Artful Gathering Part 2

Here are a few more "gifties" that we received. The first is a business card holder handmade by Sue (who didn't even attend!) - I love how she made the closure with a simple safety pin and beautiful fibers. The second is a tiny little embellishment from Brenda made from a strip of ribbon and a checker altered with a little face (excuse the out-of-focus photo - my camera doesn't do closeups well).



Thursday we spent most of the day doing little projects and playing with some techniques. First Brenda showed us how to make glass slide ornaments. Instead of using copper tape and solder, we used glue lines and vintage glass glitter. These are the two I made.

We also made a floral corsage from large silk flower pieces, lace and lots of ribbons. This is very large and we wore them on our aprons all weekend. Made us feel very feminine and special.

Kris shared the next project with us. This is a small 4"x4" coaster colored with a unique technique using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. We sprayed water on a non-stick craft mat, then two or three different glimmer mists. We then scrunched up a paper towel, dampened it slightly and dragged it gently over the craft mat. The coaster was then dropped over the mixture to absorb the colors and turned over to repeat on the other side. This gave a very mottled look - very nice! Then Kris shared her original little butterfly made with four punched hearts and a pen nib wrapped with wire. Clever!

Another project was altering an altoid tin into a mini-first aid kit. These were so simple to make - just covered the tin, inside and out, with coordinating scrap papers and embellishments. Here you can see the cover of mine.

And here's a peek inside. The slide ornament on the left with my name was a giftie from Brenda. This little tin holds an amazing amount of bandaids, gauze and wipes.

Jeri gave each of us a kit to make this "hangie danglie." There was a variety of different images, all bodies with fruits of some kind, and hilarious. I think my favorite was the gal with the cantaloupe boobs! We glued the edge of a piece of matboard and gathered the crepe paper into ruffles around the perimeter. Then the image was attached and holes punched for the ribbon hanger. I added some Stickles to the water, champagne glasses and bottle, and the derrieres, and stamped the quote which seemed perfect. Fun!

On Friday night we had a "slumber party" of sorts. We all gathered in the conference room in our pjs and slippers. There was a contest for the funniest slippers and we had pizza and cokes in glass bottles. Here's the little invitation that Julie made and delivered under everyone's doors the night before.

Instead of the usual slumber party pillow fight, we had a pillow exchange. Everyone had brought either a pillow they had bought or made and we did a "Chinese gift exchange" where the pillows could be "stolen" a few times before they ended up with their final owner. It was great fun and there was lots of stealing! I ended up with this lovely pillow that Liane had made. I love the lace and the large, unique buttons.

Tomorrow I'll share the book projects we created.