Envelope of Doom Swap

I have joined an "Envelope of Doom" swap, on the "Trash to Treasure" group I belong to on ravelry.com, it is my first swap of this kind.

The object of the swap is to send an envelope of crafting materials from your personal stash, that you can't figure out what to do with. You know all the little bits and pieces of leftovers from past projects, or things you never really got down to useing and forgot what they were originally for, and all those things you recycled and saved from the trash but never got around to useing.

The reciever of your envelope of doom is suppose to use as much as they can from your envelope, and whatever they need to go with it from their own stash, and make an item or items, and then send what they make back to you.

I have so many idea's for the fun things my partner "auntlola" sent me, I can't wait to see how many of the item's I can get done before mail out date. I spent a few pleasent hours the night before last, brainstorming, and then sketching pic's of my ideas, so I would'nt forget them before I could get to them to get them done. I have one project done already, and it turned out so cute, but I won't be able to share it until after my swap partner recieves her goodies. For now all that I can share is a picture of all the goodies I recieved from my partner to craft with. I'll post pictures of all the items I create as soon as I can. :)

Use what you have

In February when I was decorateing my Valentine's tree, it just seemed like something was missing, and did'nt really look finished no matter how many ornaments I added. I did'nt have a bunch of money to buy new wired ribbon for the tree, and did'nt have enough of any one kind on hand to do the job right either, so I had to brainstorm to come up with an idea.

Last year my dear friend "delights" from ravelry sent me a box of crafty goodie's, and included in that box was a cute crocheted Christmas wreath brooch, which she had decorated with beads she had slavaged from bead strands she had bought at the thrift store. I then made some as gifts myself, and went on to design a "Christmas Tree Ornament" that also used those same beads, as the ornaments on my little trees. This got me thinking of other ways I could use those beads in my crafts, so when I needed an idea to add a finishing touch to my tree, at little or no exspence, this is what popped into my head.

I love to window shop for ideas at my local craft stores, and at decorating displays during the holidays, at all the local stores. While doing this one Christmas I had seen these pretty bead strands, that were being used in place of tinsel, but they were about $2 or more a piece, or sold in sets of a dozen at a price of $12 or more, to exspensive by far. I decided that I could make some myself, useing the bead strands I had already had in my stash for better than 10 years. So I got my little scissors, and took a strand over to the tree, to drape one end over a limb and see how much I would need to get the right look. I then cut that one piece, and used it as a measure to cut all the other's. It took me all of 30 to 40 minutes, to cut all the strands I had into these cute little tinsel replacements, enough to cover my whole tree, and I did'nt have to shop or pay a thing for them, because they were already in my stash.

Now it is St. Patrick's day, and again I was'nt able to find pretty, and in-exspensive green ribbon for my tree, so beads came to the rescue again, and probably will again at Halloween, since I have a large quantity of coppery orange bead strands in my stash.

Here is a pic of the still in progress tree for St Patrick's day. I will probably be adding new crafted ornaments to it for the rest of the month, till it is time to change it again.

I have used beads in many different ways over the last 20 years. They have been used on the tree as a garland, wrapped around the curtains for tieback's, draped across the top of the curtain rod as a treatment, and to tie the curtains back to the posts on my canopy bed, strewn across the dinning table to add some glitz, cascaded over the top of a basket or bowl or jar from time to time, just to name a few of their uses. Maybe this post will inspire you with another way to use them, and I hope you will share it with me. :)