What I Sent - Silkie Sue Swop

And here is what I sent to Nicola as part of the Silkie Sue Freestyle Swop.

I made a set of generic notelets and matching thank you cards. All backing papers are from the Patti Picklicious cd and I've used some lovely cream felt card.

I rounded all the edges and inked them with the exception of the dotty cards which have not been inked, but I've lightly doodled around the edges. The titchy alphas are also from the cd.

And its really surprising that I had ribbon to match each colour collection that I used!

On the dotty thank you's, I've added two rows of silver seed beads for a little bit of texture and a focal point.

And below, I've made the sentiment from the titchy alphas.

On the more ornate backing designs, I've used ribbon and pearl headed pins - two different sizes of pins with seed beads.

The co-ordinating colours both print onto one A4 sheet and as I only used an almost A6 size for each panel, I have some left overs. But not for all as made a few schoolgirl mistakes (like inking the wrong bits with the wrong ink....)

I've some sympathy cards to make and I feel that the more ornate papers are suitable and probably will use the pins, beads and ribbon too.

Oh how I like this cd!!

And I hope Nicola likes them too!!

I Am So Lucky!

Following on from my recent WIP post earlier in the month (part of the Silkie Sue Freestyle Blog Swop), my parcel arrived whilst I was on holiday. I managed not to open it immediately, but waited until I had unpacked and loaded the washing machine three times and put the boys to bed. Then I sat down and carefully unwrapped my bubble envelope.

I knew that my swop partner was Nicola from Murano Silver and we had exchanged a few emails discussing what to make for each other. I'd supplied my wrist measurements (they are skinny as you will see further down!) and more or less left it up to Nicola to create!

So you can imagine my excitement when I realised there were two packages within the envelope. I opened the ivory organza bag first - the item was carefully wrapped in pink tissue paper.



This is what I opened.

A beautiful and stunning silver bangle (which yes, I can get on without taking my hand off!) and the most wonderful little dangly thing (sorry, don't know the technical name!) with a turquoise like stone in the middle.

After admiring it on my wrist for about 15 mins, I decided to open the box. On the back of the business card, Nicola had written a little note - "Just in case you didn't like the bangle". No, you are right, I don't like it - I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

And inside was a multi coloured charm like bracelet with all different coloured blocks of (I'm guessing) acrylic or glass of which the pattern runs end to end - the other sides show a single colour. This also fits perfectly on the skinny wrists.

And also this funky ring! Again, fits perfectly!

And I didn't realise until I was packing everything back up that there was another layer to the box and inside was this matching pendant necklace:

I am totally stunned by Nicola's generosity and the beautiful workmanship. And I cannot thank you enough. I've never had any jewellery made for me before (well, except for my Wedding ring as it needed to be shaped to sit next to my Engagement ring) so this makes it all the more special.

I've got two Weddings to go to this summer so will be wearing it all to both! And same frock heheheh!

Thank you again Nicola - you really made my day!

And if you like what you see - go and visit her website - she gladly takes commissions!!

I'll share soon what I sent Nicola as I was really pleased how they turned out!