Merry Christmas!



 Best wishes for a blessed Christmas! The card shown above is one I made in a workshop on using hot-fix ribbon, Copic markers, and hot-fix crystals. Always fun to learn a new technique, and to express the joy of the season to all.

 I received these little treasures, left, in a gift exchange. Sewing friend Barbara makes them from craft felt, and adds all the tiny embellishments by hand. I was delighted to get them and have admired her creative work for a long time. She also gave me the white-on-white ornaments, above, right, back when I helped her sew the small felt birds shown in this post. Ornaments like these are on my "someday" list of things to make. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy hers and share them with you.

Happy holidays.

Winners! And Hot Beverages for Christmas...

The time has come, and the drum roll has sounded. Four names were drawn for the prizes shown in the last two posts on this blog. Thanks for all of your comments, and for taking part. I drew the names for prizes in the order they were mentioned and shown in the posts. So here are the winners: 1) Vintage Christmas booklet- Cindy from Crimson Heart Studios; 2) Christmas journal- Malinda of Adornments; 3) Somerset Studio Gallery magazine- Donna Parker of Donna Did It; and 4) Christmas from the Heart book- Marilyn. So congratulations, and Merry Christmas! I've e-mailed each of you, but if you don't receive my message for some reason, please contact me.

I had small, same-size pieces left after trimming paper to make these Christmas matchbook-gift holders for my friends at the weekly Citra Crafty Quilters. Your names went on those paper slips for the drawing. Each of the matchbook-style holders has a packet of either cocoa or apple cider drink tied inside. Of course they were perfect for featuring more of my favorite vintage images from the Dover Clip Art CD. Malinda, who won the Christmas journal, is the one who shared the link for making these. The holders make simple, affordable gifts. And they are fairly quick to make. If you like them, check out the video at Eclectic Art Studio. One tip, when you go to thread the ribbon through the small punched holes, try using a floss threader. It makes the job very easy.

The remaining names are still in the quilty bag just in case I'm unable to contact any of the winners. I won the bag, which was nice and roomy for tossing and mixing up the names, on Kathy York's blog when she introduced her Urban Landscapes fabric line. Her article for making the drawstring bags appeared in Quilting Arts Gifts 2010 issue.

Is there no end to the fun we have with fabric and paper?? No! The answer is no. And I'll be back soon to share more with you.