On the fourth day of Christmas...

Cris Cunningham sent to me:

this wonderful handmade soap wrapped in fabric and tied with ribbon and berries. It smells so very yummy! Thank you Cris! Check out her link above to see more of her work.

It's been an exhausting two days for me. Yesterday a friend and I enjoyed an art "play day" (from early morning until midnight!) at a friend's house a few hours away making six fantastic holiday projects. There were five of us in all and what fun we had, talking, laughing, eating and arting the day away. Here's a few of the projects we made. I have some finishing touches to add to the others before I post them.

This is a very cute, small banner made with homemade "flashcards." Very simple to do - print out chosen words in a large font, "age" the cards by stippling, add embellishments (I used red glitter star stickers and some snowflakes punched from music paper, and tie together with ribbon threaded through eyelets. Each card is approximately 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". You could make whatever phrase you wanted!

This is a hanging made on a piece of blue matboard - approximately 8"x10" before tearing the edges. Did you know that matboard has many layers and you can peel them apart? (I didn't!) Most of the other gals were able to tear the edges easily, but I had a hard time getting a good grip. We tore Christmas songs from old hymnals (gasp) and stippled them, along with the matboard and edges, to age them. The tag was previously colored with glimmer mists by our hostess, Jeri, which we layered on the song sheet over pieces of punchinella. The vintage image was then added, along with a small piece of aged lace, a tiny brad and some ribbon.

This was a smaller hanging - approximately 3 1/2" x 5" without the hanging fringe. The base is matboard. The angel image was glued on and two different fringes were wrapped around the bottom edge (back and front). I added an old foreign coin to cover the ends on the front. The top edge was trimmed with scalloped gold foil tape (usually used for soldering). I love the addition of the gold safety pin with a few odd beads!

After yesterday's long day, I had another long day today-a marathon of teaching from 9 am til 9 pm! So the photos of the other projects will have to wait til tomorrow.