Tag Archives: The Duchess

Swap: Sweet and Sinister Halloween Swap 2013

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, Mixed Media, Swap

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My sweet friend, Julie Weller, hosted a Sweet and Sinister Swap for us this year and my partner was Michelle Duke, aka The Duchess.

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Michelle and I told each other our preferences and then got to work creating Halloween treasures for each other. The swap includes:

  • Something Sweet
  • Something Sinister
  • Something Handmade
  • Something Thrifted
  • Something Home Decor

With our crazy schedules it was difficult to have time to open our presents, since we wanted to FaceTime each other to see the reaction. I opened up my box yesterday and Michelle opened up her box today!

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Eek!  Isn’t this an awesome box?  My prezzies are inside here!

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I love how Michelle created a handmade card for me, it’s super spooky with the giant spider on it! Check out my haul!

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Here’s the scary loot on my mantel. Michelle decorated a photo frame with a gorgeous feather and vintage flower and a vintage picture inside. She also made me a candle, inside the black apothecary style jar, that smells like licorice. These are my Home Decor goodies.

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Oh Mummy!  Next is this frightful mummy on a sarcophagus, decorated with a black rose. This is my Something Thrifted, since she found the box at the second hand store. He’s pretty amazing, with his black mesh and all!

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Michelle made me a cute pin with black and cream striped ribbon surrounding a cameo of a skeleton lady. This is my Something Handmade and I can’t wait to wear her!  Behind her is a sweet shabby chic style envelope made from burlap and lace. There’s also an amazing glam skull decoration with fab feathers. She’s wearing some black roses and bling and I think this is my favorite, ever!  (I seriously hope my cats don’t notice this or they will be banned from the house!) Inside the sarcophagus were three skulls and those are hanging out on the mantel as well.

Thank you, Michelle, for all of my gorgeous and fun presents! The cats discovered the spider rings and have been flipping them all over the house and I’m enjoying the candy eyeballs!  I love all of my scary, spooky and beautiful treasures that you made and selected for me!

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Now, I get to show you what I made for Michelle!  A while back, Julie and I took a trip to Roger’s Gardens to check out their amazing Halloween shop. They really put a lot of work into creating gorgeous Halloween and Christmas displays and this is one tradition I always look forward to. We love Roger and his garden!  🙂

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Anyways, I saw a pumpkin that I loved but didn’t pick it up that day so I made one myself a bit later, using a Papier Mâché pumpkin, painted with acrylic paint mixed with plaster, embellished with black rhinestones. I added the plaster to give it a textured, matte look.

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Michelle said she loved Sugar Skulls, so I made her a Dia de los Muertos skull with hand drawn details, Swarovski Crystals, and a marabou feather and crystal tiara. Isn’t it SCARY?

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Next, I made her a wall hanging featuring a vintage little girl in a glittered witches hat decorated with Swarovski Crystals. The wall hanging has a vintage flower topped with a cameo.

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For the Something Thrifted I got lucky and scored this gorgeous candle stick. I came across a tutorial online about how to decorate tissue paper and attach it to the candle with a heat gun. But, like everything else, I have to complicate things so I created a design in Photoshop, ran tissue paper through my printer and then attached that to the candle. The candle smells good so that’s the Something Sweet!

I’m so glad we finally opened up our gifts, I’ve been dying to find out what Michelle thought and I couldn’t wait to see what Michelle made me. FaceTime is one of the greatest inventions of all time!

And, I have to give a big THANK YOU to my friend, Pam Munns, for letting me use her incredible art studio to photograph my swap items in. We have such similar tastes in vintage finds that visiting her art studio left me giddy like a kid in a candy store! She has gorgeous vignettes of her vintage and antique finds artfully arranged around her studio and i just wanted to spend days looking through everything.

Thanks for stopping by!

xo,

Christine Barker

{PS} Don’t miss my FREE Halloween Printable: You’ve Been Boo’d!

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The full set of printables plus instructions can be found here!

Would you like some more Halloween Crafting Inspiration?  Don’t Miss:

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Crafting: Swaps featuring Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon

06 Monday May 2013

Posted by in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Mixed Media, Sewing, Swap

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Enchanted Affaire

For the last three years I’ve attended creative events hosted by one of the sweetest people in the whole world, Kim Caldwell. Her art events are beyond belief. From the talented teachers, to the whimsical decorations, to the love and care that goes into every detail, Kim’s events are incredible! This years fanciful event was called Enchanted Affaire and it was based on a Snow White and Fairy Tales theme.

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I’ll be posting pics from my amazing weekend soon but for today I’ll be sharing some of the beautiful projects that I made for the table gifts and swaps that I used Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon on.

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Being new to the world of creative retreats, three years ago I didn’t know what a table gift was, much less that I should bring a gift for each of the girls at my table. This year I was ON IT and stitched up some cute apple pincushions since the theme was Snow White. I found the most adorable Seven Dwarfs fabric, and using a pattern from Mollie Makes, I created these apples that are finished off with a vintage button, a hand stitched wool felt leaf and added some beautiful Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon in “George”, from the “Oh Cecilia” collection.

The OTHER Grumpy Cat, Miss Charlotte Lucas
I like how these dwarfs are looking at each other
This is Miss Bella
Love these!
These fabric apple pincushions make me happy!

The other important thing I learned from going to creative events is that swaps are so much fun to make and even better to receive!  I joined two swaps this time, the Fairest Reflections Mirror swap and an Enchanted Memories Photo Album swap.

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I started with a vintage brass filigree vanity mirror and embellished it.

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I tucked in some gorgeous flourishes of Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon in “Gentleman’s Jacket“.

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It’s blooming with hand-dyed silk flowers, velvet flowers, vintage gold leaves, a rhinestone broach, gold dresden, petite vintage mushrooms, bridal lace, gold jewelry pieces, and paper flowers.

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This is my friend, Michelle Duke, who made all of my hard work worthwhile. She was so happy to get my mirror and I was so relieved. There’s a lot of pressure when you go to an event with women of this creative caliber and especially when the swap hostess will be receiving your handmade item! I worry that my swap won’t be worthy and that the recipient will feel let down. Thankfully Michelle said that she loved my mirror and I was over the moon happy!

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The other swap that I was in was the Enchanted Memories Photo Album swap hosted by  Cheryl Stoneham.

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I started with a leather-covered photo album from Target. Then I just started going crazy. The rule of thumb when making a swap gift is that if you don’t want to part with it, you’ve done a good job! I used a gold colored rub-on to make the album look like it came from the castle where Snow White used to live.

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I added some blue Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon in “Ocean View“, along with some gold satin ribbon, velvet ribbon and some vintage-style embroidered ribbon. I absolutely adore petite vintage mushrooms, so they made an appearance.

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I had so much fun decorating this photo album! I’m very lucky that I live where I do because we have a fabulous shop, called Gilding the Lily, that is full of the most beautiful vintage ribbons, trims, millinery and gorgeous jewelry findings that were perfect for this project. It took two visits for me to find just the right details.

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My swap partner’s name was Stacy, so I had to use an S, and the locket was just perfect!

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Tucked in there is a lace doily, vintage silk leaves, gold dresden, silk flowers, tulle, brass stars, wired pearls, vintage gold paper leaves, and a Czech glass button. I was very sad to give this album away, but I did receive a gorgeous album from my swap partner, Nora.

Thank you so much for visiting!  I’ll be posting pictures and details from my lovely weekend at Enchanted Affaire soon.

And, if you’re wondering who won the Jenni Bowlin Border Punch in the National Scrapbooking Day Blog Hop, Congratulations goes to:

MIGDALIA!  

I’ll be contacting you via email to find out what your address is!

The winner of the $15 Gift Certificate to Lovebug Creations has been announced! Is it you? Check it out here http://lovebugcreations3.blogspot.com/ to find out!!!

xo,

Christine Barker