I have been promising to show you some pics of the exchange gifts that I have sent for the MS Lovers Blog exchanges for a little while now. The packages all had a long way to go from Australia to Brazil, the Netherlands and Canada. But everything has now arrived so here we are: show time!!!
First up is some pixie parcels to a couple of the girls who had previous exchanges go awry for one reason or another...
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| Pixie parcel to Gislene |
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| Pixie parcel to Annette |
These little pixie gifts were almost the same... I stitched the cards that came as freebies with Issue 176 of Cross Stitch Crazy, then made a couple of hat pin cushions, added a beaded pin that I made to co-ordinate with the hat colour and finally added some thread, scissors and a nail file.
The last of these pixie gifts arrived recently in Brazil after a long tour of the world!
Now for some pics of the latest exchange for the MS Lovers Blog - the Blogaversary Exchange. This was a "free" choice. Being a free choice made it a little bit harder to decide what to stitch as there are so many lovely designs in the Margaret Sherry catalogue. The only way I could choose what to stitch was to start with the final product and work backwards. Of course that was another hard decision - what to make as the final finish? In the end I decided to make my finish as a box. I had a box in my cupboard that I have never got around to doing anything with and now was the time to get it out and start putting it to some use.
As the box had an aperture for adding a photo, I decided that if I put the stitching into the aperture that would decide the design size and would help me to pick a design to stitch. The design that I ended up choosing was the cute little sheep that originally appeared in the UK Cross Stitcher magazine, issue 234 (January 2011). I did have to adjust the size of the design slightly, but it was like it was just made for the box.
Now, we come to the painting on the box. Did I have fun... Not!! I was going to do this fancy crackling with a light green and white paint shabby chic look combination, but that didn't work, so I then decided to use some pink and gold and sponge the paint over the box before a couple of layers of glaze. That worked better and probably was a better result in the end than the original plan!!
After the box was finished I decided to make a couple of cute little scissor fobs. By this stage it was pretty obvious that green was the theme!!!
The rest of the little gifts to go into the package were also green - ribbon, thread, scissors. I also added a small cross stitch kit and an Australian pin souvenir.
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| Exchange gifts for Anne |
This little package went all the way to
Anne in Canada, and arrived safe and sound last week. Much shorter trip than some of the other packages that I have recently sent on their way!! If you would like to see what Anne said about her package, drop into the
MS Lovers blog and have a look see.
Well, now that you have seen what I sent to Anne, do you want to see what I received from
Fara in Malaysia. Of course you do!
Fara sent me the cutest Ballerina bag, and some really lovely gifts. Have a look - isn't it so lovely?
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| Ballerina bag for Fara |
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| Exchange from Fara |
Thank you
Fara for the lovely gifts. I will be using all those lovely things very soon I'm sure!
So there you have it, we are now all up to date with the
MS Lovers Blog exchanges. This would have to be the most successful one so far - everyone has sent on time and at last count there were only a couple of packages still travelling. Our next exchange is a Halloween one in Sept/Oct. I already know what I am stitching for that one... But will need to work out the finishing style soon so that I can get started!
Til next time, happy stitching everyone, see you again soon!
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