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The aim was kinda to challenge ourselves, share our love of craft, getting to know ourselves better within the team and to get people to look at our work and blogs. So I wish you happy blogging, Have a great time browsing through all the participant’s pictures and please don’t forget to leave comments and to follow the blogs!

I was personnally swapping with Tanya, Brigitte and Aine (at first, there was an uneven number of participants and then Brigitte wanted to make an extra card) . But I chose not to mention which cards will go to whom, just because even if it is a reveal today, they’ll still have an effect of surprise

This one is called: ‘Think outside the box’ and is made with mixed media collage

Funny, you can see me photographying reflected in the enveloppe! I Had to make the most of the sunny day!

Nex is ‘Alice Revisited’ I drew Alice and made her stand out from the card (even though you can’t really see it here on the pic)

I love the fine silver ‘embroidery’ print on the enveloppe

And last but not least ‘Vintage frame,New baby’ made with a drawing of mine of mama and baby owl and mixed media collage

It’s a shame you can’t really see it but there is a see through plastic ’window’ (which appears blurry due to the sun) and the gold frame is really cool and the enveloppe print reminded me of a forest…

And here are my new little babies, fabric flower brooches that I will be added to my packages…

Not easy to take decent pictures but I do hope you enjoyed the post, my blog and the challenge idea. If this challenge has made you think you wished you had participated, do not despair, ask any of the girls if you could do a swap with you…why not??!  Hope you can go and visit the other blogs…

 Loads of smiles,

♥Virginie♥

Just sharing with you a moment in Southern France…a moment shared with much joy with my family at my aunt’s. Where the love of food and the region meet with the love of colours and presentation…

These fabric flowers are so cute, I just learned how to make them and as it was a first, I kinda chose one of my least favorite fabrics…But it works well together! I plan to make many more, this time mixing and matching gorgeous fabrics…And if it works well, maybe I could offer them in my Etsy boutique?…Something to think about!

So, yes I forgot to say that I made this flower into a brooch!

Made a little ‘carton handbag’ to present the brooch into…

I love using contrasting colours and I’ve notice that Black and white together mixed with specific colours is stunning. You’ll probably find this mix in  my creations…I mean, just look at the blog! LOL

Ready to go! I’m going to offer that one to my friend as we’re staying with them this week end in Clifden, Connemara. Hope she likes it, but I’m quite confident, she’s very arty crafty herself and loves buttons.

 Thanks for looking ^_^

Hostesses: Natalie from HUNGRY HIPPIE BLOG and Shelley from HONEYLAMB & I

This is the new swap I’ve joined, what am I getting myself into, I’ve never made a wrist cuff before!! But then neither did I alter a box before right?!

And you never know if it works for me, couldn’t I widen out my jewellery creations with wrist cuffs? Let’s see what I can come up with first shall we LoL.

My bead Partner is Angela fromwww.mousehousetales.blogspot.com . Pop over, she’s got the most exquisite items and lives just around the corner in the UK.

I’m really looking forward to creating this cuff, and already getting inspiration and ideas. Obviously, it’s not just a simple wrist cuff, there must be a victorian twist to it…Can’t wait to get started. As soon as my ATCs and little gifts  are finished, I get down to business ^_^

Actually in TWO boxes. As promised, I managed to take a couple of pictures of the Petite Bead boxes I received. We all had to handmake the box or get a vintage box. The content would include a selection of beads with a focal, 5 unique beads and 20  matching beads no smaller than 4mm…Basically, unique beads you wouldn’t come accross in your local craft shop. Here they are and don’t forget to look at the PREVIOUS POST to look at the boxes I made …

From Cassandra www.myartfuladventures.blogspot.com :

and from Bryanna www.thecanaryscupcake.blogspot.com :

Thank you to the 2 lovely ladies I swaped with and Thank you for looking ^_^

I’m just back from France where I’ve spent 2 weeks with my family. It was great and I must say I’m a bit homesick at the minute but I’m sure it’ll pass . Dylan has started to  walk over there and he’s not 12 months yet!! Walking, crawling with his bum up lol by the end of next week he’ll be walking like a pro. Unfortunately, Dylan got back home with a cold and a rash…We thought he had developed chicken pox or roseola but the GP said it could be just a simple rash and cold…this morning we discovered more spots…But then, the teething, difference in temperature between ireland and France and different routine/food/travelling….Could be it.

So all that to say that I haven’t been able to take photos of the two boxes I received from Cassandra and Bryanna…I’ll try to post pics of them tomorrow if Baby’s better…But I already had taken pics of the boxes I sent, so without wasting anymore time, first a big thank you to you two girls and especially Cassandra for organizing the whole swap. I definitely have a taste for it now! If you (dear reader) know of a cute swap happening soon please let me know ^_^

Anyway, so here they are, first for Bryanna : Marie-Antoinette theme

I absolutely loved making these 2 boxes  using new collage and resin encasing techniques…They are my very first altered boxes! I’m a beginner you know…

I wanted to go for different handmade beads that I usually go for. (As you probably know, I mostly work with high quality artisan lampwork beads) So that was a challenge for me and I opted for  handcrocheted beads… They match fabulously the handmade and silver Rose pendant I got from www.dottyral.etsy.com She’s a brillant artist!

I handmade the card (oups forgot to take a pic) to match the box and sent it out lovingly packaged!

And then for Cassandra : A ‘Chic Parisienne’ theme

I simply went for black, silver and sparkly crystal…So hard to catch with the camera! I promise it looks even better in reality

Vintage crysal brooch and vintage chandelier crystals are the components…With mini handcrafted pink see through lampwork beads and big silver cotton handcrocheted beads. All handmade or vintage!

Card made by me to match and off the package went to Cassandra. You can go to her page here to see what the other participants have made…

Also, if you’d like to swap boxes or ATC with me or know of an other challenging swap, please let me know!

I’m actually organising an ATC swap, reveal first week of September…

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy the blog , ^_^, Virginie

I am swaping with Petite Bead box hostess Cassandra and visiting her blog today, I found out about this gorgeous giveaway. Thought I’d share with you. So here’s what Cassandra from www.myartfuladventures.blogspot.com wrote:

HAPPY ONE YEAR AND TWO YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSARY AND ALMOST 400 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY!”

lol How’s that for a giveaway title! I am giving away one of my faux cakes, an apron, a moo/mini card wallet, a pink and blue cuff, and a embellishment pack (all photoed above)! All is pretty soft pink and blues. One lucky person will win all of this.

For a chance to win simply leave a comment below by next Sunday the 7th. And to shake it up a bit I will give everyone who does a post on there blog one extra entry! AND I will give TWO extra entries to anyone who can tell me what my old original blog name was before I started this one. I will then tally everything up and randomly select a winner next Sunday.

Here’s the latest treasury I’ve been featured in, selected by www.thelittlebluecottage.etsy.com 

Please click away using the link above, the more clicks, the better chance this treasury has to make it to the front of Etsy

• Baby Shoes  TissaGibbons $30.00 USD 

• 
  FREE SHIPPING – SPRING …  vivibijoux$89.00 USD

   

• 
  Hey diddle diddle  myfanwynia$555.00 USD

   

• 
  I AM A BOY DON’T CALL M…  SneakyOwls$12.00 USD

   

• 
  Hand knit classic Irish…  IrishWoolen$48.00 USD

   

• 
  Berrylicious Summer Dress  Leatherstreasure$29.50 USD

   

• 
  Baby Quilt  curlyrip$75.00 USD

   

• 
  Little Green Princess …  thelittleblue…$15.00 USD

   

• 
  The Peckish Moon – Lisa…  meluseenaSold

   

• 
  Happy Owl Dress  beefreekidscl…$35.00 USD

   

• 
  Crochet Beanie hat  crochetingfor…$10.00 USD

   

• 
  White lace Baby appliqu… LittleSnippets $4.00 USD

   

• 
  Handmade Baby Bell with…  patchworkdeli…$16.00 USD

   

• 
  Handmade Personalised C…  LuckyRainbowD… $5.00 USD

   

• 
  Mrs Rabbit making tea -…  tanyabond$12.00 USD

   

• 

Baby quilt – Apples and Ice cream www.mukkymonkey.etsy.com $100

We’re just back from England where we’ve attended a family funeral  But we’re off again this week end for 2 weeks in the south-west of France where we’re going to stay with my family. 

Unfortunately before we can relax we’ve got loads to do and prepare. Given that on wednesday I’m going with Dylan and an artist friend to the craft market, I need to get all my available jewelry tagged and ready to go. That means making sure I’ve got enough handmade gift pouches with me (I made a few last week), look into taking a table + chairs, a table clothe, my earrings displays, enough food and toys to feed and keep baby happy…oh!and closing the etsy shop for 2 weeks and everything else I can’t think of right now but will hit me at a later date lol.

So anyway, I’m sure somehow it’ll get done. That if Dylan will let me, He’s growing 2 teeth at the moment and has the sniffles since the week-end.

He’s got nearly 8 teeth now, is starting to stand up from sitting on the floor when holding on to something and started to crawl a couple of weeks back. Yes it’s all happening and he’s just turned 11 months!

The quilt I was talking to you about is now complete and thought I would share with you some pics before I take it to France to its new home…

It’ a single bed size and there’s nothing complicated about this quilt, as it had to be done relatively quickly, it’s the print that really makes it…