but amazing???    I love most everything I've seen so far! The poppet with the snail? Beautiful spider scarf? Several amazing and beautiful knit and crocheted projects? Wonderfully colored yarns and rovings? The pirate bags! Altered books! Resin jewelry! So many other beautiful projects!

I was lucky enough to have spookshowbaby77 invite me to swap with her and I will be forever grateful. We had done a couple of small swaps with each other both on craftster and flickr, and I think we've gotten pretty good at making things each other will love. I've enjoyed each swap we've done, but this round was particularly wonderful. I recently had some hard changes happen in my life, and doing this swap kept me focused on something positive and creative. I will be ever grateful to Kerry for the invite.

Then, on top of that, she went and sent me the most AMAZING package of stuff EVER! I received like a week ago and Kerry has been so patient with my situation (it's taken 3 days to get the pics uploaded), so I'm SO happy to show you what she sent me!

It would be almost impossible to take one picture of this swap package, so you are forewarned that this is pic heavy.

My one request made was for a tote. I asked for a very large one with handles long enough to throw over my shoulder. Boy did she deliver and then some! I love Professor X!


These two brooches were attached to my wonderful tote! I keep crossing my fingers that my teenager will not realize that they come off.


An adorable clothes pin doll with a cute cardinal perched on her head and cuddling a moose in her arms.


A saucy angel ornament that reminds me of Pinky from Grease. She’ll be hanging out in my car that I just bought to help keep me safe. She has a beaded halo and sparkles on her dress. I love her!


A great jar pincushion that I’m already using! It was filled with little bits of whimsy that I love.


Here’s the whimsy I was talking about.


This group shot shows a handkerchief embroidered with Kermit (my favorite Muppet) and a crocheted edge, some peace sign fabric and a bulldog named Semper Fidelis.  I’m not sure if she crocheted it herself or if she bought it vintage. I love the colors though. I’m also not sure if she knows (but I’m guessing she does) that the bulldog is significant to me. I’m a former Marine, so Semper Fidelis is the perfect companion.


The package actually came with TWO owl ornaments, which I had previously admired on Kerry’s flickrstream. Unfortunately my daughter saw them and snatched one right out of the box!


An old Snoopy book that I pick up at least once a day to get a giggle, a MS felt flower kit (I LOVE MS), and a handful of trading cards.  Cards include everything from old school Battlestar Galatica, Star Wars (Han Solo!!!), XMen (Storm and Nightcrawler!!!), Powerpuff Girls, Batman and some others I can't remember off the top of my head. I love trading cards! My daughter thinks I'm a dork for getting so excited about them, and I'm okay with that.


Amazingly enough, I’m almost positive I’m missing something! Thank you SO much spookshowbaby77, for inviting me to swap with you and a HUGE thanks to Superduperhooker for organizing this herd of cats..I mean craftsters!

I had a complete panic attack this weekend when, in my mind, I thought that send outs were TODAY.  I really gotta write this stuff down. 

Finally settled on WHAT I'm doing...now on to perfecting execution! I love this part!

This guy was made for a swap on Flickr with my friend spookshowbaby77. We had mutually admired each others foray into the dotee doll, had swapped twice before, and decided to do another swap for a dotee doll.

I originally had the idea to come up with a doll idea that would at least match my last efforts and be something I know Kerry would like. After muddling along with some ideas that were decent, but not awe-worthy...I had a light bulb flash when I was moving around some felt pins I am making for an Etsy shop I hope to open soon.

I figured that while he would be 3-dimensional like the pin, I could make him into what would be the accepted format of the "dotee" doll, which was the original intent of the swap, right?

Well, as I began to work on them, the felt and ideas sort of took over. I truly don't remember when he turned into a fish, (let alone a space fish), instead of a monster; but I'm glad he did!  And I'm sure you recognize Bud, or at least recognize where he's inspired from anyway. 

They are hand-stitched entirely of recycled felt, with Alistar's eyes made from two buttons and Bud's eyes are glued on googly eyes. He is stuffed with polyfill.



I absolutely love his belly. Originally it was just going to be flat but something called to me and I just had to make a ridged belly for him.


To see more pictures of Alistar and Bud, check out my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatewineroses/

Been waiting for this swap. Really really enjoyed last year's swap.  Hopefully I can join more than one of these swaps this season!

I wanted to give a big THANKS to PirateColey for being my Angel on this swap. I love the beautiful lady you sent me. 


And thanks to Smmarrt for organizing!