So much mail such little time!

So much mail such little time! 

This is a long but great post, so please hang in there!!

The weather here was a whopping -50+ degrees Celsius last week, so I kept my son home with me.

Personally, I think if the school buses don't run that my van shouldn't have to run him to school either :P

That said I was very busy with him and my non-napping girl all this past week!

(She's decided now that she's 2:

she's too busy for napping)

I don't even know how I managed to get anything at all done, let alone assign the swapping partners for my VERY SUCCESSFUL 1st ever ribbon swap!

THANKS AGAIN to all the LADIES that joined including the awesome bunch from the Scrapin' with Flair design team!!!

Thankfully the insane Mail lady decided that she would still bring me my goodies, or better yet Canada Post still delivers in sub-zero temp.s, LOL!  YEAH FOR HER!!

I swear she probably wonders what is going on with the strangely shaped and brightly decorated envelopes that make it to my door! (OH LET HER WONDER!)

Here's some of my wonderful goodies from the last 2 weeks!

 I got this ROCKIN' package from Tee over at the Altered Paper!

I discovered that we both have birthdays in the beginning of December, so I told her we should do a birthday package exchange!

What a great idea that turned out to be!

Sorry for the sideways letter, but it was great!

 What a BIG dress form (I sent her a tiny one, LOL)

 I think this lady needs a birthday party dress!

 Birthday card and WHOLE PAD OF PAPER!!

 Ummm... what can be hiding in here?

 Cool necklace, in MY COLORS!

 Sweet ATC Tee made just for me, and some great foam valentine's heart stickers

 Beautiful handmade tag!

 Some foam hearts with arrows, and roses, and an AWESOME STAMP!

(can't wait to use these!)

 Beautiful handmade mini notebook & tag

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, a wonderful Post-It note holder!

This little beauty is sitting beside me as I type. Thanks again Tee,

I can't believe how great of a swap we had!

Check out what I sent Tee on her personal blog:

  http://creationsbytee.blogspot.com/2012/01/belated-birthday-treat.html

Next I got this BEAUTIFUL VINTAGE ATC from Karen over at 

http://karensmondaymusings.blogspot.com/

 What a darling card!

 and a FABULOUS set of goodies she sent along with it!

 THANKS AGAIN KAREN! I LOVE IT ALL!!

Next I did a swap for a YELLOW owl ATC and this is what I recieved:

What a envelope full!

 Love the front of the card she sent!

I think I'm going to add it to my inspiration board that's going up this week!

 What an interesting owl....

I wonder what breed it is?!

 I bet it's a moon owl!

Thanks kerrydwynn, for my "Moon Owl" and the great card and goodies!

Then my TAG OF THE MONTH ARRIVED!!!

 OH Jenny from http://blogforanewyear.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-tag.html,
I <3 pink polka dotted papers,

 and these goodies made it even better!

 What a darling TAG! My daughter and I both LOVE IT!!!
She had so much fun pointing to all the great elements on the tag: The snowman, the skates, and mitts and snowflakes! It's simply wintery and LOVELY! Thanks again!

I also got another SURPRISE in the mail too this past week

an "Paper Ephemera" goodie pack just for joining in on the swap via Swap-bot.

AWESOME! The lady that was putting on the swap just decided to mail ALL the swappers out an extra goodie pack for joining in!
Thanks so much again!

I did manage to sneak out once the weather warmed up over the weekend to get all my latest swaps out and everything mailed where it needed to go. I'm still waiting on 1 of my ribbon packages from this weekends swap, and will post about ALL the great ribbons once it's here!

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I've been getting, and I can't wait to show you more, including the KIT RELEASE ON FEBRUARY 1st! I've been making some great stuff to swap, and to keep!

RIBBON swap WINNER!

So, as far as I know everyone has mailed out their ribbons YESTERDAY!

I know that I did ;)

That said Leanne @ Scrap'n With Flair and I wanted to do a ribbon give-away if we reached 20 swappers...

Well, we decided that because there was 22 packages between all the swappers we did have,

that it warrants us to do it, and give these great ribbons away:

What I did was number the ladies by the dates they signed up, the 1st was # 1 and so on, not including the Scrapin' with Flair design team, of course.

And then I used the random # generator at RANDOM.ORG

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:2Powered by RANDOM.ORG

That said and done, the WINNER IS:

Victoria Resh from  http://thingsilearnfrombear.blogspot.com

Congratulations Victoria!

( I hope you don't mind I stole this pic of you from your blog! )

I will be emailing you direct to let you know when we send out your awesome NEW ribbons!

Keep your eyes peeled for the NEW KIT RELEASE FEB. 1st,

and the announcement for this coming:

FEBRUARY TAG SWAP!

RIBBON SWAP PARTNERS TO BE ASSIGNED TODAY!

ATTENTION BLOG FRIENDS:

TODAY IS THE DAY FOR PARTNER ASSIGNMENT!

Yeah!

We have:

9 people from

THE WONDERFUL SASKATOON SK CANADA

+

3 people participating from

our neighboring USA

=

with a total of

22 package hitting the mail this week, WOW!!

SERIOUSLY THOUGH,

YOU DON'T GET HOW BIG OF A DEAL THIS IS TO ME!

IT'S A MEGA:

264 FT OF RIBBON!

I seriously can't wait to see what the mail will bring me!

ALSO:
SCRAP'N WITH FLAIR WILL BE DOING A RIBBON GIVE AWAY
for all non-design team members on Jan. 23rd!
SO 1 OF THE LUCKY PARTICIPANTS HAS THE CHANCE TO WIN
EVEN MORE FREE RIBBON!!

I have figured out the partners, now it's just the daunting task of emailing everyone their partners info.

All 3 US swappers will be swapping here to CANADA!

And then the rest of the CANADIAN GIRLS will be swapping among ourselves!

YOU MAY SHIP OUT ANYTIME (BEFORE JANUARY 23RD)
AFTER RECEIVING YOUR PARTNERS INFO,
BUT PLEASE EMAIL your partner(s) DIRECT TO LET THEM KNOW WHEN IT IS SENT.

so they can expect them.

I look forward to seeing what you all receive, PLEASE email me a photo, or send me the link for your blog posts!

PLEASE if something happens ladies, and you can't swap, let me know ASAP!

If by chance someone doesn't get their package within 2-3 weeks time, LET ME and YOUR PARTNER KNOW! We seem to have a great group of ladies so hopefully this will not be a problem, but I will make sure it's resolved if need be.

HAPPY SWAPPING!

SWAP SIGN UP FOR NEXT MONTH:

will be announced on Feb. 1st

Stuff I've been doing

The last few weeks have been filled with MAKING!!

I've been doing several swaps over at Tee's Altered Paper Blog, as well as on Swap-bot.

To be honest I'd rather swap via Tee's site, or my own for that matter, as the quality is sometimes lacking through Swap-bot. I don't think it's any one persons fault, I just think some of us have higher standards then others... That said here's a few photos of things I've sent!
(I'll have to do another post later with what I got in trade.)

I made this darling little Christmas ATC for a KAWAII swap on SWAP-Bot

*Kawaii - means cute in Japanese.

It is something new to me, but seriously I think I've always loved it!

It includes cute things with little smiley or mad faces, I've really fallen for the "food items"

I entered a game on Swap-bot via one of the group I'm in. This is what "Mail type items" I sent her:

Cute envelope I sent it all in.

Sweet address tags for my partner

 Memo sheets and handmade envelopes

x 2 different kinds

Cute postcard on the left, and the right one is a magnet.

more handmade magnets to match the postcard.

 Mini bookmarks

 And a little note too!

 I also sent out my "WINTER" themed tag of the month for Tee's Altered Paper TAG SWAP

I used:

Vintage white lace, ribbon with snowman print, some tinsel-ish ribbon 

to hold on a dangley snow flake,  2 tiny bells and a star to the top.

On bottom I used Frosted Lace Stickles on the left snowman, to give him a little sparkle. I then added a silver printed ribbon to make the right snowman's scarf,  and Liquid Pearls in white Opal on his snow body. Lastly I added some tinseled  pom-poms. It really gave this vintage 80's paper a special wintery pick me up!

 Here's the extra goodies I sent along!

I really hope my partner enjoys her new tag, and goodies.

And my last thing to show today:

My Vintage ATC also for Tee's Altered Paper.

I actually started making this ATC a long time ago, but ended up adding to it!

The lovely vintage lace was sent to me by one of the ladies I traded an ATC with.

(Man I wish I had more)

The 3 vintage embroidery rose bouquets were in a bunch of embroidery patches I bought years ago.

I  came across them while tidying up the other day,

then remembered them when thinking this needed a bit something else.

I added some Glossy Accents to highlight on her bonnet and dress...

I think it turned out perfect, and honestly didn't want to send this little sweetie off to someone else...

 I really hope Karen takes good care of her, and can't wait to get what she sends me!

Oh, and I hope she likes her goodies too!

I didn't know anything about sending goodies with my trades until I traded with some really fab. ladies in the beginning! It really is wonderful getting a little something extra, even if it's just a snippet of this or that! I seriously have fun sending my extras!

That said look at what I found:

Really cool Christmas wrapping tape!

It came wide like the below one, but can easily be cut smaller if you take the time.

COST: $0.70 each on SALE!!!

The Japanese printed tapes are called Washi Tape, and are quite a bit similar, and way thinner.

They are quite trendy both in crafting and scrapbooking.

I look forward to using these cool tapes for a long time to come!!

TTFN~ Elysia