other crafty stuff
the creative exchange {Advent blogalong day 8}

the creative exchange {Advent blogalong day 8}

During the first couple of weeks in November, I applied to join the next round of #thecreativeexchange on Instagram, and around the middle of the month, a littl email arrived to tell me I was in and who I would be making for. I madly got to stalking and making ad collecting a little bundle of goodies that I ended up sending off a few days late due to sick children, and ended up in such a rush I forgot to take a photo!! From her instagram:

 

A photo posted by Jane (@janecap14) on

I made her a handbound travel journal with map covers, inspired by her travel photos. Her love of food I covered with some hand carved lino printed recipe cards as well as a quirky upcycled mini kitchen herb garden with some herb seed mats and some cute vintage glasses. Popping up a couple of times in her feed was some photos of bracelets, so I also included a little kit to make her own beaded wrap bracelet, and then a set of Christmas gift tags to top it off, before wrapping the whole lot up in brown paper & gold twine & topping them off with die cute doilies and Christmas stamps.
And then, my very own pretty parcel of delightful goodness arrived.
I was in such a rush to open it I didn’t think to grab a “real camera” photo of Laura’s stunning wrapping until after I decimated it, so my dodgy Instagram snap will have to suffice. Isn’t that wrapping so pretty? And inside it got even better.
 
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Look at all that crafty goodness! The lovely Laura had stalked me well, and while she commented it was hard to find a craft I hadn’t tried (this is true), she did an excellent job of sending me bits, not only for a craft I haven’t tried, but that I hadn’t also picked up along the way for other crafts. In the crafty part of my package was all the supplies I needed to try paper cutting, including:
 
-A cutting mat – while I do have one, from my paper tole days as a young teen (yeah, I was the coolest teenager ever, why are you looking at me like that?), it is closing in on 20 years old and looks every day of it. Probably doesn’t help I used it at one point to cut eyelet holes with a punch. Whoops. But now I have a pretty, shiny, larger, new one, YAYY!
-An Xacto knife and refills – I have a bog standard generic scalpel from the craft store and it has nothing on the buttery goodness of the Xacto. Loving it!
-A Palamino Blackwing 602 pencil & sharpener – I was lucky enough to receive an ArtSnacks box for my birthday from a friend and inside was the Blackwing 725 Limited Edition, and I love and adore it. Hands down my favourite pencil. So I squealed when I saw I now have the 602 to add to my collection!
-An envelope of templates, some paper and a gorgeous handmade book of instructions,
-A set of little glass bottles to fill with cut paper goodness AND a bottle already filled as an example (JACKPOT)
-An acrylic block frame to fill with my experiments
-And a sample paper cut that is gorgeous!
 I also got a little indulgence pack that included a book, a golden notebook, some “American Pie” tea which smells sooooo good, and a gorgeous citrusy candle that is pure summer.
 
Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I let new craft supplies lay dormant, and one afternoon while the children were playing, I got to practicing. Not bad for a first try, don’t you think?
 
first attempt at papercutting
 
Now, to just decide on a design and then I am going to add some papercuts to our Christmas cards!

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