After signing up for a couple Christmas ornament swaps this year, I wanted to add just one more! My friend, Pam Munns, and I worked out some plans for a soldered Christmas ornament swap.  At first we were wondering if we could get 10 ladies to sign up, and imagine our surprise when we got 19 participants!

These are the guidelines we set up.  “Winter Wonderland Swap: these soldered ornaments will be celebrating the beauty of winter in all of its gorgeousness! From icicles on trees, to snowflakes falling, to sweet little woodland creatures, this theme gives lots of room to create your favorite winter fantasy. Style can range from Antique Chic to Vintage Grandeur with the primary colors being white, silver, creams, and a hint of a muted winter color.”

Because we had such a great response to the swap sign ups, the ladies were split up into two groups so that we would each make 10 ornaments. I didn’t let any of the girls know which group they were in so there would be more of a surprise for them when they opened their boxes. But, the surprise was on me on sorting and packing day when I realized that I didn’t have ornaments from someone I thought was participating. After all of my careful planning and even working out the details on a spreadsheet, I overlooked a very important detail!  At first I freaked out, thinking that I had misplaced her box of ornaments but after a phone call I realized that I had messed up and she never committed to joining the swap. How ridiculous am I? But, it all worked out in the end since I had already made an ornament for each lady, and I ended up as the lucky girl who got one of each ornament!

My ornament started out as an image of a vintage deer, but once my daughter, Savannah, saw it she said “what about a Jack-a-lope?” So I got to work in Photoshop, turning this vintage deer picture into a jack-a-lope, hanging above the fireplace.

Hanging on the mantel is an antique lace up boot stocking that I made for a Christmas stocking swap 2 years ago. There’s a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a swan planter next to the fireplace. I included some of my favorite things in my make-believe mansion living room, like a deer topiary, turquoise damask wall paper, a roaring fire, a Turkish rug and a cloche on the mantle.

For the other ornament, I created a smaller image featuring the Jack-a-lope picture.

I’m so happy to share these ornaments with you! From fancy to vintage, to all kinds of Winter themes and even an ornament that had special lighting effects, these ornaments are over the top gorgeous! From smooth solder to textured solder, and everything in between, I can’t believe the amazing range of styles and the incredible and overwhelming amount of talent we have in this swap. I’m so glad that Pam Munns talked me into hosting it and I’m so thankful to Julie Weller for hosting very successful swaps in the past that gave me a clue about how to host a swap.

Here are the names of the very talented soldering artisans:

Susan Bates-Bezek
Lori Dams
Hope Ellington
Rochelle Gaukel
Alanna George
Nicole Goodwin
Ann Hammes
Carrie Harney
Michelle Hurtt
Lonnie Jenck
Maija Lepore
Carol Lucero
Kadee Metzger
Pam Munns
Linda Vinson
Jeanine Stowe Weiss
Julie Weller
Debbi Wilcock

This ornament, made by Pam Munns, has a votive inside that lights up!

This was Julie’s first time, EVER, soldering. Awesome job!

Thank you, Ann, for this gorgeous hostess gift! I love it!

Carol, thank you so much for this gorgeous ornament prezzie!

Hope, this snowflake ornament prezzie is gorgeous and fits in perfectly with my snowflake theme this year!

This was also Jeanine’s first time soldering! Beautiful!

This image is of Linda’s actual cross stitch needlepoint ornament that she designs and sells patterns for. Amazing!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, ladies, for joining in this swap and I look forward to hosting another soldered swap for you! (Waiting until next Christmas is way too long!)

xo,

Christine Barker